Realfoodology - Guide to Canine Herbalism and Natural Remedies | Rita Hogan

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

EP. 172: Ever wonder how you can best support your pet's health naturally? We're back with renowned canine herbalist and host of the hit podcast Dogs are Individuals, Rita Hogan, who provides knowledgeable insights on a range of pet health concerns. Rita offers a closer look at heartworm prevention, tick and flea management, and even touches upon the significance of filtering our pet's water. We also delve into the significance of a species-appropriate diet for dogs, and how the power of essential oils can aid in their wellbeing. Topics Discussed: 00:00 Natural Pet Health and Remedies 07:29 Canine Herbalism for Pet Wellbeing 19:44 Alternative Heartworm Prevention and Treatment 30:22 Natural Remedies for Fleas and Ticks 42:30 Essential Oils for Dogs 57:02 Optimizing Dog Nutrition and Health 01:10:12 Importance of Filtering Tap Water 01:18:09 Herbalist's Advice for Dog Owners Check Out Rita Hogan Canine Herbalist: Online Instagram Podcast The Flea Course Links Mentioned: https://animaleo.com https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com Ambers Natural Susan Thixton Feeding Dogs: The Science Behind The Dry Versus Raw The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Canine Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer https://greenjuju.com/products Clearly Filtered Pitcher Sponsored By: PALEOVALLEY for 15% off go to https://paleovalley.com/promos/realfoodology Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off BiOptimizers BIOptimizers' Black Friday Mega Sale is happening right now and lasting throughout the entire month of November! The biggest discount you can get and amazing gifts with purchase are available only on my page bioptimizers.com/realfoodology with a code REALFOODOLOGY Cured Nutrition www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% off Wildway https://wildwayoflife.com Code REALFOODOLOGY will give you 20% off your first order Check Out Courtney: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson Edited By: Mike Frey

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. What I find interesting is when I was finishing up my book a few months ago, I was in this cabin and I was stuck with regular television. Every other commercial was a pharmaceutical. And what scared me is they would say the side effects on the bottom of them. And almost all of them included stroke, cancers, and death. Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan, and today's guest is a repeat guest. I had her on Belitos last year, so I would highly encourage you guys to go and listen to that episode because it is amazing.

We covered different ground than we go over today. Today's guest is Rita Hogan. She is a canine herbalist, and if you do not know what that is, definitely listen to the beginning of the episode. She explains it in full detail. This was a really amazing jam-packed episode that I found so incredibly fascinating. I felt like I could have talked to Rita for four hours about all this because we dive all into natural pet health. So she specifically works with dogs. So this is targeted towards dogs specifically. We talk about heartworm. We talk about ticks. We talk about fleas. We also talk about all the natural remedies that you can use in order to combat heartworm, ticks, fleas,

also different areas where you should be more concerned about them for your dogs versus other areas that are not really a huge concern. We go over basically every remedy in the book regarding all of these different concerns. It was just, it was so incredible. It was so jam-packed and it made me feel really good about what I'm doing for my dogs because I don't give my dogs the traditional heartworm and flea medication. And you guys will hear more about it in the episode about why. But essentially the gist of it is that those tiny pills that we're feeding our dogs are pesticides, unfortunately. And I am really concerned about the overall effects on our dog's health when they take something like that. But don't fret. We have a ton of different resources and a bunch of

different remedies that you can use. And also anything that she mentions in this podcast, because I know there was a lot of information, don't stress because we're going to put all of the links in the show notes for you guys. She also came out with a flea management course that's totally free. So we'll leave a link in the show notes for that as well. We also talk a little bit about species appropriate diet. Are essential oils really bad for dogs? Are they toxic for them? We talk about filtering your water for your pets and adding back in minerals. So I feel like we really covered a lot of ground here and it was so fascinating. So anyways, I won't waste any more of your time. I feel like we should just get into

the episode. As always, if you are loving the podcast, if you could take a moment to rate and review it, it means so much to me and it really, really helps the show. Also, if you're loving the episode and you want to share it on Instagram, tag me at Real Foodology. I see all of them and I really appreciate your support. So thank you so much, guys. Love you. I have been a longtime supporter and lover of Organifi and I'm so excited to announce that they are rolling out a special product line just for kids. They're committed to delivering the same level, a level of quality nutrition and a yummy experience even picky kiddos will love. To kick off this line, they're going to be launching a kids greens called Easy Greens, as well as an immunity product called Protect. The kids greens is a nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides

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So again, the offer is only available onG-H.com slash realfoodology. Do not miss an opportunity to improve your wellbeing and your life. Brita, I'm so excited to have you back on the podcast. The last conversation we had was really insightful and really helpful for a lot of people. I still get messages to this day after they listen to that podcast, because I think this is a really important conversation. A lot of people obviously are looking for answers and more natural ways to take care of their pets because there's not a lot of information about it, you know, and our pets are suffering and, you know, they're not eating great diets and probably not living as long as, you know, they should. And so I'm very happy to

have you on today. You know, I get a lot of feedback from that podcast as well. Oh, good. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, let's give everyone just like a little bit of a refresher if they haven't listened to it. Although if you're listening to this new episode, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the other one because there's some amazing information that we're not going to go over

today. But if you want to give people just a little bit of a background about what a canine herbalist is, how long you've been in the field and yeah, what that means and what you do. So I work, I'm a clinical canine herbalist. So I do a lot of consulting. I do a lot of formulation, teaching, writing. I'm a published author. And so I have a lot of eggs in my basket. But a canine herbalist works with dogs through an herbal lens. So I use a blend of flower essences, regular dried herbs that are put in food, tinctures, glycerates, essential oils sometimes. And I also work with like stem cells of plants and just kind of plants in any capacity and help dogs find kind of balance with nature and help their humans calm down and find kind of root-based answers to

chronic disease. But as a herbalist, I don't treat disease. I balance out the body. So I leave that to veterinarians. Yeah. Well, I mean, I have to tell you, just speaking from personal experience, and we've talked about this, but you have helped me so much with my dog, Turkey, over the years, just for little various things that he's dealt with. It really resonated with me when you were like,

help calm down the owners, because I've had several times where I'm like, I'm freaking out, what's going on with him? And every time, you have really, really immensely helped me. And we got connected through a good friend of mine who my friend is like, Rita has literally saved my dog like four times. So I just want to give people context, you know, cause I feel like sometimes there's not a lot of grace for like, I feel like everyone is either like for herbalism or like really against it,

where they're like, oh, that doesn't work. You know, and they're just so like pro the medical system. Cause we see this too, you know, in with humans as well, but I've really believed that there's a time and a place for it and it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Right. Like we're not saying that you have to go, you know, live in the woods and like never give your dog any medication or anything like that. But I've seen firsthand what you do and the herbs that you use and how they really have an amazing effect on the dog. And they really work. They really work. Yeah.

I mean, you know, one of my goals is to get herbalism, you know, before I leave this planet, to have herbalism integrated into veterinary medicine. And to teach, to give veterinarians who have no experience in herbalism. Some of them have experience in traditional Chinese medicine, pill-based herbal medicine. So they're small little round pills and little tablets. Mostly vets who practice acupuncture get certification in that type of medicine. So, you know, there is a small drip, but, you know, veterinarians definitely need the tools and the understanding and they don't have that. And that's based on their education and they have to actually go out and seek it out for continuing education. And there's a lot of movement in that area. I know like

there's a lot of like race credits, which veterinarians can get for like learning how to feed a more like lower processed diet, minimally processed diet, which would be also referred to as a fresh food diet. And so there's a lot of language and rhetoric in our world that you have to use, which I find ridiculous. However, I am a team player and I will play the game. But yeah, it's integrative medicine is very important. I mean, pharmaceutical medicine has saved my dog's life a couple of times, especially emergency medicine. But, you know, people need to understand that a great percentage over, I believe, I think it's almost 70% of all pharmaceuticals are based on poisonous plants. So digitalis is one that keeps my mother alive, but it comes from a plant called foxglove that grows on my property.

And, you know, it will kill you but it won't interesting in in that method like the method i don't know how they make digitalis but you know so it it's kind of like you know it's like a shell game yeah i'm so glad you brought this up because i i find this such an really interesting fact is that the majority of pharmaceutical drugs not all of them but the majority of them are either made like you, from a plant extract that already exists in nature or they're mimicking a plant in nature. And I just think that's so important for people to understand because again, like I said earlier, is that I feel like sometimes people just knock it off. They're like, oh, like herbs, whatever, you know, like these don't work, but you have to

understand that a lot of the pharmaceutical drugs are made to mimic these herbs that are already working or that are already doing this in nature. And my philosophy, and I know that you're the same way in this, well, I don't want to speak for you, but I assume because of the field that you're in, but is it, why not try all the natural stuff first? Like, why don't we do the things like, you know, we treat them integratively. We go to the root cause. If your dog is suffering, why don't we change the diet? Let's look at other things. Let's try these herbs that don't really have a negative effect on the body necessarily versus just immediately going to the medications that are going to have side effects.

