The best medicine for us and our pet is preventative medicine. We all know this, right?
But what does that even mean?!
If you listen to conventional medicine it means coming in every year for an exam and some yearly vaccines. Also, buying the special prescription diet directly from your veterinarian that claims to be (and is) “scientifically formulated”. Oh yes, and yearly anesthetic dental cleanings, and probably yearly early detection blood screening.
Ok, so some of that stuff isn’t all bad. Blood screening is important. If your pets have very dirty or diseased teeth, an anesthetic cleaning is also important. And nothing can replace the value of a hands on physical exam. But what about vaccines? That scientific pet food? And how is this actually preventing disease?
Well, we’ll get into vaccines another day, but most of what I listed above isn’t so much about preventing disease as it is about detecting it early enough to do something…. But we’re supposed to be identifying preventative measures here!
Probably the single most important factor to actually preventing disease included in that list is the food. But definitely not that “scientific” food that most clinics sell. Now, everyone has their own opinion on food and there is really no single diet that works perfectly for every pet (otherwise that “scientific” diet would have the corner on the market), but how can we approach diet in a rational way that will allow us to best support individual health? We can’t just guess, there are far too many options out there to just guess and hope for the best.
Part of my love affair with Chinese medicine is that it can help us to decide what are the best foods to support wellness and actually prevent disease! This system takes into account that we’re all individuals and uses our personality, or constitution, to decide what kinds of foods are going to benefit an individual.
In Chinese medicine constitution is comprised of our personality, our body type, and our basic nature. This allows for good prediction of such things as how efficient an individuals digestion will be, and what kinds of foods are likely to be problematic.
There is just far too much to say on this subject! For more information, stay tuned for my up and coming e-course on feeding pets or check out my book on Amazon.