Food As Medicine with Dr. Sarah Urban
Dr. Sarah Urban, an Integrative Veterinarian, is practicing and continuing her education in chiropractic, massage, and food as medicine. Dr. Urban has experience and certifications in canine rehabilitation, animal acupuncture, veterinary food therapy, postural rehabilitation, and veterinary spinal manipulation therapy. She of course has her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) but is also currently completing her master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine at Chi Institute.
In regard to research, Dr. Urban has a special interest in equine lymphedema, advances in rehab therapy, and herbal medicine for cancer.
Veterinary Food Therapy
Dr. Urban focused on whole foods in ‘A Dog’s Life’ podcast. She believes the veterinary industry has become too distanced from nutrition. She states “I think we’ve gone so far away from looking at how food affects our patients. I do a lot of rehab. In the human world, this would be known as physical therapy, but in the veterinary world, this is known as rehabilitation.” She continued with an example; “if I have a patient that’s recovering from a fracture because they were hit by a car, there’s nothing that is looked at in the way of nutrition. And, it can be a very new concept to my clients and patients as to where we go from there. I’ll just talk about adding fresh food to the diet (change to something not processed), and I can tell you it’s a huge component to their healing.”
Improper Metabolism
When organs aren’t functioning correctly, food is likely not metabolizing properly. Dr. Sarah Urban explains these cases on a regular basis. She stated “I think when you go to an integrative veterinarian who has some of this training [alternative/integrative], I can look at patients and see: okay, I have a super anxious dog that’s running on hyperdrive all the time. I’m going to be very concerned about the adrenal system when she’s seven or eight years old, and we’re wondering how she ‘all of a sudden’ was diagnosed with Cushing’s.”
Dr. Urban explained it’s important to catch small signs early on. Without close observation, it can appear there have been no signs the entire time. But, with close observation, you can see little tidbits of stress and anxiety. She explained “I don’t think people understand that dogs expressing stress and anxiety, or being hyper all the time, can translate into disease later.”
The Chinese Veterinary Exam
In the podcast, Dr. Urban explained how she conducted her Chinese veterinary medical examination. She stated “we take a look at tongue color, the temperature of the dog, the smell of the dog, what their normal everyday activities are. Depending on the results of the examination, we will adjust their food appropriately to either bring up their energy levels or peg down the energy.” She also provided her own example explaining “one winter, someone gave me some cucumbers. In Chinese Medicine, cucumbers are a cooling food. I ate a whole one on accident that day. I had a coat on, and still, everyone was asking me if I was getting sick because I was so cold all day.”
Integrative Medicine: CBD
Dr. Urban touched upon CBD in the podcast. Working with rehabilitation patients, it was bound to come up. Do you provide CBD to your patients? Do you recommend CBD?
She again explained the importance of food. Seizure patients, for example, are often on a high kibble-type diet so many are pro-inflammatory. With a good diet, she ties in CBD. She explained “getting them on a higher fat diet and some CBD products results in a beautiful response. I am happy to see the traditional vets and some of the neurologists recognizing dogs with low life expectancy are now thriving due to integrative medicine (CBD and whole foods). She continued “I get it all the time. I get the seniors filled with problems and all I do is fresh diet and CBD then watch them come back to life. All I am doing is supporting their immune system as much as I possibly can, and exercise, and clean water.”
She explained, “we’ve overcomplicated it so much, but it’s so nice to see people out there doing it now.”
Contacting Dr. Sarah Urban
Dr. Urban accepts new patients for mobile visits, telemedicine, rehabilitation, acupuncture, chiropractic care, herbal medicine, and food therapy. She is opening her new mobile practice Enabled Integrative Veterinary Services which provides care for large and small animals in Pennsylvania and soon other states as well.
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Urban, she can be contacted https://eivsvet.com/
About Angela Ardolino
Angela Ardolino is a holistic pet expert who has been caring for animals for over 20 years and operates a rescue farm, Fire Flake Farm, in Florida. She is also the owner of Beautify the Beast, a natural pet salon and shop. After getting her certificate in Medical Cannabis Biology and Therapeutic use from the University of Vermont School of Medicine, she founded CBD Dog Health to provide high quality, all-natural medical cannabis products designed specifically for pets. Angela has seven dogs, Odie a 12-year-old mini-schnauzer, Nina an 8-year-old Doberman. Jolene a 7-year-old mutt, Maza a 7-year-old mutt, Rhemi an 8-year-old poodle, Potato a 15-year-old shih-tzu, and Miss Daisie a 15-year-old black lab, plus 4-10 more at any time she is fostering or boarding. She uses Full Spectrum Hemp Extract on all her pets at her rescue farm every day, and has since 2016. She is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, the Veterinary Cannabis Association and has trained hundreds medical doctors and veterinarians about the therapeutic uses of medical cannabis on animals. Visit www.angelaardolino.com for more information.
About Dr. Sarah Urban
Sarah Urban DVM is a 2012 graduate from Oklahoma State University School of Veterinary Medicine. She became certified in Canine Rehabilitation as a Practioner from the University of Tennessee in 2012. She became certified in Mixed Animal Acupuncture from the Chi Institute in Reddick Florida in 2013. Summer of 2015 she became certified in Veterinary Spinal Manipulation Therapy (chiropractic) from the Healing Oasis in Sturtevant, WI. Currently, she is working on a Master’s program in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine from the Chi Institute. Most recently she became certified in Veterinary Food Therapy. She also has attended animal postural rehabilitation classes which combine movement, dentistry, farrier work, and chiropractic. She is a member of the College of Animal Chiropractors, Inc. (CoAC). Urban currently sits on the board of research for McQueen Animal Chiropractic and Research Institute and is also a researching veterinarian for The Holistic Equine Academy of Lymphedema, known as HEAL, an equine lymphedema awareness group. Dr. Urban is well qualified and very talented, bringing state of the art expertise and information to clients, as well as compassionate and comforting care to her patients.