Certified Veterinary Homeopathy by Dr. Glen Dupree

TREATING CHRONIC DISEASE

STEP 1: HYGIENE

The treatment of chronic disease - chronic disease as defined by Homeopaths, not just long standing symptoms - must be approached systematically, conscientiously, and dynamically if we are to improve our patient's overall health in the long term. The practitioner must realize that chronic disease is a reflection of the intrinsic nature of the patient's health and that today's manipulation of symptoms will be reflected in the future health of the patient. Because of this the treatment of chronic disease is less forgiving of inappropriate therapy than is acute disease.

In my practice if I have the luxury of time (the patient is not dying in front of me……) my first step in treating chronic disease is not to give medicines but to evaluate the patient's world and to remove as many of the noxious external stresses as is possible. This is what the Homeopaths of old called Hygiene - evaluating diet (food and water), living and working conditions (including housing, tack, equipment, and training), family dynamics (involving both the humans and the non-humans in the family), vaccinations and current medications/supplements, and other environmental stresses (tobacco smoke, outgassings of VOCs from construction and building materials, pesticides and herbicides, automobile exhaust exposure, etc).

Of these probably diet is the most critical. A body cannot become optimally healthy on suboptimal nutrition. (Links to Species Appropriate Nutrition and Dysbiosis) Next in importance in a veterinary practice is vaccines/over-vaccination. (Links toVaccine Protocols, Vaccination or Immunity, and Vaccine Side Effects) followed by medicines and supplements ( Links to Heartworms and New Thoughts on Fleas), and husbandry (housing, equipment, tack, shoeing, training and work) (Links to Horse Care and New Pet). The issue of environmental toxins is the most difficult to control because of the flagrant and thoughtless use of chemicals in our society. We can make a difference by avoiding areas of tobacco smoke, by not walking our animals close to major highways where the automobile exhaust is the greatest, by chosing low VOC building materials for our houses, and by avoiding the use of pesticides/herbicides/chemical fertilizers in our yards.

I will normally try to reduce these stresses on the patient/in the patient's world and give them 4-6 weeks to readjust and to reestablish a new baseline of symptoms. This approach allows us to more clearly see the naturally occurring symptoms of the patient's disease (the ones that actually require therapeutic intervention) and to separate them from the symptoms induced by their environment.

Here it must be emphasized that changes in hygiene alone are not curative. Although these changes can improve the patient's overall well-being, they are not dynamic enough in nature to alter the patient's intrinsic level of health and vitality.

It must also be said that if the situation is too critical to allow for this time, Homeopathic therapy can be started immediately. The difference is that the patient will not be as well defined and that the Homeopath may err in his/her prescription by including artificial symptoms of external origin in the case analysis. With clear assessment of the action of the remedy, corrections to the prescription can be made based on the patient's response to the remedy until the correct remedy is found.

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