Holistic medicine addresses functions of the body (digestion, healing, building muscle, repair, rest, etc.) and the state of health as a whole. In other words, nothing that happens in the body is isolated from anything else. Even physical trauma, like a broken leg, affects multiple body systems - the nervous system will react rapidly (sending the brain messages of pain, fear) the immune system will activate to cause inflammation (swelling, heat, pain, redness) and begin the healing process, and hormones will shift to address the needs of the body (tell the body to absorb more calcium in order to repair bone). Holistic medicine takes into account how multiple body systems work together and are all impacted when the body strays from health and wellness, and works to address the body as a whole. First, let’s define illness – or disease.  We consider it as “dis – ease”.
Dis-ease is a state of imbalance in the body where optimal health cannot be maintained at rest, and especially when a stressor is introduced.  Therefore, the body does not have “ease.”
For example, thyroid disease (high or low function) is not a disease by itself. The thyroid gland functions with other hormone producing glands as a system (endocrine system). The endocrine system works in conjunction with other body systems, including the nervous system. The nervous system detects input from the outside world (including emotions) and decides how to respond. It then alerts the endocrine system, starting with the hypothalamus gland in the brain. This sends messages to the pituitary gland in the brain to produce releasing hormones to initiate down to the rest of the glands in the body to act appropriately, including the thyroid and adrenal glands. Because the thyroid gland is intertwined with these other organs and systems, thyroid dis-ease is not a result of the thyroid alone being imbalanced, but an imbalance in the system that the thyroid gland is trying to compensate for. 
In traditional western medicine, medications are used to target the imbalanced organ and reduce symptoms - often neglecting the other organs and systems that may be affected by the initial imbalance, or by the medications side effects. Additionally, drugs often cover up symptoms by overriding the body's distress signals, which does not address the root cause and can allow the underlying imbalance to worsen.  
By the time symptoms of disease become clearly evident,  the internal issues have usually been progressing for a significant period of time, and can take equally as long to reverse. Holistic healing takes patience and persistence, which can be difficult for those trained to expect immediate results.
We prefer to treat imbalances with whole foods and supplements to provide fundamental building blocks that the body needs to repair itself, and regain balance. By providing abundant, bio-available nutrients through species appropriate diets and supporting digestion, we give organs the ability to function properly and the body as a whole the ability to adequately respond to stressors. When the body has what it needs, dis-ease can often be reversed in the initial symptomatic area.
The foundation of our health should be based in our diets. Natural, fresh, and minimally processed foods contain all of the nutrients we need to stay healthy. Our culture has strayed from wholesome and healthy foods and gotten stuck in a system based on "convenience" and profit. We eat foods that do not promote wellness, and then we seek medical help to "fix" us, and the cycle continues. If we focus on feeding our bodies what they need to stay well, then we will have the tools that we need to eliminate toxins and fight illnesses. 80% of our immune system lines the gut, therefore it is essential to keep our GI tracts happy and healthy.

