Welcome to the Natural Health
for People in Pets podcast, a show that aims to empower you with
the knowledge and tools needed to take control of your own health and wellbeing, as well as providing health promoting
strategies for the dogs in your life. The world of health and
nutrition can be overwhelming, so what better way to understand
what works and what doesn't, what's evidence-based and what's not,
then to hear it from someone in the know. So please welcome your host of the show, accredited Naturopath and
nutritionist Nelle Cook. Welcome back to Natural Health for
People and Pets. I'm co-host of the show, Glen Cook, but I'm gonna introduce
the host of the show, Narelle Cook. Hello everyone. Great to be back. It's been a while. I know. It's just that time
of year, isn't it? Mm-hmm. where we get busy. I
mean, you are crazy. Flat out busy. I've been busy working on lots of
projects, which we'll talk about shortly. Yes. What was the last episode
we did? C B D Vets. Yeah. And that was really well received. So
that was great. I got a lot of feedback, quite a few inquiries from people just
wanting to know a bit more about the process and I guess just being
a bit hesitant to reach out. But CBD Vets Australia are so easy
to communicate with and talk with and let them know what your dog's problem
is and they'll certainly help you out. I. Believe that since we've had Oppi on it,
which is eggy our old French bulldog, I believe that I've seen an
improvement in his behavior. He seems to be not as stiff and tense
in the rear end as he used to be. Absolutely. I've definitely noticed
his behavior has improved a lot. Opie used to be just such a tense
dog. Mm. It's hard to explain. He's. Fun loving, but he's kind of. Neurotic. Yeah, he's a little neurotic
and a little potatoey. That's not the industry term to
explain it, but he is a full potato. But since he's been on the C B D product, not only has he relaxed the tension
in his back end has relaxed as well. Like he's rolling over on his back
now and letting you rub his tummy, which he never did before. Yeah.
He's always very guarded about it, but suddenly there is a nice
relaxed way about him at the moment. Yeah. I've never seen him
so chilled, particularly. I notice it most in the evenings when
I'm just sort of sitting with my laptop and he's on the sort of the lounge
room floor and he is just, yeah, literally lying on his
back or in his side, which sounds like a really normal dog
behavior, but not for op previously, maybe. We've got a little bit of T H C mixed in.
Nows , , whatever is it? I know. I know. CCB D vets would
not do something like that. They wouldn't whatever is
in there. It's working. So. It's working. It's having a good effect. So thumbs up for the C B D product from
C B D vets. We're not sponsored by them, so it's not a endorsement or
anything, it's just that it works. And as we said on this show, we're
all about the no BSS in products. Mm. Because there's a lot of stuff out on
the market, which is just a lot of bss. It's a nice label with a big
gimmick behind it. And uh, fortunately this product is not that.
It does work. We have seen results. Noelle's the scientist
in our family. I'm not, but I can observe changes in behavior. I'm a professional dog trainer
and behaviorist. I have
been for a long time now. So I can certainly see changes
in dog behavior very quickly. I'm not so close to him that I
can't see a change in his behavior. The reason we put him on
it is 'cause he needed it. He was showing signs of rear end apathy. And just general degeneration of the
spine. I mean, it comes with the breed. Unfortunately, most French
Bulldogs, I mean, yes, it works, but I guess probably not more importantly,
but as importantly, the quality. So, you know, I'm all about
quality products. Mm-hmm. And not just giving our dogs or any of
our animals second grade supplements. So if you've got a dog and you're not
sure if CBD is the right thing for them or not, like I said, reach out our C B D
vets directly and they will let you know. Yep. Now, we did say that C B
D vets are not a sponsor, but we do have sponsors of the show and
we'd like to introduce them. Noelle, who's our sponsors. As always our amazing sponsors. Our
first sponsor is Big Dog Pet Foods. So if you're not familiar
with Big Dog Pet Foods, they are an Australian company that have
been manufacturing raw pet foods for just over 20 years now. So long, long
before Raw food feeding became a fad. So really, I consider them absolutely the leaders
and the experts in their field. And some of the key points of difference
with Big Dog as compared to some of the other pet food companies on
the market is that Big Dog. They only use human grade
ingredients in their patties. There's nothing synthetic artificial. And they offer complete
transparency in everything they do, which talking quality,
that's really important, particularly when it comes to pet foods, because if no one's looked into the behind
the scenes of what goes into some pet foods, you'd be just horrified. That's why it's so important to me in
what I feed my dogs and what I recommend is transparency and openness about the
ingredients. So I love it's human grade, but I, I love that they also show
us what they put in there as well. So I've got Kay Frost and Brittany Young
to think for getting us onto the Big dog products. See, that was a while ago. Now I don't, I'd forgotten that that
was the initial Yeah. That was our introduction to it from Kay
when we went and did the seminar down in Melbourne together.
Yeah. And also Brittany, because she'd been doing a lot of research
in the market and she put her videos up of her touring the
factory and so forth. So a lot of really good stuff came out
of that and eventually it persuaded us to try it and we are glad we did because
it's a staple product in our house. Now. You. Don't realize also that the big dog
patties are nutritionally complete and balanced. Mm-hmm. So if your vet is potentially giving
you a hard time about raw food feeding, not being nutritionally complete
and balanced Big Dog is. So you can sort of just pass
that along if they question you. Big Dog also have a great variety
of different protein types. So really there's something to suit every
dog in terms of their health and their taste buds. So if you haven't
already, jump onto their website, big Dog pet foods.com, check out their
resource center. It's full of articles, guides, frequently asked questions,
all on raw feeding, natural diets, general health and
nutrition for dogs and cats. I tend to focus on dogs
when I talk about Big Dog, but they do have information on cats
and they've got a cat Raw Petty as well. So like their Facebook page, you get on
their Instagram page, big Dog Pet Foods. Okay. Who's next? Our next sponsor is Ball and Bone. So like Big Dog Ballone are an
Australian company because I mean, we love to support local
businesses. Mm-hmm. Where we can. And what I love about the
backstory for Ballen Bone, and I'll have to get the founder
on the show and interview her, is she literally created Bell and Bone
because she just wasn't satisfied with the quality of the treats that
were available for her own dog. So what's the saying that you like see a. See a Eat fill. A eat. So that's how Ballen Bone came about.
So they make a range of dental sticks. They do collagen sticks, super
food treats, freeze dried treats. They only use quality ingredients. They do also provide complete transparency
when it comes to what they put in their products. All of the ingredients
are natural, they're healthy, which is always great to see. And
with the dental sticks in particular, like there's so many dental sticks
on the market and if you look at the, if anyone ever bothers to turn the
packet over and read the ingredients, often the first ingredient is something
like wheat flour and then like glycerin the dental sticks with balum bone, they actually have been proven to
not any fresh in the dog's breath, but more importantly to
fight plaque and tartar. And that's because they actually contain
two active ingredients that, as I said, have been clinically shown to do that. So if you haven't tried the dental sticks, you can get them at any leading
pet food store around the country. So have a look at that. We've been using their kangaroo treats
for ladybug since she needed uh, low fat diet at the moment. Mm-hmm.
