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 Narelle Cook. Welcome back to Natural Health for People and Pets. I'm co-host of the show, Glen Cook, and I'm gonna introduce the host of the show, Noelle Cook. Hello everyone. Lovely to be back again. What. Have we got for today? Today we've got a special guest, but before we reveal all mm-hmm. , let's talk about our sponsors. We must talk about those wonderful sponsors who keep the show running.
Absolutely. So our first sponsor is Big Dog Pet Foods. They're an Australian company that have been manufacturing pet foods for 20 years now. They really are the experts in their field, and I should say raw pet foods. They only use human grade ingredients. They don't add in anything synthetic or artificial into their foods. Mm. Very important. All of their. Meals are nutritionally complete and balanced.
They offer a wide variety of different protein sources in their raw food patties, which is great for dogs with different food intolerances or allergies. They also have a great freeze dried option in their freeze dried little bites. Mm-hmm. , which are also nutritionally complete and balanced. And they actually make great train treats. I mean, our dogs, pixels, eyes were bugging out of her head when we had those treats the other day for her.
Yeah. Well we have to break it up so Ladybug doesn't swallow it whole 'cause she just tries to snatch it outta your hand. Yeah. That's it. And if you do have small dogs, the freeze dried little bites can make a great complete meal for them instead of just treats. Yeah. They're showing people doing it as they had like a chef doing little recipes with it, adding all different things while they were soaking it in water and.
Absolutely. So you do have to jump onto their social media pages, Instagram and Facebook. And I also highly recommend that you visit their website, big dog pet foods.com. They've got a great resource center, which is full of articles, guides, and frequently asked questions all around raw food, feeding natural diets, and general health and nutrition for both dogs and cats. Hmm. So that's Big Dog Pet foods.com. Our other sponsor is Bell and Bone.
So Bell and Bone are an Australian company and they make a wide range of dental sticks, collagen sticks, superfood treats, and freeze dried treats. Bell and Bone believe in using quality ingredients and providing complete transparency when it comes to what they put into their products.
All of the ingredients are natural and healthy, and for the dental sticks and collagen sticks, they have real meat as the main ingredient, which may sound like a no-brainer, but when you start to read pet food packets and treat packets, that's usually not the case. Mm-hmm. that real meat is the number one ingredient. Mm-hmm. , their dental sticks contain the active ingredients that have been proven to freshen your dog's breath and to fight plaque and titer.
And there's really no point in giving a dental stick if it doesn't contain these two key active ingredients because it's just like us cleaning our teeth with just a toothbrush and no toothpaste. So, you know, it'll do something, but it's not really hitting the mark. So you can find Bell and Bone online or in store at your favorite pet specialty store Australia wide. That's Bell and bone.com au.
And as an ongoing special for listeners of the show, you can get 20% off all Bell and bone products using the coupon code at checkout Ladybug. Very generous. Very cute. It is very generous. That's ladybug all one word. Get onto the website, bell andone.com.au. And we actually have a new sponsor for this show. Mm-hmm. . And that is C B D Vets Australia. Wow.
The listeners may remember that we interviewed Dr. Christopher Lee, the veterinary director of C B D Vets Australia back in episode 22 about the use of C B D in our pets. Hmm. C B D Vets Australia are an Australian company that supports Australian vets with education and access to legal medicinal cannabis treatment for our pets. We've got really good experience with C B D Vets Australia and can highly
recommend them. So one of our French Bulldogs, opi mm-hmm. , he's got some degeneration in his spine and we've noticed a huge improvement in his demeanor and his behavior and his mobility since being on medicinal cannabis that we accessed through CCB D Vets Australia. He's much happier, much more fluid, more liberal. He's just a happier dog overall. Much happier. To learn more about CBD Vets Australia and how they can help your pet,
check out their website, CBD vets australia.com au. It's full of resources, frequently asked questions, and it also has a contact form where you can get in touch with CBD Vets Australia directly to see if it's an appropriate treatment solution for your pet. They're super friendly and easy to deal with, so don't hesitate to jump on their website and touch base with them. Mm-hmm. , as I mentioned at the outset of the show today,
we are joined by a special guest. We have Sarah Kirk, she with us today. So Sarah is the general manager of Precision Pharmaceuticals and Head Pharmacist for both C B D Vets Australia and a new online initiative called CA Connect, which we'll talk about in more detail shortly. Sarah has a Bachelor of Pharmacy with honors from the University of Auckland and has been practicing as a community-based pharmacist for the past 10 years and
for the past three years has been based in Sydney. So welcome Sarah. Thank you for having me, Noelle. Thank you. What. A three years to be in Sydney. I think in the three years we've had mass fires. Mass floods, we've had Covid and Lockdowns. Welcome to Australia. . Yeah, . I think I've, yeah, I've been truly welcomed. I think everyone tells me that I bought the bush fires. I bought the floods. Oh. Oh wow. What a burden to carry.
Everyone's been. I know. And New Zealand's been having amazing weather. So quite a good little intro to Australia. Mm. I came for the good weather, so I'm still waiting for it. . Yeah, totally. So it'd be great if you could share a little bit more about your background, maybe your decision to go into pharmacy as a career.
You've almost come to specialize in the use of C B D for both people and their pets because it is quite unique for a practitioner to be across both the human and the animal health world. So if you wanna just give us a little bit of background on who you are. Hmm. Yeah, for sure. As a young child, I've always been fascinated about the human body, but as a lot of us procrastinate, I thought becoming a doctor would just be too laborious for my liking and I procrastinate too much.
So I was trying to figure out what would combine two passions of mine, and one being the human body and the other being people. And my auntie back in Iraq. So my background is from Iraq. She was a pharmacist that worked for their local government and she seemed to have it all. She still had time with her friends and family and she was rewarded by a job where she could see what her efforts produce,
like the outcomes of dealing with patients and whatnot. Also, my oldest brother started off as a pharmacist as well within in New Zealand, within the local government too. And yeah, I guess a ripple, ripple effect. I jumped on the bandwagon and I haven't regretted it since I got into university. So yay. Success. My parents were happy. I was a bit of a black sheep when growing up. And then I went into community straight after university. And you know what, it was extremely rewarding.
There is a lot of work that pharmacists do that people do not see in the background, and sometimes they're considered just as candy dispensers, which is a bit sad. But people who actually deal with us, they actually have complicated, complex issues, really appreciate the work that we do in the background. But I think as a pharmacist, I kind of, I mean, I'm a pharmacist who generally doesn't like medication.
I kind of got fed up with the mentality that, and this is a generalization that many people had, that there was a thing called a magic pill. And as you are aware, there is no such thing. Every medication has a side effect. If it was perfect, people wouldn't be sadly dying. Mm-hmm. So I'm very much more into what can we do to prevent diseases? What can we do to help people that conventional medications
are not doing? So I, when I moved to Australia and New Zealand's a still a bit quite restricted to what you can do. But when I moved to Australia in 2019, I was amazed at how there were so many different options. Plant-based medications were, I mean, not readily available, but they existed. So I jumped on board into the medicinal cannabis space pretty much six months into moving.
I just love that there was alternative medications or alternative therapies compared to your conventional therapies that give people options. And I think that's really crucial, allowing not only humans, but even within the pet space, giving them options to explore when conventional therapies sadly fail. And you know, it's a growing industry and everyone's learning. So it's not like, I mean, of course there are people who are what I would say masters within the cannabis
space, but it's such an ever changing industry to be in. So it's quite exciting. We're all learning together, which makes it fun. It's actually hard to believe that medicinal cannabis was only legalized in Australia in late 2016 because there's been such exponential growth in, you know, the past five years. Is that what you're seeing in both the pet and human space with your prescribing? Yeah, a hundred percent.
Like we see scripts come in from a variety of doctors, vets, people are slowly starting to jump on board. A lot of prescribers are quite hesitant when something is new. Mm-hmm. Especially when there's not enough clinical studies out there to determine the perfect dose. It's not like Panadol where you know, you know the standard dose, you know what you're gonna expect. There's still a lot of trial and error, but I believe slowly the stigma is being changed around, um,
medicinal cannabis. So people are more inclined to give it a go, which is great. I think stigma is probably one of the, the biggest things around C B D. You know, they just think it's weed. Mm. They think you're gonna get high, you know, just the typical, um, assumptions of it. But I mean, even if you were to go jump onto the T G A website, you'll notice the number of approvals has drastically jumped from when it first came legal to now like let's say December last year there was about
12,000 approvals that went through for final products, which is amazing. Mm-hmm. It means more doctors are more inclined to learn about it and patients are obviously seeing the benefits of it. So all in all, fantastic. You mentioned a good point about people being worried about getting high.
