Where Are the Studies?! The Difficult Truth Behind That Question

When it comes to caring for our animals, many people are told to "follow the science." But what does that really mean?

In this video, we explore why scientific studies can be a helpful tool—but also, not all studies are created equal. Study design, funding, sample size, statistical significance, and real-world application all matter. We'll explain why it's important to evaluate research critically instead of accepting every published conclusion at face value.

You'll learn:

🔶 Why scientific studies have strengths and limitations.
🔶 How evidence-based medicine includes more than published research alone.
🔶 How to become a more informed pet owner by asking better questions and considering multiple sources of evidence.

Our goal isn't to dismiss science—it's to encourage thoughtful, balanced decision-making that combines high-quality research with practical experience and a whole-animal perspective.

If you're interested in holistic veterinary medicine, natural animal health, nutrition, and evidence-informed pet care, subscribe for more videos that bridge science with real-world experience.

Resources:

Why Most Scientific Publications Are WRONG (replicability crisis) - VIDEO

Homeopathy Research Institute - HRI is a UK-based charity dedicated to promoting high-quality research in homeopathy at an international level.

Raw Feeding Research

Feed Real - Canine Nutrition Research Articles

Dogs Naturally - Vaccine Research in regard to immunity longevity

Vital Animal Podcast Interview with Dr Will Falconer and Dr Todd Cooney - Includes Parvo Data linked in the show notes - AUDIO

Dr Isaac Golden's book on immunizing with homeopathy and includes research and data showing it's effectiveness

Don't miss future episodes!

Make sure to follow to catch more insight into the holistic approach for animals in an inviting, honest, and realistic way, right here on The Crunchy Carnivore Podcast.

Connect with Dr Levy & Melissa

Instagram |  wellspring_haa

YouTube | Wellspring Holistic Animal Academy - YouTube

Website | wellspringhaa.com

Email | wellspringhaa@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So um so there's issues with legitimacy of the data, legitimacy of the results. Um, and then if something happens to somebody, then it's very easy to say, you know, well, php, that's a one-time thing, right? That's an anecdote. But if you collect enough anecdotes, then you start to actually have some data.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

But if the data doesn't fit the mainstream narrative, it's not gonna get looked into another episode of the Crunchy Carnivore Podcast. I'm Melissa Weinhammer and I'm here with Dr. Jessica Levy. And today we are gonna be talking about um uh a topic that is really a big um way that people will kind of question or come against the holistic approach and philosophy. It's a question that we've both heard many, many, many times. Um, which the question is where's show me the studies. Yeah, where's the science? Where's the science? Or bold statements from people that oppose it, saying it's not science-backed. Uh, there's there's nothing to prove what you're doing. There's no research. Uh, and this is a huge opposition that we really want to just deal with very directly. Um, I think it's it's very frustrating for people that um are in this, you know, camp and and and live out all of these principles. And we've seen vinyl health come about in our animals and seen problems resolved, uh, you know, to have such opposition come against that when when it really could do a tremendous amount for people and their animals to apply these principles. Because what ends up happening is when this is put out, uh, it really can scare people away or turn people off from entertaining these these principles or or or thinking about maybe applying some of this to their animals' lives.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

This is the approach of the quackbuster is to say there's no no scientific proof. Why would you think that? Why would you believe that? Show me the studies. Yeah. And that is meant as a deterrent. Like that's not an honest question. No. Because you could show people the studies, they would still find a way to refute it. Like, that's not a big enough study. It wasn't published in a big enough journal, it wasn't peer-reviewed. It wasn't peer-reviewed. I hear that one a lot. Yeah, and so you get a lot of that kind of stuff. And so, um, in some ways, it's freeing once you realize that no scientific study would ever be good enough for the um uh naysayers, I guess. It's probably the easiest thing to call people.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

