Size of the Medication Dose Matters. A lot!

Size of the Medication Dose Matters. A lot!

unhappy wolfhound with lyme disease unable to standIn the mid-1990s, I was called out to see Justin, an Irish Wolfhound who was unable to get up.

This was a big problem because he weighed 180 pounds.

Examination and history strongly suggested Lyme Disease.

At that time, anti-biotics were the only Lyme treatment that I knew. When Eva saw the recommended whopping dose for Justin’s size, her face flushed and she gasped.

She said the there was no way that he could tolerate such a “high” dose of medication. She thought that they definitely would make him sicker than he already was.

I prescribed the low end of the (supposedly) effective dose and left.

Eva called a few days later with an update. Justin was almost back to normal. But as she predicted, he had also developed abdominal pain, violent diarrhea and vomiting after the first high doses of drug.

She had then taken matters into her own hands and only given a fraction of the dose from then on.

After the dosage reduction Justin started walking around more normally, eating and holding it down, and his stools firmed up.

I hung up the phone and tried to understand why this happen. Weren’t anti-biotics safe? After all, they were often prescribed “just in case”.

Drug doses were supposed to be used to maintain therapeutic levels of the medications. Yet Justin responded dramatically to a much lower dose. This didn’t make sense.happy pup after successful lower of his antibiotic dose

The Science of Hormesis and Dose

A few years later I came across publications referring to the Arndt Schutz rule. It explains what happened with Justin and other patients who had responded to very low doses of medications.

In a nutshell, it says that low doses can stimulate the body to do its’ job, but higher therapeutic doses can be toxic.

Low doses lead to healing. High doses lead to toxicity.

I thought that this was interesting research, but not applicable to most patients. Boy was I wrong!

Homeopathic Doses

Other problems with conventional drug doses and the scientific literature on hormesis led me to researching homeopathy.

I had never heard about this area of medical science. Even after decades of scientific inquiry including working with researchers in biochemistry and molecular biology labs.

What an eye opener! I learned that the very, very low doses of homeopathic medicines were highly effective at stimulating the immune system. In fact, before anti-biotics were discovered, most of the homeopathic MDs were able to save their patients in the midst of otherwise fatal epidemics.

The survival statistics were compelling!

Many of the top, conventionally (“scientifically”)-trained, MDs flocked to homeopathy because of these successes. These men, and back then most were men, were open-minded. They saw these amazing treatment outcomes and wanted their patients to have the best.

The AMA was started soon thereafter partially to stop this migration .

Size Matters

Fast forward to present day. Modern medicine has made amazing strides in understanding how the physiologic process of the body function. Sometimes even at the genetic and molecular levels.

Nowadays the best medicine, both for people and pets, is always individualized. We’re learning that one size does not fit all.

Some pets can not tolerate higher doses of specific drugs like Ivermectin.

Most pets react to high doses of most drugs.

All pets die from treatment with poisons like arsenic and strychnine.

Yet these same poisons are commonly used at very low doses in homeopathy to save many lives. The tiny doses of nanotechnology are being actively researched and adopted into modern medicine

The size of the dose matters.

 

You Can Learn Your Pet’s Language

Nature can be seen expressing herself just by looking.

Symptoms are the natural language of your pet’s body.

It seems intuitive to work with nature and in accord with the body.

So why don’t more people listen to symptoms and work with them?

Once we learn about the exquisite effectiveness and elegance of doing so we don’t want to stop.

But there’s a problem.

It’s not easy at first. No one likes something different or difficult.

But the learning curve is short.

At first, learning to recognize and use symptoms is like a foreign language.

But it gets much easier. And natural.

Speaking the native language is always the most effective way to communicate. You can give your pet a better life by communicating more effectively. Better communication usually equates to better treatment outcomes.

Recognizing, respecting and using the language of symptoms allows you to understand your pet’s health better than any laboratory test.

In the US and some other younger cultures, Vitality (aka Chi, Prana, the Life Force) is seen as an old and out dated concept. But adopting it can transform health care. And save you thousands of dollars.

Vitalism in medicine was discarded along with the advent of the modern scientific methods. But holistic veterinarians understand that the vital force allows the body to function.

So how effective could this old concept really be?

Some of the cultures that still use this concept are among the most long-lived around the world. Recognizing and working through symptoms is what allows the traditional (but not the “modern”) doctors in China to only charge patients for keeping you healthy. Wellness care. Not dis-ease treatment.

If you get sick, traditional doctors in China feel they have failed at their job. They only get paid if they keep you healthy.

You too can become more effective in your wellness care and dis-ease management. Listen to and respect your pet’s symptoms. Help your pets today by learning the language of their bodies. You don’t need medical training to listen to it. Read this article for the exact ways to understand and record your pet’s symptoms.

Stay balanced and connected.