, all the dogs love them. So check out bell and bone.com au Now
they do have a coupon code for listeners of the show. To get 20% off
the bell and bone range, you need to enter Ladybug. Ladybug at checkout. Isn't that lovely? Not only are they giving
a generous 20% off, but they're also using
Ladybug as their code. I know. It makes me smile, doesn't
it? Every time I see it. Yep. So thank you to Big Dog Pet Foods. Thank you to Bell and Bone
for sponsoring our show. Okay. Just before we go onto that, I'm just going to touch wood and just
say that as a quick ladybug update. That's Ladybug now barking at me
because I've just tapped on the door. Ladybug's doing really,
really well at the moment. That's why I want to touch
wood. She's been going great. She's had lots of energy. She's been
enthusiastic running around playing, chasing lizards. So gradual
improvement with Ladybug as well. And I've got a lot of thanks to Nelle
for doing that, for researching her diet. It was a lot of work for both of us, but Nelle put in the lion share of it
and it's paying off in dividends now. I mean, there's been a lot
of close calls with ladybugs. She certainly puts us through our paces,
but mm-hmm. Just under two years ago, that was almost the end of her. We've had a few minor scares in between
or a few major scares I should say, but so far so good. Yeah. And the reason we bring that up is
we do get a lot of just inquiries. People you know, will message me or
email me just to see how she's going. People really have been
following the ladybug story. Yep. Considering we did a full episode
on her and spoke about the two episodes. Yeah. Two episodes of all the drama that
she's caused us and emptied out our bank account. Um. Yeah, she's up to life. What. I think about five think
she Yeah. Life five. If she was a cat with nine lives,
she's up to number five. Yep. Okay. So moving on. We've got some
exciting news. It's exciting for both us, especially for Noelle because what
she's just about to tell you has been 18 months in the making. I've been banished from rooms and I've
been banished from talking and all sorts of things while she's been madly
studying like a mad scientist researching everything. Pretty much trashing our
internet capability on
searching every single website she could look at because she's a
scientist and she spent most of her life studying and researching and finding
out factual information about everything she can. And especially if I'm wrong, she loves to point that out to me as
well and bring the computer in to show me an underline where I'm wrong. Don't. They say it's a fine line between
Madness and Genius? . So. You better stop talking me up. . I think so, yeah.
So without further ado, I'm going to let Nelle tell you
about the launch of her new product. Yes. I've been working on this for
18 months from a physical, practical, getting to IT perspective. But this
has been in my mind for probably years. Mm. It has been years. It's
literally been years and years. Mm. And I think the spark behind most of it
was ladybug's dilemma. True. Absolutely. It wasn't the only spark, but
it was the catalyst. Yeah. It was the catalyst that lit the fuse. I will soon be launching a new
supplement range for dogs called Canine Ceuticals. Mm-hmm. , I guess my vision and behind
Canine Ceuticals is as a clinical naturopath, you know,
for a lot of years now, I've had access to the highest quality
practitioner only supplements for my human clients. And since I've moved
into animal health and nutrition, I've just been using those human grade
practitioner products for my dog clients as well. But you need to be careful because any
human product that you're using for dogs, one, you need to understand how to
dose it down safely and appropriately. Mm-hmm. . But two, you
always need to be checking the excipients. So the excipients of those ingredients
that for the most part aren't required to be listed on a label, but some of
those excipients can be toxic for dogs. Xylitol is a classic
example of that. Mm-hmm. That's a alcohol sugar,
right. Xylitol, sugar. Alcohol. Sugar, alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. So I've always wanted to find and use
a really high human quality supplement range for dogs. You know,
there actually isn't, I mean there's a lot of
dog supplements out there, but it's a poorly
regulated industry. Mm-hmm. You do need to do your due diligence
behind the companies that are selling supplements for your dogs because there
are a lot of shortcuts that can be taken that you just may not be aware of. Cheaper to manufacture higher profits. I guess my vision was to create a
range for dogs that only uses human grade ingredients. Mm. Either human food
grade or human pharmaceutical grade. So a lot of the ingredients
are pharmaceutical grade
and that's manufactured in human grade facilities. That was
sort of the vision I had in my head. And it's taken, it's taken a long time. The range will be something that
I trust because I've created, I know everything in it, but you know, that people can trust is it's
Australian made, it's Australian owned, I must say. You can't always
get Australian ingredients. The majority of our ingredients
are sourced from Australia, but there are certain pharmaceutical
ingredients that do need to be brought in from overseas, but that will be all transparent
on the labels and the information. When you say pharmaceutical,
you mean as a natural product? Yeah, all natural. As a
naturopath, I'm not a vet. I can't create pharmaceutical products
in the true sense of like drugs. Mm-hmm. But certain natural compounds can still
be classified as like pharmaceutical grade. Yep. It's just
about quality in the, the sense of the way that that word's
being used. Mm-hmm. . So I guess from my point of view, when I've been sitting with you and
you've been showing me what you're doing, because I've had the whole
range explained to me. I've had the color coding explained to me, I've had the marketing explain to me the
vision and everything that you wanted to do from the perspective that I guess
that I see is that when we were talking before, when you said see
a need fill a need, mm. It's not like there aren't
products on the market. It's not like there aren't
supplements on the market. But what you wanted to do
was create a leading edge of, as much as possible, a home source product that was as high
grade as you could possibly find. Mm-hmm. And give people the best fighting chance
when they're supplementing their dogs. And that's what we wanted
to do based on our journey. There were a lot of things that were very
hit and miss and I mean very miss in a lot of ways for ladybug. Mm-hmm. This was birthed from that necessity
that we were just turning up empty handed with a lot of products that we're
looking at that were nice marketing and I appreciate the marketing, but the product itself fell very short
from where it needed to be. Mm-hmm. So when I guess you were looking
at it, and I know you're being, you're a very modest person and you don't
like talking about yourself and your marketing very much brilliant
scientist, not a great marketer , but your product, from what I
know and what I'm looking at, it's literally going to set a new bar in
the pet care section for people who are looking for better forms of supplement
and pet nutrition for their pets. It's very exciting. I'm very proud
of you for the effort you've done. We've also had some people that have
been and who wish to remain anonymous as along the side, but have been very generous in their
support and their time and effort in reviewing products, helping us,
everything that we wanted to do. We're. Just bringing it all
together. Like Exactly. This ended up being far more work
, yeah. Far more effort. Just much more involved than I ever had
anticipated because most people will know I've got my liquid herbs
that I sell currently and um, that was quite simple to sort of put
together and pop those on my website. This is a whole nother level of
complication and just everything involved. And I mean, I'm launching, so I'll
be launching on Australia Day, so definitely watch social
media for some specials, some that you'll be able to take advantage
of for the launch on Australia Day, which is the 26th of January.