So we want to break this down into a few different uh parts and pieces. And the first thing I think that would be good for us to really hopefully bring some clarity to is the truth behind evidence-based studies, peer-reviewed studies. Um, there are a lot of people that like to stand firmly on this, and that is what they base all of their decisions on. Right. Um, but the we're gonna come against that in a in a way that they're not, they're not as black and white and ironclad as people would like to think that they are. Right. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Right. So it's supposed to be um the epitome of medicine is supposed to be evidence-based medicine, where before you do any treatment, you've uh researched every scientifically published article that discusses said treatment, and then you rank them according to the size of the study and the statistical analysis and how the study was conducted. And then you're supposed to pick the best ones, and that's what you're supposed to base what you do in the future on those studies. This is actually, I think, really hard to do because scientific studies are published at a great rate. Um, because when you think about uh uh scientific journals and scientific articles, uh, only certain things are going to be published, right? There's not everything gets published, there's not room for everything. And the goal of producing a scientific study is to get published and to get recognized. In some cases, like scientists who work at universities, that's kind of part of their job requirement is to continually publish scientific studies so that they get more recognition. Like the more time your study is cited as a basis for other studies, the more beneficial it is to you, the more valuable you are to the institution, because now you're more recognized as a researcher, as a scientist. So only certain things are going to get published. And there's basically typically a mainstream narrative about pretty much every topic that you can think of that's going to determine who has a chance of getting published and whose information is just going to get thrown out. So that's a big part of it. Scientific studies cost money, so somebody has to be willing to fund your research. Um, if you're doing studies on animals, you have to feed them, you have to house them, you have to purchase them, uh, you have to conduct the study. Uh, the study goes on for a period of time. And so all those things incur actual expenses as well as paying the scientist a living wage. Uh, and so those are things that might prevent somebody from attempting a scientific study. Uh, the other thing about scientific studies is that for the most part, they're designed to kind of collect information uh while ignoring individual anecdotes. Um Veterinary studies particularly tend to be done on really small numbers of animals. Um I mean, disappointingly, and kind of ridiculous numbers of animals. So, one um conference that I attended, the lecturer presented um, they were doing some study on cats to find out what cats might be allergic to. Uh, and the study included eight cats. And so, you know, in the human world, we would just get laughed out of the room because like one of my clients pointed out to me, like some people have eight cats in their own home. And certainly, you know, I've had more cats than that at a time. So um, so there's issues with legitimacy of the data, legitimacy of the results. Um, and then if something happens to somebody, then it's very easy to say, you know, well, php, that's a one-time thing, right? That's an anecdote. But if you collect enough anecdotes, then you start to actually have some data. But if the data doesn't fit the mainstream narrative, it's not going to get looked into. If people have have biases, if they've already decided hip dysplasia is genetic, then nobody's going to investigate other potential causes of hip dysplasia because you'll be ridiculed, you could lose your job, you could lose your funding. I mean, there are very good reasons why you want to stay within the mainstream narrative and not really start to look outside the box. It's super risky. Uh, another thing that people really like to see when they're looking at scientific studies, like the peer review process is always considered a way to show that your scientific study is superior. Because not only did it meet the demands of rigorous science, but it was peer-reviewed. Other people read your study and they also said that it was good. Um, but but there are limitations with that, right? So, for one thing, these people are your peers. They're reviewing your scientific study now, but at some point, um, you know, you could be reviewing theirs, and you kind of want everybody to get along. So you don't want to say something too negative about your colleagues. These people are also volunteers, and so I mean, realistically, how much time are they going to spend redoing the statistical analysis and you know, reviewing your math? And um, you know, that this is a volunteer position. It's not their full-time job that they're getting paid for. And so that's kind of a challenge of the peer review process. Scientific studies, like really, in order to be valid, they have to be replicable. So somebody has to look at you and say, Oh, I see you did a study proving that prescription diet, blah, blah, seems to help with this health condition. Let me, in my laboratory and with my research dogs, let me do the same study and see if I get the same results. I mean, the costs are mounting. Right. And then, you know, then what do you do? Study A has already been published. Like, are you really gonna go through all that effort to do the same exact study? And then what do you do if your results don't match? Right. And so that kind of creates uncomfortable ripples in the system. And so uh that's not something that commonly happens. Again, somebody's gotta pay for this research. And so there's not really another party that's gonna say, Oh, I see this study that was done over there. I'll pay you to do exactly the same study with the same expense. Like, why would you even do that? Um, so I think you know, though those are challenges. What I've seen with research studies that I've read, there's um the researchers will sometimes throw out groups of data out of the study if it doesn't meet the results that they're trying to show. And I remember I was shocked when I found out that there are companies that the function of the company is to review your scientific research and make the results turn out the way you want them to. Which I mean, that's kind of a genius idea, and I could see why somebody's doing that, but then it does put the whole realm of scientific research in question.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