Dr. Jeff

There Are Risks from Suppressing Skin Dis-eases So Learn Your Holistic Options

There Are Risks from Suppressing Skin Dis-eases So Learn Your Holistic Options

Antibiotics Can’t Hurt. Right?

Sarah was a sweet Maltese. Everyone loved her. She loved everyone and everything. And everyone loved Sarah. Even dog-hating people and anti-social dogs. Her sociability and energy allowed her to have a great life.

Sarah enjoyed long daily walk and playtime. She went to doggy daycare almost every day. She was physically healthy overall. Like her health conscious guardians, she ate a fresh diet and went for routine wellness checks.

The only problem was that she’d periodically develop itchy skin, rashes and red, smelly ears.

Whenever she was not acting “right” in any way, she was rushed to the veterinarian. Anti-biotics and anti-inflammatories were usually prescribed.

After all, they couldn’t hurt, right?

One morning, Sarah’s guardians saw a few itchy pimples on her skin. Sarah was acting fine otherwise so they went to the vet after work that night. Just to be safe. An anti-biotic was again prescribed. Sarah’s pimples vanished within a few days.

A few weeks later after work, Sarah started twitching and developed a vacant stare. After lots of tests at the ER and consultation with a neurologist, Sarah was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and idiopathic epilepsy.

This abnormal behavior continued almost every day so Sarah was started on anti-convulsants.The drugs made her pretty lethargic for a few weeks but then she seemed fine. Sarah’s life returned pretty much to normal.

Sarah was lucky. Her health challenge was successfully treated. But could it have been prevented? Many similar stories end badly.

Here’s something simple you can do that can save your beloved companion animal’s life. Try not to suppress skin symptoms. Like Sarah’s pimples.

Are these Skin Symptoms Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

Why not? Because every sign and symptom (see below for the difference between them) has a relative degree of importance. For example, it’s better to have an external symptom such as a skin or ear problem rather than an internal one such as a brain or liver dis-order, e.g. causing seizures.

This seems obvious, right? Uh, uh. Not in today’s reductionistic (where dis-ease is reduced to one part) and mechanistic (the living body is seen like a machine with separate moving parts) medical mindset.

Our common sense, intuition and scientific studies say that, unlike reductionism, life is a connected continuum. Everything is connected. Whole-istically.

Holistic understanding and evaluation of life’s decisions leads to better outcomes. Both for health maintenance as well as dis-ease treatment. After all, you don’t buy a car without exploring your available options. You look at the bigger picture. You collect information, read reviews, and get opinions from others.

Don’t our beloved companion animals deserve the same?

You Can Learn To Make the Best Decisions

(and do what feels right when treating your dogs and cats)

The most effective decisions are made this way. By evaluating all of the available information. Medically speaking, you (and your holistically-oriented doctor) weigh all of the benefits and risks.

In Sarah’s situation for example, was her overall and longer term health considered when treating her skin pimples? Was anti-biotic disruption of her body’s delicate bacterial balance even considered? How about the potential immune and other imbalances secondary to the drug use?

Was a holistic or reductionistic decision made?

Enter Holistic Medical Decision Making (HMDM) and Holistic Options courses and school. You’ll learn the simple framework that will allow you to help decide what is best for your animal companion.

You can do it!

The best decisions are those you make when you have all of the information and consider it holistically.

Holistic medical decisions can lead to better quality and longer lives for our pets.

You don’t need to be medically trained to effectively use this method. There’s only a few things to learn. The relative importance of the symptoms (like skin pimples vs. seizures) is just one of them.

Learn to holistically promote wellness. Not treat isolated symptoms reductionistically.

How you approach and treat symptoms is critical to the quality and length of life. For all beings.

Know Your Treatment Options

Unfortunately, you can’t always rely on your conventionally-oriented family veterinarian or MD to see the bigger picture of health or present them all to you. Especially when it comes to gentle holistic and natural treatments.

But how do you know what to do?

That’s why the Holistic Actions! for Companion Animals Academy and resources are here!

Our online resources are highly reliable and well researched. They will help you make the best holistic medical decisions.

Here you’ll find online courses, audio and video seminars, access to cutting edge research, analysis, etc. available 24/7. They’ll show you the gentle and effective methods that can be used to holistically help . Best of all, at the live group classes and discussion groups, you can ask your specific questions about holistic and homeopathic preservation of health.

Find out more about the Holistic Actions! Academy and Holistic Medical Decision Making method.

Or start by taking the Holistic Essentials course which goes over the five essential parts of the holistic life.

Be well.

Dr. Jeff

PS-A sign is an objective measure of dis-ease, like a blood test result (yes, diagnostic test results are also important when making holistic decisions). A symptom is subjective. Pre-verbal children and non-verbal animals only have signs. Using this definition that is. But is that really the way that life works?

Your child may not yet speak but she sure can still communicate. The same is true for animals.

For simplicity sake, signs and symptoms can be considered together.