And again, there's a time and a place. But why are we not at first like exercising all of the things that don't have the side effects and then get to the, you know, the harsher stuff if we really need it. I think that there's a complete disconnect of nature. Yeah. I'm just going to speak for the United States. In the United States, you know, there's a complete disconnect of nature. People don't understand.

And, you know, the crazy thing is it, so I'm 52, my mom's 93, and her mom raised her entire 16-child family on plants. And she wasn't an herbalist, even though right now she'd be an herbalist, be called an herbalist, but she wasn't. It was just what they did, right? And she only had a midwife. So she was connected to nature. And I think that we're coming around

where we're really understanding that what missing our relationship with plants and nature is doing to us. It's causing major amounts of disease just from not being outside. You know, there are people that are literally nature phobic and because of bugs or, you know,

they don't know the plants. They're afraid of nature. They only stay on the path. You know, they don't know the plants, they're afraid of nature. They only stay on the path. You know, they haven't touched a tree since they were born. Like these are types of things that we are understanding that are causing and science-based understanding that are causing illness in us because we're disconnected. We're disconnected from nature and we're disconnected from people. But people need to have the understanding and the tools to use herbs. But what I find interesting is when I was writing, when I was finishing up my book a few months ago, I was in this cabin and I was stuck with like regular television, which I haven't

looked at in forever. And every other commercial was a pharmaceutical. And what scared me is they would say the side effects on the bottom of them. And almost all of them included stroke, cancers, and death. You know, rare side effects, right? Or upping your chances of stroke, cancer, or death. And then, you know, some types of, you know, like different types of ticks in the body were another one that I noticed. You know, I haven't been around those commercials forever, but I noticed like, kind of like across the board,

there were different types of ticks and some of them were say they were permanent. And, you know, those types of rare side effects, which people do, I mean, they're based on And, you know, those types of rare side effects, which people do. I mean, they're based on cases, true cases, getting those side effects. I'm not afraid of a non-toxic herb. Yes. It's not going to give you cancer, stroke, death and permanent nervous system damage.

You know, I mean, with dogs, I use mostly like really non-toxic herbs. And when someone says an herb is toxic, it doesn't mean it's going to kill you. It means that if you take enough of it, you're going to have a negative result. And I use very little of those. And when I do, it's in like tiny little droplets, probably less than five drops, you know, in a very large dog and very for, you know, for a purpose, you know, a purpose, not just nonchalantly. So, you know, I think that the fear of herbal medicine is just in the unknown. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. And that's why I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing, because you're doing a great job of really educating people and showing, you know,

that it's possible and then it really works. Like I said, I mean, I'm, I'm proof. And so is my friend who also has a dog that works with you and both of our dogs are so healthy and you have helped us so many times in various different, you know, issues that we've had over the years with our dogs. And I'm so grateful for that. And, you know, like I said, it really works, but okay. So I, this is like, this is something that I've really been wanting to talk to you about because it became the forefront of my mind again because my boyfriend just got a golden retriever puppy like six months ago. And as they do, when you go to the vet, they start pushing the heartworm meds and the flea and heartworm meds.

And I've never put my dog turkey on them for a multitude of reasons. One, I will tell you flat out, my vet here in California said, your dog does not need this because it's not really an issue where you live. And I want to ask you about that. And then also two is because I'm really concerned about the fact that those pills are a pesticide that the animal is eating. And that is really concerning to me because we know the side effects of pesticides. And as I've talked about this on my Instagram and I've started diving into it for now our golden retriever, I'm curious because I get a lot of questions online. Let's say, well, one, first of all, is that unsafe if I'm living

in an area and I'm not giving him anything for heartworm and fleas? I really want to dive into that. And then also too, what can people do if they really are in like a tick infested or like a flea infested area if they don't want to be giving their dogs these pills? So there's a map of heartworm incidents, like heartworm vectors in the United States. You can look at them and there's also heartworm vectors in, you can find the maps for the rest of the world, actually. And, you know, if you are in a heartworm infested area, you need to look at like risk versus benefit, okay? And for me, being I'm a holistic herbalist, I look at toxic load all the time, okay?

