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, and I'm going to introduce the host of the show, Neal Cook. Hello. Everyone back again for another episode. But before we do that, we've got sponsors to thank for their generosity in providing this show to your listeners. I know they're very generous. So our first sponsor, as always is Big Dog Pet Foods.
They are an Australian company that have been manufacturing raw pet foods for 20 years now. There's so many raw food companies popping up all over the place. Mm. But they've been in it for the long haul, so they really are the experts in their field. Lots of reasons why I love Big Dog for our dogs and my client's dogs and everyone else's dogs. is that they only use human grade ingredients. They don't add in anything synthetic or artificial into their food.
Their meals are nutritionally complete and balanced. So your vet can rest assured that your dog is getting everything that they need. Another great thing is they offer a really wide variety of different protein sources in their raw food patties. So really something for every dog. They have great treats, the freezed, dried little bites. Mm-hmm. , which make great treats, but if you've got a small dog, they also make a nutritionally complete imbalance like whole meal. So that's good too.
You know what I like about Big Dog? They're all in-house. They're a one-stop shop. They do everything. They're all locally produced, they mix it all. They bag it all. They do the whole range in-house. It's fantastic. If you go onto their YouTube channel and see what they do and how they do all their product and how they produce it all, it's absolutely fantastic. It is their transparency in an industry that's typically very cloak and dagger.
Mm. Is really refreshing. And it just goes to show that, you know, they don't have anything to hide. They're proud of what they're manufacturing and they're producing Mm. For the health and wellbeing of our dogs. Yes. And cats. Yes. Check out their website, big dog petfood.com, and they've got an amazing resource center full of articles, guides, and frequently asked questions like their Facebook page and like their Instagram page, big Dog, pet Foods. Our next sponsor is Ballen Bone.
So they are also an Australian company that make a range of dental sticks, collagen sticks, superfood treats, and freeze dried treats as well. Bell and Bone believe in using quality ingredients and providing complete transparency. Again, when it comes to what they're putting in all of their products, all of the ingredients in the bell and bone range are natural and healthy.
And when it comes to the dental sticks and the collagen sticks, there's real meat as the actual main ingredient, which again, is not the norm if people actually read ingredients for what they're buying off the shelf. Mm-hmm. from pet stores and supermarkets. So the good thing about the dental sticks with Bell and Bone is that they actually contain two key active ingredients that have been proven to freshen your dog's breath and to fight plaque and tartar.
Really no point giving a dental stick if it doesn't contain these active ingredients, because it's like us cleaning our teeth with a toothbrush and no toothpaste. Okay. That sounds good. It's gonna have a. Little bit of benefit, but not the full benefits. How'd they get the name Bell and Bone? Where'd that come from? That's. A good question. I should ask Arianne, who is the founder of Bell and Bone. Yes. Yeah. We should do a little deep dive into that and find out how she named her
company. We. Should interview. Why not? Yes. The story of So Bell and Bone. Arianne, if you're listening, why don't you organize something to come onto the show and talk about Bell and Bone and how you got into your dental sticks and your products. Yep. It was like, I know her story was one of See Need Fill. She wanted something better quality for her dog that she just couldn't find on the market. But beyond that, I would love to know more of the background story and the journey. Mm-hmm. Okay.
That's good. Watch this Space listeners. Yeah. You can find the Ballen Bone Products in store at your favorite pet specialty store Australia wide. You can go to their website, ballen bone.com au, and as a special for listeners of this show, you can get 20% off the full range using the coupon code ladybug. Oh. Ladybug. That's one word. Ladybug. Mm. So definitely get onto their website and take advantage of 20% off. That's huge. And because they said ladybug.
Absolutely. Yep. Our final sponsor is C B D Vets Australia. Listeners might recall that we interviewed Dr. Christopher Lee. Mm-hmm. , the veterinary director of C B D Vets Australia backing episode 22 about the use of C B D specifically in pets. Mm-hmm. . Then we interviewed Sarah Kiki a couple episodes later in episode 25. So Sarah is the head pharmacist for both C B D Vets Australia and a new online initiative called CA Connect. So if you wanna learn more about that,
go and listen to the show. Mm. So that was really fascinating. I really enjoyed talking to Sarah. Likewise. C. B D Vets Australia are an Australian company that support Australian vets with the education and the access to legal medicinal cannabis treatments for our pets. So, again, you know, we've said this before, one of our French Bulldogs Oppi mm-hmm. Has been using C B D source from C B D Vets Australia. Mm-hmm. for decent while now more, definitely more than six months.