As the 4th of July quickly approaches, we want to spend some time to discuss the nervous system, and provide you with options to soothe your pets nerves during fireworks, as well as the many other stressors that our pets may encounter day to day. 
The nervous system is broken down into two parts - the peripheral and the central nervous systems - which work together to allow us to interpret the world around us. 
The peripheral nervous system, nerves that run throughout the body, is responsible for receiving information (or stimuli) from our environment, and transmitting info back to the central nervous system, the spine and brain. The central nervous system, spinal cord and brain, acts as the control center; taking and processing the information, deciding how to respond, and telling the peripheral nervous system what to do about it. 
All of this processing and communication happens almost instantaneously– which for our pets’ wild ancestors, allowed them to be skilled hunters and evade predators through perception and reaction to the slightest changes in the environment. 
Such responses are carried out by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is the part of the nervous system that controls the body’s involuntary responses. Most of us are familiar with this as the “fight or flight” (sympathetic) vs. “rest and digest” (parasympathetic). 
(The opposite of the ANS is the somatic nervous system - the voluntary movement of coordinated skeletal muscle movement).
When the nervous system is balanced, our pets will regularly switch between being in a parasympathetic state - where they are safe, calm, and their body is carrying out important processes like digestion, creation of new tissue, and detoxification - and a sympathetic state - when they see a squirrel in the tree or when you drop something loud in the house and their body puts its energy toward chasing or running to hide. 
Stressors like fireworks can put our pets into a sympathetic state - making the day stressful for our pets and ourselves. Luckily, there are options you can try to help make your pet feel safe, and reduce their fear and anxiety during stressful situations. 
Giving your pet good exercise (off leash, lots of run time, or directed attention for play) during the day helps release pent up energy and natural endorphins to help your pet stay calmer during the night, when the fireworks begin. Giving them a bone to chew or a lick mat releases natural endorphins, putting them into a parasympathetic state as well as giving them something else to focus on during the stressor. 
To help your pet avoid the incoming stressor, you can play white noise to drown out the loud noises and vibrations, or place cotton balls in their ears (count them so you know you got them all) to reduce the sound they hear. 
Items to signal their central nervous system that they are safe to promote calming down, include thunder shirts, comforting touch, playing classical music, or diffusing essential oils such as lavender or rose. Magnetic mats and sound energy such as tuning forks or frequency music can also be used to provide a sense of grounding. 
Supplements can also be used to calm the nervous system, although not all are created equal. Our go to is CBD (Green Element or Resonance Farms are our favorite brands), and herbs we look for in calming supplements include valerian, passionflower, and skullcap. Rescue Remedyoften works great with CBD - it is a bach flower essence that can be taken orally to reduce negative emotions like stress and worry. 
There are many other products on the market that work well for reducing anxiety during stressful situations - see the resource list below for more options. We recommend trying out the supplements for a few days before the stressful event, so you can see how your pet responds. 
If your pet is still in significant distress, we will help add medications to affect the central nervous system to alleviate their panic (as a last resort). These include benzodiazepines that help calm the brain, like valium and xanax, opioids like tramadol that give a sense of wellbeing and make our pets not care as much, or SSRIs/SARIs like trazodone that increase serotonin production in the brain.
Stress is a natural part of life, and is healthy for the body as long as the body is balanced (with nutrition, exercise, care and love), and the stress is not excessive. 
Prolonged stress, whether it be emotional, physiological (inflammation, mineral deficiencies, toxins, etc.), or physical (like a challenging environment, or pain), can lead to an unbalanced nervous system over time - and requires support.
To maintain our pets’ balanced nervous system or help them become more resilient to stress long-term, we recommend: a balanced, mineral rich DIET with abundant nutrients, vitamins, and healthy saturated fats to support a more balanced body that is resilient to stress. Transitioning our pets’ diet away from carbohydrates (sugar) to proteins and fats do the following:  reduce blood sugar fluctuations, which can act as a signal for the nervous system. Fats also create satiety, help the body absorb nutrients, provide building blocks for hormones that regulate the body, and even for neurotransmitters! 
There are more neurotransmitters made in the gut than there are in the brain, so a healthy gut, fed with a nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory diet, is key for a balanced nervous system. 

In summary: 

Please provide movement through plenty of exercise, and build confidence through mental and intellectual stimulation with new experiences and training. 

Our pet’s brains create pathways when they experience something new, and over time if the experience is repeated, those neuropathways get stronger. Because of neuroplasticity, our pet’s brains are capable of changing these neuropathways and forming new connections through learning. For example, if fireworks scared a dog the first time they heard them, and they were not given what they needed to deal with the stress, they will continue to be fearful each time they hear a firework. If this year, however, they hear a firework go off, and they get a treat or a bone to chew, their brain will start forming new pathways, that change their reaction to the fireworks. Yay for our powerful and resilient bodies!
Ultimately, creating a life of abundance for our pets nutritionally, emotionally, and physically can help build and maintain a balanced nervous system and resilience to stress.
Thanks for choosing BALANCE!


