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Some of you may know already that I do acupuncture. Because of that, some people have come to me through the years looking for a practitioner of complementary/alternative medicine. I have no problem at all respecting the alternative approaches that other modes of healing take. But I do have a problem with people gettting their information and practice from the people at the local food coop or online without the guidance of a person trained in that discipline.
OMG. I feel the soapbox growing spontaneously beneath my feet.
So, first let me catch you up with how I got here. I graduated veterinary school very classically trained. The first year we learned how the body worked. The second year we learned what went wrong when there was disease. The third year we learned about the tools of western medicine and the fourth year we put it all into practice in focused specialty areas like anesthesiology, ophthalmology, internal medicine, surgery, etc. Contrary to alot of information available online, we were trained in nutrition, although I have to admit that at the time the training was pretty rudimentary....except for the biochemistry part, which was difficult to understand.
As I started practicing, I found there were alot of areas that are simply poorly understood in modern medicine. On the other hand, there are areas that are totally well understood. Some things lend themselves to western medicine, some things not so much. For instance, if I am brought a pet that has been hit by a car, I can help alot with my western bag of tricks. I can give them pain medication, treat their shock, prevent infection of large open wounds or close them with sterile surgical techniques. If there is a bone broken, I can find out exactly where with Xrays, go in once the patient is stable, and fix it with pins and wires. Or I can send it to a colleague who can fix the bone with a surgical plate. So if you pet is hit by a car, I don't feel like I need much more in my medical bag than what I was taught in order to get my DVM degree. Of course, during the recovery phase over the next few weeks or months there are plenty of things that can be supplemented in helping the healing process.
But in patients with chronic pain, or with chronic skin disease, or chronic lung disease, or stress related disorders, my western medical bag is not as brilliant. Now I would love to say that there are alternative approaches to each of these things that are amazing, but I'm not sure I have seen that to be true. I have seen alternative approaches that work as well or better and are much less toxic to the body and usually much less expensive. Our Hippocratic oath says "...above all do no harm" Consider for a moment your own or a loved one's experience with the western medical system... has that been true?
As a veterinarian I feel very fortunate to be practicing in a time when we have amazing technology, but still have one healthcare provider largely driving the patient's care. If we need to do tests, you do have to pay for it without insurance, but your ability to trust my recommendations comes from working with me over time. I assume you come to me because you trust that I will not recommend something because I'm afraid of being sued, or because I'm trying to make money by doing alot of tests...but because I think your pet needs it. If I need to look outside of the western medical bag that is not in my acupuncture bag, then I know where to send you.
Wondering why the soapbox is under my feet?
Because "alternative medicine" is defined basically in the west as any approach that doesn't fit into the traditional mold...it covers too much ground. Some of these healing arts have been around for thousands of years. Consider acupuncture, herbal medicine, ayurvedic medicine, folk medicine from different cultures. Some of the techniques are newer, but have good training programs like chiropractic, homeopathy, Bach flower remedies. But the bad thing about all of these is that many have been reduced to products. And we in the west buy the heck out of them. Each year I give a talk at the Veterinary Technician School about Alternative/complementary/integrative medicine. Each year I am reminded that a basic understanding of one or several alternative techniques is possible for the typical veterinarian, but command of all is impossible. The perfect pratitioner though, would understand all medical systems, because I believe they are all valuable to maintaining health. For most systems, I think that is true if you are human or a hamster .
I chose acupuncture as my area of special interest very basically because early in my career I saw a couple incredible results. I had a pair of Rottweilers as patients, one of which had very bad hip dysplasia (Sadie). I had treated her with the only non-steroidal anti-inflammatory we had at the time which was called Bute. Bute was a pretty good anti-inflammatory, but it was quite toxic to the liver. I tended to use it only when dogs were doing very badly, and it could not be used safely in cats.
But Sadie came in a few months later and was walking great. I commented on it to the client and asked her to let me do a bloodtest to check Sadie's liver. She looked at me sheepishly and admitted she hadn't used the medication at all, but had instead gone to a veterinary acupuncturist. I couldn't ignore the results. She walked way better than she had when under my care.
The next national conference I went to I went to several lectures on veterinary acupuncture. I found it to be not the way to learn a very different thought process. At about the same time I started taking Tai Chi and Qi Gong for my own stress reduction and got more comfortable with describing an energy that I had not noticed or been taught about growing up as an American boy in the suburbs of Maryland. After that I took Taekwondo to learn the martial art application of what is a clearly Asian style of thinking.
As I went further along I learned about yin and yang, about the relationships that are central to Chinese healing philosophy, as well as a more cosmic understanding of how the universe works. For Chinese medical practitioners, health makes sense not so much as a dissection to find out what is wrong with the patient, but a deeper understanding of how the body works in conjunction with the environment, with its family, with its culture and with the universe. It was not so much what disease process affected the individual, but what individual is affected by the disease process.
As my own interest in Asian understanding of the body grew, my further training in acupuncture became a no-brainer. I enrolled in a school of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine that was associated with the University of Florida, School of Veterinary Medicine. I thought it was cool that a clearly alternative technique was being taught in a veterinary school.
Long story short, I have been doing acupuncture for almost 10 years. I get referrals now from vets that I would have never thought would be open to this. There are many things that you can use acupuncture for, I focus most on back pain and hind end pain. I have also treated pets for skin problems, anxiety, GI problems, and kidney disease.
One thing that I believe is true about acupuncture in veterinary medicine is that there isn't much of a placebo response. I'm pretty sure that most of the patients I use this on are not feeling the needles going in and thinking...."yup, this is probably going to make me feel better"
Our teacher said in school that in chinese culture it is considered that it takes 25 years to become a good acupuncturist. After learning the complexity of chinese medicine, I can totally believe that. In fact, I decided early on to not branch into Chinese herbal medicine because I thought mastering acupuncture would keep me busy enough.
As for the big picture, I think that alternative medicine practitioners have a huge future in our health care system, both on the veterinary side and the human side. Take me as a patient. Last year I went to the doctor for pain in my right knee. He sent me to an orthopedist, who in turn sent me to get an MRI. When I went back to the orthopedist, he asked if I spent alot of time on my knees. I do. For those of you who bring your pets to me, you will likely be smiling here. I do most of my exams on the floor.
Turns out I have weakening of the underside of my patella from chronically walking on my knees. I don't need surgery, I need knee pads. Being the Holistic practitioner that I am, I decided to sit on my ass more and walk around on my knees less.
MRI--$4,500
"Sit on my ass more" insight--priceless
I now go to an acupuncturist to help the pain in the knee while they remodel (or become arthritic, I'm not sure which will happen, I didn't ask). My regular doctor didn't get the report from the orthopedist. The bill came to me fine though.
I wish I had thought to tell my doctor or the specialist that I spend most of my life on my knees. On the other hand, they taught us in vet school that the best diagnostic tool that a practitioner has resides between his ears.
Frustration of the health care system aside, I hobbled away from this experience with a few things...
1) A great acupuncturist (her name is Kelley Sherman for those in the area)
2) An appreciation for the simplicity of our system in veterinary medicine
3) A magical soapbox that makes me direct each person who is interested in complementary medicine away from the internet and toward a practitioner of their chosen area of interest.
4) A big medical bill. I knew I should have paid extra for that low deductible insurance! | 