Yeah. I'd say more than six months. Yep. With. Really good results. Like everything, it may not be suitable for your dog, but to learn more about CBD Vets Australia and how they can help your pet, definitely check out their website, CBD vets australia.com au. It's full of resources, frequently asked questions. They've got a contact form where you can get in touch with C B D Vets Australia
directly. Mm-hmm. And like I said, to actually see if C B D is an appropriate treatment solution for your pet. Lots of really good sponsors and resources there. Yeah, I agree. So before we jump into the show, considering that you have your own product to talk about as well, and you're gonna talk about one of those, but let's talk about the range just before we leap into the show, which is. Yes, I should sponsor myself so I can, you should. I can add my blurb to the beginning of this show.
Canine Pharmaceuticals is my new supplement range for dogs exclusively. Yes. We may expand that down the track, but now it's just all about the dogs. It was designed because I wasn't happy with the quality of the supplements that were available for me when my dogs really needed it the most. Mm-hmm. . So all the products are based on human grade ingredients, nothing synthetic or artificial, no preservatives.
Everything's therapeutic dosing. A lot of good research behind it, and the quality is absolutely premium. Absolutely. The one great thing that you don't advertise a lot, which I keep getting onto you about, is all the great testimonials that you're getting from people saying, what a magnificent change it's made for their pets. Even one of the N D T F students was raving about your products the other day and just said it helped save a dog. That.
Was great to hear. And yeah, appreciate all the testimonials that I do get in, and at some point I will summarize them and get them out there for everyone else to be inspired by just the benefits that, you know, you can see with your dog in the changes.
Noelle's, hands down, one of the best in her field for natural therapies, and especially all the research that she's been putting into her pet product range, but she's an absolutely terrible marketer, , and she doesn't back herself because she's too busy studying the next thing that she wants to launch that she doesn't think about. Oh, maybe I should put these glowing compliments that people are giving me about my products. Well, you can't be good at everything. See, I'm humble. No, that's true.
I'm humble enough to know that marketing and sales is not my strong point. Mm-hmm. . But you're trying. I am still a learning curve when you start new businesses. So canine ceuticals, jump onto the website and check out the range. That's C A N I N E C E U T I C A L s.com au. Mm-hmm. . And if you've got any questions about any of the products or how they might apply to your dog, please just email me at [email protected] au. And you're gonna talk about one of those products today? I am.
Because I love this compound or this ingredient long before Canine Ceuticals came to be. And it's one of the reasons, again, that it's part of my range because I've had so much success over the last few years in my clinical practice with my human clients and more recently with my dog clients. So I'm like, why wouldn't I have this under the Canine Ceuticals banner? Mm-hmm. , one of my favorite products is parol, ethanol amide. That can actually be said, I think in the states now,
let me see if I can get this right. They pronounce it, it depends where you put the accent. Mm-hmm. in Australia, most practitioners say parol, ethanol, amide, which is p e a. Mm-hmm. as the abbreviation. But you can also say parol, ethanol olamide or ethanol amide. That's like aluminum and aluminum basically. I mean, who would call aluminum? Aluminum, honestly, Americans. Well, let's not go down that path. .
Before we get into this, before we actually kick off onto this, I wanna endorse this product myself. Because when I went to the United States in 2020, and I was on the board of directors at that time for the International Association of Canine Professionals, the I A C P, they're then President Melanie Benware. I was staying at her house. Her and her husband Jason were very kind and they opened their house to me and
took me in. And when I went over there, Narelle said, because of this COVID thing going on, I'm gonna give you a jar of this P to take over. She gave me the dosage rates and said, you should take some every morning and blah, blah, blah. As it stands, I'm not sure if I Absolutely, because it was unconfirmed at the moment. There wasn't enough information, or there wasn't any tests that they could do right at that point in time. But I got something like a covid sort of symptom.
It was either covid or it was the flu, but it, it was pretty aggressive. And it knocked me on mask for about two and a half weeks. One of the things that gave me relief was I was dosing up on the P while I was over there. And I think that was only the one of the things that actually gave me relief and helped me up able to sleep and give me some pain relief and everything like that. Mm-hmm. I had no appetite at all, but I was actually looking forward to the P 'cause it actually tasted nice.
Mm-hmm. And I felt like it actually gave me relief from the pain of the symptoms that I was having over there. So I am a personal advocate of it. Mm-hmm. Because I've tried it on myself. I believe it worked. As we go through the show, we'll talk about why it was potentially helpful for you in that situation. But I do have to say the mention of P for use with Covid symptom is in no way an endorsement that P is a treatment or a cure. for covid practitioners need to be careful.