We carry - 
Green Element CBD 
Resonance Farms CBD and CBG 
Solutions Pet Products “Chill Out” herbal powder 
Relaxing Nervine Triad (Herbal Tincture by Mia Baki - Laughing Birch Herbal)


Other resources - 
Rescue Remedy -  https://www.bachflower.com/ 
Uses bach flower essence to reduce negative emotions of worry and stress. 
Composure (VetriScience) - https://www.vetriscience.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22202307333&gclid=CjwKCAjwpMTCBhA-EiwA_-MsmcmAw7qoZw0Uab7ashjsSETtTKfY3cp9uuCFTvCcvsZYRxbVTu7cpBoCM3cQAvD_BwE 
Uses a protein from colostrum to promote calming. 
Anxitane - https://us.virbac.com/anxitane 
L-Theanine to promote relaxation. 
Zylkene - https://www.vetoquinolusa.com/products/zylkene 
Uses milk proteins to help pets cope with challenging situations. 
Solliquin Calming Chews - https://www.solliquin.com/ 
Uses herbal extracts, L-Theanine, and Whey Protein Concentrate for pets during stressful situations. 

When our food loving pets “all of a sudden” decide to turn their nose up at their meal, we can definitely feel a sense of worry that something may need to change. Are they bored with their food? Are they sick? This month we want to focus on fasting - why it may be normal and how it actually helps our pets. 
Fasting is the body’s natural way of resting. During rest, healing and detoxification happens.  This is an important process that cannot be done when the body is busy eating, then digesting, then using those nutrients to make energy, build muscle, and store fats and nutrients.  
Most detoxification takes place during the most restful time of day, typically between 2 and 4 am. When our pets decide to skip their morning meal (or any meal) and fast instead, it can be for a variety of reasons.  Our pets are intuitive; taking the time to listen to their cues can help us understand why they might be fasting, and what is going on at a deeper level. 
For example, if your pet doesn’t really like to eat breakfast, more than likely, their liver is working extra hard during the natural detox time in the early morning hours and needs to take a little longer to help the body stay as well as it can on their current diet.  This is natural and healthy - forcing them to eat breakfast is not. Broths are good to offer in these instances, for small amounts of electrolytes, fat globules and easy to digest proteins that help reduce inflammation and support a healthy gut microbiome.
Next, check-in. What is your pet eating? Is there a way to better support the diet for optimal digestion?  If possible, consider adding kraut, broth, high quality protein toppers or lightly steamed green leafies like dandelion greens or nettles; slippery elm and marshmallow root may also be useful to support digestion and GI comfort.  
If their diet is more processed and carbohydrate rich, it will be less digestible.  Skipping a meal can allow their body to put its energy toward eliminating toxins from the food. Realize, however, that pets on such diets are the least likely to skip a meal (and probably shouldn’t), but will be hungry and looking for something else to eat.  Carbohydrates are used up quickly for energy, but are often in excess for most pets calorie needs.  They will be stored as fats that are more difficult to metabolize - pets will want to eat more frequently to have sugar continuously available.  Like us, they can become “hangry” (and may continue to be overweight or gain) without having the carbs, or energy source, they are used to.
