Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (44 page)

“M
y dog has arthritis. Can you tell me what vitamin or mineral will help him?”

Here is a very common question. The meaning behind it is understandable. This person is asking is if there is a nutrient that will act much like a miracle drug—not quite realizing the answer is not that simple. If it were, then these problems would not plague us.

The truth is that a health problem is rarely caused by just one factor. Even when it seems that it is, like an infection from a bacteria or virus, we come to realize that the hidden factor of the
animal’s level of health is as important as how virulent the bug is. In a group of animals that are exposed to an infectious disease, there are always some that do not become ill—and that is the key to understanding how to protect your animal. It comes down to how much resistance they have to becoming ill. This is the critical factor. It is never just the one thing—the bad bug, the nasty virus—there are always two factors involved, the other one being the health of the animal or person that is threatened. If they provide a good environment to grow in, then the germ will take advantage of that. If the “soil” is not suitable, then they can’t grow there, no matter how much they want to. Let’s focus on this question of natural resistance.

There are many reasons why our resistance can be low, and they usually fall into one of these categories.

• Being run down from an accumulation of toxins in the body.
  
• Being emotionally stressed.
  
• Having an underlying chronic illness that interferes with normal function.
  
• Missing some vital nutrients.
  

Let’s look at these in turn.

TOXINS

This can be a scary topic and I don’t mean to frighten you by focusing on it. We do, however, have to realize that today’s world is not as clean as it was 100 years ago. Along with the tremendous technological advances we all enjoy have come side effects never anticipated. No one could have foreseen that the early automobiles, which seemed like a joke to most people and moved so slowly that someone needed to walk in front of them with a lantern so as not to frighten the horses, would one day result in millions of fast-moving vehicles, the extensive highway system, and, most important, the spewing of toxic substances all over our land.

A similar unintended effect has happened with many new chemical substances created for what seemed like useful purposes. It certainly seems a useful thing, for example, to make a chemical that kills mosquitoes or fleas, or one of a hundred other pests. Yet what we failed to fully realize is that these chemicals are poisonous not just to the intended victims, but also to many forms of life, including human beings and their pets. Sure, they are not as toxic to us as to these insects, but that
doesn’t mean they are completely
harmless
. It is a question of degree.

Well, doesn’t government regulation control this? Aren’t these chemicals checked to make sure they won’t harm others? The short answer is “No.” I will give you an example. Some years ago a new flea product came out (and is still in use) that you apply to the skin on the back of your dog. It then spreads all over the animal’s body by itself. It is made to do this, to become a thin layer of pesticide that resists being washed off so that it can remain on the body for a long time. The idea is that, as fleas jump on, they contact
this chemical and are killed before they can bite. A great idea, but here’s the rub. My colleagues and I tried to determine how safe it was, not only for the dogs and cats it was being used on, but also for the human beings that were using it. This was a concern because there have been many stories out there of people being poisoned from using flea products. So, we perused the literature on this new product and could find no mention of its effect on human beings. We called the company. The spokesman and I talked, and it went something like this:

Me: “We are concerned about what this product might do to the people using it. Won’t it also get on the hands from touching or petting the animal?”

Spokesman: “Well, it is completely safe for people to use if they follow the directions.”

Me: “But the product is designed to spread easily all over the skin. What is to keep it from getting on the hands of a child hugging their dog? The chemical doesn’t know the difference.”

Spokesman: “Well it might, but that is not a problem.”

Me: “How do we know it is not a problem? There were tests done to see if it was toxic to dogs. What tests have been done to see what it does to human beings?”

Spokesman: “It didn’t have to be tested on people. It is only intended to be used on animals.”

It has been some years since the conversation, but the essence of what was discussed is as I have described it. The basic message was that
it was not necessary to test it on people because
its intended use was for animals
. You see the problem? There are many, many products out there that have never been tested fully to see what effects they will have on other species. Products for dogs are not tested on cats. Products for use on your lawn are not tested on dogs. And so on.

According to Helen Caldicott, M.D., cofounder of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, of about 80,000 chemicals now in common use, almost all of which are toxic (which is generally why they are used), a complete toxicology profile—that is, their complete effects on human beings—has been prepared for only 1,600 of them.

The problem is that no matter how much we try, toxic chemicals still end up in our bodies and in those of our animals. Marc Lappé, in his book
Chemical Deception
, tells us that assays of human tissues have detected residues of over a hundred different foreign chemicals and metals in our tissues.

Enough said on this. We discussed the presence of toxins and offered some coping strategies in chapter 8. The relevance here is that we have to assume that
some
amount of toxins are accumulating in our companion animals. As to their effects, as I explained above, we do not know exactly. But I can say this: Anything toxic is not good. The word “toxin” comes from the Greek for “poison.” Usually it is used to refer to a poison from an animal or plant, but we are using here in the basic meaning—something poisonous that accumulates in the body.

One of the tasks of this book is to explain how to avoid exposure to these poisons, to the degree that we can. Relative success depends on many factors, like where you live and for how long, what food choices are available to you, even what your neighbors are doing in their yards. It comes down to these three simple rules:

1. Avoid chemical use.
   
2. Avoid adulterated foods.
   
3. Encourage elimination of poisons from the body.
   

We avoid chemical use by finding other ways of controlling fleas and parasites—not just on our pets but also in our environment, homes, lawns, and landscapes. We avoid adulterated foods for our animals by not using commercially prepared pet foods. We encourage elimination from the body by grooming, bathing, exercise, and the use of nutritional supplements that scavenge these contaminants and help the body expel them.