No, but it's not about that. It was about the pain relief, not about, yeah. The treatment for Covid. You didn't say, well. We didn't know about. It. We didn't know about it and we didn't know what, what the symptoms were or anything like that. But you just said, in case you do have any problems or you know, like catch anything when you're over there, take this because I believe it will help. It's just really important that I'm clear with the listeners about that.
So Yeah, I understand that. I know that you've got a ethical obligation. Obligation mm-hmm. to put that Yes. Clause in there. I, I agree. And I know that you didn't tell me it was gonna be a cure for Covid. So let's get into the nuts and bolts of what P is all about. Mm-hmm. . So whenever I say P, it's not just the letter P, it's p e a as an abbreviation for parol, ethanol, amide. Mm-hmm. , who wants to say that? Mouthful a million times. Especially. Being you just say P, that's it.
Hmm. As I've sort of alluded to, it's a natural health molecule and it's been studied for over 80 years now. So it's been around for a while. It's made naturally in the body, but it's also found in various foods. Things like eggs, milk, cheese, meats, peanuts, human breast milk, Letson, and you know, quite a few other things. And the way P was discovered was really interesting. I love origin stories of health things.
'Cause that's what you do. Yeah. Well it was like with sb, the sacrifices bia, you know, it's just happened that this switched on researcher, you know, actually tested what the people were drinking at the time and isolated sb and now that's a huge worldwide success for gut issues.
Mm-hmm and with P, again, a researcher back in the late 1930s, early 1940s, he noticed that the incidence of rheumatic fever was hiring undernourished children whose diets were low in eggs as compared to children who had more eggs or egg powder added to their diet. So, you know, that really baffled him, like why would this group of children getting rheumatic fever in this other group? Not. So he looked into it and ended up isolating pee from the egg yolk. So the research took off from there.
And other early research in sort of the late 1960s, early 1970s highlighted the benefits of P against the influenza virus. Mm-hmm . So this is what ties back in with, you know, your experience with P. Mm-hmm. But the study showed even back then that P was able to significantly, and when I say significantly, that means statistically significantly reduced flu symptoms like fever, headaches, sore throat, muscle pain, cough fatigue. They showed that it reduced the days lost to illness.
And the best bit was that there were no side effects. And the studies that were done also found that it was an effective influenza uh, prophylaxis. So it was a great preventative as well. Hmm. Hang on, let's just circle back for a second. When you were saying eggs and powdered eggs, who eats powdered eggs? I'm not sure, but that's what they did. They gave, to test the theory, they gave certain children egg yolk powder and they didn't get sick as often.
So that's the thing. Is it like an egg yolk powder? It must. . I was stuck on that point when you were talking about powdered eggs. 'cause I don't think I've ever heard of powdered eggs before. I'm sure you can. And I like, I'm sure you can get powdered egg. There you go. I was unaware that you would actually fry or boil an egg and then dehydrate it and powder it. Well, anything goes doesn't it really? It does. It does. So coming back to P. Yes.
It's what's referred to as an endocannabinoid light compound. So it falls under the umbrella of the endocannabinoid system in the body. And you know, most people are aware that the body has multiple systems that help to regulate and maintain like normal homeostasis or balance in the body.
So things like the nervous system, the circulatory system, you know, immune endocrine, gastrointestinal system, just like these other systems that we're more familiar with the endocannabinoid system is a really important biological system that regulates imbalances like a really wide range of different physiological functions in the body. And the way that P works with the endocannabinoid system is by regulating bin signaling but indirectly activating cannabinoid receptors.
So it's those cannabinoid receptors that C B D for example, like C B D oil mm-hmm. That we're using on op. Yep. It targets those receptors directly to get the benefits. Whereas P comes at it from a different angle and affects something else which then affects the receptors. But you end up with the same downstream benefits overall. Okay. So it's sort of working on that, those same pathways that C B D oil is working on, which is why as we go through,
you'll see why it's so great for things like chronic pain. Mm-hmm. Any imbalances in the endocannabinoid system, whether it's in US or our dogs, has been shown to contribute to the developments of lots of really different pathological conditions and disorders. And what makes peace so unique is that it's naturally made by the body whenever the body feels threatened. So for example, P levels increase when like us or our dogs are subject to stress.
And that could be psychological stress or physical stress if we suffer from infections, whether that's bacterial or viral, various forms of inflammation, trauma, allergies, pain, heart or kidney disease and even obesity. 'cause a lot of people don't realize obesity is a very inflammatory state for the body to be in an adipose tissue or fat tissue pretty much acts like an endocrine organ itself. And it can release a lot of hormones but also a lot of inflammatory compounds
pretty amazing. When our body feels threatened, literally it makes more P to deal with the threat. Did. You say what part of the body makes P. It's present all over the body, right? Pretty much in all parts of the body. P is our go-to molecule. It's our dog's go-to molecule to restore balance in the body and to maintain
really good cellular health. Unfortunately, due to our current lifestyles, both for us and our dogs, you know, we just constantly bombarded with lots of different, you know, whether it's external or internal stresses on a daily basis. So external can be a lot of environmental toxins and all that sort of thing. And evidence suggests that when this happens, the body's natural production of P simply can't keep up with demand.