If your pet fasts in this situation, it may mean they are sick; or that their food makes them feel sick. They may then look for another similar food, with different flavor, texture, etc. in hope that the new food won’t make them sick as well.
Fasting should not be considered for cats that eat a carbohydrate rich diet.  As discussed, carbohydrates are quick energy and are needed consistently.  If a cat has acclimated to this diet, fasting may cause a life threatening disease called hepatic lipidosis where the liver has to immediately use fats for calories, but quickly becomes overwhelmed.
Cats that eat added fats and have acclimated to them won’t be susceptible to hepatic lipidosis and will have an easier time fasting.  Since fats make an animal feel full, cats eating fats may fast intermittently.
Fasting dogs that eat a carb rich diet may show symptoms of withdrawal and become immensely hungry, same as for people.  These patients may counter surf, eat things they normally wouldn’t and develop extremely bad behaviors.
A healthy diet of proteins and fats - such as a raw food that is well digested, actually reduces the need for excess food.  A pet eating a raw diet, rich in a full array of proteins (amino acids) and many different fats including omega’s 3, 6 and 9’s; short, medium and long chain triglycerides including saturated fats along with all other needed vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals can easily fast, and often will on their own.
If you change your pet’s diet to the one mentioned above - to “species appropriate” foods - then your pet may decide after awhile that they are actually full!  In the beginning, they may skip meals intermittently to give their body the opportunity to adjust and heal. They may also over eat the raw (or lightly cooked), nutrient dense food to store much needed nutrients that have previously been deficient, and may need extra nutrients if they are overcoming inflammation or early dis-ease. But after a while, they will most likely not need to eat so much; especially if they are / were overweight.  
With all this said, fasting is not always beneficial, and we should always take into consideration the broader picture of health, age, and activity level in our individual pet. For example, if your pet has high energy/nutrient demands, fasting would not be right for them. This includes underweight pets, puppies and kittens, and pregnant or nursing mothers.
There are also underlying imbalances or dis-ease that require more regular and frequent meals, such as diabetes/sugar handling issues or digestive stress, like acid reflux. If your pet “hunger pukes” when they are not fed twice per day, or when they are fed later than normal, fasting will not be beneficial for them. In such situations, the priority is to focus on the underlying imbalances and support digestion (and modify their diet if necessary). 
Usually, our pets are the ones who decide if and when they need to fast. If fasting is recommended for your pet, you can skip about 1 meal per week on a rest day (or 2 to 3 per month) as long as your pet is eating adequate nutrition, including calories. Instead of their meal, offer a raw bone to munch if your pet has learned to safely eat them, and/or broth. 
Alternatively, you can feed 30% less of their normal diet for 1-3 days, depending on the activity level of your pet and the food being fed.