Mm-hmm. , I'm launching with 16 products,
but I had a whole list. Like I could have launched with
twice that, but it's really, it's a lot more involved when you start
using external manufacturing facilities and you know, there's minimum order
quantities and things like that. So that sort of took me by surprise
and was a bit to work around. And it's very expensive. Very expensive. So the more
people buy canine ceuticals, the more I will be able to develop more
products and launch more products to target specifically more
health problems. Mm-hmm. So that will continue to happen over time. There'll always be new products
coming out because I do, I've got like in my brain
and in an Excel spreadsheet, I have so many product concepts
ready to go, ready to go. But I think pet parents are gonna be
very happy with the range that you've got on offer and the absolute fantastic
quality around it. I mean, I wouldn't put my name to it or talk about
it if I knew you hadn't done the very best job that you possibly could. And considering all the amount of time
you've spent and the struggles that you've been through to resource some of
the best product on the market at the moment, I think this is gonna be something that
pet parents are gonna be really happy to get behind and use on their dogs. Yeah. So because I had so many product
concepts and from budget retrain, I could only launch with a certain number. The ones I've picked to start with really
are the ones that I've used on my own dogs for the last few years. Mm-hmm. from the human supplement
world. So these are my favorites. Yep. And the products that I find
super effective for their purpose, that's how we're going with. So as of Australia Day 2022 mm-hmm. You will be able to find
the website, which is. Canine ceuticals.com au. Mm-hmm
, don't go there yet. You'll get an , a blank holding
page. Um, but that is coming soon. Yep. So you'll be able to
go there, order direct, and it'll be shipped with
love directly from Noelle. Lots of love. Lots of love. So please
support my new venture. Without. Further ado and more shameless promotion,
let's talk about our topic of the day. Today's a little bit different. I'm gonna talk about hair tissue
mineral analysis and going forward, I'm going to call that H
T M A because it's easier. So H T M A is an analytical test
that measures the mineral composition of hair. Mm-hmm. , there's still a bit of controversy around
the validity of the test and it does depend a lot on like the quality of the
hair sample and techniques used by the various labs to analyze it. And look, I'll admit I used to be a major
skeptic myself with hair tissue mineral analysis, but the more
I've used it, the results, they just make sense in terms of the
clinical picture that either my human or doggy clients are presenting with and
what I'm seeing in the results. Mm-hmm. on paper, a lot of integrative GPS and integrated
vets incorporate H TM A as just another clinical screening tool.
From what I've seen, it's particularly popular
with use on horses. I do wanna stress though, like at the outset that H T
M A is a screening tool only, it doesn't diagnose disease. So, you know, I would never look at the results
and say to someone, you know, whether it's a human or a
dog client, oh you know, you've got liver disease or you've got
thyroid disease or atopic dermatitis or, or whatever it is. And if anyone is telling you that
based on H T M A test results, then that is completely
inappropriate. And for the most part, unless they're a vet or a medical doctor
outside the scope of their practice. So really important that people understand
that it's not a diagnostic tool, it's a screening tool that's just
like another tool in your toolkit. A fair way to say that it could be
indicating that you're heading in that direction and that you need further tests. Yeah. So that's the thing a properly interpreted
H T M A can help to reveal because it's revealing, you know,
various mineral imbalances. Like it may indicate a tendency for
a various health condition or help to explain symptoms that are
being experienced by someone.
Mm-hmm. . So it's just shedding
light on everything. Yeah. That makes sense. A lot of people know that
minerals are good for them. Not everyone may understand
that some minerals can be toxic. So even our so-called good minerals,
you know, something like zinc or copper, I mean they can really cause problems
if they're present in the body in the wrong amounts or even in the wrong ratios. And the reason for this is our minerals, they all have this complex
interaction with each other. So if you've got excess
intake of one mineral, that can decrease the absorption of
another mineral. A common example, if there's too high an intake of calcium
that can decrease the body's ability to absorb zinc. If someone's
consuming too much zinc, that can decrease copper absorption. And so like it's this loss of what we
call homeostatic equilibrium between these nutrients that then can lead
to the adverse health effects. And we need to remember that
minerals are, it sounds corny, but minerals are the spark plugs of life. So they're involved in almost all
enzyme reactions going on in the body and without enzyme activity. I think we touched on this when we're
talking about digestive enzymes, like life literally can't exist. They're just involved in thousands
of biochemical reactions that control metabolism, digestion, the
regeneration of body tissues. We need minerals for structural support
in bones and teeth to maintain the body's pH, water balance, nerve
activity, muscle contractions, energy productions. So minerals a
fundamental like we need minerals. So H T M A is all about shedding
some light on the mineral balance in the body when it comes to
the foundations of health. Having adequate mineral intake and having
the ideal mineral ratios to support all of those metabolic
processes is really important. So when we're talking about, I've just said how important it is that
we have the right levels of minerals and the right ratios of minerals.
