About Dr. Bob
Dr. Gaston received his veterinary training at the Ohio State University. He had an interest in alternative medicine while still a student and considered attending an acupuncture training course during his senior year in 1987. At the recommendation of one his anesthesiologist professors, he postponed acupuncture training until after graduation. It wasn’t until 2003 that he was able to follow-through with training in acupuncture. In between, he gained years of practice experience, personal education, and major paradigm shifts in his philosophy of veterinary medicine.
Changes in perspective occur as a result of the people we associate with and the information we take in. Paradigm shifts sometimes occur in small increments and other times in large leaps. Dr. Gaston has benefitted from the influence, encouragement, instruction, and mentoring by several individuals over the past twenty-five years.
Dr. Terry McCoskey, chiropractic doctor and good friend of Dr. Gaston’s, challenged Dr. Gaston to consider new ways to think about health and disease. Dr. McCoskey encouraged the unbiased examination of childhood vaccinations which in turn led to a critical examination of vaccination policies in dogs and cats. Also, Dr. McCoskey encouraged Dr. Gaston to visit an experienced iridologist, Frank Miesse. Mr. Miesse introduced Dr. Gaston to iridology and to the use of herbs for therapy, in place of medicine. In 1993, he also challenged Dr. Gaston to examine gut function as it relates to inflammatory diseases and allergies. In that same year, a serious adverse drug reaction in Dr. Gaston’s 2 year old daughter then led to a re-examination of drug-based paradigms and prompted Dr. Gaston to search for more natural ways to treat illness.
During that same period, he became acquainted with Dr. Jeffrey Bland through a set of cassette tapes borrowed from Dr. Lenhart, a chiropractor in Sharon, PA. Those tapes about “functional medicine” opened the door to a major change in perspective in the way that the GI tract affected inflammatory and allergic disease and how nutrition could affect biological function, modify inflammation, and affect genetic expression. After listening to two more tape sets, personally attending two annual seminars and two international symposia on functional medicine, along with more reading about vaccines, immunity, functional foods, herbs, etc., Dr. Gaston found it difficult to continue working within the confines of the traditional medical paradigm.
In March 1998, he purchased a small practice called Cincinnati Southwest Veterinary Care. The practice was started by a former OSU classmate in Harrison, Ohio. Dr. Gaston began to implement his new approach to veterinary medicine immediately when he arrived. Idealistically, he anticipated widespread acceptance of this paradigm in medicine, but discovered that many clients viewed these changes as radical. However, as in the movie line from The Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come”, eventually they did. Over the next few years clients began traveling from all over the greater Cincinnati area. The addition of chiropractic adjustments for animals in 2000 and acupuncture in 2003 has further enlarged the wide area from which clients now come.
There are two veterinarians who have also had a great impact on Dr. Gaston: Dr. Pedro Rivera and Dr. Ron Carsten. Dr. Rivera started the Healing Oasis Wellness center and began teaching a rigorous, state-certified course in animal ‘chiropractic’ (termed Veterinary Spinal Manipulative Therapy) in 2000. Dr. Gaston was a member of the inaugural class at the ‘Healing O’. After graduation and gaining clinical experience, he had the opportunity to serve as an instructor at the Healing Oasis for the next 10 years. In 2002, Dr. Gaston was presented with the opportunity to work with Dr. Carsten in promoting the Standard Process canine and feline nutritional supplements through educational seminars for other veterinarians. Dr. Carsten is a renowned and highly regarded expert in the field of nutrition and holistic medicine and it was a great benefit to Dr. Gaston to have the opportunity to be mentored by such a great veterinarian. In addition to the increase in knowledge, and changes in perspective, Dr. Gaston is feels fortunate to have developed a close friendship with both men.
Dr. Gaston currently lives on a small 5 acre farm, affectionately called Gaston Ranch, after the Colorado ranch and brand his great-grandfather owned in Colorado 100 years ago. He and his family are raising grass-fed beef, pastured chickens, a small vineyard and orchard, nut trees, berry patch, fish pond, and a large garden on their own ‘5 Acre Eden’. Dr. Gaston and his wife, have homeschooled their four children from preschool to high school. Their oldest daughter has recently completed her BA in history. Their son is a junior at Miami University. The two younger daughters are still high school age. Maintaining the homestead and family activities take up most of Dr. Gaston’s time when not at the office seeing patients, but he also enjoys dog training, hunting, various shooting sports, and woodworking – and occasionally watching NFL football.