Our dogs, their life expectancy is so low. Like a golden retriever, almost all golden retrievers die of cancer. Why do you think that is, by the way? Because that happened to all of my golden retrievers growing up. Sorry for a side note, but why is that? Because they're breeding dogs that don't have good lines. But you know, dog breeding is a whole different other story.

However, it's not just genetics. It's also, you are not your genes. Like you are not bound to your genetic expression you can change that and food they have proven scientifically that you know what you put in your mouth can change your genetic expression it's a great field of epigenetics but like heart i look at toxic load all the time because i want longevity and you look at know, the benefit outweighs the cost. So the, I would say the number one drug out there for heartworm is ivermectin. And ivermectin does have a history of safety in general, but I am not, I don't give any remedy that my dog doesn't need. And, you know, I have

some skills that a lot of people, other people don't have, but there are resources out there that you can use. With heartworm, I do a testing method. And is it 100%? No, but neither is ivermectin. I did six years of hardcore southern rescue in a high vector heartworm area of Tennessee. And I seen dogs that were on ivermectin get heartworm. So it's, you know, that dog, that drug is not fail-proof either, and neither is Triheart. However, giving ivermectin brings your chances of getting heartworm way, way, way down. I test depending on vector. So in Florida, I would test three or four times a year. And like in Texas, and I would say Minnesota, like the northern parts and like Missouri and, and the like the middle the breadbasket,

pretty much any place besides like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, Georgia, parts of South Carolina, I would test three times a year. For all those states that you just mentioned that you would test three times a year, is that what you're saying? All those states I just mentioned, I would test four times a year. If you're not in those states, I would most likely test three times a year. In California, I would test one time a year. My doctor told me, and we did, we just tested him and he was fine. Yeah. So, you know, it depends on where the

highest vectors are. Now, it's a tricky, you know, situation talking about it, but I'm just going to go with what I know, what my experience is. I've worked with so many dogs with heartworm and got rid of heartworm with herbs. The remedy that you go to the vet is a midicide. Okay. It's arsenic. So the issue there is it lots of cage rest. It can kill your dog. And vets are extremely scared of heartworm. And they should be because they don't know any other way. I'm not speaking of every vet on the planet, but most vets, allopathic vets, don't understand how to cure heartworm and it scares them. And it's scary if you don't know what you're doing, right? And how far along the dog is with heartworm, like what's the heartworm load?

So I do a testing method. I feed a minimally processed diet. I bring down toxic load. So I don't give my dog anything they don't need at all. And so I focus on nutrition and building up the inner terrain so that heartworm does not take hold. And here's the thing.

Coyotes and wolves don't die of heartworm. They don't get heartworm. And they're not inoculated for it. They aren't on heartworm prevention. I wonder how they live. The reason why is because they have low stress. They live outside. they eat a species appropriate diet and their immune systems are extremely strong. Right. And your immune system takes care

of what's called mycoplora, which are baby heartworms. And, um, and it takes care of them. So you very, very seldom see now in captivity that chances for wolves and coyotes go up. Okay. But wild dogs hardly ever get heartworm. That's fascinating. Wow. So, and Dr. Will Faulkner, who's an amazing vet, has a great, it's called Vitalist Animal Program. can he'll teach you all about heartworm he's a heartworm expert i also use a product called professional formulas heartworm aid and it is a i would say it's a homeopathic remedy it's made from heartworms and it helps the body recognize heartworms. It also has a few other remedies in it as well. And it has a homeopathic dilution of ivermectin, which is non-toxic. And it's a very interesting remedy. And I use that a lot. I also use what's called a no-sode of heartworm.

It's made from heartworms and it just helps the body recognize the heartworms that's kind of the the very simple version of that explanation but i use that and there is there's a couple vets that i know homeopathic vets that only use the heartworm no-sode to cure and prevent heartworm And they have a very high success rate. But you'd really need some, you need some guidance for that. And then there, if your dog does get heartworm and you catch it early with the testing method, right? There is a product on the market that I just love

and it's called HWF. And it's by a company called Amber Naturals. N-A-T-U-R-A-L-Z, H-W-F. It's called Clean Heart. And it has herbs in it that are traditionally used for ridding the body of heartworm, like black seed and licorice root and hawthorn, which protects the heart, sheep sorrel, and a small amount of hops. And so many dogs have been cured of heartworm by using Amber Naturals protocol. And you can find that on their website.

It's Amber Naturals. And so, you know, those are the two main things. And then you can use individual herbs as well. But you really want to look at your risk. And another thing, Courtney, is how often is your dog outside? I was just thinking that. Let's just take a pug, for example. You know, my pugs, we go for walks, right? We don't have a lot of mosquitoes here, but I used to live in Tennessee and I used to live in Minnesota and I had pugs in both states. And we'd go for walks. I'd spray them with a lemon rosemary spray that I make myself, you know, to keep the mosquitoes off. They wore a little jacket usually or kind of like a little, like you'd see on horses, you know, I put the little jacket on them

and we'd go on a walk and we'd come back and we'd go in the house. their risk is extremely low but if you tie your dog outside they are at a super high risk for heartworm and i would definitely give ivermectin to those dogs that are outside non-stop unsupervised but you have to you know you have to look at that risk and you know how often is your dog going outside? And, you know, you can go to your vet and get a heartworm test anytime. It's a simple blood test and they can tell you what's going on there. And if your dog gets heartworm, don't panic. Just breathe.

And there's lots of resources out there. If you suffer from stress and anxiety like I do, I highly recommend trying CBD. It is a natural alternative to taking something harsher and it really, really does work. I personally love the brand Cured Nutrition. I know the founder. He has been a friend for the last couple of years and I know the great lengths that he goes to create a really good high quality product. The problem with CBD is it's become so popular the last couple of years that a lot of companies are making fake forms of it or not really putting enough in there to have an actual therapeutic dose. So a lot of people will

say that they don't actually feel the effects of CBD and they don't realize that they're just not taking a good high quality CBD. So you want to make sure you're getting it from really good, high quality company. I love Cured Nutrition. If you guys want to go back and listen to the episode that I did with the founder to hear all about the benefits of CBD and also just to hear the great lengths that they go to ensure that they produce a good high quality CBD. And definitely go check out the website. They have these amazing sleep caps. They're called CBN night caps that really help you to fall asleep and stay asleep. I also really love the Serenity gummies. They're called CBN nightcaps that really help you to fall asleep and stay asleep. I also really love the Serenity gummies. They have a microdose of THC and then some

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They're peanut butter flavored. They are organic and they are really good, high quality ingredients. So they are a great dog treat if you're looking for a good new dog treat. Oh, and also we were giving them to my boyfriend's golden retriever puppy when he was like really hyper

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I'm going to tell you that one. That too. Yeah. Well, and this is all about longevity, right? We want our dogs to live for a long time. We want them to thrive. We want them to feel good and not get sick in an early age. We don't want to be feeding them arsenic. Okay. So let's talk about ticks, what natural treatments are. Also, if a dog is on this treatment pesticide or whatever, whatever the pill is, I forgot what the pill is called. Is it even going to keep them from getting a tick bite? Like it's not going to keep them from getting a tick bite.

It would just potentially keep them from getting like a tick-borne illness, right? Yes, it'll kill a tick on contact. So it's going to kill, it's a poison. So don't be fooled. It is a poison and it makes your dog's blood poisonous to ticks. And the biggest thing is,

and you know, again, this is a touchy subject. And if you, if you find yourself being uncomfortable, then just go give them the remedy. You know, I always tell people, you know, you have to do what resonates with you. For me, I know how many dogs die of flea and tick medicine every year and it's astronomical. And of course, you know, the bean counters of the world are going to look at how many dogs die versus how many dogs live, but they're not checking what those dogs die of. So there's a lot of unknowns there. I don't give flea or tick medicine. Now, there are parts of the country, I would say New England, you know, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island. These are tick infested, lime havens.

Okay. And so you have to be really careful. If you have a very furry dog, it might be really hard to tell if your dog has a tick. I flea comb for ticks. Flea combs work great for ticks. I flea comb for ticks. We don't have ticks here. I've seen one in the last 10 years. But again, I lived in Minnesota and Tennessee where there was lots of ticks, not necessarily Lyme ticks, but your leaky and anaplasmosis carrying ticks. And so ticks are a touchy subject. However, there are many things that you can do to help ward off in general. And then there, again, I use a no-sode made from certain types of ticks

to help the body recognize and combat those tick-borne illness. And to also help a dog with Lyme or anaplasmosis or Borrelia or Bartonella or Ehrlichia. I help those dogs get over that and with using those no-sodes and herbs that are conducive for getting rid of those tick-borne illnesses. Dr. Stephen, the late Dr. Stephen Buhner, he recently passed away, but he was a tick treatment expert. And so I'm very familiar with his processes or his process. And also, you know, I've been doing this for over 20 years. So I have a lot of remedies that I use. I use homeopathic leadum. When dogs get bit by a tick, you use it the same day. I also make a spray out of that and spray them before they go out.