Mm-hmm. . So before we jump into how H T M A works, some common causes of mineral
imbalances in the body, I thought we'd just touch
on a few. So stress, stress is huge for depleting
minerals from the body, particularly things
like magnesium and zinc. And I know I have talked about this before
and we'll talk about it a little bit further in the show that when someone, or you know a human or a dog is in that
sympathetic dominant nervous system state and all of those
biochemical processes in the body, particularly the catecholamine pathway, which is producing our
dopamine and our adrenaline, when that's all upregulated because
someone's stressed and running on adrenaline, those essential nutrient co-factors that
are needed for that pathway to operate, they're getting depleted at
a more rapid rate as well. So if someone's diet is lacking and not
repleting those nutrients that are being lost at a faster rate, then that will over time lead to
suboptimal levels in the body. Mm-hmm. minerals have a
certain shape and they fit into it. It's like a lock and key
mm-hmm. concept
in the body. So you know, you might have a binding site on a
cell worm where the mineral binds. So some of the toxic metals and
chemicals actually look similar to our beneficial minerals. So they can then sneak in and bind to
one of those receptors and get taken up into the body in place
of the beneficial one. If someone's in an environment where
there is a toxic burden that can lead to a depletion in the beneficial
minerals. If someone's, you know, chronic viral and bacterial infections, they're just a subtle stress on the
body that again can deplete minerals. Our food chain is pretty poor. I just
downloaded the paper again the other day. Have we spoken about on the
show? Remember that paper? I think I was on the canine paradigm
being interviewed when I was talking about nutrient depletions in food and
over the last like 50 years. Yeah. I think that was
a canine paradigm. It. Was started from the US and it just, the percentage decrease in vitamins
and minerals in the food that we're consuming now would just blow your mind. It was just crazy how
depleted our foods are. And that's just because of intense
agricultural practices and all the fertilizers and chemicals
they're using on our food. Interesting. You're talking about
that. And just slightly off topic, but I was just watching a documentary
the other day where they were talking about farmers, I think in the Midwest in where the food
bowl of the United States is. Mm-hmm. I might be outta whack there, so forgive
me if I've got the area location wrong, but they were talking about some of
the farmers have through multiple generations have literally just leached
everything outta the soil. Mm-hmm. One of the farmers was showing how he
does like a cross species to introduce worms and bugs back into the soil again. Because he went to his neighbor's
place who refuses to do it, who works on the traditions of what they
were doing with turning the soil and crop spraying everything. And he dug a shovel in and he was digging
down in several locations and saying, there's nothing in here. This is
just depleted soil. And he goes, but when you come over to
my place, which he did, he just walked over the fence and he put
the shovel on the ground and he showed all of the worms and the species and
how many different roots and everything. And he said, this is what the soil
should look like. And he said, and it's easy to do, you've just gotta trust that you can
break the practice of not having to spray and having to leach the
soil of everything. Mm-hmm. So I know you've talked about that
before and I think our old friend, Dean Mathers, who was a naturopath, he used to talk to me about
that sort of thing as well, how soils have just been completely
robbed of the nutrition and the minerals that they actually need. Same
thing with water as well, you know, which is why we have a remineralizing
that we use for our water source. Like we've got a filter that takes out
all the fluoride and rust out of it and we've also, we do like a three stage
filter and remineralization of our water. And it's lovely to taste when. You taste, taste the
water at the end. Yeah. That was actually my last point on what
can cause mineral imbalances in the bodies is drinking water. Because our
tap water can often contain a lot of, you know, chlorine, aluminum fluoride,
depending on where you live. Rust, so much rust, copper and lead. It doesn't matter where you live
technically in Sydney, Australia, we have one of the cleanest tap
waters in the world. You know, Melbourne and Sydney, they, you know,
that's what they say, which may be true, but then it depends on the quality
of your pipes at your end as well. So even though, I mean Sydney every morning I have to run
my kitchen tap for a good minute until it starts to unclear. And that's because the property we're
on has really old pipes that are just leaching lead by the looks
of it into the water. So even though you might think,
oh, we're in Sydney, you know, should be able to drink the water. It really depends on your individual
property as well. But yeah, water is super important. It is. So if we look at how H
T M A works as a test, so hair is basically a body
tissue made up of mostly dead keratinized cells that
have fused together. Everyone knows like the shaft
of the hair is, you know, that portion that projects from the
skin surface. But the root of the hair, which is below the surface, it contains all these
living what matrix cells. And that's what the hair grows from. So it's these matrix cells
that are exposed to the
metabolic environment in the body. You know, that includes
the circulating blood,
lymph extracellular fluids. And because these cells depend on that
blood supply for nourishment and growth, as they grow and divide,
they actually, you know, they're taking up substances present
in the body fluids during that process. And once they've broken through
the surface and they harden, then all of those
nutrients that were in the, the fluids that were
supporting the growth, they
get locked into the hair shaft. And that creates a permanent record
of metabolic activity and exposure to whether it's beneficial
minerals or toxic elements. And I guess the way I like to think of
it is like trees. Mm-hmm. , we all know you can count the age of a
tree by the rings, by the rings. Mm-hmm. But you know, there's so much more that a cross section
of a tree can tell us other than age. It can inform about the
weather at the time, any stresses that the tree
was experiencing at the time. And that gets locked in
to that moment of growth. I find that's the easiest
way to explain H T M A. It was whatever was happening in the body
that time just gets locked in to that hair shaft and then we can go back and
get a snapshot of what was happening in the body at that time. Okay. So
a lot of people will also say, well why don't you just get a blood
test? Yep. And I say, why not both? What's that Ed ? Yeah.
Yes. The old EL paa. Mm. I think, I mean the good thing about
H M A is it's not invasive. It's easy to take the sample,
particularly, you know, when we're dealing with dogs and
the amount of information you get, it is really cost-effective.
I wouldn't not do bloods, I wouldn't do H T M A
instead of blood tests. I think both is the perfect scenario
because blood test results are absolutely fundamentally important. And I don't think I've had a single human
client that I haven't requested blood tests for them and for dogs, you know,
if I can get blood tests even better. But think about it like blood is literally
a snapshot of what is happening in the body. That one moment in
time that the blood was drawn. That's really important. But it doesn't give us the bigger picture
overview of what might be happening in the body. There are blood
tests that can do that. So let me give you an
example compared to H tmm A. So let's say you went to get a blood
test and your doctor just tested you, uh, your blood glucose levels, but you
happen to go there on a day where, or a time during the day where your blood
glucose level at that moment that the blood was drawn was lower
than it normally was. Your doctor might see your
results and go, ah, you're fine, everything's healthy. But there's another test called
hemoglobin A one C that actually measures the amount of blood glucose attached
to hemoglobin. And because hemoglobin, which is part of our red
blood cells lives, you know, our red blood cells live for like
on average let's say three months, by testing the hemoglobin A one C, we can see what glucose has been doing
in the body over a period of two to three months. So it's giving us
that bigger picture look. And that's sort of the same thing
that H tmm A is doing. Okay. And it's why that if you have
a elevated glucose level, they'll often automatically do the
hemoglobin A one C to see if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic because the
blood glucose by itself is not giving the, the bigger picture overview
mm-hmm because
of with the HTM A the way they want you to take the hair
sample and the length of hair, it is giving us a snapshot
of around three months. Mm-hmm on average of what
was happening in the body during that window in time. So like I said earlier, H M A is often an earlier indicator
of a trend towards health problems. I guess the one thing where both blood
tests and H T M A can sort of fall down a little bit is when it does come to
toxic metals because toxic metals are a danger to the body.
