Food, Chinese Herbal and Supplement Therapy
We combine Food Therapy, Chinese Herbs, Nutraceuticals and Western Medicine for an integrated approach to keep your pet happy and healthy at all times.
Food Therapy
Food provides the nutrients and energy that powers every process in our bodies and is truly the oldest medicine. In most therapeutic traditions, food is seen as the basis of healing as well as the basis of life. Food provides us not only with vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and carbohydrates, but also with a host of bioactive molecules that contribute to metabolism in ways that Western medical science has yet to comprehend. Addressing a patient’s needs with food allows us to treat the problem at its deepest level. This may be as simple as adding specific vegetables to the diet or changing proteins or as complicated as constructing a home-prepared diet or supplemental formula for your pet. Food choices influence lean body mass, intestinal function, and inflammation, among other things.
Herbs and Supplements
Herbs and supplements bridge the gap between food and drug therapy. Depending on the dosage and form used, they can behave as either. Herbal extracts have been the origin for a vast array of Western medical drugs, some of which are more effective when known active molecules are separated out and purified and some of which are more effective when taken in “whole” form with all of their native components (many of which have biological activity). Herbs may be employed in a Western medical fashion based on their biological effects as supported by investigative research (MediHerb formulas/Standard Process) or following the metaphorical Chinese medicine paradigm (Golden Flower and Jing Tang herbs).
Supplements are often used based on Western clinical medicine, and may range from Standard Process vitamins and extracts selected to address certain metabolic functions or deficiencies to glucosamine and cetyl myristoleate selected to modify the progression of joint disease.
Herbs and supplements need to be selected with care. Some supplements with good manufacturing certifications listed on their labels may not perform as intended if they have been formulated based on human research rather than species-specific physiology. Some herbs and supplements have been found to contain toxic contaminants or counterfeit ingredients. Dosages can also be tricky – while probiotic dosages do not need to be scaled to patient size, most herbal formulas do need to be dosed on a per-weight basis.
Always follow your veterinarian’s advice when administering herbs and supplements.