Wonderside, it's very highly essential oil. My dog, if you spray Wonderside on her, she freaks out. So you have to be really careful with essential oils and dogs. But Wonderside makes a variety of different types of essential oil products. You can, Earth Animal is another company that makes some good natural flea collars. And there are bioresonance tags that out there. They do not work for every dog, but for the dogs that they do work for are awesome. Amber collars work well. If it works for your dog. I've seen it work amazingly and then I've seen it not work at all. It depends on the dog. Also collars that are made of shungite

are excellent for fleas and ticks. It's just, it again is that risk. And there are products out there that are less than, less toxic, but all of the big ones can cause seizures, death, permanent neurological damage. And so if you need to use the big guns, then what I recommend for both flea and tick remedies is that you have to support the nervous system. So before you ever give a flea and tick remedy, you want to give, I like to do daily amounts of lion's mane mushroom. Real Mushrooms is the company that I use for that. And then I like to use milk thistle and skullcap. So those are the three that I use. And I use those with cats and dogs. They are on Milk Thistle, Skullcap, and Lion's Mane for the entire duration of when they're on those pills.

Because you need to support the nervous system because they're a neurotoxin. And most of them are. And I have just seen horrible things happen. I'm not going to mention any, you know, names, but I've seen horrible happen, things happen with a flea and tick med that, that begins with the B and a T. And, and then there's the spot on flea and tick meds that put not only your dog at risk, but everyone in your household. And then there's like things like seresto collars. That's like rubbing pesticides all over your house, all over your bedding, all over yourself, all over your towels, anywhere your dog comes in contact with, and also breathing in those chemicals. So, and we know that our, as you know, and I'm sure you've had a podcast about this, Courtney,

our indoor air needs help. So, and it's just not, it's not going to help. And also the end product of a lot of those products we need to look at, the environmental component, most of them are, you know, toxic to aquatic life because they are so strong. And so everything ends up somewhere and they usually end up in our water supply.

So you're drinking those. So it's really important to look again at toxic load. Does your dog have any illnesses? Do they have chronic illness? Don't give those to a dog with chronic illness. It'll make them more and more sick as time goes by. You'll see decline. And definitely, if you have to do it, and sometimes we have to do it, make sure you give milk thistle, lion's mane, and skullcap every day that they take it. Very, very important. Support the nervous system, support the liver, support the kidneys. You know very important. Support the nervous system, support the liver,

support the kidneys. You know, those are the lymphatic system. They take just a beating with these flea and tick meds. And I do because you are awesome. And because your listeners are awesome. I have a free flea course. And it's absolutely free. You might get an email that says, thank you for your purchase of $0. But yeah, it's absolutely free. It's got everything. It's not a tick course, but it's everything flea. And it teaches you how to combat fleas from the inside out of your dog, from the outside of your house and from the inside of your house. And I do recommend one product for when you have a flea infestation and also what to do and some really great natural protocols in there and the products that I've used that I know work for dogs. That's so amazing. I'm so glad you have that as a resource because I'm sure a lot of people listening are going to want

to download that. And I will just tell you guys a really quick personal story that helped me one time. So I was visiting family in Texas and I brought Turkey with me. And when we came back home, he had some fleas that I noticed. And living in California, like I've mentioned earlier, I rarely ever see a flea on him. It's just never really been an issue because I also bathe him once a week and flea shampoo. And I'm just pretty much on it. I'm always kind of checking him, but he came back, he had some fleas. And what I did was I got that Wonderside stuff and I sprayed it all over him. I sprayed it on like his bed and stuff. And then I just, I gave him, I gave him like two or three baths where I did the flea comb. I combed it through. I have this natural flea and tick shampoo that I find on Amazon and it's like $10 and I'll link it for you guys for

the podcast and it got rid of it and then it was never an issue after that. That wonder side really does work. If your dogs are okay with it, it works. This is one thing about essential oil products for dogs and I give a lot of information on it in my free course. Look at the essential oils that are in the product, okay? Order very tiny amounts of them. So like a half a dram or a dram. So those are really tiny bottles. Take the top off of the bottle and offer it to your dog. If they run out of the room, don't buy products with that.

