Allopathic VS. Holistic Herbalism - Mini Episode

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Welcome to this episode of the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. This is a mini episode. So this is going to kind of kick off these little small 10 minute episodes that I'm going to give you to share with your friends, anyone who loves dogs or really enjoy for yourself. So today we're going to talk about allopathic versus holistic herbalism. So veterinary medicine, I think, has made huge advancements in diagnostics and surgical methodology, emergency medicine. But what's sad is that preventative medicine has really been ignored. And I have my theories about this, but that is another conversation altogether. But the standard of care approach is pretty dominant in allopathic care. Allopathic veterinary medicine, where you get this set of symptoms and that denotes a certain regimen of drugs or test despite your dog's individuality or their, you know, personal set of circumstances. So for example, a dog with an, like an oozing or itching skin condition will pretty much automatically be given antibiotics or a steroid shot or a pros, like a possible prescription diet out of just having a oozing skin condition. And another example of this one, which practically keeps me up at night, is flagyl or metrodizinol being automatically prescribed for dogs that have loose stool or runny diarrhea. Like automatic, like we're not talking about what the dog ate, we're not talking about the dog's circumstances, what kind of emotional trauma they might have had the day prior or the day of what they could have gotten into, which doesn't necessarily equate to bacteria. Flagyl and metrodizanol can turn on inflammation markers in the body and that really wants, you know, you really want to avoid that. So the standard of care approach can be very taxing on our dogs and make us super frustrated and lead to some really serious side effects like itching, scratching, biting, licking, vomiting, lethargy, things like that. When our dogs are getting prescribed these types of things just based solely on their symptoms and not their individuality. I think the standard of care or standard of care medicine is really kind of a death sentence to herbal and homeopathic medicine. So with holistic herbalism, you can have five different dogs present with the same symptoms and be treated with five different herbs or five different totally herbal regimens. The standard of care does not apply in herbalism, Herbalism looks at the dog as an individual with their own needs, their own sensitivities, their own energetic patterns. Herbalism also looks at the underlying cause of all the symptoms your dog is experiencing. And of course, this is holistic herbalism I'm talking about. So why does it care about the cause? Because herbalism, like homeopathy, believes everything in the body is connected. Nothing is separate. The emotions are not separate from the physical manifestations of your dog. So here's a really good example of holistic healing versus allopathic herbalism. So you have a dog that comes down with a cough, right? And you treat the cough acutely with cherry bark or plantain. Those are two herbs that I believe are pretty good for coughing. The cough goes away, and then weeks later, you hear this wet breathing that quickly turns into pneumonia. Okay. You can treat all of these afflictions acutely on their own, separately, but you have to ask, why are these conditions happening? Right. Why is this happening to my dog? So holistically, you'll look at the lifestyle of your dog, you'll look at the patterns in their life. What is happening on a deeper level. How are they doing mentally? What types of stress do they have in their life? Allopathic herbalism just replaces pharmaceuticals with herbs without any consideration of individuality and emotional well being. Well, basically, it's kind of a this for that switch, right? And using herbs as replacements for drugs and hoping the disease or conditions won't come back is the premise for allopathic herbalism. And also, if we were talking about pharmaceutical medicine, definitely the premise for allopathic veterinary medicine. It's important to put the emphasis on treating the whole dog, on balancing the whole dog, not the sum of their symptoms. Health ebbs and flows. A healthy dog is a way of life. It's not just the absence of disease. Focusing on the underlying cause instead of symptoms is pretty much embraced by almost all holistic modalities. And why is that? Because the body wants to heal itself. It's always looking for ways to achieve balance. When looking at the difference between holistic herbalism and allopathic herbalism, there are actually three main differences when basically, that you'll be expected to understand as you look into different types of holistic herbalism and different paths that you can help your dog with. One, holistic herbalism deals with symptoms. So it looks at the underlying cause of those symptoms, and then it looks at the symptoms themselves to help the dog get some comfort. So symptoms are like a warning beacon that something inside your dog Is really out of balance. And when you use herbs acutely and the symptom goes away, that doesn't mean the imbalance that caused the symptom disappears. Holistic herbalism, it sees the symptoms as something larger, A warning that the ecosystem or the dog's ecosystem is out of balance. You can use herbs to deal with the immediate emergency, which is acute herbalism. Right. Acutely dealing with that immediate issue. And you can also. That can give you time basically, to address the root cause. So here, like, for instance, like the urinary system, if the dog has a urinary tract infection, Just because the urinary tract infection goes away does not mean the urinary system doesn't need support. So allopathically, you would treat the urinary infection and go about everything the same way you did before your dog received the diagnosis. Using herbs holistically, you would work with the bladder infection, clear that up, and then look at diet, lifestyle, and herbs for strengthening and balancing out the urinary system. So, number two, dosage and dosage methodology, which is also called pathology, are different in holistic herbalism. First, dosages can really vary, herbalist to herbalist. Some herbal practitioners may disagree with me, and that is completely fine because everyone really kind of practices a little differently. But I always teach people to use small dosages for chronic conditions to avoid suppression. And you can always increase the dose if you need to, but you can't go back if you give a large dose. And a large dose is what is called material dose. And herbs can suppress symptoms, much like pharmaceuticals can. And they can also force the body to react in large enough dosages. And sometimes you need this for acute situations or things like autoimmune disease and. And cancer. You might need a material dose to force the body. So, for example, the constituent barberine is in goldenseal, and it's a powerful antibiotic. You can use goldenseal in large doses to kill bacteria in your dog's stomach Instead of using it in small dosages to help make the environment of the stomach, the terrain of the stomach, less conducive to overgrowth. Holistic herbalism would follow the path of changing the environment of the stomach, the terrain, not using large dosages of goldenseal, which, if you're going to do that, make sure that you get some guidance from your holistic vet or an herbalist so that you don't hurt your dog. Using large doses of goldenseal is really a this for that approach. Large doses of antibiotics destroy bacteria, both commensal, which are positive and pathogenic, which are negative. Same reaction as conventional care. Just using an herb instead of a drug. Okay. The third tenet to holistic herbalism is based on the dog as an individual and patience is needed for chronic disease. Patience, it's definitely a requirement in holistic modalities. I remember when I first gave homeopathic silica to my cat Bones, and he was trying to get basically get better from a stubborn abscess and I was waiting for it to burst. It was so frustrating not feeling useful while I was waiting for homeopathic silica to work. I had to wait and I had to trust that the remedy was working. I think I worried over the course of two days because his abscess was above his tail and it was the size of kind of like a half an avocado, which is huge for a cat. And on the morning of the third day, it opened up and I was able to drain it. And that was awesome. And of course, I'm not saying that you guys should drain your dog or cat's abscess by yourself, but I've been doing this for a really long time, over 20 years, and I'm very good at working, working with abscesses. But I'm just saying that patience is definitely a requirement and I have been there when I've been impatient. Even though I've been doing this for a really long time, I still had to remind myself to calm down and trust the remedy. We've been conditioned to need that quick fix and our dogs are somehow going to explode from a torn nail or a hotspot. With true healing, trust and patients are a must. If healing doesn't occur when the herb choice is incorrect, then we need to try again. Now, if your dog's symptoms or their condition is getting worse and you're not sure what to do, then by all means bring them to the vet. But many times a negative reaction will tell us what direction we we need to take. And rarely is herbalism a one and done process, but it can be. So that definitely is some of the tenants of holistic herbalism and how it compares to alipathic herbalism. So I want to thank you for joining me today for this little small, quick tidbit and I look forward to providing you with many more little positive rants for you to take home, digest and share with your friends. Take care and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions? Email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode.