The Whole Meaning Of Holistic: Vaccination

I have been thinking a lot recently about what I mean when I refer to myself as a holistic veterinarian. Too often, people believe that indicates I solely practice alternative medicine, when to me, that is not what I mean at all. To me, holistic medicine means evaluating the entire patient, their whole lifestyle, and using whatever tools we have at our disposal to maximize wellness.

Note that term, wellness. Aiming for wellness is different from treating illness. It involves a combination of things, from diet and exercise to preventative care, with judicious use of conventional medications and/or alternative therapies as appropriate for the given patient. It is easy to focus on one of these components, but I believe that ultimately handcuffs us in our quest.

Today I want to talk about the role of vaccination as part of that preventative care that I use, as it is an area that is increasingly controversial.

The crux of the anti-vax movement came about from a truly fraudulent “study” in which data was made up linking vaccination of children with development of autism. The study has been disproven, the original doctor who did it admitted to making up the data, ironically in order to sell a vaccine he had developed, and lost his license as a result. But many people were lulled into a false sense of security because these diseases—measles, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio—seemed to be gone. We had forgotten, as a society, about the children who had died from them for millennia, and decided the specter of a possible link to autism was the greater evil than the very real risk of resurgence of diseases that were merely hiding.

Which begs the question: are our dogs and cats developing allergies, cancer, and other chronic illnesses because of a deleterious effect from the vaccine, or because they are living long enough to do so?

Again, my goal is to enhance wellness for my patients.

We know that judicious vaccination increases lifespan of a population, of both humans and animals. Vaccination of healthy animals (and people) has the additional benefit of providing some protection against the transmission of disease to those who do not tolerate vaccines, or who have illnesses that prevent us from being able to safely vaccinate. I do firmly believe that vaccination protocols should be tailored to an individual’s lifestyle, and that excessive repetition, or vaccination of vulnerable animals, can certainly increase risk of bad reactions. But I also do firmly believe that, carefully selected and administered, they are part of the foundation of wellness I wish to build for my patients.