So maybe we can start by just taking it right back to the basics, because one of the biggest confusions I see coming from my patients is around the differences between say, C B D oil and hemp seeded oil and the whole mm-hmm , T H C. So to give an example, I had a patient who thought she was giving her dog an Australian patient, thought she was giving her dog a C B D infused treat that she was using in the hope that it would help with her dog's pain because the company selling the
product, they use certain marketing jargon on the packet to give that impression of C B D. Yet if you looked at the actual ingredients was only hemp seed oil because that's all they could legally do anyway. Yes. But the average consumer can easily be misled in this regard. So perhaps you can just take it back and give a brief outline of the difference between hemp seed oil and C B D oil.
We see this every day and it's quite sad that people are easily misled, but I mean when it comes to marketing regulations, we can't change them. That's not what I mean. We can always advise, like I always look through websites and you know, advise T G A, like it's very misleading marketing. Um, and unfortunately it takes a lot of time to educate, which I'm sure you do with your patients as well. The differences. So hemp seed oil does come from the small seeds of the cannabis TIVA plant.
And I think that's where the biggest confusion is because it comes from that plant. They think it's the same thing. Hmm. Which completely, not at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, hemp seed oil has a really rich profile of nutrients and fatty acids, but it is not C B D. So the profile has no cannabinoids. And even if you were to get hundreds of mils of hemp seed oil, you are not gonna get the same amount as in one mil of C B D. And unfortunately it's considered a food grade product.
So the marketing and regulations are a bit different to when you talk about the C B D oil itself. So the C B D oil comes from the actual leaves and flour of the plant, while hemp seed oil comes solely just from the seed of their plant. So they vary completely in their profiles. And it is important that more people understand that even though it's coming from the same plant, that they are very different products.
And I mean I love hemp seed oil for dogs and humans, but you know, for dogs it is very nutrient rich and does have great ratio of omega six to omega three fatty acids. Yeah. And because of that, because they are different people can give both of them together. I, you know, I should say, so if, if someone's using hemp seeded oil as an additional supplement to their dog's diet, for example, they can by all means incorporate C B D as well if they need it for the dog for
a health state. Yeah. A hundred percent. We even have some vets who opt to have the C B D in a hemp seeded oil carrier. So they get the best of both worlds. They get the medica, you know, the the supposed medicine, which is C B D, and they get the hemp seed oil as the carrier that it's dissolved in. So they still get that grape nutrient-rich profile of the fatty acids and whatnot. Hmm. I love that. I love that combination.
So I mentioned at the outset that you are involved with a new online initiative called CA Connect. Can you perhaps talk a little bit about what CA Connect is and how it came about and what it can offer people? So ca connect in basic words as a is a simple streamlined online portal. Not only that, it's also a personal care system, which it was created to solve two of the biggest issues that we believe are present in the medicinal cannabis industry in Australia.
One being affordability and the other being patient access. So I'm not sure if you're aware some cannabis clinics, well majority have a quite a hefty signup fee, which I think is redtape for a lot of people opting to try an alternative therapy. But being put, like having a hefty price safety even just initiate the process is kind of offputting. So with say connect, there is no signup fees and there are no wait times.
So some cannabis clinics, you know, have a four to 12 week wait time to see a cannabis practitioner with CA Connect. That's not the case. They are pretty much spoken to within 24 business hours and they should be giving their medication if eligible within a 48 hour period. So, I mean that's fantastic. CA Connect was made by Australians for Australians and it's a group of a whole bunch of health professionals that were behind creating the offering.
So you've got pharmacists, you've got myself and other pharmacists, you've got doctors and you've got nurse practitioners as well with that all specialized within the cannabis field. And basically it's an opportunity if patients are eligible to try a plant-based therapy, which is C B D. So again, with no signup fees and no wait times. And it's not just a platform that offers you medication.
So I need to emphasize it's not a retail offering and we've spent a lot of time curating this to make it, to make patient healthcare the pivotal focus. Um, you know, we offer follow-up care calls with practitioners every two weeks. They've got an opportunity to become part of a community bio connect hub where they, you know, people got within the same journey can actually talk to each other.
Obviously that's monitored and they've also got a option within their portal to talk to a health professional whenever they need. So they're never left alone. Which I mean that's a pro like a plus side when you consider when you see a gp, you might not see them again for another three to six months. What happens in between that time? Are you taking the medicine correctly? Have you got side effects? Did you just stop because you felt nothing?
With those regular follow-ups and all those channels that they've got, they're always supported, which I think is a huge game changer. Absolutely. And it sounds amazing and I think we're in that day and age now where online options are just really important. I mean to give access to a broader population of people who may be suffering mm-hmm. from various health conditions. And you know, not everyone in this day and age is comfortable sitting in a crowded doctor's
office. Exactly. With covid, not every GP is a specialist in C B D and I imagine the majority of gps wouldn't have that education and training in depth. They may be familiar with it at a superficial level, but not in depth in terms of dosing across different therapeutic applications. Would that be the case? Yeah, look, it's definitely a very common issue we face within primary care. I mean, keep in mind these doctors are busy with, you know,
the most common elements that people come in to see them for. So, and C B D again is very new and the time taken to get up to speed and be at a confident level to prescribe does take some time. So I am seeing a lot of doctors have an interest, so they're expressing,
expressing interest in it now where before they were just straight up. No, but I think people are going in and asking those questions and in order to practice topo scope, you've gotta keep up with what's new, new and relevant and what your patients are asking for. So we do spend a lot of time training doctors and it's not even brand specific whatsoever, it's just to get comfortable with what C B D can do for their patients, how to initiate, what to look out for and things like that.
I do believe even primary care doctors were hesitant in the beginning, but if patients are asking for it, if you can't offer them a service that they could potentially be eligible for, at least knowing an avenue that you can put them through is crucial. Mm-hmm. And I guess what I love too, from everything you've outlined about C Connect is it's very individualized
patient care. So a lot of people, you know, they'll hear about the benefits of C B D for their particular health problem or their pet's health problem for that matter. And then they'll go online and they'll just order some random C B D product usually from the states without really understanding how to dose it appropriately or any cautions or contraindications that may apply to their particular situation. Mm-hmm.
Not to mention purity and quality control issues with the product that they might be buying as a natural healthcare practitioner, you know, for both people and pets. At the end of the day, I wanna see improvements in my patients, which usually means, you know, incorporating a high quality product as part of their treatment plan. And from talking to patients over the years, many of them simply don't realize that if I can say oils ain't oils so to speak.
Yeah. And that, you know, quality, purity, strength, I mean it can vary considerably between different brands, even if they appear at face value to be the same thing. So they may not be getting the results that they want because they're using an inferior product, but they just don't realize it. So they give up and say, well I tried CB and it didn't work for me.
So can you perhaps talk a little bit more about the quality control processes that CA Connect and C B D Vets Australia use in their work and the product that they supply? Yes. All the products that they supply come through Precision Pharmaceuticals, which is what I lead as well as you mentioned prior. So we have to abide by T G A regulations and all their requirements.
The sad thing is when you see all these hemp-based products that are promoting themselves or marketing themselves as C B D is that you have no idea what is actually in those products. It could be chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, all that could actually be doing is causing harm not only to themselves, but you know their furry friends, which is not what you want. Mm-hmm. All our um, raw material that come through Precision Pharmaceuticals is all made in a G M P
manufacturing facility. Uh, you're guaranteed purity, you're guaranteed that it is exactly what you're getting. We've done all the testing and that's also the difference when people say, oh, why is C B D in Australia more expensive than online? Well that's because you're actually getting exactly what's on the label. We've done and abided by all Australian regulations to ensure as much as we
can that this, is this a safe product. I mean, I don't like to use the word safe because unfortunately people can also die from paracetamol, but in terms of the regulations, it's all abided by. And that does take a lot of time and money. And that's a huge difference between a subpar product that you buy online with a fancy label and they do a really great job with marketing. But at the end of the day,
I would rather know what's exactly going into my body. You know, we have certificates of analysis, certificates of conformance, and we can provide those to any doctors and vets that are curious to see what our products are like. So that's never not something that we provide if questioned for. So there's a lot of things that go into the in in the background to ensuring as safe as possible product out there that doesn't contain any nasties.
And as you know, within the animal space, they react to especially T H C, quite differently. And there's some products out there that say it's just C B, D, but you have no idea what's actually inside it 'cause you'll never be given the documents when requested. I don't think people realize or even sometimes appreciate how tough and how scrutinizing organizations such as the T G A are and how many hoops
that people have to jump for. For example, a colleague of mine introduced a virus side for cleaning for disinfection, especially in zoological spaces. And he pretty much said at the end of it, I think he had to speak to the AV P M A, the tga mm-hmm. . And there were quite a lot of hoops to jump through. But at the end of it, he said it was almost not worth bringing it in because of the high level of
scrutiny that I had to go through to get it in. And he said, but it's really like a huge big green tick once you get it. Because he said they ask a lot of questions, they go into a lot of heavy detail, they really scrutinize every hook and turn that you're doing. And that's why sometimes it drives the price up, which people don't realize is there is a lot of work to actually register
product in Australia. And I know that from Elle's past, that's what she was involved in when she was a regulatory affairs officer, she had to primarily go backwards and forwards with the A V P M A all the time. And AP V M a, AP V M A, thanks for the correction . That's right. Um, AP. Vma, I was waiting . Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She wasn't gonna let me get away with that one. But uh, you know, I remember her coming home from work and dinner table conversations were around
about how stringent they were and how difficult they made the process. Mm-hmm. , but at the same time she appreciated it because it wasn't just letting something get through it wasn't supposed to get through. No. Yeah. It was something that they scrutinized heavily. A lot of I were across it and a lot of detail went across it. Then finally they said, yep, this satisfies our requirements.
I remember one submission I made for a approval for a new chemical, new active ingredient actually in Australia with the work I was doing. And I think I submitted 27 ream boxes full of data like printed data to satisfy their requirements. People don't realize it is a lot of work and, but that's why we're so a lot of work. Yeah.
We're so lucky in Australia and it's why I, as a practitioner, practitioners can prescribe products that aren't TGA approved, but they'd be crazy to, because the quality control of our TGA approved products is just second to none around the world. So it's really great peace of mind for patients that they are getting that quality. That isn't always what you're getting when you're buying products from overseas. A. Hundred percent.
And you've gotta be really passionate to put in that workload in order to, I mean in in terms of C B D it's still unregistered, but the regulations and all the conformities that you have to go to it, it is time consuming and draining. But yeah, you do feel rewarded once you get the green tick. But I'm, and I'm sure you are aware, nelle, even once you get the green tick every, you know, they do batch testing randomly every year. You've got it. Ensure that you're still meeting the same standards.
So it's not just a one-off tick and you know, you can go and change everything you're doing. It's constantly meeting the demands and, um, regulations that t g s set. And they're always changing within the C B D space as well, which sometimes can make it hard, but at least it keeps you on your toes and you are always on, on the top of the game to make sure this is the best products that you can get into Australia to service the people or the pets that require it. So yeah,
you gotta have a lot of passion but it's definitely worth it in the end. Mm. So from my conversations previously with Dr. Lee mm-hmm , he was talking that C B D is probably most often prescribed for pets for conditions such as anxiety, epilepsy and pain states. And I imagine it's a similar situation for humans. What's the broader reach for C B D in people in terms of the research and different health states that it's most indicated for?
I mean, look, the T G A has a list of let's say, approved conditions, which is basically what you've mentioned. You know, you've got anxiety, osteoarthritis, epilepsy, chronic pain, but then you've got other conditions that, I mean, I won't say there is enough clinical evidence to show that it's, you know, the bee's knees, but that just requires a lot more testing. But you see doctors prescribing it for ms, fibromyalgia, degenerative pain and even less commonly in autism and blood sugar control.
Oh that's really interesting. Yeah, there's lot of, there's a lot of things that you can use it for. Sorry, I totally cut you off there. No, no that was um, that was great. I didn't know about the blood sugar regulation in some of those less commonly known uses for ccpd. Less. Yeah, I think even in animals I've seen vets prescribe it for skin conditions such as eczema dermatitis, very rarely seen in the human space. But because C B D does have anti-inflammatory properties,
some vets do use it in those instances as well. But again, is there enough clinical significance to slap that on a label? No, but it's all about trial and error. Absolutely. For someone who's suffering from a condition that ticks the box. Generally, if someone went through the process of CA connect and we can talk a little bit
more about that process shortly. Mm-hmm , what's a general, I know it's like how long is a piece of string, but what would be a general timeframe for someone to start noticing an improvement in their symptoms once they commence C B D treatment? I mean, not one size fits all. There's no textbook answer for that. Generally from the patients I've spoken with or you know, from pharmacists telling me some patients that are able to see an effect within a couple of days.
And then there's another lot of patients that don't see an effect till 14 days till it's built up into the system. So C B D is not one of those um, medications where it's take on a, when need basis, let's say two tablets of pen off. Um, for instance, it is something that you gotta take regularly to notice an effect. So because of that we always generally advise that it can take two weeks to see some sort of effect. Mm-hmm.
So maybe we will go through, so if someone was interested like a human was interested in using C B D for a pain state for example, what would be their process to connect with ca Connect? They would obviously go to the website ca connect.com au, but do you wanna just sort of talk through the process from there? Yeah, sure. Like you said, they go on ca connect.com au, they register and complete a virtual consultation.
Now this is quite an in-depth consultation 'cause we want to capture as much as we can from the patient and obviously they've gotta meet certain requirements, they've gotta be over 18, they can't be pregnant or breastfeeding and whatnot. And then once they complete their virtual consultation, it kind of gives them a pre indication if they're approved for C B D or not.
But then they can go on to personalize their treatment care plan, you know, by picking a flavor enhancer or picking their carrier oils. But nothing is confirmed until within 24 hours a cannabis practitioner will actually give them a call to confirm their eligibility. So it's quite a good time for um,
patients also to ask questions that they may have. Uh, the cannabis practitioner will run through the entire treatment care plan with them to ensure they're all confident and then their medication and treatment care plan will get dispatched within 24 hours as well.
So about a lead time of 48 to 72 hours before they get their medication, which is in my books, bloody fantastic , it's, and then after that every two weeks they will get a phone call from usually the same cannabis practitioner that prescribed them the products. And that's a great time to touch base, look at what dose they're on, see if they're having any issues, are they noticing any benefits, and that's a regular every two weeks follow up.
And of course they're able to talk to a health professional whenever they want through the check box. Um, so they're always guided throughout the entire process, but the initial step to actually gain the medication is by completing a virtual consult. Mm-hmm. And that's the same with C B D Vets Australia as well, isn't it? So CBD Vets Australia a bit different. We're not vets number line.
So there's a lot of patient inquiries and we always help out pet owners by putting them in contact with a vet who is confidently able to prescribe C B D. We don't tell them that they're eligible, we don't do that. We get them to go see a vet for them to assess the situation, but we help in terms of getting that patient, getting that pet owner to take their pet to see a vet.
And then obviously the vet, if they deem them eligible, they'll send us the prescription and we'll forward it on to a pharmacy that's able to provide that service for them with the, you know, G M P products. Yeah, great. From my experience with CB Dets Australia, the postage is amazingly quick too. I think I just ordered another 50 mil on Monday and I think I had it by Wednesday. So I was quite impressed. Oh that's, that's good to hear.
That was coming from very good Queensland. I think the pharmacy was, yeah. One of the pharmacies we have that does that helps with 70 vets is based in Queensland. Yeah. So yeah, we, they use, everything's included. So you get express shipping with all the orders placed with our affiliated pharmacies. The other great thing too, it's such a detailed personalized care plan when people do go through CA Connect
and mm-hmm. , I guess at that point, you know that practitioner will be looking for any cautions and contraindications that might exist with C B D. But are there any obvious ones that people should just be aware of generally in case they're not going through CA Connect and they're just buying randomly online? So there are obviously a few, you know, obvious ones like you shouldn't be drinking alcohol with C B D and that's
generally in the initial stages as well. More so because drowsiness is common. But it, I mean it diminishes as you titrate your dosing. In terms of interactions with medication, this is one that I would always advise patients to discuss with their doctors and that type of conversations that they would have if they go through CA
Connect when they talk to a cannabis practitioner. But as a general, and I can't explain this in layman terms, so I'm, I apologize that C B D is a potent inhibitor of a cytochrome enzyme, so specifically CYP three A four and CYP two D six. So I would always advise caution to be taken when they're co prescribed together and it just means that when they're tweaking doses, they just have to slowly titrate the C B D dose as much as possible compared to a standard dosing regimen.
But common medications to look out for which your, you know, which your prescribing doctor would be aware of as antidepressants, for example, fluoxetine, you've got benzos and even some heart medication. So our cannabis practitioners always take this into account when prescribing
C B D to anyone and of course vets would do the same. And yeah, I always suggest to take baseline tests for animals, especially like your liver function tests, things like that, just so you know where they're at in the beginning and then maybe reassess three to six months time just to ensure everything is all in order. That's great. I'm sure our listeners will be googling the cytochrome in enzymes. Yeah, , that's, that's no. Basically the enzymes in the liver that break down medication and some
can inhibit. Some can induce and yeah, it just plays with the levels of concentrations of medication in the body. Maybe that sounds a bit better than cytochrome enzymes. Yeah. I speak a little bit, I don't think I have on the podcast, but to my patients in person, I talk about the phase one and phase two liver detoxification pathways. Mm-hmm. and any foods or herbs for example that might be up or down regulating phase one. So no, it's great that you've mentioned that.