So in these instances, what the research is now showing that giving our dogs or giving ourselves a supplemental form of P has been shown to bridge that gap between what the body needs and what it can actually produce under those stressful conditions. Mm-hmm. To provide the health benefit, it's particularly in terms of the research, the benefits really revolve around inflammation, pain, like joint pain, nerve pain and allergy symptoms.
And I'm gonna sort of dig into each of those in a little bit more detail. But we really do like even some of the papers, you know, that are out there about pee, you know, some of them start off by saying the world we live in and our lifestyles are so toxic now, like, you know, ultra processed food, um, you know, all the chemicals, whether it's coming from the air, the water, the food, all the stress in our lives. 'cause remember stress has a significant effect on health as well.
Our bodies are just constantly battling to stay in balance, but we've gotta remember our bodies. There is an onslaught into our bodies every day. And anything that pulls the body outta balance puts a stress on the body to try and pull everything back. Mm. Into that homeostatic sort of balance. But let's look at the few of the main areas that P targets. And when I talk about these different areas, just as applicable to humans as it is to dogs.
I mean probably lots of other species, but I don't know about those. Chronic pain management is a major challenge, whether it's in human medicine or veterinary medicine. I see this a lot in my clinic. It has a significant impact on quality of life for people when they're in chronic pain. People who have never experienced chronic pain, I'm one of them, but I just can't imagine how that feels day to day to sort of live in that
state. And depending on its origin, you know, chronic pain can be classified as inflammatory, which we might see in the various musculoskeletal conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, hip and elbow dysplasia, things like that. Or it can be neuropathic which relates to the nerves that can be any disease that arrives through injury to the central or the peripheral nervous systems.
So when we are looking, let's start with say neuropathic pain, it's actually really like one of the most difficult chronic pain conditions to treat because any damage caused by long-term compression or inflammation of the nerves, it actually allows the nerves to continue to send that pain signal to the brain even after the original cause of the pressure on the nerves has been removed.
So it's called pain memory and it can lead to pain sensitization where the threshold of pain receptors to stimuli is reduced. So even a really light touch on the affected area is gonna induce the sensation of pain long after the original insult. Mm-hmm. dunno if I explained that well, but that's one of the reasons why nerve pain and dealing with nerve pain is so complex because there's just this cascade of inflammatory compounds that get
released. And one of the sort of main cells that does that, and we're spoken about this in relation to MA cells. So Mars cells in the body are type of immune cell, but when they degranulate or break down, they release histamine. Oh, the histamine, oh yes. Episode. Yep. So they release histamine, but they also release a lot of other really inflammatory compounds that just exacerbate and sensitize the nerves even more.
So when researchers have looked at all the different various pain conditions and the different models of pain, they've actually seen a significant decrease in plasma or blood P levels. And by increasing those blood P levels, it was shown to lessen the perception of pain and to increase that pain threshold, which is really good if that's what you're experiencing.
But this is another little fun fact when I was looking into P, it's been recently discovered that certain families that have inherited pain insensitivity, so these are people that feel absolutely no physical pain, which might, you know, people might go, oh, how awesome would that be to feel no pain, but it's a really dangerous state to live in. Absolutely. Especially with infection and.
Someone couldn't, I don't know, you could cut yourself really badly and if you didn't and bleed out and bleed out, but if you didn't physically see, you wouldn't know it because you wouldn't feel it. Yep. So it's actually quite a serious condition or you know, genetic condition to have. But what they found is that for those people, they've got a genetic variation in the enzyme that breaks down P and some of it's relative. So basically all of the P that their body produces naturally,
it doesn't get broken down. So they've always got super high levels of P mm-hmm. , which is giving them all that absolute pain relief. So like scores more than the average person. Yeah. So they're saying that's part of why these people feel no pain because the P that would normally get broken down just isn't get broken down. So whether it, I mean I don't know how it works, but whether it just keeps building up. Fascinating can become almost superhuman by having a high gradient of P in your body.
That's it. Hmm. And the thing is like the research demonstrates that P has a clear pain blocking effect, but because it works differently in the body as compared to say conventional like steroidal or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, he can relieve pain without the common side effects that people might experience from, you know, taking pain medication. But the good thing is too, it can also be used in conjunction with other pain meds and there's no
interactions. And I'll probably touch on that a little bit more as we go along. Another really great thing about P when it comes to treating chronic pain, and this is really important, is that it doesn't develop pharmacological tolerance. So it doesn't lose effectiveness over time as you might see with something like opioid medication. So you know, with opioids, the longer you take it, the more you have to take to get the same pain relief mm-hmm. effect.
And that can be hugely problematic for people and can lead to, you know, lots of nasty side effects and not a good place to be in. You don't develop tolerance to be so, you know, you don't need an increasing levels to get the same effect. But it's also been shown to delay the development of tolerance of things like morphine. So like I said, you might develop a tolerance to it and need more and more for the same effect. But by combining it with P they've found that that delays that tolerance from
developing. Okay. That's really important for people who are reliant on pain medication. Mm-hmm. And there was a study that showed with oxycodone that when they gave, so there's a level of, you know, there's always a, a level of a drug whereby below that level it doesn't have much effect and above it it it has an effect.
So they gave people sort of a level that wasn't expected to have any pain relieving effects on its own, but when they combined it with P at that same low level, it did have a pain relieving effect. So P was sort of acting synergistically with the drug. Mm-hmm to get better benefits. To summarize the literature, some of the conditions for which P has been shown to be beneficial and provide pain relieving effects across both human and animal studies are things like spinal cord injury.
And I've had our French bulldog ladybug on P ever since she hurt her spine a couple of years ago. And now that our, one of our older shepherds is getting on in years, I've got him on P now just for support his aging body as well. Yep. Sciatic nerve injuries, diabetic neuropathic pain coupled tunnel syndrome. So again, any of those nerve compression syndromes,
neuropathic pain that's associated with things like ms. Lower back pain, chemotherapy induced pain, i b s pain, post-surgical pain, fibromyalgia failed back surgery, osteoarthritic pain, migraine and headache pain. So many people get migraines and headaches.
Vitamin D deficiency induced pain, pelvic pains, women who experience endometriosis or dysmenorrhea, it's been shown to relieve pain in interstitial cystitis and bladder pain shingles and a couple of more random studies show that it was beneficial for reducing the pain of burning mouth syndrome and myasthenia gravis. What's. Burning mouth syndrome?
I have to look that up too. But it was like, it's in a, a few of the review papers on the, the beneficial effects of pee, but it's literally an ongoing or recurrent burning in the mouth with no obvious cause. Hmm. So there you go. If you have an unusual ongoing burning sensation in your mouth and you don't know why, maybe try some pee. It's been shown to be effective just for that. Very good. Yeah, that blows me away.
Like there's so many conditions that are covered in the research that show quite definitively that P can have a beneficial effect for people suffering pain from those states. Moving on to the next main area, and this is more relevant to my dog clients, although any humans experiencing allergies feel free to jump on board. But when we're talking about allergies, most people understand that antihistamines work by preventing histamine release
from Mars cells. And you know, I've sort of already said this, but you know, when Mars cells get triggered they release compounds such as histamine and prostaglandins and other inflammatory compounds. They also communicate with other key players in the inflammatory process, which sets off this whole inflammatory cascade. And because Mars cells are present pretty much all over the body, but they're mostly concentrated where the internal body meets the
external. So sinus cavities, the mucus membranes of sort of the mouth and the nose, things like that. So that's why, you know, if you're exposed to allergens, let's say pollens a really easy example, people tend to get watery eyes and sneezing because those mast cells that are in those mucus membranes of the sinus cavities release all the histamine. And we get all affected by that.
A lot of mast cells line the gastrointestinal tract, which is why dogs and people might experience diarrhea and vomiting if they've got like food intolerance, ORs or allergies and things like that in connective tissue that's quite close to the skin surface. Which is why we get a lot of redness and itchiness and lesions, particularly in dogs when they have a histamine release due to allergens. Mm-hmm basically due to its powerful ability to stabilize those MA cells.
P has really potent antihistamine properties and can be effective for all forms of allergies. Whether it's airborne food contact without the side effects. So you know, a lot of the, particularly the first generation antihistamines are the ones that make you drowsy. Yep. P doesn't have those side effects, but if we focus in even more on dogs, most people will be familiar with canine atopic dermatitis.
So it's like ex-marine dogs. Mm-hmm. , it's a genetically predisposed sort of inflammatory condition. Huge prevalence worldwide. And it's a really, you know, it's a primary reason why a lot of people take their dogs to the vet for the itchiness that comes with, let's abbreviate it to cad. So C A d, canine atopic dermatitis. But there was a study done only back in 2015 that assessed the efficacy of P in cad.
So the main things that they were looking at in the study were the level of pruritus or itchiness and then they're also looking at changes in skin lesions and quality of life after only eight weeks of treatment with P in these dogs, 80% of dogs showed improvement by week four and 83% by week eight, which the authors reported was similar to what they would see with mainstream medications and better than a lot of other mainstream medications. So that's really good.
96% of the dogs were classified as having moderate to severe pruritus at the beginning and that dropped to 39% of dogs by week eight. Mm-hmm. So that's huge. I mean if you've got a dog with severe itchiness, like anyone who's lived with an itchy dog knows just how it can send you crazy. And the dog. And. The dog. So any reductions really good with that.
35% of dogs showed a 50% or greater reduction in itchiness at the end of the study and 30% of the dogs reach what they considered a normal level of itchiness by week eight. Mm-hmm. . So in other words, their level of itchiness was comparable to a dog without skin problems and certainly wouldn't be thinking of taking a dog to the vet. So pretty huge after only eight weeks on the P. So in terms of the skin lesions, they saw a significant improvement in skin lesions in 80% of the dogs.
And those dogs that had the worst lesions saw the greatest benefits overall. They said 62% of dogs reached a lesion index score that put them in the pretty much normal category. And they also found significantly improved quality of life for the dogs in the study with around 45% of the dogs reaching a quality of life described for healthy animals. So again, really, really important when we, we all want our dogs and ourselves to have a good quality of life.
Itching dogs that sort of are breaking their skin and causing secondary infections and all of that is not, not nice. On Instagram there's a vet called tactical veterinarian. Mm-hmm , they post, I dunno if it's a he or she's, I'll say they, they post posts from time to time of some pretty gruesome stuff, which they put up warnings and on the videos and the photos, if people wanna have a look what vets have to experience.
And there was one a while ago, and I know it wasn't just related to just itchy skin, but it was a dog with an ear infection where the dog had almost lacerated its own ear off with its back foot due to scratching its ear. I think when people underestimate how determined a dog can be, humans do it too. I mean I've, I remember when I was a kid and I used to get eczema and I've scratched myself so red raw on, on the inside of my arms Mm.
That I had welts and scabs from tearing the skin off my own arm. Sometimes when you're in that much pain and that much frustration is setting in, you don't realize how much damage you're doing to yourself. So that was pretty gruesome. The picture they showed of the dog, you know, almost taking its entire ear off from the, from the base, um, of just scratching its ear. Poor thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's terrible. So interesting to hear about what the relief that Pete can bring
from scratching incidents. Once again, you are not saying that it's a complete cure for things like that when there's other things going on and when you've got some pretty significant ear bugs going on that need to be treated. But nonetheless, I've still seen dogs scratch themselves. Absolutely red raw from fleas and dermatitis and so forth. Every dog is like every person, individual and treatment, you know,
needs to take that into account. But the other thing, just while we're on it, people need to remember like there's no, there's never a magic cure. Mm-hmm So it's not about just giving one new supplement and not changing anything else. If we talk about dogs in the dog's environment, so if you've got a super itchy dog with lots of redness and lesions and just hurting itself from itching, just giving p yes it's part of the solution and it will help.
But you need to do a lot of other things in that dog's world just get the best outcome. Supplements and pharmaceuticals are different for different species. Mm-hmm Like even if they're, let's say we're talking about humans for argument's sake, you can have one drug or one natural supplement that you can take that one person will give rave reviews to it and the next person will say didn't really experience much change. So they are different.
They're still different nonetheless. Yeah. But when you're starting to get statistics into the high eighties with good results, that's pretty profound. Yeah. And. Look, I love that paper on canine atopic dermatitis I must say. Like they got amazing results in eight weeks. My clinical experience is that it often takes a little bit longer than that. Mm-hmm. again that's because every dog's different. Yes. And they have different diets and different environments, things like that.
So we've spoken about chronic pain, we've spoken about allergies. Just to touch on a couple of other things that sort of pop up regularly in clinic is digestive disorder. Mm-hmm. . So lots of dogs and people suffering from gut issues. So the gastrointestinal tract, it actually has like a really dense concentration of those cannabinoid receptors that help to maintain homeostasis and to regulate gut motility and the secretion of digestive enzymes.
So it's when these systems go wrong that you start to see intestinal inflammation and diseases like inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome. And studies have shown that P supplementation, it actually exerts an anti-inflammatory effect in the gut as well as having a positive influence on the gut microbiome, which is really good. And the way it works in the gut is primarily to improve intestinal permeability. So it's basically reducing leaky gut. Mm-hmm.
, which is really important. And the way it does that is by, so we've got these tight junctions sort of lining our gastric mucosa and our dogs have the same thing. So it sort of locks those tight junctions closer together so the gut's less porous. And then you can't get those large compounds of whether it's pathogenic bacteria or large undigested food particles or whatever, um, you know, toxic compound that shouldn't be in the bloodstream. It stops it from getting into the bloodstreams.
And there was actually a study that showed that lower levels of P is seen in animals with acute intestinal disorders and that dogs affected with chronic diarrhea. It was shown that by giving them P, it reduced what's called the canine I B D activity index score. Mm-hmm and normalized the intestinal motility, which reduced the frequency in the severity of the diarrhea. That's early information coming through, but it looks like pee could also be good for helping dogs with diarrhea. Okay.
So that never hurts either. No, that's good to know. Another area that's not super strong with the research as compared to say the chronic pain and the allergies and the gut health for pee, but really interesting and I know a lot of listeners have dogs with kidney disease. So P'S naturally found in the kidneys and the levels change in response to kidney damage.
So studies have found that P supplementation decreases renal dysfunction and any injury to the kidneys that are triggered by ischemia or reperfusion. And it's also been found that P can protect the renal blood vessels due to its ability to reduce, let's just call them inflammatory compounds, which is really good.
But what's even more fascinating is that it's been shown that you can use less P. So lower doses of P if you combine it with a natural antioxidant compounds such as silly marin and silly Marin is one of the key active constituents in milk thistle, otherwise known as St Mary's thistle, which we also have under the canine ceuticals range. Fancy that. But there's actually research that shows you can still get like really protective effect of pea on the kidneys at a lower dose if you combine it with
milk thistle. Okay. So keep that in mind. And if we look just more broadly now at the anti-inflammatory and the antioxidant benefits of P, as I've said, the main way that P reduces inflammation is by preventing the release of damaging pro-inflammatory molecules in the body.
But the way it does this is it neutralizes free radicals by binding to them and preventing them from pinging ponging around our body destroying cells and D N A, and this is really important when it comes to our neurons 'cause our neurons in the brain are super sensitive and highly, highly prone to oxidative damage, which is why P is particularly effective in treating nervous system disorders.
So if we think about how P accumulates in the brain tissue, it does this like following injury of the brain and early studies are showing that P has neuroprotective properties. So neuroinflammation is now regarded as a key aspect in the pathogenesis of pretty much all neurodegenerative disorders. So things like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, and just like a whole range of those cognitive sort of behavioral and mood
disorders. So if we think about our dogs, like this is particularly important for our senior dogs who are more likely to experience canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which just think of that like Alzheimer's disease in humans. But they're similar to the point where researchers are now saying that dogs could be a really good model for studying the pathological process of Alzheimer's disease and any new treatment approaches for Alzheimer's disease in
humans. Now that's good in one way, bad in the other if they're doing animal experimentation, but that's how similar our dogs are with us when it comes to neurological functions. Out of everything that I've said, oils ain't oils. So not every P product is the same or of the same quality. And this is what I'm really passionate about when,
particularly when it comes to clients in clinic. But you know, dogs and this is what I vase can pharmaceuticals around, like having quality ingredients that actually will do what they're designed to do. Mm-hmm bioavailability matters a lot, particularly when it comes to peas. So pea is a lipid or a fat molecule, which means that it has poor solubility and bioavailability in the body because the body's over 60% water and in certain parts of the body you're up to 80%
water. So to overcome this obstacle of like really low bioavailability or poor absorption, special manufacturing processes are required to ensure that the P can actually get into the tissues and into the cells to do the good work. What's called ultra micronized. P is a pharmaceutical grade formulation and this is what's in the Cayman Ceuticals P plus. Mm-hmm , it's got more than 99% of the P has particle sizes below six micron. Just think like really, really small.
And this is what helps to improve its effectiveness in treating pain and all those other conditions that we've mentioned. So if anyone's looking to buy P, you really do need to make sure that it says ultra micronized on the container. And as I've mentioned like because P is fat soluble, another way to ensure optimal uptake is by combining it with a healthy fat source such as sunflower lettin. So which further serves to enhance absorption into the body.
And that's because sunflower lettin acts as a natural emulsifying agent. P'S a fat molecule, the body's mostly water, so you know, water and fat don't like to hang out together. Mm-hmm very well. The sunflower lettin, one of its arms loves fat and the other arm loves water. So it grabs onto both and pulls them together and they journey throughout the body together. And then the pea can go where it wouldn't have gone before because it's got the lettin with it to get into certain cells.
