Research Support

The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Foundation is dedicated to supporting research in holistic veterinary medicine. Holistic medicine often has answers to chronic diseases that use methods with few to no side effects. It may have an answer that is non-existent in conventional medicine. But this type of research is always under-funded and overlooked. The AHVMA Foundation is the best way to bring these modalities into the consciousness of mainstream medical thinking and practice.

Numerous veterinary schools have published research in Complementary and Integrative (holistic) Veterinary Medicine. AHVMF has funded research in most of those schools. The list of veterinary colleges that have participated includes:

Some people think there is plenty of research in holistic medicine. While there are a lot of research articles, there are big areas that have no research at all, especially in veterinary medicine. Even if something has been well-researched for humans, it does not mean that it will work the same in animals. And conventional veterinarians are not willing to take the risk if there are no studies in dogs and cats. Most of the time if you hear the term "animal studies," it means mice and rats, not dogs and cats. So lots of animal studies does not mean those studies will be useful.

Without research, many veterinarians do not believe integrative holistic medicine will work.

Our Database article lists databases that you can search for articles about holistic animal health. We tried to narrow them down to the ones that will be most helpful for you. Our Research Roundup is a series of articles discussing research on an aspect of integrative holistic veterinary medicine. We post a new one every 2 weeks. Our newsletter gives you the research references for each article, and a general interest article or two about animals.

You can read articles about items such as:

• Blueberries — The Miracle Berry
• Colostrum
• Arthritis Research
• Dissolving Oxalate Stones
• Natural Answers for Antibiotic Resistant Infections
• Ketogenic Diets and Cancers

Read these articles and more

Besides hearing about how there is no research in holistic medicine, another problem has been how can improvements in health be specifically measured. If you have a specific short-term disease, it is easy: the disease went away. If you have something that is easy to count, it is also easy: there were large quantities of bacteria, and now there are none. But studies about chronic disease are usually harder to figure out.

The Foundation only funds humane research. Studies use animals which actually have a disease, in a clinical setting, to see whether they will be helped by integrative holistic means. No treatment is withheld to do this. We also fund research that involves plants, tissue culture, and other items that do not involve live animals.