So basically, let's say I saw a kind of like a natural spot on by Earth Animal a couple of days ago that I was looking at for a client and it had almond oil, peppermint and cedar. Okay. So you would order and always look at the Latin name. Okay. Make sure you're getting the right essential oil. I told her just order a small amount of peppermint and a small amount of cedar. Offer them to your dog with the cap off. Dogs can smell them a mile away. Okay. And offer them to your dog. See if she runs out of the room. If she does, then put those in your apothecary and for a later date and try another one. There are like lemongrass, citronella, lavender, patchouli. There's just, there's a lot of them. Peppermint.

We did, we talked about that. There's a few that I avoid. I don't use anything with wintergreen in it and I don't use anything with clove oil in it or pennyroyal. You should avoid those. They're toxic for your dog. They really can be really awful on the liver. But if you see an essential oil in a flea and tick product, always, just always offer your dog those oils individually and quality oils, you know, don't get crappy oils, but quality oils like Mountain Rose Herbs has good quality oils that they sell in really tiny amounts that you can test out. But that's one way to really figure that out if your dog is okay with a product or not. That's what I always tell people. That's really helpful.

And I just want to clarify this because I can already see the questions I'm going to get about this because I diffuse essential oils in my house from time to time because I don't use candles or anything like that. And I use a really good high quality, non-toxic essential oil. And every time I talk about it,

I get loads of messages from people saying, those essential oils, they're toxic for dogs. They're toxic for dogs. Can we clarify? So is it just that there's specific ones for specific dogs that are toxic to them? And obviously the ones that you listed off are definitely toxic, but like, what is that? Let's just clarify a little bit because I can already hear the questions. Okay. Well, I love those. You know, I love questions. So, and I love curious minds and, and again, fear, fear-based questions are my favorite so that we can just, you know, I love questions. So, and I love curious minds and, and again, fear, fear-based questions are my favorite so that we can just, you know, everyone can dive in and calm down.

Now, Courtney, you know, I've been teaching essential oils for a really long time and I've been using essential oils for probably like 30 years and you know, they're the strongest form of urban medicine. Now, I don't diffuse oils for smell ever. Okay. Okay. Is it not smart to do that? No. Okay. So they're the strongest form of herbal medicine. Okay. They're very trendy. Right. But the problem is, is most people couldn't pick that plant out of a lineup. So you really need to know what plant you're actually trying to use. And every essential oil has an intention. And it's a medical treatment. Okay.

So if you're going to diffuse an oil, one, you want to make sure you offer that oil to your dog if you have pets. Okay. And see if they're okay. They might be fine. They might sit down and relax right in front of it. Right. And then you know that it's a beneficial oil. They might be fine. They might sit down and like, they might sit down and relax right in front of it, right? And then you know that it's a beneficial oil.

However, if they want to get away from that oil, they need to be able to get away. So if you're gonna diffuse, what I would do is I would close your door, put a towel underneath it and diffuse it for you. And then let your room air out, open the window, and then turkey can come back in. But people need to understand that they are medical treatments.

And here's the rub. You can't say to an essential oil or an herb, hey, I just want you to repel fleas. I don't want you to do anything else, okay? Do we have an agreement? They can't make that agreement. They are doing other things as well. A lot of our flea repellent essential oils are meant for other things as well. However, are they a better alternative Two, making your dog's blood poisonous. Yes, they are.

And every oil, every essential oil out there can be toxic in the right dosage. In fact, there's nothing on the planet, including water, as you know. Yep. Too much water can kill you. So like everything on the planet has a dosage. So you just want to be careful. And the interesting thing is, is I think a lot of the times companies are formulating for humans in that a lot of the essential oil products are super strong and they don't need to be because fleas and ticks can smell them a mile away and so can your dog. So, you know, I always recommend

a lot of times to put the essential oils on a handkerchief and take that handkerchief, put the essential oils on it. You kind of like, kind of redo it maybe every couple of weeks. I put it in a plastic bag and I hang it outside of my house. And when we go outside, I put the little handkerchief on, we go outside. Okay. And then I put it back in its plastic bag. So my dog has to, doesn't have to be privy to those oils all day long, or you could take some essential oil and put it on like a, like a non toxic, like wipe, you know, and just kind of wipe it in the areas that are most important, which are the legs and the underbelly, the undercarriage.

Those are the places that, you know, the ticks are crawling up and some, they also drop down. So sometimes on the tips of the ears, but the handkerchief method works really well. If it were, you know, it also needs to work for you, but yes, there are some essential oils that are not conducive for dogs and cats. However, if you Google, this is one of my favorites, peppermint essential oil. If you Google, is peppermint essential oil toxic to dogs? You are going to get like, oh my God, it's, it's tough. No, it is not.

