For someone that’s never been to India before, and loves animals, the most notable thing here is the vast number of animals roaming around freely. You turn a Delhi street corner to find a cow munching rubbish, or a dog trying to find the softest spot to lie down. On the beach a cow may join you sunbathing, or a dog enjoy the cool under your table in a cafe whilst a cat looks for scraps nearby. Cats, chickens, pigs, ducks, cows, dogs and many others make their own lives in the areas around where people live. The occasional drama is inevitable, with animals blocking the road, dogs bickering on the edge of their territories, and a memorable bull fight on the beach that had everyone nearby scattering at top speed!
To Westerners it seems a bizarre arrangement, but in India necessity drives much of how they keep their animals, and many other things. When there is little to graze, the grazers most roam freely to find whatever forage they can. Seeing them eating rubbish makes me cringe, I much admit, but parts of the system make perfect sense. In a hot country, with variable electricity, all foods attracts flies and ants, and won't store well without a fridge once cooked. Problem solved with an extremely efficient composting system - the cows! (With some help from the dogs, pigs and chicken of course). All fruit and veg peelings, plus any leftover cooked food or plate scrapings, go to the cows. They love it, and within a day or 2 you have fresh dung in its place, which has a multitude of uses - fuel, flooring, plaster, etc. To keep cows or pigs in close and enclosed quarters here would breed disease, with the intense heat, the numerous flies and the minimal water (or excessive water during the monsoon). It would also hugely increase the workload for the animals caretakers, many of whom already have to work hard, under adverse conditions and intense heat, just to get by.
Not only is the way they’re kept very different, but also the human-cow relationship. According to statistics, there are almost 45 million cows in India. Having cows around all the time means the familiarity between cows and humans is strong, so more interactions, both friendly and less so, occur. Personally I love greeting and chatting with the local cows, and feeding them my fruit peelings daily. The cow is considered sacred by most Indians, and cattle slaughter is hugely controversial. Cows are associated with the god Krishna in Hinduism, and are highly regarded in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for the ‘ambrosia’ they produce (milk and dairy products). It is not only their holiness that makes them so special, but their fundamental importance as an integral part of the rural family - mother, father, cow, children, grandparents. Many poor families can be happy and healthy only if their cow is happy and healthy. So again we come back to necessity.
In the current world climate, necessity is driving a lot of big changes - global warming, pollution, littering, to name a few major ones. I also personally feel that health, the world over, is declining, necessitating changes in medicine, and how we look after our own, and our pets health. Yes, we have fewer severe acute contagious diseases, in both humans and animals, but we have much much more chronic disease, both physical and mental, of varying severity. The levels of these diseases - cancer, mental health/behavioral problems, autoimmune disease, chronic inflammation, to name a few - are increasing all the time, particularly in dogs and humans, and especially in the western world. I sometimes wonder if living a longer life of poorer health, is really better than living a shorter life of vibrant health?
So what is the answer?
I believe that the answer lies in truly holistic medicine - or ‘Whole’-istic, if you like. For those unfamiliar with the term holistic, it means to deal with or treat the whole of something or someone, and not just a part. Holistic medicine, therefore, looks at every system of the body, diet, lifestyle, mind and emotions, etc. and treats the individual patient based on the findings. This means that 10 people or animals with the same named diagnosis, say Inflammatory Bowel Disease, might require 10 different management regimes. This is because each of these patients is an individual, expressing their disease in their own unique way. Conventional western medicine would likely treat all 10 with steroids, and the same prescription diet (in dogs and cats!). We all know we are individuals and differ hugely to others, whilst sharing some similarities. Does it not then seem bizarre that we should all be treated with the same diet and medicines?
In a similar way to how the cows roam freely here, living off what they find, a lot of natural medicine has come from what is available - food, herbs, pressure/acupuncture points on the body, etc. It also works along the same level of efficiency - the cows roam freely to ensure their health is as good as possible, given the circumstances; holistic medicine encourages the body and all its systems to function as efficiently as possible, allowing as optimal a health as possible, given the circumstances.
This is what I love about holistic medicine.
Conventional western medicine tends to treat whatever symptoms of disease appear with antipathic drugs, like antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, etc. that aim to stop symptoms. Unfortunately, symptoms are the natural expression of the body when suffering dis-ease, so stopping them does not leave the body at ease again. Removing the symptoms does not even stop the disease, as it does not treat the cause of the problem.
I find that using holistic medicine is much more satisfying, especially in a fully integrated fashion - creating a management plan using different medicinal systems, depending on the needs of the patient. You might use herbs, homeopathy and antibiotics to treat a chronic skin disease with a secondary infection, for example. Herbs, homeopathy and diet can help to support organ function in pets on strong conventional medicines, like anti-epileptic drugs, and even help to keep the drug doses as low as possible. Diet alone, or with herbal or homeopathic support, can resolve a lot of digestive disease. The possibilities are endless, and the necessity of holistic medicine in the modern world is endless.