So yeah, and so you know, I think what really is a a bigger part of the scientific study conversation that people want to quickly dismiss, but you just can't, is that the like the the bottom line is who profits? That's the bottom line on majority of studies that are done, because you're not gonna fork out a bunch of money to do a study if there's not gonna be return on that. Right. And so, you know, there's just naturally built-in bias when you're talking about things from that perspective. So, you know, if a big pet food company wants to prove that they're right, like what you're talking about, wants to prove that this prescription diet is good for this thing, well, of course they're gonna pay for that study and and they're gonna have their results. They're gonna say, see, this is a great food. Nobody else is gonna pay for that same study because they don't financially benefit from doing that study like the company that did it in the first place. So you're just you're not going to see that. And so um that's that's where it's kind of this is a good segue into the to the holistic part of it, which is there's no data, right? There's there people will say there's no data, it's not science-backed. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

No, nobody is nobody's doing research, nobody's holistic medicine.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

But the truth is that there is actually plenty of data um to support a lot of the different holistic practices um that we talk about. And so uh the these things that are are just these these statements that are are thrown out um are really coming, I think, from a place of of ignorance, maybe. Um, you know, that there's no there's no science back. Or, you know, there's there's really just a push for for kind of the other side of the aisle where they they don't want there to be, right? They don't want there to be any proof to show that that you know these types of things are actually beneficial.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Right. Because um basically, what about all the negative studies showing that the drugs didn't work or that the procedure didn't bring the results that you wanted? Well, those don't get published. We never get to see them. So the only we only get to see the ones that are like, look, look, our stuff worked. But you don't get to see the other 15 studies that were discarded because they didn't give good results. They kind of showed the opposite. Those just go into the giant trash can.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

So really, unless there's unless it really comes down to who who does the study benefit. And so, you know, when you're looking at uh data specifically for holistic, you know, holistic uh methods, um, there's there's a tremendous amount. I mean, there's there's an entire website dedicated to homeopathy, you know, research that you can look at.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Well it's not just a website, it's the homeopathy research institute. Yes. And that's literally what they're doing is research into um, you know, trying to show that that home homeopathic remedies either work or don't work, and that the homeopathic approach is valid.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

There's also more and more research coming out all the time showing that raw feeding is actually incredibly beneficial. Um and, you know, and and the the thing that people I I think you're not gonna have it put in your face. You have to actually go searching for this, for the the research results, the the data. You have to actually go looking for it. And so if you don't know the verbiage or different, you know, kind of resources to look at to get some of these, um, you know, some of this data and some of these studies, you're just not gonna know that that it exists. You're not gonna realize that there is actually a tremendous amount of backing for what we're doing. And then there's the whole conversation about anecdotal evidence. You know, I feel like anecdotal evidence is one of those terms that has been just demonized. There's this negative association put uh you know, onto anecdotal evidence. It's kind of like the term conspiracy theorist. I mean, it is like it's like people just spitting it out of their mouth as if it's uh you know a curse word. It's like anecdotal evidence, when you have enough anecdotal evidence, it's still evidence. And to just completely dismiss it out of hand because there's not some paid-for study to go along with this evidence does not make it invalid.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Right. It's it is just a way to uh kind of flush things down the toilet. You know, we don't like this data, so we'll say that it's anecdotal and therefore it has no value.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