So is there anything else, Sarah, that um, you'd like to share about either CA Connect or C B D Vets Australia with the listeners today? If anyone has any questions, feel free to junk on the websites. We've got a great team that's ready to help if people are curious or just want some information just with ca connect, I feel like it's a great platform, but the issues is how do we let people who are trying to access something
like this know about it? I mean, we're restrained, you know, of just PLAING posters everywhere or putting it on social media. I think word of mouth is a great tool for people to have access to things like this. It's new. We're constantly tweaking things to always work within top of scope. So yeah, suggestions are always welcomed. And we're not saying come to ca connect over your regular gp. Not at all. It's just about offering patients another option.
And some people don't like going into clinics. Some people still feel that there's a stigma and it's a shame to prevent people from having that sort of access solely because of a mindset which we are trying so much to change and always possible, if anything, just spread. The word. Do anything to help. Yeah. Just, yeah, spread the word. That would be great. No, I think they're both amazing services that we can offer clients and pets.
Definitely. For anyone who's interested, again, it's ca connect.com au and cbd vets australia.com au. It's been so great having you on the show today Sarah, and just explaining the options that are available out there now to people that they likely unaware of. Definitely happy from this end to continue to share that that's available as a service. So yeah, really appreciate your time today. Oh, thank you for having me. I've, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sorry I babble too much, but.
No, that's fine. Thank you. That's all part of the podcast experience and it's great to know, especially I think the good pickup with the conversation between you and Nelle was especially alleviating that concern that your dog's not gonna get high off C B D. There's conversation that I have with people. I mean, I've been educated into what C B D is through a process of time as compared to T hc mm-hmm. , which is not in C B D, which you have just explained so eloquently.
So it's very important for people to know that it's a great oil for the medicinal purposes that it's serving. And it's really great to see that it's on the rise and that there will be more access to it over time. I'm, I'm actually really glad I've seen so much supportive evidence about it.
I've seen people online. I was watching a lady with very bad Parkinson's, she couldn't write anything at all, but if she took some C B D oil and she spread it into like a avocado and put it on a cracker and she ate it within an hour, she could actually write perfect cursive. That's amazing to hear. It is. And she said, this is me, this is my normal life. Mm-hmm. And she said, this is why I'm so outraged at the holdup for C B D for access to people.
And she said, because when I do use it, when I travel to another country and I access C B D, which my son got me onto, she said, all the treatment, all the drugs make me sick. And she said, but C B D is actually transforming my life. I actually have control of my life again. I can access my limbs properly, I can stop tremors and shakes. And she said, and I deliberately took myself off it to show you what I look like. And she showed the before and after and it was just breathtaking. It's crazy.
It's crazy. And that's, that's why the importance of the rise of naturally produced medicinal products such as this should be far and readily accessible to the public. A hundred percent. And look, you know, the TGA are down-regulated low dose C P D to an SS three. So, I mean, I'm sure everyone's patiently waiting for a product to be available, but I honestly dunno how long that will take. That's also another reason why CA Connect came about to give access straight
away. Let's not wait. But the example you mentioned about the lady, it's amazing. I mean, we have dogs, we've got pet owners telling us their dogs are a completely a different dog. No more anxiety. They're more engaged. They're acting like how they used to, they do zoomies around the house and they're no longer just moping around.
I mean, we've even got within the human space, uh, female patients, male patients, so consumed with stress and anxiety and very depressive symptoms that have just changed their whole life around simply because of a, a plant-based oil that's given them a new leash on life. And it's, it's so rewarding to be part of that process with them giving them that opportunity to access it. Hmm. It's just amazing. And I do hope more red tape keeps coming off.
So more and more people have that ability to try it. I know the price is an issue and we've tried to diminish that with ca Connect with no signup fee. So we are hoping there's more and more stories like you've just mentioned and I've just mentioned in the long run. Well thanks for your input into it and all the hard work that you and your team are doing because the more people that access it and the more it starts to move
onto the market, hopefully that will drive price down as well. And um, a hundred percent yeah, it will make it far more accessible both as an option to take and also to be able to afford it. Exactly. Hopefully the government gets behind it and backs it. Just like how there's a lot of backend work that we do that the general public
can't see as to why it takes so long. And the cost involved, it's the same with the government and the T G A. There's a lot of hoops that they've gotta jump in order to change legislations, but I think we're on the right track. It takes time, but I mean even since from when it became legal first to today been major changes within the field and they're all positive. So I'm hopeful that within the next couple of years it will change again.