EMOTIONAL STRESS

Think how it has been for you when you are not well. Is a headache better when someone is giving you a hard time? How about having a tummy ache while being chased by the local bully? Animals feel emotional stress just like we do. What may differ from us is what causes them to be upset. We may be worrying about losing a job, or our child not doing well in school. The cat is worried because he can’t use the litter box—the other cat in the house attacks him every time he tries to get to it. Your dog feels threatened by all the noise next door (the neighbor is remodeling) and thinks there is an angry pack out there getting ready to invade. You get the idea? The causes are different but the effect is the same.

Our bodies deal with stress by producing a variety of chemicals, one of the most important being a type of natural cortisone. This is necessary to how we cope with stress. Without it, we cannot live. But during
ongoing
stress, the balance is tilted towards constant production of these “calming” substances in the blood. Though they are part of what allows us to adapt to stress, there are other effects, one of which is a decrease in the efficiency of the immune system. Therefore, the stressed animal is more susceptible to infections and injuries and more affected by the toxins that have accumulated in the body.

One more thing to emphasize is that your animal will also be afraid or angry if
you
are afraid or angry first (see chapter 10). The relationship between you and your pet is like that between a child and parent. In this complicated world, as far as your animal is concerned, you are the one that understands what is going on. When you start to feel afraid, all your dog or cat can do is try to see where the danger is coming from. Which do you think is the more stressful, to be anxious about something you know about or to be afraid of something you can’t perceive?

Of course it is natural for any of us to be
upset at times, and we may even need to express emotions to work through it. So what can we do to protect our pets? Be aware of this emotional component, of the effect of our upset on those around us. Perhaps take it to a different room. Better yet, resolve it. Maybe this is the good that comes out of having a pet in your life—you have to handle your problems quickly and maturely. For them.

AN UNDERLYING ILLNESS

There is nothing that saps our energy more than suffering from the pain and discomfort of illness. If there is already something wrong—arthritis, stomach pain, back pain—then this weakened area will more easily break down with time. Many, many of the difficult, long-term problems that plague our animals are of this type. Though antibiotics and vaccines have made infectious diseases much less frequent, the teeter-totter has dipped down on the side of chronic diseases. The common problems of today—the hyperthyroid cats, the dogs with hip dysplasia, the cats with inflammatory bowel disease or chronic bladder inflammation, the dogs with diabetes—these kinds of conditions were
extremely
rare
when I first entered practice. It was not because I was not able to recognize them.
They did not exist then
. By far the majority of today’s common and chronic problems have appeared in the last 20 years or so, and most of them are caused by the immune system going haywire. By this I mean the illnesses that are termed “auto-immune diseases,” which mean some part of the body is being attacked by the very system of defense that was meant to protect it from outer danger.

Why does this happen? I don’t understand all the details. No one does at this point. But we can say this: In some way, the immune system is fooled into thinking normal body tissues are the enemy.

The immune system knows what is
supposed
to be present in the body and gets very excited and
fights
against anything it does not recognize. But it not only defends the body,
it also remembers prior battles
.

So the next question is, “Why does it go wrong?” As I said before, I cannot know for certain, but I have an opinion. Well, more than an opinion, in the sense I have observed and thought about this for a long time and studied the immune system during my PhD program. I think something is being done to the immune system to confuse it. We are exceeding its capacity to cope. What could have such an effect on the immune system? Well, is there anything we are doing today that was not done a century ago that interferes with how our bodies defend themselves against disease?

Three things come to my mind.

• The extensive use of antibiotics.
  
• The commonplace use of anti-inflammatory drugs like cortisone.
  
• The frequent use of vaccines.
  

These things were simply not done before. The antibiotic era began in 1928 with Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin. During the last few decades, however, so many more antibiotics have been developed and used.

In 1948, Edward C. Kendall and Philip S. Hench tried out cortisone on patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. This is a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland. By harvesting it and trying it out on patients, they found that it reduced inflammation in the body. This marked the beginning of a new practice of medicine, one based on suppression of symptoms as a routine approach. As time went on, a family of powerful synthetic forms of cortisone were created, drugs acting 10 or 20 times more powerfully than the version the body produces. This group of drugs, called cortico-steroids, is very commonly used in medicine today.

Vaccines started with Edward Jenner, who initiated smallpox vaccination in the 18th century. But this did not really develop into the multiplicity of vaccinations used today until the 20th century.

From these humble beginnings, we have the origin of the modern system of medicine that is based on the tripod of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and vaccines. All of these have effects on the immune system and, at least to my mind, are the culprits in what has gone wrong with the immune system. I believe it is simply too much.

Based on these ideas, I advise my clients to avoid these treatments as much as possible. Certainly there is a place for antibiotics and other drugs. I even agree that some vaccines are appropriate. My objection is
the indiscriminate
use of them
. I don’t think I exaggerate in saying that almost any time your animal is sick, he or she will likely be put on antibiotics and steroids. This is the “standard of practice” for veterinary medicine today. In this chapter and the latter part of this book, I will introduce some equally effective
alternatives
to this, other ways of treating illness that do not have this harmful impact on the immune system.

MISSING NUTRIENTS

Our last category has to do with a lack of necessary vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other food nutrients that are necessary for the immune system to work and for body tissues to be able to regenerate themselves. The human body contains a total of 100 trillion cells, the blood cells alone numbering 25 trillion. These numbers are so large that I can’t grasp them myself, but here is a comparison that helps a little. The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to contain one hundred billion stars,
only one percent of the number of cells found in our
bodies
. Yet this immense number of cells is constantly being regenerated, as old ones die and new ones take their place. Over a number of months or years, depending on the part of the body, everything is replaced, even the DNA that makes up our genetic code.