Mm-hmm , the body's reaction is to try and get
rid of them. If it can't get rid of them, it will sequester them or pull
them into the tissues of the body, whether that's the bone or the fat tissue
or organs as a protective mechanism to get it out of the blood and keep the
body safe. So if you get a blood test, let's say you wanna test mercury, and I've had mercury tested when
I went through a phase of just, I think I ate salmon three times a
day, just every day for a long time. And salmon, you know, is notorious
for being high in mercury. A lot of the seafood is, so I had my
blood mercury tested, it came back normal. But if you get a normal reading for
toxic metals on a blood test or a H D M A test, it's not that you may not
have a body burden of toxic metals. Does that make sense? Because the
body's pulled it into the tissues. It's not in the blood at the time that
the blood was drawn. So it's not Yeah, that makes sense. It's
so what could happen, so someone might do a
HTT m a test for example, at the start of a health kick to get like
a baseline reading of what's going on in their body and then they go on and
start to lose a lot of weight because they're implementing all these new health
strategies and then they do another H T M A three months or six months down
the track and suddenly their results are showing heavy metals. 'Cause it's starting to
come outta the body. Yeah. Because as the body's breaking down
fat and it's getting metabolized, everything that was stored in the fat
as a protective mechanism is now being released into the blood. And that can get picked up in the hair
and the blood sample if it's taken, it's really important. It
might be a bit off topic, this often happens with
pregnancy. So if a female, let's say isn't consuming enough
calcium, the body, you know, the fetus needs particularly
towards like the third trimester, like huge amounts of calcium. So if, if someone's not consuming
adequate levels through their diet, the body will start to turn over
or break down the maternal bone to release that calcium to the fetus. So if someone has heavy metal stored
in their bones and they're pregnant, that's the last thing you want. You don't want your bones to be
releasing lead into the circulation, which is then gonna go
through to the fetus. Mm-hmm. That's why you should never go on a
detox if you are trying to conceive, you should never do a detox if you are
breastfeeding because a lot of toxic substances can be released into the
blood that can go through either into the fetus or through the breast milk. I bet that's something that a lot of
people didn't know 'cause I didn't, I wouldn't have thought of it. So anyone who's trying to conceive do all
your health kick detox in three to six months out from trying to conceive
mm-hmm. . Yeah. Okay. So I guess what I thought we would
do today to make it a little bit more interesting is go through a couple of
case studies. Mm-hmm . So I've chosen dog case studies but we
can also pull in some of our results as well. So Glen's actually had his done
recently but I haven't gone through. No we've, his results with him. We haven't gone through it yet 'cause
we thought we'd Guinea pig me on air. And what's fascinating before we get into
the case studies is I've done a H M A like 20 years ago back when they actually
tested gold and I had some gold come up in mind. So that was interesting. So I had mine retested this year
and just a lot more recently, Glen had his retested, he just needed
to grow some hair first. . Ouch. But what was fascinating,
and I'll surprise at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense is that
Glen and my results were completely opposite. So pretty much in every
aspect and every part of the report, if Glen was low on something,
I was high. If I was low, he was high on everything. Were the
opposite. And the more I thought about it, it makes sense because our sleep
wake cycle is completely different. Glen's a complete night owl
and I'm a crazy early bird. So there's aspects of the test that
sort of highlight those patterns. I sleep really well, Glen less so. Well, and there's parts of the test
that indicate that as well. I'm not gonna make a big thing of this
'cause it's a long topic and Pat and I spoke about it on the canine
paradigm a little bit the other day, but there's a book called Why
We Sleep by Matthew Walker. I suggest anybody who doesn't sleep
well or is intrigued about what's happening when you don't sleep well, it is revealing and terrifying what you
actually do to yourself from not having proper sleep. Mm-hmm And so now I'm trying to
encourage myself to sleep better. I am a night owl, I'll never break
that cycle. And it's genetic. Matthew Walker talks about that as well. Night owls are disadvantaged in the
world because you're encouraged to be up early and the early bird
gets the worm sort of thing. Except if you're a night owl and night
owls aren't early birds and they're two different species. So neural is an early bird and I'm a
night owl and that's just the way we're wired. We're hardwired genetically to
be like that and there's no changing it. So for me, there's no point fighting
it. If I get up in the morning, I'm groggy and my head is full of
fog and that's not gonna change. That's always gonna be the way literally
because the front of my brain is offline until later in the day. It's so true because from a child, I've always jumped outta bed at five
o'clock in the morning, you know, or earlier sometimes depending on
life, but never later than six. Like if I'm ever in bed later
than six, I think, you know, Glen needs to come in and see
if I'm dead or not. But yeah, I've always been an early bed and I
imagine you've always been a night owl. A night owl. Mm-hmm. , and
it's fascinating when I was studying it, you need to become a naturopath. They would always say sleep
is so fundamental that that needs to be priority. So it doesn't matter what someone's coming
to see you with until their sleep is right, nothing else will fall into place and
nothing else will heal and recover and repair until they get that sleep. Right. Because it affects all
facets of wellbeing. Mm-hmm.
There's some differences. I mean, Glen and I handle stress differently and
that sort of reflected in the results. Even though we live under the same
roof, our diets are quite different, which may be, you know, also be
contributing to the results. So yeah, really fascinating. And I'll sort of highlight some areas
as we go through the case studies where Glen and I fall in relation to
those. So two dog case studies, I picked two different ones,
they're both really recent cases, so I haven't had the follow ups yet. So that'll be really interesting if we
can do a follow up maybe in six months. Yeah. That'd be good. See where things have gone. So the first case study was an
adult dog with chronic skin issues. Now this dog was a rescue dog and had
only recently been obtained by its new owner. So she didn't know
a lot about its background. So she came into the H T M A test
just wanting to get as much insight as possible as to what might be underlying
these chronic skin issues because she had no history on the
dog at all. So with the, and it's gonna be a bit tricky because
the H T M A, it's all about graphs, so it's very picture orientated.
Mm-hmm. . So hopefully you can sort of
follow along with what I'm saying. I might see if I can pop up even a mock
example on the Facebook page so people can really get a grasp of how the results
look. Although just go to my website, natural health and nutrition.com au. There is actually a download of an actual
example report for dogs that you can easily access. Or better still get one done. Get. One done. All the details
are on my website, which
we'll go through at the end. Mm-hmm with H M A, you sort of go through the results in
a logical order and you need to zone in or zoom in and then at times you really
need to step back and look at the overall patterns that are there as well.
So with this dog, he had very elevated, like quite high elevation of both
calcium and magnesium and very low phosphorus. Now calcium and magnesium are what
are referred to as sedating minerals. So they indicate that a human or an
animal is operating mainly on that parasympathetic dominant state. So when
we're talking about nervous systems, that's a rest and digest position.