But I mean, we would argue, I mean, you have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people, you know, getting, you know, the same results from from something. There, you should pay attention to that.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, because I remember um early on when there was uh an an article that was published in the mainstream veterinary journal about four dogs who had spontaneous remission from bone cancer. And uh two of the dogs were given Rimidil or uh carprofen, and two of the dogs had no treatment at all. And it wasn't until several years later that I learned that anything holistic is no treatment. Oh and so we don't, because it's not mainstream, it's not the standard of care. And so I feel like anybody who has any kind of improvement, remission from cancer, uh, recovery from autoimmune disease, I feel like we should be chasing those people down and say, what did you do? I mean, so you know, thank God for the world of self-publishing because you know, otherwise no publishing house would pick that up either if it's kind of you know out of the box things.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So they're they're saying no treatment, but the reality is there was no conventional treatment. Plenty of things were being done. We don't know, but we don't know. It was considered no treatment.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Okay, interesting. In other words, they didn't do surgery, they didn't do chemo or radiation, hence no treatment. Wow. Wow. And so I feel like we've we've lost a lot of information in mainstream medicine by being so hyper-focused and also so antagonistic towards other forms of healing, which supposedly is everybody's goal. Mm-hmm. So then so then in this environment where holistic medicine is um, you know, kind of considered crackpottery um or unscientific, then you know, what to do with that approach as a pet owner. You know, some people are very free thinkers and they're the first ones to step outside the box and to look for alternatives when the mainstream approach is not working for them or working for their pet. Um but you know what what we're trying to do is give information and kind of free people up to some extent that it's okay to start looking in other directions. Um there is plenty of data, plenty of evidence. There's there are so many holistic practitioners with decades of experience, and many of them have, again, self-publishing or having a publish house publish your data in book form rather than getting it published in a scientific journal. There's so much information out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

So, really, as you know, what is a pet owner to do is the question. You know, if you don't have, you know, all of this kind of laid out for you in the most looked at journals and in the most looked-at study, you know, if you're it's not being presented to you, like what how are you supposed to go about this and make good decisions? Um, and so like really the first piece that we would that we would talk about is really you're gonna it's it's not easy, but you're gonna need to develop some discernment. Um, you know, we're not trying to say that all studies that come out are worthless. There's actually some very valuable studies. Scientific studies are wonderful. Um, but there's a couple of questions that you should ask yourself when you're looking at something like that. Really, who who is performing the study? What is the motivation for the study? Is there financial gain on the other end of that study? Um, you know, these are important things to to ask to figure out if it's if if you know how true and legitimate is the information going to be in that study, um, you know, or the data for for you know, however you want to look at it. Um, but really starting to to ask questions and not just presume that, oh, it's a it's a you know, it's a scientific-backed study, so I can trust what it says.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Right. And I I mean being in practice, um, you know, I definitely have seen that where, you know, some stuff has been proven, some studies have been replicated, and so there is stuff out there that is valid. And then I think too, it's so this is part of kind of finding your community. So you have to find the people who are putting out information that makes sense to you, is useful to you, um, that you can understand what people are talking about. And there's a lot of people in the holistic veterinary world who are doing that. So we kind of know who some of the top people are. Karen Becker, Peter Dobias, Judy Morgan, I'm sure there's bunches of other people. Will Falconer. Um, a lot of them have blogs, newsletters, videos. Um, so there are people out there that you can trust. Um, and then I think too, even if you don't agree with somebody 100%, you don't necessarily need to dump them completely. Um, everybody's gonna have a different take on, you know, how I choose to feed my dogs or how I choose to manage their behavior.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