Well thank you Sarah again for joining us today and we wish you all the best in your work that you are doing and hopefully we'll get to chat with someone again down the track from ca Connector, C B D Vets Australia. Perfect. Anytime. Thank you guys for having me. Thank. You so much, Sarah. Thanks. Sarah. Tara, have a good one. Okay. That was a great interview with Sarah. It was.
It's so fascinating and I really do hope that the C B D industry progresses to make it even more available to the average consumer because it's about quality of life. I mean, we've seen it with op Yep. We hear stories about, I mean we don't need to use C B D for any health problems, but we do hear those stories of the miraculous transformations almost that people are experiencing their quality of life when they do start using it.
That's right. And full disclosure for anybody who's listening to this, so we paid for our C B D oil, it wasn't given to us or sponsored to us. No. It was something that we paid full price for to use. So this is not something that we're just doing because we feel like we're obligated to do it. We're doing it because we firsthand can see the transformation of our own dog.
It's much like when we talk about big dog pet foods at the start, and yes, they're a sponsor of the show, but the only reason they became a sponsor of the show and the only reason that we got involved with them is because the product speaks for itself. The transformation of how we are seeing the behavior of our dogs, the livelihood of the dogs, and you know, like we utilize that tag in your product Canine Ceuticals, which is allowing dogs to live their best life. Mm-hmm.
And that's what we're seeing with these other products as well. Like Opie's a happier dog because he's been on C B D. So speaking of Canine Ceuticals, to wrap up the show, tell us about your product range because they're selling really well. You've got some really, really great reviews coming in from people who've using 'em, including my mum. Mm. Um, so Mum rang me the other day after she got your product. I think you sent her the Gut Protect for Bonnie Gut Protect.
Very good. Yes. Yeah. So my mum rang me and she told me all about, she's got a little dog called Bonnie. And she told me all about the problems that she's having. She's been back and forth to vets, still getting loose, poos, still getting upset, tummy. She said to me, this product that Noelle's bringing out, do you think it would help Bonnie? And I said, I'm not the one to ask, speak to Noelle.
She will tell you all about it. And Narelle pretty much spoke to my mum, sent down the product, and Mum's been on it for a couple of weeks. And then she rang me up one day while I was traveling between jobs and said to me, that product is just amazing. She said, Bonnie's back to her normal self, she's back thriving, she's a happy dog. She said it's changed her behavior. She's no longer moping around her head's up her bowel is functioning properly.
She said all the things that I was concerned about seem to have all gone. And she said, I can't thank nelle enough. She said, it's just amazing how the product has transformed her. Can pharmaceuticals, we, I've got a wide range of, of products within the brand, but the gut protect is by far the best seller. And I get feedback every day from people saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's only been a few days. And it's such, you know,
it's made such a difference. But that just, I mean that's, that's my baby of the product because that's the one I created because of Ladybug fundamentally to give her the quality of life to keep her going, given her spinal injury and really passionate about that product. And it just goes to show, again, it reiterates the importance of gut health on overall health, not just poos. I mean it's awesome for poos. Mm-hmm. .
So I always like to talk about poo, but it reaches all different areas of health, immune health, skin health, things like that. But Canine Ceuticals got a, another example of feedback I got just yesterday for the P plus, which is parol, ethanol, aade product and for mobility in an older dog. You know, the owner messaged me and said, oh, the dog was playing with a ball. And they're like, oh, I can't believe the difference is like a puppy again.
And that was really quickly, that change. I normally wouldn't expect it so soon, but it just, every dog's individual, like every human responds individually to different products. So it just really makes my day when I get those testimonials back in. For anyone who's interested, they can go to canine ceuticals.com au. That's canine C A N I N E, ceuticals, C E U T I C A L s.com au. And there's products for all different areas for nutritional support,
for joint health, for immune health. We've got the liquid herbal range, which is really popular. Things like milk thistle because you know, we live in a toxic world and a lot of dogs have a very heavy toxic burden on them. And definitely the gut health range really popular. Well, all the details will be in the show notes, including the contact details for Sarah.
You'll be able to click on that and follow any of the links that are available or being discussed in the show, including all our sponsors. And if you have any questions for me, you can email me at [email protected] au. Mm-hmm. you can go to if you want more information about the podcast or if you wanna post a question about the podcast, you can go to the Facebook page, natural Health or People and Pets, like my Instagram page, natural Health for people and pets and Canine Ceuticals.
Jump on my Facebook pages, lots of social media options. Lots. Get onto all of them. And if you're happy with the product, of course send in a review. Leave a review on, on the website. Mm-hmm. if you love a product. Alright, that's it for the show today. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. Bye.