Dogs that are very high in calcium, magnesium tend to be a lot more
chilled, a little bit more easygoing, which was definitely
the case with this dog. Even as a rescue he was quite balanced. But what can also happen if
it goes too far, you know, you might see a dog that's
lethargic or a dog that ties easily. And particularly like with this dog,
the low phosphorus really does play in. So phosphorus is required insufficient
amounts for cellular energy production. So I don't know if people remember
their chemistry classes, but you know, the process of oxidative phosphorylation
is what we need to create a T P. Now what's a t p Glen? What
does it stand for? A t p? Yeah. For energy. The energy
of the cell. , just so you don't zone out
on what I'm talking about. . Okay. So you definitely missed your
chemistry, Chemistry lesson. Adenosine try phosphate. How
would I know that? Really, really? I thought. I thought
that was common knowledge. So A T P which is our unit of energy
for cells stands for adenosine tri, tri being three phosphate. So you know there's three phosphate
molecules attached to every adenosine molecule and that is what our
cells need to create energy. So if there are suboptimal
levels of phosphorus in the body, which is part of that A T P molecule, then naturally energy production is gonna
be compromised and that may manifest as fatigue. Mm-hmm. , you
know, in people for example. Mm-hmm. . So definitely not something you wanna
see if you've got a working dog or a sporting dog that does need
to be go, go, go all the time. High calcium can also indicate that
it's not being utilized properly in the body. So this is where the skill of interpreting
H T M A can come in because something can be high because it's
being consumed in excess. So the owner might be feeding way too
much bone and calcium levels arising, although calcium, you know, is
quite tightly regulated in the body. Or it could be an indication that what
is being consumed even in healthy normal amounts isn't being taken up into the
body. So if you think about calcium, if you don't have enough phosphorus, which we've just said this dog
is quite low in phosphorus, if you don't have enough vitamin D, if you don't have enough
manganese and vitamin K, calcium won't be as readily taken into
the bone and it sort of remains in the blood a little bit longer, which can become a problem for people
in terms of calcification of the artery. Mm-hmm . So that's
why they generally say for people, if you have a calcium supplement, you
need vitamin D and vitamin K with it. Mm-hmm to
actually get it into the bone. Also interesting for this dog, if calcium stays too high
for extended periods of time, not only can it result in fatigue,
but also dry skin. Nothing's definite, but that might be part of what's going
on with this dog with these chronic skin issues. And then when you zoom out,
like most of this dog's minerals, like beneficial minerals were at
adequate levels, but his iron was low. When I think about, you know,
why would a dog's iron be low? This is a rescue dog, he's actually
been on kibble his whole life. We know that kibble is low
in animal protein and animal
protein is what provides that natural source of highly bioavailable
heme iron. Mm-hmm . Whereas plants have the non-heme
version which isn't as bioavailable. And even for those kibble that are
higher in animal protein or which they've added like a synthetic iron
supplement back into the food, we know that the annunu nutritional
factors in grains and legumes, which most kibble are really high in, can actually bind to minerals such as
iron and make them unavailable to the body. So my recommendation for this
dog in the first instance was to start transitioning to a raw food diet. Luckily
the owner was really happy to do that. And then if we keep thinking
about the low iron, you know, the liver is the primary organ for
regulating iron stores in the body. So low iron levels may also potentially
indicate the suboptimal liver functioning, adding in liver supporting
herbs, you know, dandelion roots, really great milk thistle. They would
both be lovely additions for this dog. Mm-hmm , another indicator from the results that
his liver may need more support was because his molybdenum
levels were quite low. So molybdenum iss just another mineral
that's really important in the body, but molybdenum, and I'm gonna struggle
to say that word over and over, it's actually required to
activate sulfur in the body. And sulfur's a really sort of essential
component of a lot of important enzymes, particularly those that have a fundamental
role in the liver detoxification pathway. So there's a pathway called
the transsulfuration pathway
and that's a key detox pathway for the body. So if you
don't have enough molybdenum, you don't have enough activated sulfur,
that pathway is gonna be compromised. And how. Do you get more of that
molybdenum ? I know it's a challenge, huh? Mm.
Liver is a great source. Unfortunately, legumes are also a good source. Not
that I promote legumes, but raw meat, organ meats, some dairy,
surprisingly banana. Mm-hmm. has some maum in it.
Another problem with low iron is, I sort of touched on it earlier, is that it allows certain heavy
metals to take hold in the body. So while all humans and animals like
we're all exposed to toxic metals to some degree and the retention of those toxic
metals is really dependent on a person or an animal's susceptibility. So that balance between
protective nutrient minerals
in the body in relation to the toxic heavy metals, like that's usually the determining
factor on how susceptible someone is to heavy metals being like binding
them. And I said that they can, they look like similar sometimes to the
beneficial minerals and they can bind to cell binding sites and being
taken up by the body that way. So the more nutritionally replete
your diet is or your dog's diet is, it really does minimize the chance of
toxic metals taking hold in the body. Mm-hmm. not a fail
safe, but it does help. So this dog, he actually had elevated levels of
arsenic, lead and aluminum. Again, what's interesting is that arsenic has
been associated with skin conditions, particularly dermatitis. The arsenic could be playing a role in
his chronic skin issues. So I guess, you know, for this dog, my
main recommendations were
raw food diet for sure. But just to transition slowly onto that, I think raw food diets are
important for all dogs. But for this dog I was recommending it
to try and increase his iron levels. I also recommended vitamin crich foods
again to help boost that iron absorption. So that's your brightly colored
fruits and veg. Mm-hmm , which perfectly fine in small
amounts in a dog's diet. I did recommend some liver supportive
herbs and in this case I recommended my liver detox liquid herbal blend.
Yep. 'cause that was a really lovely, that covers digestion and
liver all in the same bottle. And in terms of the heavy metal
bird and like that arsenic, what else did he have? Lead and aluminum, there's actually a red marine
phytoplankton supplement
that's sold for humans that has clinical evidence for being
beneficial in reducing heavy metals from the body. So I actually
recommended that as a sub. Like that was the only supplement I
recommended for this dog that in the, the liver detox mm-hmm. ,
but mainly diet changes. That was that case. So it'd be really interesting to see how
that's going when I follow up with them in a few months time. So with
the next case study this time, it was a dog with chronic anxiety and
fear-based behaviors with a little bit of aggression in there as well. Unlike the first dog who had very
high levels of calcium magnesium, which indicated that parasympathetic
dominant state this dog had really low levels of calcium magnesium, which you might guess indicates that it's
operating in that sympathetic nervous system dominant state, which is
that fight or flight response. What was interesting with
Glen and I , sorry, is that Glen had very low
levels of calcium and magnesium, which again matches his
presentation. Um, calcium, magnesium we said are
our sedating minerals, which are really important for sleep.
Mm-hmm. , you know, your quality of sleep could be better.
Yep. And just that stress response, I mean your work is so intense, intense that I was not surprised at
all to see that those two minerals were low for you. Mm-hmm. And
your phosphorus was low too, which not as low as the dog that we
spoke about, but it could just mean, you know, there is a, a challenge
with energy there and you know, you're more likely to feel fatigued
because you're running on adrenaline so much. Whereas I who sleep like a baby and very
high levels of calcium and magnesium, that made sense in terms
of Glen and I mm-hmm. back to the dog and
it made sense for this dog as well. So he is got low calcium magnesium, like he's got low levels of those calming
minerals and this dog is stressed, it's anxious, it's hypervigilant about
his surroundings. Mm-hmm. . So that matched up well. Low calcium has also been associated in
humans with increased levels of anxiety hypersensitivity and irritability. It's also associated with
increased risk of allergies. Now this dog doesn't have an
allergy issue, which is great, but if anyone has done H M A, just know that very low calcium can be
connected with allergies and as I said, really big impact on sleep. So if you've got a dog that just
doesn't settle well at night mm-hmm. , you know, it might be worth doing a H M A to see
if calcium is sort of playing a role in that. By the sounds of it. And considering
that we've done it both on ourselves, anybody who's got any concerns
about their dog's behavior, it would be something to rule out and
help rule out some of the underlying causes, which may be there ever since I've been
a trainer and behaviorist involved in working with a hell of a
lot of dogs and still do. One of the things that has really
changed the direction in where we go with training advice is dietary advice. Mm-hmm And that's largely based on the
research and study that you've been doing, but you know, other
professionals in the field who have. It's really coming to the
fore, isn't it now? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Even that book that I was talking about
before Matthew Walker's book while we sleep, you know, like
sleep and diet. And again, this comes back from a quote I
was talking about Dean Mathers, before Dean told you and I way back in
the day, there's three building blocks, which is the essence of life,
which is good sleep, fresh water, and fresh air. Mm. So the air you breathe, the quality of water you're drinking and
the amount of sleep you're getting are the pillars of good health. Hmm. Yeah, it's certainly true. And continue with the importance of
calcium and magnesium in the body. So when we think about ratios, if you've got a dog that's chronically
constipated or chronic diarrhea, the H M A can actually show what
might be contributing to that. So you've gotta think calcium
is a contracting mineral. Often when calcium balance is out in the
body, that's where people get cramps. Mm-hmm. Whereas magnesium is
very much a relaxing mineral, let's say, relative to each other.
