Principles of Holistic Approaches to Health

The Healing Power of Nature. The body has considerable power to heal itself. You only have to consider minor cuts and bruises or a tooth removed at the dentist.  They heal themselves given time. The role of the holistic vet or healer is to facilitate and enhance the body’s own healing process, preferably with natural, non-toxic therapies. More importantly, the healer should do no harm.

View your pet as a whole. Your pet should be looked upon as a complex interaction of mind, body and character (spirit) functioning in the environment. The environment can greatly influence all 3 of the other aspects.

Identify and treat the cause.  Symptoms are an expression of the body’s attempt to heal, thus at all times we should seek to find the underlying cause rather than simply suppress the symptoms.

The Holistic Practitioner is a teacher. The holistic practitioner should be educating, motivating and empowering the pet owner to take responsibility for the pet’s health by adopting healthy lifestyles, feeding good diets and providing a good social environment.

Prevention is better than cure. This is best accomplished through dietary and lifestyle habits that support health and prevent disease.

The 5 basic principles outlined above are a rudimentary introduction to holistic approaches to health.  Health is considered to be normal but if injured or diseased then the body acts to repair the damage.  This injury or disease manifests itself as symptoms and can be equated to that of ripples in a pool that spread outward  after a stone has been thrown in. The symptoms are the energy of disturbance spreading across the body.

It is this disturbance of the vital energy radiating outwards/inwards which gives rise to the concept of holism, more commonly referred to as holistic. No one part of the body can be affected without affecting the whole.

The meaning of disease "failure of health" is another way of saying health is normal and that the symptoms indicate a more serious and general problem. The symptoms can also indicate the degree or level to which health has failed.

Early Warning Symptoms

The immune system is particularly vulnerable to nutritional imbalances and tends to show symptoms much earlier than say heart or joint problems.

The following symptoms are the easiest to see and recognise.

Itchy Skin Eczema Hot Spots Hair Loss Excessive Hair Loss/Shedding Waxy Ears Runny Eyes Tooth Tarter

Bad Breath Chewing Feet Anal Gland Problems Digestive Upsets Body Odour Eating Grass Hyperactive Loss of Energy

These symptoms are indicating that waste or toxic matter has been accumulating in the body and that the immune system is attempting to get rid of them. It is not uncommon for a range of these symptoms or ripples to bee seen at one time.