The integrative approach often involves therapies outside mainstream medicine, since symptoms are secondary to a dog’s physical and psychological state. Outside factors can negatively impact this state of health — this article looks at these factors, along with the integrative medicine topics requiring more research in order to address them.

Integrative medicine in humans and other species endeavors to achieve a proper balance in life to achieve health and well-being.¹ It means that whole beings have an existence beyond the sum of their parts.² Integrative medicine often involves therapies outside the mainstream, as symptoms are secondary to one’s physical and psychological state.² When health and well-being are imbalanced, life can negatively impact upon health, whether it be due to physical, emotional, or spiritual issues.³ This article looks at the main issues affecting animal health and well-being in today’s world, and the direction that research in integrative medicine needs to take as a result.

THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION ON ANIMAL HEALTH

Environmental pollution of the air, land, and seas is increasing and should be foremost in our minds.⁹ Just look at the global effects of undernourished people and animals in the African continent, and the effects of smoking, as well as second-hand and third-hand smoke exposure, in people and pet dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, birds, and even fish, resulting in increased risk of cancers, obesity, microbiome imbalance, and other adverse effects.^9-11

Tobacco smoke residues, like nicotine, accumulate in house dust, carpets and rugs, on skin, fur and clothing, and the floor and furniture. Children and pets not only breathe in these residues, but are also exposed by licking and grooming hair, and licking or chewing skin, fur, clothes, and toys. Further, long-nosed dog breeds exposed to smoke have more nasal tumors, whereas short-nosed dogs and cats have more asthma and lung tumors.¹¹

Another element of environmental degradation involves nutritional deficiencies in our food and that of our animals. Can food production be maintained with a multipronged approach involving water management, soil regeneration, farming and landscape diversification, and alternate food sources such as insects and seaweeds?^9,10 We also cannot assume that the nutrients needed for people work in parallel for dogs, cats, and other species.^9,10

FIVE FREEDOMS ALL ANIMALS SHOULD HAVE

Respected author, professor of animal science, animal behaviorist, and human-animal bond pioneer and proponent, Temple Grandin, discusses how animals make us human.¹² Follow-up articles in 2017 and 2021 addressed improving the quality of science through better animal welfare.^7,13-14

According to Grandin, the British government issued the Brambell Report in the 1960s and listed five freedoms animals should have: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, or disease; freedom from fear and distress; and freedom to express normal behavior.¹² After all, as she states, people and animals have the same core emotion systems in the brain.¹²

TOPICS NEEDING MORE INTEGRATIVE VETERINARY RESEARCH AND TEACHING

With all the above in mind, what research approaches and solutions are needed in veterinary integrative medicine, beyond education, education, education?

1. GENE EDITING AND THERAPY⁸

Document the positive and negative impacts of CRISPR gene editing technology in companion animals, with emphasis on the transparency of findings.

2. VACCINE EFFICACY AND SAFETY^15,16

1. Define the reasons for pet caregiver vaccine hesitancy, and address the need to overcome the trends in veterinary practice and the industry to promote unnecessary vaccines.
2. Gather more documentation on the potential harm of polyclonal vaccines, including rabies vaccine, given simultaneously, and the use of heavy metals as adjuvants.
3. Establish the scientific benefits and safety of reducing vaccine doses for very small and tiny pets.

3. COUNTERING THE MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BIG PHARMA AND PET FOOD INDUSTRIES^9,17

1. Document the reasons for avoiding common pro-inflammatory foods such as chicken and venison.
2. Provide more scientific evidence of the benefits of supplements and treats, pre- and pro-biotics, and cannabinoids.
3. Scientifically address the safety of parasiticides widely promoted as preventives.
4. Conduct more studies on the alternate management and treatment of osteoarthritis in pets and other species.

4. IMPROVED VETERINARY DIAGNOSTICS AND APPROPRIATE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE^15,18,19

Create and implement novel diagnostics that identify specific diagnoses and risk factors for latent and subclinical health conditions, including behavior, in animals.

5. OTHER RESEARCH NEEDS^17-20

Medicinal mushrooms: The innate immune systems of people and animals provide non-specific immunity, which doesn’t require prior antigen exposure; adaptive immunity, meanwhile, reflects prior exposure and long-term cellular immunological memory. Pets also have what is called “trained memory” from pattern recognition receptors that allow the innate immune system to gain immunological memory. Trained immunity is promoted by functional mushrooms that contain high concentrations of beta-glucans, soluble fibers that support heart health, the gut, and the immune system.¹⁷

Snuffle gardens: This term describes any enclosed, safe garden or other space that gives a dog the freedom to be curious and explore the environment at his own pace through sniffing and sight. It offers many positive benefits to the dog’s physical and mental well-being by releasing calming hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin, although research documentation of these effects is needed.²⁰

Modernized approach to evaluating and supporting innovative animal and veterinary products: The FDA recently announced its intention to modernize its approaches to evaluating and supporting innovative animal and veterinary products.¹⁸ This worthwhile effort is aimed at enhancing flexibility, predictability, and efficiency. The FDA’s Animal and Veterinary Innovation Agenda will foster product development and establish intelligent, risk-based regulatory methods for modern animal and veterinary products, in order to keep up with ongoing scientific and technological advancements while ensuring the market availability of safe and effective products.

A variety of products, including novel food ingredients designed to improve nutritional efficiency in the digestive system of animals, as well as cultured food ingredients, will be covered in this initiative, along with biotechnology products like animal cell and tissue-based products, and issues stemming from deliberate animal genomic alterations. Unmet needs in both human and animal health will focus particularly on the absence of specialized therapeutics approved for use in animals.¹⁸

Randomized, controlled trials in scientific and clinical research: These trials are important not only in mainstream medicine but also in integrative medicine to establish the effectiveness of prevalent new integrative modalities.²¹ These trials are prospective assessments that reduce bias and can identify any cause-and-effect relationship between study interventions and outcome.

ANIMAL WELFARE ISSUES

The use of animals in research

Over the past decades, much published literature on the topic of issues affecting animal well-being applies to research animals used as models for human disease. Others have pointed out that certain animal models, such as those of gene function and human disease, “may not provide appropriate information, particularly for rapidly evolving genes and systems.”^4-8

The original approach to using animals in biomedical research, education and testing stemmed from the 1959 3Rs thesis of Russell and Burch, and the application of their “reduction, refinement and replacement” principles.⁴ But recent opinion has diverged widely and controversially about the original intent and current application of these principles.^4-7 As summarized cogently by Tannenbaum and Bennett in 2015, it was not the use of animals that Russell and Burch found problematic, but the subjecting of research animals to “unnecessary or avoidable pain, fear, stress, anxiety, bodily discomfort, and other significantly unpleasant feelings”.⁴

Animal well-being on a larger scale

These views can be applied equally to society’s general use of animals in any context, including agriculture, livestock production for food and other needs, wildlife management, zoos, companion animal breeding, athletic and conformation competitions, and pleasure as family members. Can scientific advances, agriculture, and consumer expectations find a common ground, especially in this era of worldwide climate change, amid issues of environmental health and ozone layer depletion?^9-11

The field of integrative medicine continues to grow and evolve, and factoring in the issues affecting animal health and welfare is an important directional signpost for ongoing and future research.

References