Whether they're both high or both low, but relative to each other.
If calcium is a lot higher, then that might indicate a predisposition
to constipation because there's tightness and contraction in
the body. Mm-hmm. . Whereas if magnesium is a lot higher
than calcium, relatively speaking, that might be someone who's prone to
loose stools because of that muscle relaxation effect that magnesium has. So just really little bits like that
I just find really interesting and and fascinating. Back to the case study, the low calcium magnesium really matched
this dog's anxiety and fear-based behaviors. And then when I took a step back and
looked at all the minerals as a whole, this dog was pretty much
low across the board, which indicates basically poor
nutrient absorption. It makes sense. So if you've got a human or a dog
that's constantly in that sympathetic dominant state, and I know I've spoken
about this before in the podcast, digestion shuts down. Mm-hmm
not completely, but blood diverts away from the gut to
the extremities so we can run or fight and defend ourselves. We
produce less gastric acid, we produce less digestive enzymes. It just made complete sense to me that
this dog generally had low beneficial minerals across the board. Mm-hmm.
, it was interesting though, this dog was already on a raw food diet
because his digestion appears to be quite compromised. I suggested
in the short term at least, that they move onto a lightly
cooked mm-hmm , even though raw might be the
gold standard to work towards. Well I shouldn't say that. It's not
about raw, it's about fresh whole foods. So whether that's raw or
cooked. Mm-hmm. , I definitely think there's a place
for cooked food for different dogs, particularly older dogs or dogs
with compromised digestive systems. In terms of toxic metals, this dog had
quite high levels of mercury, arsenic, and aluminum. What's interesting about that is that
mercury is notorious for reducing the absorption of beneficial nutrients. So that could be playing a role as well
in those low levels across the board. Most often we get mercury, like higher
levels of mercury from seafood. Mm-hmm. , but you have
to think with our dogs. And what's really interesting too
is with my human H T M A tests, I actually generally see
very low toxic metals. Again, like I've mentioned earlier, that's
not to say that they're not there, but they're just not in the
blood. Mm-hmm. , what I see for dogs across the board
is usually quite high levels of toxic metals and it makes sense. Like you've, you think about it when we're outside
or even inside our homes can be just as toxic. You know, we are protected.
We wear shoes, we wear clothes, we shower every day. Most people, but
for our dogs, everywhere you take them, every surface they're walking on, they're picking up what's on the
ground onto the paws of their feet. Anything in the air or
that particulate matter. So if you're walking your dog
down busy roads and you know, there's particulate matter from exhaust
fumes or wherever it's coming from and it's landing on their fur, that
sort of stays there and you know, they might lick it off
when they lick their feet, which is why I see a lot
of pore dermatitis. Mm-hmm.
and you know, issues with pores. Their exposure and their constant
repeated exposure is just so much higher than us because yeah, if we
walk down a busy road, like I said, we are clothed and we're gonna take our
clothes off and wash them at the end of the day. Mm. We're gonna have a shower. So we are just constantly removing those
sources of potential sources of heavy metals, whereas our animals, they just
can't do that. And a study was done, oh, quite a while ago now in about 2003, where they actually measured the chemical
burden in dogs and cats and poor cats because they're so pedantic
about cleaning themselves. Their chemical burden in their
body was just through the roof. And if you think about, and I think a lot of the chemicals that
they found were at levels that were far exceeded, the levels found in humans. So if you think about an average cat
might weigh four kilos and an average human, let's say 70 kilos, and yet
that four kilo cat had a body burden, like levels that were much higher
than that 70 kilo person. Wow. It is, it's just, it's really confronting. And
like I said, house dust can contain a, like if you're in an old
home, particularly in, you
know, lead paint mm-hmm. , asbestos, they're
not around as much anymore, but they can still be potential
sources of toxicity for our animals. It was interesting you're
talking about that before. Another documentary I was watching a
while ago was talking about people who jog in the country versus people
who jog in the city. Mm-hmm. And the people who jog in the city because
of all the pollutants in the air and the exhaust and so forth, their
lung tissue was severe, like very, very fit people, but had their blood analysis and
their head mineral tissue analysis was returning really violent responses based
on the amount of contaminants that they were taking in. Mm-hmm. And they were horrified about it
because they were eating well, doing everything well, but because they're jogging down a
main road where diesel and benzene from fuels and so forth was getting
thrown in in throughout the air from heavy traffics and so forth. And uh, yeah, it was quite a eye-opening experience
for some of these people and. I think it's something for the most
part overlooked. I mean when I, when we lived in Melbourne, I went
through a phase of bike riding . So I actually started riding
from Bayswater to Hawthorne. Which is about an hour drive. Yeah. So I was pushed bike riding that, but I was on the main like peak hour
traffic main roads the whole way. And it didn't even occur to me
at the time. I was just like, I'm getting fit riding my bike all
the way to work. And now I'm like, oh, that was before I knew better. Even as a motorcyclist, I know that
when I travel in large groups of people, by the time I get home, if I've been, let's say riding between
five and 10 bikes, you can smell the fumes of
the petrol on your face. Like you are literally
sitting behind bikes, which are jetting out
fuel or exhaust fumes. Mm. But you can smell it in your helmet. I can smell it in my beard
and when I get home lucky, it's something that is
always on my mind too. We'll keep moving through this case
study. It's not much more to go. This dog was also low in iron even
though it was on a raw food diet. So unlike the first case where the low
iron was likely due to like a low intake from the kibble, I think in this case it
was more potentially the
mercury negatively impacting like the iron uptake, suboptimal liver function because this
dog's molybdenum levels were low as well. But other things that can
contribute to low iron, and I'm not saying that this was the
case for this dog, but, uh, parasites, copper deficiency,
vitamin B six deficiency. I've already said like low dietary intake, there's a lot you need to think about
for each dog that's presented. Mm. You know, like what's likely for
this particular dog. And so yeah, there's lots of things to think about
because the calcium was so low for this dog. An important part of the
treatment to increase calcium is B six, vitamin B six perine is its other
name. It's got other names as well, but that's the most commonly known. It's really important for hydrochloric
acid production in the stomach. You know, we've already said hydrochloric acid is
really important for breaking down food and absorbing the nutrients. So, you
know, think about dogs eating raw, meaty bones. If they don't have enough gastric acid
that's gonna be like that whole process is gonna be compromised and they may not
be getting all the calcium out of that bone. And then by promoting
calcium absorption, that's already gonna have like
a, a calming effect. Mm-hmm. on the dog. B six is
also necessary for adrenal functioning. So that metabolic pathway in the body
that's creating adrenaline B six is an essential nutrient
co-factor in that pathway. So it helps to support that with the dog. B six is also really important
in neurotransmitter production. Most stress and anxiety formulas
will, like for humans we'll have, or even for dogs we'll have vitamin B
six generally in it as well. Mm-hmm. also really important for
this dog to increase zinc levels because again, zinc's fundamental for
hydrochloric acid production. So we really need to just maximize
nutrient absorption as much as we can. Mm-hmm. , I also
recommended that for this dog, again, to increase foods rich in vitamin
C to support iron absorption. So it may seem
counterintuitive for this dog, but it wouldn't be a good idea to
actually give an iron supplement. 'cause some people might, the first
reaction if you're lowing something, oh just give him a supplement. Mm-hmm.
