Dear Pet Parent,
Spring is in full force, the trees are blooming, the birds are singing and the pollen has blanketed everything in sight.
As most of you know, this is one of my favorite times of year. I get so excited about SPRING CLEANING!
When I first made the move from emergency/traditional medicine to holistic medicine, I found I wasn't seeing the healing I was expecting in my patients.
I knew the herbs worked, so I had to take a step back and evaluate what was going on...
That's when I discovered that 99.9% of the patients I was seeing were taking some form of chemicals monthly. Convenience had found its place in veterinary medicine offering pet parents the ease of administration in one form or another. Pets were now being FED potent chemical combinations in hopes of deterring fleas, ticks and heartworms. Rather than a slow gentle absorption of these pesticides through the skin, pets were now ingesting them!
First it was
Comfortis, Sentinel and Trifexis, and soon after, Bravecto and Nexguard.
*The side effects pets were experiencing were all liver related : vomiting, diarrhea, itching and seizures just to name a few.
I had to rethink what was going on. These oral preventatives were doing a number on the liver and it wasn't until I realized I must put the LIVER first, that I began seeing better results.
There is a natural law to healing and it starts with cleansing. If we fail to open the lymphatics, especially those of the liver, our supplements will be of no use.
There is a systematic approach to healing and it begins with DETOXIFICATION!
Detoxification defined:
A natural process that our body uses to neutralize, transform or rid the body of unwanted wastes, materials or toxins.
*Many pet parents bathe/clean their pets weekly or monthly but yet give little thought to cleansing the INSIDE of their beloved pet! That's what detoxification does- it is an internal cleansing.
There are multiple levels of detoxification.
1. Cellular - each cell has it's own engine that needs to be cleaned and properly taken care of to support normal function
2. Lymphatic - there are two lymphatic systems that must be cleared for proper drainage
3. Blood - works with the lymphatic system to remove impurities by sending to the proper organ needed for cleansing.
4. Organ - each organ system has a yin and a yang organ. The yin organ receives and the yang organ drains.
The Liver:
The liver is like the "garbage dump" of the body. If we try to detox at any level or even try to supplement the body while the liver is congested, it acts like a garbage dump that is full. When the liver is full, it cannot receive any more wastes from the lymphatics or bloodstream and the toxins get pushed out to the skin or backed up into other organs - most often the lymphatic system or kidneys.
This is why it's imperative that we cleanse the liver in the spring and throughout the year if we are using monthly chemicals.
The liver deposits its wastes into the colon. This is why it's imperative that we cleanse the colon in the fall.
An Unusual Discovery:
I first discovered the damage these chemicals were doing to the liver while working as a relief vet for a colleague's clinic. It was there that I saw a patient's liver enzymes spike 100 times normal (higher than I'd ever witnessed working in emergency medicine - even higher than a pet that was hit by a car!) My colleague was not phased in the least by these values, as he explained that the pet had received Trifexis
24 hrs prior and this is a common occurrence.
I immediately began thinking of a process that occurs in the liver, it is known as enterohepatic circulation.
Enterohepatic circulation refers to the circulation of biliary acids, bilirubin, drugs or other substances from the liver to the bile, followed by entry into the small intestine, absorption by the enterocyte and transport back to the liver.
I want you to see something here....the toxins are circulated BACK TO THE LIVER!!!!!! Not once or twice but over and over until they are completely removed.
These oral chemicals are wreaking havoc on our pets' livers!!!!!
An Austrian surgeon, Kaspar Blond, M.D, wrote a classical work entitled, "the Liver and Cancer". He believed the liver was the gateway to disease. "No other stimulation is necessary {for the growth of cancer} than a metabolic toxin which has not passed the liver filter or has not been neutralized owing to liver failure."
When the liver is congested or overwhelmed, he is unable to deal with the toxins in the bloodstream. These toxins left unfiltered or treated WILL undoubtedly result in disease.
We are tired of seeing disease! We want to see our patients HEALTHY!!
Here are a few tips to keeping the liver happy and healthy:
1. Limit the use of oral chemicals to minimal or none
2. Use herbs to detoxify:
3. Support digestion/ colon function:
4. Plan for acupuncture treatments regularly or seasonally to drain and open the lymphatics, especially those of the liver.
5. Provide exercise to keep the qi (energy) and the lymphatics flowing normally through the body, especially the liver.
6. Diet:
- The liver prefers GREENS - especially the leafy kind such as spinach, kale, celery, chard, sprouted beans
- A simple detoxifying green drink: 1 celery stalk, 1/4 lemon, 1 green apple, 1 sprig of parsley - blend and mix into pet's dinner, goat milk or give by syringe
- The liver likes to rest. Intermittent fasting or reducing meals to once daily during this season can prove extremely beneficial.
Food List for Spring- Feed cooling or neutral foods.
1. Proteins:
- Turkey
- Duck
- Cod
- Alligator
- Crab
- Oyster
- Scallops
- Rabbit
- Beef
- Pork
2. Grains:
- Millet
- Barley
- Brown Rice
- Mung Beans
3. Vegetables:
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Celery
- Kelp
- Seaweed
- Alfalfa
- Cucumber
- Watermelon
- Dandelion
- Lettuce
More Tips for a Healthy Liver:
We recommend Seasonal Bioscans to determine cellular, lymphatic and blood toxicities. These scans can help us determine the exact chemicals, toxins, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, etc that are affecting your pet. We are then able to put together a specific protocol designed to rid the body of these wastes!
If your pet is in need of a spring detox, please call us at (205) 637-6653 to schedule an appointment for your pet.