Interesting how symbiosis works with certain things, isn't it? It is. And I use sunflower ersin in the canine ceuticals P plus. Another reason why I love sunflower lettin is it's rich in the nutrient choline which supports nerve and cellular health. It's also really rich in phospholipids which promote the uptake of omega threes in the body. Mm-hmm. , they're also really important for gut health and protecting the gut lining.
Literally every cell in our body has what's called a phospholipid biolayer. So the phospholipids in the Sunil Ersin help to promote cellular health in that regard as well. So that's bioavailability. Always look for ultra micronized P for anything that you're buying. Mm-hmm . And just to sort of wrap it up and finish off talking about the safety of P, so P'S had a really long track record of extremely safe use in human medicine and veterinary medicine and it's very well tolerated.
So you don't expect to see side effects from P. It's not to say that a small percentage may not get some gastrointestinal upset, but it's the exception rather than the rule. Mm-hmm. . So it is a small percentage. Yep. And unlike other chronic pain medications, yeah, definitely no serious side effects. There's no adverse drug drug interaction. So that's huge for me as a practitioner.
If I've got either dog clients or human clients that are on like a heap of medications, I've gotta be so careful as to what supplements I prescribe in case they interact with the medication and they can cause either higher levels or lower levels than the person or the dog actually should be getting. Mm-hmm. . So P has no interactions with medications.
If you're on chronic pain meds or if your dog's on pain meds or anything else you can safely give P. The other good safety aspect of P is that it's metabolism in the body is independent of the kidney and the liver. So again, if someone or a dog has kidney or liver problems, that's not gonna be an issue in giving them pee as well. I guess having said that, never ever change your medications or stop medications without consulting your
doctor or your vet. Sounds like sage advice to me. It is never go, oh wow P let me just stop everything I'm taking and just take p. No, you don't do it. You've gotta be sensible about it. Yep. And to give a little bit of a case study just before we finish, P tends to work very slowly in the body and the human research indicates that it's best to give a loading dose. So you'd give like double the dose for the first say four weeks and then you'd reduce it to a maintenance dose.
They haven't said that in the dog research literature, which is why I haven't put it on the canine ceuticals label. But there's no reason if your dog has been suffering from chronic either pain conditions or allergy conditions or skin issues that you couldn't give a loading dose for the first two weeks. Mm-hmm. , which would just be double what the label dose recommends and then bring it back
down to the label dose going forward from there. But P, because it's working at a cellular level, it is a slower acting compound. So in this day and age we expect instant relief. Mm-hmm. , you know, we wanna take a drug and then within 24 hours we feel amazing. P'S not that compound. And if let's say you are in chronic pain, and I'll give a case study of a like a human that was on very high doses of opioids for chronic pain management.
So the approach we took there was not to change his medication dose in the first instance, but to add in the P. And because P takes a little while to build up in the body, we had him on just the pee for eight weeks and then working in with his gp, we then started to taper down the opioids very slowly and that was the first time he could remember for years and years where he could manage his pain with lower doses of opioids. But it was a very slow process and done in conjunction with a medical
professional. So again, everyone's situation is unique, but that's an example of how you might use it. That's the story of P. Mm-hmm. And if you are interested in reading more about it, you can jump onto the Canine Ceuticals website and look for p a plus is the product that I sell. If you've got any questions about how P might benefit your dog or even you, 'cause I'm a human naturopath, you can send me an email at [email protected] au.
And before we do the sign off, tell people where they can find you on Instagram, Facebook, and any other social media platforms that you've got. Canine Ceuticals on Instagram and Facebook. Go and like my pages there and follow me there. Mm-hmm. for lots of tips and updates on health and new products that are always coming out. I was gonna say new products that you're releasing. Yeah. Particularly for our fresh food feeders and raw food feeders out there.
We're developing a nice range of organic freeze dried organ meats. Mm-hmm. Which are a great addition to add variety and just to make sure your dog's getting everything they need in a home prepared diet. Yep. Particularly for people who might be vegetarian or vegan or just don't like cutting up squishy organ meats. Mm-hmm. , I mean, it's freeze dried. It's the closest you can get to fresh organ meats nutritionally without dealing with fresh organ meats. Mm-hmm. . So yeah, check it out. Okay.
In addition to the canines website, you can find me at natural health and nutrition.com au. If you are interested in making comments or asking questions about the podcast, you can jump onto the Natural Health for People in Pets Facebook page. Okay. So there you go. That's all your social medias,
all your website addresses and so forth. So if people need to contact you, they can do so through any one of those services, through Canine Twos itself or through Natural Health and Nutrition, or if they want their podcast information, they can just go to Natural Health for people and pets. That's it. Lots of ways to find me. Terrific. Okay, thanks. Thanks everyone.