Cause and Effect

Sometimes in medicine we get hung up in the cause and effect loop. When we have a collection of symptoms, the purpose of the allopathic doctor is to find a diagnosis, because if we can reach a diagnosis, then we'll know what drug to give. These diagnostic labels, however, don't seem like enough of an answer to me.
If you have the right conglomeration of symptoms, you can be diagnosed with anything from hypothyroidism to lupus to chronic fatigue syndrome. And that's often where the diagnostic quest ends, because once you have a name, you either give the matching drug, or tell the person or their pet to suck it up and learn to tolerate their symptoms, if there is no matching drug.
But what about the true cause? What is it that makes our bodies do us wrong in the first place? This isn't something that happens randomly, and I don't believe that our bodies make mistakes. It's important for people to realize that the diagnosis is not the end (or the beginning) of the story. Hypothyroidism is all well and good, but what makes your thyroid decrease its function? You may have asthma, but why would your body react in  an exaggerated fashion to an allergen when someone else's doesn't?
We may not ever find these answers as to how we got detoured off the road to perfect health. Many of my clients are surprised to find out that in veterinary medicine we are often faced with the challenge of having to treat sometimes severe conditions without a basic working diagnosis. This is because diagnostic testing can get very expensive very quickly, and most pet owners have to pay out of pocket for this stuff, and also because some tests are invasive or potentially harmful, and we are often hesitant to visit these upon our pets.
With homeopathy, however, we can address the "cause behind the cause", even if we can't name it. There are other holistic therapies that are similarly focused on the state of the entire organism, and therefore don't require that we be able to name a thing in order to treat it. So for those of you who have been turned away, and have been told that whatever ails you can't be named and therefore can't be treated (except with antidepressants, 'cause if we can't figure out what's wrong with you, maybe it is all in your head!), get yourself to your nearest homeopath, acupuncturist, or osteopath, and get some relief! And do the same for your pets!