if he's low in iron, but iron actually antagonizes
both calcium and magnesium. So what that means is that it
partially blocks their uptake. So you know how I mentioned that some
heavy metals can take up the binding sites of beneficial nutrients. It's the
same with our beneficial minerals. So some can piggyback on
their transporters and their
bind insights in the body as well. Right. So iron wouldn't be a good idea because
it will actually inhibit the absorption of calcium and magnesium further, which
is the last thing we want for this dog. Increasing zinc would also be really
important because it plays a protective role against mercury. And this dog came back with particularly
high levels of mercury in the H T M A test. It also gives a metabolic
type for dogs. So for this dog, he was a fast metabolic
type. So generally speaking, an animal with a fast metabolic
rate, you know, it's highly spirited, suited to athletic performance
and sports. But you know, when things are just slightly out
of balance, it can become excessive. So in this case it's like it's just
gone that little bit too far and we're seeing like more of a, rather than
high energy in a positive way, we're seeing that nervousness and
that highly strung nature. Mm-hmm. . So Randy, I've done Randy's H T M A and he comes
back as a fast metabolic type and that makes sense. Like Randy's, he's switched
on all the time. Yeah. All the time. Sorry. But he hasn't gone over into that
nervousness and highly strong nature. He switched on, but it's not
problematic in that sense. So again, to reduce that heavy metal
burden with this dog, I recommended the red fighter plankton
and if anyone's interested in that, they can just message me because I only
know you can probably get it elsewhere. I only know how to get it through my
practitioner only channels and super greens. Ah, for both dogs
I recommended super greens, like a blend of super greens that
included chlorella. Mm-hmm. . 'cause chlorella is great for binding
toxic metals, lightly cooked food, which I've already mentioned for this
dog to just to help with nutrient absorption across the
board, liver support. I did recommend a vitamin B six supplement
for this dog because I thought it was playing such a fundamental role
in so many aspects. And yes, you can get B six from food, but I just felt like in the short term
this dog really needed a boost. Mm-hmm. in B six and increasing. So rather giving a supplement
in magnesium or zinc, just increasing foods that
are really naturally high. And I must say most home prepared
raw food diets that I see and notoriously low in zinc. So oysters are the easiest
whole food to add in. Mm-hmm. to a dog's diet to
really boost those zinc levels, ground pumpkin seeds, you know, sunflower seeds are also great
sources of both zinc and magnesium. So I've sort of rushed through those, but that's a snapshot of H M
A and some of the information, I mean there's a lot of information
that I haven't touched on that's in the reports. It goes into a lot of depth
about ratios and what they mean. But like I said, if you're
interested in this for your dog, jump onto my website, natural
health and nutrition.com au. There's just pages of information
explaining what it is. There's that report you can download to
really see what you're gonna get at the end of it. Mm-hmm. , do
be aware that at this time of the year, the lab's probably shut. So feel
free to contact me because I need to, if you are interested, I mean still go to my website and you
can purchase the test because I then need to post you out a little envelope for the
hair sample and some instructions. So, and then, you know, you need to take
the sample, send it back to the lab. So that might take a week or two in
itself mm-hmm. to happen. And maybe by then the labs will be back
up and running. But yeah, any questions, don't hesitate to reach out
and just ask me about those. But I've just been fascinated
with H T E. Yeah. It. Really is fascinating and I think it's
a good service that you're offering that you can actually help navigate people
through it and explain what it is all about as part of your service as well. Yeah. And like I said, it, it really is just another tool in my
toolkit to help shine light on what might be going on with an individual
dog. Like, you know, what's really underlying that we can't
see or that we're not aware of that could be contributing to the
symptoms that are being shown. Just another helpful bit of information
here as well is that law enforcement actually uses this on people
that have been taking drugs. They cut their hair and uh, send that in to find out if they've
been using illicit drugs. Substances. Substances. That's the word I
was looking for. So yeah, they, they do a similar process for
screening people for drug use as well. That's why sometimes people
will cut all their hair off. . Oh, interesting.
Didn't know that. Yeah, it's been around for a long time. Like it goes back quite a
way in history where they, I think they mainly use it for exposure
to toxic metals. Mm-hmm. Originally, but yeah, it's certainly
involved in, it's very. Revealing. Yes. Look, I must say I don't have the human
test kit advertised on my website, but for any humans who want it, ship me an email and I can absolutely
give you the pricing and, uh, all the information you
need to make that happen. Mm-hmm. , and speaking
of which, how do they contact you? You can jump onto my website,
natural health and nutrition.com au. There's a contact page there, or you can email me directly on nelle
at natural health and nutrition.com au. And if you dunno how to spell Nelle, hello at natural health and nutrition.com
au will also get to me. Yep. There's a Facebook page, natural
Health for People and Pets. Mm-hmm. , if you've got any questions that
you wanna answered about the podcast specifically, jump on there. As we
said at the beginning of the show, stay tuned for Canine
Ceuticals 26 of Jan 22, where all will be revealed. And the website for
Canine Ceuticals again is. Canine ceuticals.com au. How do you spell. Ceuticals? Just. For, yeah, I just realized I should
probably highlight that. Yeah. So canine the. Word, not the canine. True. Yeah. C a n i n e. Mm-hmm. and Ceuticals is C E U T I C A L S. So can pharmaceuticals all one
word.com au But I'll be putting lots of information out on social media, so no doubt you will see it written
and you'll know where to go. Hmm. So thank you everyone, and if you've got any burning topics
that you would like me to cover, just send me an email. Mm-hmm. and I will try and make
that happen. Yep. Okay. That's it. Thanks everyone. Bye.