So then I think the next step is is really is to develop kind of your foundational principles that are kind of, you know, your lines in the sand that you actually you're like, nope, that that's something I will not, you know, budge from. So you and I have talked in the past, um, not to overuse this as an example, but uh you and I will never feed a processed food to our dog. It's it's just not even an option. It's not it's not a conversation. There's sure conversation to be had on how I would feed fresh food, maybe we can have that conversation. There's room within within that foundational principle, but I'm certainly, you know, so then you know, if if maybe I'm trying to learn from somebody and they are four square against feeding a raw diet, I I'm probably gonna pass. I'm probably gonna go on to somebody else because it's just it's such a foundational piece that I believe so strongly in that then it makes me question their right, their reasoning and and kind of everything else, because that is a foundational principle that I have that I have developed. And so kind of developing those core foundational principles as you're figuring this out and figuring out uh uh you know who you can trust. Um and again, it really is, you know, then developing some intuition in this process. So intuition is something that if you've spent any time in the conventional world, you've been taught to ignore. You've been taught to kind of push down.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

I bet you that the best doctors are operating on intuition. You know, that that's like the doctor who in the back of their mind, they're kind of like, hmm, I'll bet there's something else wrong with this person. You know, that kind of thing that drives you to look in a certain direction or do something different. And so, you know, pet owners have that too. But I think similarly to the person who needs that scientific research basis, give me the study that proves that what I'm doing is okay. Yeah. And you know, not dangerous to my pet. And so if you come at intuition from that same place of fear, I think that also kind of can mar your feeling of your intuition, like your sense of it. So to some extent you have. To have some internal calm, maybe to hear your intuition.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

So some examples that we can give, you know, just of what we were kind of talking about is, you know, I've I've had plenty of interactions with people where um, you know, they had something tragic happen with their dog. And as they're sharing that story with me, uh, they're like, you know, the the this was given to my dog, and my, you know, my dog died within three days. And I I in the moment I didn't want to do it, but I just did it because that's what they told me to do. That was your intuition. That was, you know, so so they didn't listen and then something bad happened and and they have immediate regret is just one example of what we're talking about, where it's like, you stop, stop, stop stuffing that down. Use that. That's it's there for a reason. Dr. Levy, is there a good example that you can give of of intuition, of using and finding your intuition?

SPEAKER_01 23:00

And it's like exactly that scenario. I have a client who um her dog was going through chemo for bone cancer. Um, and uh she told me that uh well, her dog died a week after the last chemo treatment. And she told me later that going into that treatment, she just had a bad feeling about it. And she was kind of thinking, you know, I should not do this, but it was scheduled, and she trusted the oncologist. I mean, you know, everybody should trust their oncologist. Um and you know, like logically, it made sense to go ahead and do that last treatment, and she just had a gut bad feeling about it. And, you know, would the dog have died anyway, we don't know. Sure. So we can't, you know, hit rewind and see what would have happened. But that I think is pretty typical. Or, or let's say, um, you know, in your in your experience, in your mind, in your view at home with your dog, people will sometimes develop the sense that something is not quite right. And with themselves or with their dog, and then it's very troubling. Like it kind of puts you on the spot when you go take your dog to the veterinarian and they can't find anything wrong with it. And then, you know, you're, you know, maybe not offered any treatment because they can't find anything wrong. And then, you know, what are you gonna do with that? And then um so some of the first videos that we created on this podcast were really about the foundational concepts of holistic medicine and kind of how we understand what's going on in the world of natural health that we practice. And so if you're thinking, okay, well, I don't know anything about this stuff, how would I develop any principles? Where would I learn this stuff? You know, so we've put out a fair number of videos that kind of talk about those concepts about health and disease.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