If you have questions, we are here to help; we have assisted many, many pets with weight loss, poor digestion, weight gain, and myriad of other issues, and can use what we know to help you know whether your pet is healthy fasting or actually sick, and what steps to take to improve your pet’s digestion and overall health. 

Chronic allergies are one of the most prevalent issues we see in pets, and are often misunderstood. This can lead to frustration as a pet owner - when you try everything to bring your pet relief with little improvement. Allergy symptoms, like constant itching, red skin, hots spots and weepy eyes are a result of the body reacting to a stimulant - something outside the body (an allergen). Allergens may be assumed to be a specific food, like chicken protein or environmental, like pollen. When the immune system reacts, there is a release of histamines that cause the symptoms. Anti-histamines like Benadryl and Claritin help reduce this histamine reaction, but they do not help the body figure out a long term solution. So the next path we often find ourselves going down is to prevent our pet from coming into contact with the allergen - avoid chicken .. and pollen?! … a daunting task that leaves us and our pets feeling more and more limited and isolated over time. 
At Balance, we understand a different path that helps get to the root of why the body is reacting in the first place. We ask a crucial question - what is the underlying cause of such excessive histamine reactions? Why can’t the body handle exposure to these stressors without reacting?
Allergies are an early sign that the immune system is not working efficiently; a sign that there is congestion in the body. There are a million reasons for this congestion, individual to every pet - but there are similarities that will help everyone.  
Examples of reasons that cause the congestion include - underlying inflammation (reactions going on inside the body already, not just from external stimuli), for example like dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is abnormal gut flora - or unhealthy bugs in the digestive tract. These guys may have established themselves from birth or developed over time from various other stressors to the body. Now the body is reactive to everything on the outside. Other reasons may be nutrient deficiencies (like bioavailable zinc or calcium), metabolic disturbances (like the pancreas are unable to produce proper digestive enzymes or the liver is overwhelmed); and/or toxins (we live in a very toxic world). 
Our goal is to reduce inflammation. We do this by addressing what is causing it. When we support the body generally with basic principles AND address each individual and their specific issues, we get results!
Examples include teaching you more about foods, and what causes problems in general … we are teaching a short Diet & Nutrition Course, 20 to 40 mins on Tue and Thur, if you would like to join to get the “down and dirty” about foods. Or as a refresher, if you are already an established client.  (Check it out on our website).
Then, we find out what is causing problems in your pet’s individual body, and why through a thorough physical exam and discussion with you to understand everything inside and out physically and energetically.
In general, we show you how to support the gut microbiome; how to provide the body with an abundance of fundamental nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and co-factors, that it needs to function efficiently; how to avoid inflammatory foods and treats; and THEN, address specifics - like re-balancing the immune system, supporting the liver, healing the intestinal lining, providing digestive enzymes or herbs to an inflamed gut, etc or whatever is specific to your pet.  
With this thorough approach, your pet’s body is able to build resilience to allergens in the first place. And it works!
Let’s talk a little more about food.  
Specifically, in the majority of cases, food allergies are actually leaky gut (and not a reaction to a specific protein, although some proteins, for sure, may be more reactive than others.)  
Leaky gut is when the intestinal wall becomes weak - from stress, poor nutrition, excess sugars, long term use of medications, sick parents (establishing an unhealthy microbiome from the beginning), etc. The gut loses it’s ability to be the barrier from the outside world. The broken barrier allows food proteins to “leak” into the body (circulation) and causing the immune system to react, thereby creating a symptom like itching, hives or hotspots.
More scientifically, leaky gut leads to a weakening of the space between the cells that line the gut. These spaces allow food particles to enter the bloodstream before they are properly broken down and processed by the cell. This is where the immune system comes in contact and reacts with the particles - creating inflammation on the inside, and then an allergic reaction on the outside. 
There are various other ingredients that the body can react to besides proteins - such as grains, legumes, meat meals*, denatured proteins from heat, and AGE’s (acetylated glycation end products) or chemicals from extreme heat, among others. All of these are commonly found in processed, dry food and canned diets.  
Nutrients from processed foods are often lacking, by only providing the bioactive vitamin and not all the other similar vitamin isomers that are also important but not “necessary” according the FDA or AAFCO (agencies that regulate diet requirements); such as with Vitamin D (cholecalciferol) and calcium (carbonate).  The body quickly runs out of options during times of stress without an abundance of bioavailable and stored vitamins and minerals, as you would find in animals raised on pastures from regenerative farms.
So, the food allergies we see are more often than not a result of underlying inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, and leaky gut - rather than a true allergy to the food itself! 
This is good news, because we can help the body and reduce inflammation, without having to avoid that protein in all of it’s forms.
The bad news is that, when the body is dealing with underlying inflammation and a distracted immune system, not only does it lack resilience against allergens, but it is more susceptible to all dis-eases, like autoimmune, asthma and even cancer. 
Treatment with anti-histamines help mitigate the symptoms, and immunomodulating medications like Apoquel and Cytopoint work to manage the immune system’s response to the allergens - but neither address the underlying inflammation and imbalances that are to blame for chronic allergies.
Find out more about providing great nutrition with additions, other - better - affordable foods, and supplementation.
We can evaluate for deeper testing of mineral imbalances with Fur Tissue Mineral Analysis (F-TMA), to address even more specific nutritional needs and imbalances with supplementation.
The premise is not to eliminate the allergen, but to support the body to handle the stress.  We help create the digestive system to be the Armor that it is supposed to be - so the body works like it was designed to work and stops reacting to normal stressors like allergens.
Because allergies may be rooted in deeper imbalances, they may take time to improve.  We find that with your help, our pet patients have less severe symptoms that occur less and less frequently over time - until we have wellness and resilience in a healthy pet!!

*Meat Meals- https://truthaboutpetfood.com/what-are-meat-meal-ingredients