Recently I was asked to write an article for The Pet Connections magazine. First, I was thrilled because it was a great opportunity to reach a large number of like-minded people you and hopefully make a difference in the lives of the animals you live with.
Then I began to feel nervous because there is so much to talk about and only a few pages available. I asked myself, what would you and others like to know about healing and what is the most common challenge in keeping your animal friend healthy and long living.
If you have seen the movie Social Network, you know how powerful Facebook is. Ten years ago, no one would have known that this 21st-century phenomenon would transform the way we live, think, communicate and bring about change.
One of the biggest frustrations of the last century for many was that media and a few powerful people had the control over the available information. If they wanted to hide the truth, in most situations they simply stopped the flow of information and created another story that served them better. Truth has been often twisted and turned around for the sake of making money. Some of the striking examples of this can be found in the pet food industry, human or animal health care or the way we have been destroying our planet.
I’m fully aware that I cannot solve such humongous problems by writing one article but as an eternal optimist I feel that you and I can make a difference, especially with the help of social media and creating a viable holistic healing community. I’m very happy to see that those in power cannot control the flow of information as easily and that the 21st-century has an incredible opportunity to bring about so much needed change.
As a vet of 23 years, I have always been interested in helping you to keep your animals healthy and long living and to do it naturally and at a lower cost. What I hope for is that after reading this article you will be able to make better choices to heal gently and deeply as nature intended. This applies to your animal friend as well as to your own health.I hope that you will find the information below helpful.
What is health?
For most people and animals, health is the most valuable asset. It is that great feeling of calm and harmony that exists throughout the body, mind and soul – well being on the level of every organ, cell, molecule and atom of our body. It is the happy dog playing in the field, the content cuddly cat wanting your attention and comfort, it is the family and friends gathering where everyone is happy and no one complains about their pain, disease or even cancer.
True health can be compared to a nice sunny, breezy day. It means stability, flexibility, vitality, and is the degree of joy and happiness we and our pets feel.
What is disease?
Disease, in contrast, is like a day in a polluted Shanghai or the feeling of being in a storm. It is the loss of capacity to maintain calm and harmony when we or our pets face external challenges. The damage is sometimes repairable, but if the body loses the capacity to heal and repair, the initially acute problems result in chronic incurable disease.
The liver and kidneys do not walk around on their own.
Conventional medicine commonly categorizes diseases by a diagnosis or a name of a specific set of symptoms. Practitioners often specialize in treatment of one organ system for example cardiology, gastroenterology or dermatology. The physician then prescribes toxic substances that the body needs to eliminate in addition to dealing with the disease itself.
Most of us have seen specialists losing sight of your beloved dog, cat or family member and focus on “the kidney disease patient”, “the diabetes”, or “cancer.” They focus on what they see and lose sight of why it happened. No one becomes ill out of nowhere and in most cases a disease is the result of stress, loss, injury, poor diet, nutritional deficiency or unhealthy lifestyle. Some people believe that disease is all about genetics.
The truth is that no genes will manifest without strong influence of environmental factors and many genetically predisposed conditions can be prevented. Would you like health care custom tailored to your pet’s needs? Conventional treatment is usually selected according to a generic protocol that is commonly used for every patient with the same diagnosis. Most often doctors do not have the time to get to the core because they are too busy, overwhelmed and frequently burnt out. Why? I believe that intuitively they know that the drug driven approach to medicine is a dead-end street. Withholding these thoughts takes a lot of energy. Many veterinarians crumble under the pressure of seeing their clients desperately looking for answers where they can’t be found.
Side-effects or the effects of drugs?
In most cases, drugs suppress the symptoms of the disease but are not addressing the cause. This can be compared to you taking a sleeping pill at the time your house catches on fire. This will numb you out and your self-preservation mechanism will be disabled. However, the destruction will go on.In addition, toxic and side-effect causing drugs create additional sets of symptoms. These side-effects are “commercially undesirable” effects that are very cleverly put in a separate category.
Striking Example
Here is an example of side-effects of METACAM, the “anti-arthritis” drug that is prescribed much more frequently than exercise, massage, physiotherapy or supplements. •Gastrointestinal: Vomiting, diarrhea, inappetence, melena, hematemesis, ulceration.•Central Nervous System/Behavioural: Ataxia, personality change, seizures, sleepiness, hyperactivity, depression, trembling.•Renal: Elevated creatinine and BUN, acute renal failure.•Dermatologic: Pruritus, eczema, focal alopecia, moist dermatitis (hot spots).•Hypersensitivity: Urticaria, allergic dermatitis.•Hematologic: Immune mediated hemolytic anemia, immune mediated thrombocytopenia.•Hepatic: Elevated liver enzymes, jaundice.