And along with it, too, especially in the very uh early on in our podcast, because we really wanted to address it first, would be, you know, how how did the the conventional dog world become what it is? And I think that's another very eye-opening piece that a lot of people are not aware of. So um we'll definitely link our playlist uh at the end of this video so that you can maybe check out some of those if you want to explore that a little bit more as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Like, so then you could say, like, well, you know, holistic medicine is so great. How come everybody's not doing it? Right. And and the reason is because it's not within the mainstream paradigm. And going outside outside the paradigm, outside the mainstream narrative, is potentially a bit of a scary place to be. And I'm sure, you know, many of my clients have experienced uh going to the vet and getting shamed for feeding raw or shamed for not wanting to vaccinate. Uh, and for sure those are unpleasant experiences, like they're not for the faint of heart. So it's worth thinking about these concepts and kind of doing some reading, doing some listening, maybe even to us, to kind of, you know, figure out why you have a leaning towards the holistic way. And I've talked about this plenty of times. For me, it was just, you know, I like I said, I'm a slow learner, and so it took me five years in conventional practice to realize that my patients were not getting healthier as a result of my care. Um, and that there was not a lot that we could do other than hand out drugs to a lot of these patients. And being the overachiever that I am, that was not what I signed up for. Right? I went into veterinary medicine to cure disease. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, huh, that is not what my education has taught me. So then I had to go looking for an education that would teach me what I wanted to know. And that's how I jumped into homeopathy, which I knew nothing about, uh, except that it seemed to offer um at least the opportunity for a cure.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So to kind of come full circle with, you know, what was the motivation for for us to create this episode was really just that um that question being posed, you know, in the comment section on social media in different reels or whatever, whether it was one of ours or a colleague of ours that we, you know, align with with uh the mindset and things like that. And it really seemed to be either somebody was asking the question because they truly wanted to explore this and they they want to be able to trust it and they want to try it, but they're afraid to, or somebody's asking the question almost like shooting a bullet, trying to shut down the conversation and use it almost as a weapon because you know there's there's clearly no science behind it. What are you gonna say to that? Exactly. And so either way, you know, fear is is a is a you know kind of a motivator of for this question. Whether you're you know kind of fearful of trusting this, and so you're asking the question, or someone is you know coming from the conventional approach trying to uh instill fear to to get people to turn away or whatever else. And maybe they're feel fearful themselves, they just don't acknowledge it. Um and so we're all about dissolving fear here. That's a huge part of our mission is to really dissolve fear. And so to bring some just light to this, to this very kind of difficult question, uh hopefully we've we've broken down it in a way that it really kind of does that. It kind of dissolves the fear surrounding this question, whether regardless of the group that uh is asking the question. Um and so there is definitely, you know, when you're looking at scientific studies, you know, you really have to have some discernment. Uh do know that when you're considering holistic approach and holistic methods, there is actually a lot of data out there. You just have to know where to look. We will absolutely link some really good resources down in the description box below so that you can uh look at some of these for yourself. Um, and and just know that that it, you know, there it is a safe place to land, even though you don't have all of these big, huge medical journals talking about, you know, talking about what we're doing. Um, and and it does take a really unique individual and mindset to to end up here and be here. And I think you have to be willing to go outside of the box. You have to be willing to sometimes do things afraid. You know, I certainly have had plenty of moments where something seemed right to me. And I'm like, okay, I don't know where I'm gonna land here, but it seems like the right thing to do. So I'm gonna just do it afraid. And it was some of the best choices I ever made. Um, but we all kind of have those parts of this that we walk. Um, and so, you know, if you're entertaining these things, you're kind of one of those unique individuals and we welcome anybody wherever you're at on your journey. If you're truly just seeking and wanting to learn, that's what we're here to help people do is to answer some of those questions in as, you know, kind of matter-of-fact and not sensationalized of a way as we possibly can, with real uh with real experiences and real information to back up what we're talking about. Um, and so hopefully this this episode was an encouragement to you. So join us next time uh on the Crunchy Carnivore podcast. We'll see you then. Thank you so much for joining us. Our goal is always to encourage others to seek out the holistic approach by way of education and empowerment. You can check out our online resources at wellspringha.com. You can follow us on our YouTube channel, Wellspring Holistic Animal Academy, and you can also find us on Instagram at wellspring underscore ha. We hope that this has been helpful and that you continue with us on your journey to holistic health for your pets. As always, we're here to be unapologetically all natural.