Like the Indians keep their animals using their available resources, so can we, as pet guardians and practitioners, use all of our available resources to keep our pets and patients as happy and healthy as possible, in 2020 and all the years to come. I personally believe that we can only achieve this through truly holistic management, and I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you all in the future. Together we can do our bit towards improving pet health and happiness in the years to come.
To Westerners it seems a bizarre arrangement, but in India necessity drives much of how they keep their animals, and many other things. When there is little to graze, the grazers most roam freely to find whatever forage they can. Seeing them eating rubbish makes me cringe, I much admit, but parts of the system make perfect sense. In a hot country, with variable electricity, all foods attracts flies and ants, and won't store well without a fridge once cooked. Problem solved with an extremely efficient composting system - the cows! (With some help from the dogs, pigs and chicken of course). All fruit and veg peelings, plus any leftover cooked food or plate scrapings, go to the cows. They love it, and within a day or 2 you have fresh dung in its place, which has a multitude of uses - fuel, flooring, plaster, etc. To keep cows or pigs in close and enclosed quarters here would breed disease, with the intense heat, the numerous flies and the minimal water (or excessive water during the monsoon). It would also hugely increase the workload for the animals caretakers, many of whom already have to work hard, under adverse conditions and intense heat, just to get by.
Not only is the way they’re kept very different, but also the human-cow relationship. According to statistics, there are almost 45 million cows in India. Having cows around all the time means the familiarity between cows and humans is strong, so more interactions, both friendly and less so, occur. Personally I love greeting and chatting with the local cows, and feeding them my fruit peelings daily. The cow is considered sacred by most Indians, and cattle slaughter is hugely controversial. Cows are associated with the god Krishna in Hinduism, and are highly regarded in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for the ‘ambrosia’ they produce (milk and dairy products). It is not only their holiness that makes them so special, but their fundamental importance as an integral part of the rural family - mother, father, cow, children, grandparents. Many poor families can be happy and healthy only if their cow is happy and healthy. So again we come back to necessity.
In the current world climate, necessity is driving a lot of big changes - global warming, pollution, littering, to name a few major ones. I also personally feel that health, the world over, is declining, necessitating changes in medicine, and how we look after our own, and our pets health. Yes, we have fewer severe acute contagious diseases, in both humans and animals, but we have much much more chronic disease, both physical and mental, of varying severity. The levels of these diseases - cancer, mental health/behavioral problems, autoimmune disease, chronic inflammation, to name a few - are increasing all the time, particularly in dogs and humans, and especially in the western world. I sometimes wonder if living a longer life of poorer health, is really better than living a shorter life of vibrant health?
So what is the answer?
I believe that the answer lies in truly holistic medicine - or ‘Whole’-istic, if you like. For those unfamiliar with the term holistic, it means to deal with or treat the whole of something or someone, and not just a part. Holistic medicine, therefore, looks at every system of the body, diet, lifestyle, mind and emotions, etc. and treats the individual patient based on the findings. This means that 10 people or animals with the same named diagnosis, say Inflammatory Bowel Disease, might require 10 different management regimes. This is because each of these patients is an individual, expressing their disease in their own unique way. Conventional western medicine would likely treat all 10 with steroids, and the same prescription diet (in dogs and cats!). We all know we are individuals and differ hugely to others, whilst sharing some similarities. Does it not then seem bizarre that we should all be treated with the same diet and medicines?
In a similar way to how the cows roam freely here, living off what they find, a lot of natural medicine has come from what is available - food, herbs, pressure/acupuncture points on the body, etc. It also works along the same level of efficiency - the cows roam freely to ensure their health is as good as possible, given the circumstances; holistic medicine encourages the body and all its systems to function as efficiently as possible, allowing as optimal a health as possible, given the circumstances.
This is what I love about holistic medicine.
Conventional western medicine tends to treat whatever symptoms of disease appear with antipathic drugs, like antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, etc. that aim to stop symptoms. Unfortunately, symptoms are the natural expression of the body when suffering dis-ease, so stopping them does not leave the body at ease again. Removing the symptoms does not even stop the disease, as it does not treat the cause of the problem.
I find that using holistic medicine is much more satisfying, especially in a fully integrated fashion - creating a management plan using different medicinal systems, depending on the needs of the patient. You might use herbs, homeopathy and antibiotics to treat a chronic skin disease with a secondary infection, for example. Herbs, homeopathy and diet can help to support organ function in pets on strong conventional medicines, like anti-epileptic drugs, and even help to keep the drug doses as low as possible. Diet alone, or with herbal or homeopathic support, can resolve a lot of digestive disease. The possibilities are endless, and the necessity of holistic medicine in the modern world is endless.
Like the Indians keep their animals using their available resources, so can we, as pet guardians and practitioners, use all of our available resources to keep our pets and patients as happy and healthy as possible, in 2020 and all the years to come. I personally believe that we can only achieve this through truly holistic management, and I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you all in the future. Together we can do our bit towards improving pet health and happiness in the years to come.
Happy New Year!