Now, tell me, isn’t this clear? We need to change our thinking and stop buying into claims that treatments like these are the pinnacle of modern medicine. The irony is that if you and others will not buy METACAM, it will cease to exist – end of story!
People buy these drugs out of fear that if they don’t, their pets will be in discomfort or harmed while the opposite is true. It can be compared to being afraid of floods and preventing it by turning on a water hose in the middle of your living room.
Surviving or thriving?
With drugs, the patient’s life is maintained, however, toxic substances can never prevent a disease nor can they create a greater degree of health. In the best case, drugs are a crutch and in the worst case scenario, they kill.
As I said before, some parts of conventional medicine are very important; most holistic practitioners are open-minded and recognize when these treatments are necessary. Good examples are: surgery, the use of thyroid supplements, insulin, cautious use of antibiotics or medication needed in life threatening emergencies.
A good holistic practitioner views symptoms as signals of disharmony within the body and selects treatments that focus on eliminating or neutralizing causes of disease, enhancing the function of the immune system and promoting cleansing reactions of the patient. A Holistic approach to medicine has existed for centuries and perhaps millennia. During the last century, holistic medicine use, research and development were artificially hindered by the powerful influence of the pharmaceutical industry and its financial interests to dominate the medical field.
How does healing happen naturally?
If you see your dog’s, cat's or your own body as an energetic system that is composed of the same molecules, atoms and even smaller energy particles, achieving health has to consist of creating harmony. Energy flows freely to all parts of the body evenly. Imagine this flow as light and every disease part represents a dark area that sucks the light out like Dementors from Harry Potter.
When disease sets in, it can be compared to a black hole – the darkness that sucks the life out of cells, body parts or of organs. This state can be caused by energies from the outside like toxins, viruses, stressful situations, trauma but also by emotional trauma, and also negative thoughts or fears. This applies to animals and people.
On the deepest level, healing is simple. All we have to do is:
- Provide the body with what it needs – good food, supplements, nutrients, love and care
- Eliminate what is foreign or toxic – drugs, toxins, negativity
- Restore the energy flow in areas that are congested – homeopathy, physio, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic and other energy healing techniques.
- See healing as bringing the light where the darkness sets in.
The power of your mind and intention
Modern holistic medical science also acknowledges other, less known, aspects of healing such as addressing the invisible vibrations and energies that each person radiates. These energy fields can represent lower or higher frequencies depending on the individual’s state of mind and health.
We are all part of the very intricate, complex energetic web and and it may be no surprise to you that the health of individuals in a closely knit unit such as family, community or even the nation affects everyone involved including our animal friends. You must be careful not to blame yourself for everything that happens to others around you because usually there are many factors involved. I’m just asking you to bring more awareness to this possibility.
One of the most mysterious areas of healing is the effect of our thoughts and intention on our health and the health of our animals. You may have heard of stories were terminally ill cancer patients recovered despite being given a terminal diagnosis because they mobilized the power of their will. One of these people is Dr. Servan-Schreiber who was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and recovered after he was given no hope. I’ve also seen some pets that recovered from very serious or even terminal conditions and in such cases I have seen an incredible love and determination of the owners.
Placebo – the best, not the worst case scenario.
Knowing how powerful our mind an intention is, I hope that our society will see the placebo effect as a positive achievement and not something to be frowned upon. I believe that the negative connotation of the placebo comes from the fact that the drug companies cannot sell our intention or healing through the power of our belief.You may want to suggest that it is different in the case of animals because they can’t understand what they’ve been given.
That is true however I have seen better recovery rates in patients who’s owners strongly believed in the positive outcome of the treatment. I’ve also seen clients who are absolutely terrified of disease and their pets were much sicker on average. Most veterinary staff could tell you stories. My goal is to empower you, giving you a better understanding of your pet’s situation to achieve optimal health, happiness and longer life.
I hope to make you feel less afraid and stronger through knowing that there is so much that we can do. I also believe that there is a power in our holistically minded community of people like you.
There is no doubt that there is power in numbers and if Facebook was instrumental in toppling the Egyptian government, perhaps we can use it in transforming the veterinary and human health care. I hope you will join me by clicking the LIKE button at Dr. Dobias Healing Solutions Facebook page. You can learn about many interesting topics for free.
© Dr. Peter Dobias, DVM