Okay. It is, it is toxic in large dosages. It is, peppermint essential oil is in so many products. It's unbelievable. And if it is the dosage that is the issue, and you are getting such a minute dosage of peppermint essential oil in things that are being applied,

that it's not going to be a problem. You know, if you go up to the ASPCA site for toxins, there are so many wonderful plants on there that are listed as toxic and that are not toxic. Like chamomile. Chamomile is not toxic to dogs and cats. Wow. Okay. Chamomile matriarcha is not toxic to dogs and cats. And you'll see it on there. And these are all based on, you know, these really weird things that happen that come in and, and very high doses like garlic, you know, don't get me started. Garlic, the garlic research out there that garlic is toxic to dogs and dogs to dogs, it was based on so much garlic that it was unbelievable.

But yeah, of course it made a dog sick. Of course it gave them anemia. But a small clove for its antioxidant and antibacterial benefits for some dogs is just fine. And people go crazy about that one. And I could list off 15 holistic vets that feed garlic to their dogs every single day. But you want it, you have to feed fresh garlic and you need to feed organic garlic and very, very, very, very small amounts. The small amounts

are going to give you the benefit. So you always have to look at dosage, you know, getting up in arms gets people crazy. Another one is Lang Lang essential oil. People go crazy about that one too. And again, that is dosage and quality. But there are some essential oils that I never use with dogs and cats. And again, I don't use wintergreen. I don't use anise. I don't use any camphor-based oils.

Clove oil, pennyroyal, those are just, they're just too, you know, there's some good, there's some good references out there for essential oils. I think there is a lovely vet named Melissa Shelton. She has a website out there called animaleo.com. And she is an expert in essential oils with dogs and cats. I don't give advice for cats with essential oils. It's not my place to do that. But with dogs, I've had very good luck. And if you want to take a really good essential oil for animals course,

go to dogsnaturallymagazine.com. They have a great holistic essential oils course that gives you really good, safe information on using essential oils course that gives you really good safe information on using essential oils for dogs and cats from yours truly and Dr. Isla Fishburne. Okay, that's amazing. Yeah, she's an expert in essential oils. Snacks. Let's talk about snacks. Everyone loves snacks. And I feel like it's hard to find a good snack that actually fills you up and that you really crave and like to eat. I am obsessed with the grass fed beef sticks from Paleo Valley. If you guys follow me on Instagram,

you probably saw recently that I went, I literally went to this show downtown and my girlfriends were making fun of me because when I met up with them, I literally had a Paleo Valley beef stick sticking out of my pocket. My friend goes, are you packing meat in there? I was. I always have a Paleo Valley stick with me either in my purse or I always shove a bunch of them in my car and just leave them in there for emergencies, for snack emergencies. I'm always bringing them places on hikes, you name it. I always have them on me because they're such a great snack. It's a great source of protein. They taste really good. They come from 100% grass-fed beef and they're really high quality. It's only organic spices in there. You're not going to find any other fillers. And you know

what I love so much? Their beef comes from 100% grass-fed cows raised entirely on natural grass pastures by family farmers right here in the US. And they also are committed to supporting regenerative farms, which is really important. If you guys are not into beef, if beef is not really your thing, they also have pasture-raised turkey sticks and they also have pasture raised pork sticks. So they have a variety of different flavors and all different kinds of meats to serve your meat desires. And if you guys go to paleovalley.com slash real foodology, you're going to save 20%. Make sure you go to paleovalley.com slash realfoodology. You're going to save some money. Also check out everything else they have on that website. They have superfood bars,

they have organic super greens, they also have bone broth protein, they have grass-fed whey protein, they have essential electrolytes. They also have a superfood golden milk, which is going to be really good going into fall. So make sure you guys check it out. Use the code RealFoodology and you're going to save some money. How does someone know if they're getting a good high quality essential oil? I will say first and foremost, never ever buy off of Amazon because you never know what they're mixing. Please do not. Please do not. Here's the thing. Everyone's always like, what's your brand? What brand do you want to recommend? I don't recommend many brands because with essential oils, like a lot of plants, you want to look at the batch. It can differ from year to year, crop to crop. And essential oils are highly affected by wind, rain, moisture levels, sunshine.

These are all things that and where they're planted and how they're harvested. So you want to look at companies that work directly with the plants, okay, that know who's harvesting, know and how it's distilled. Like a lot of people diffuse a lot of citrus essential oils. Here's the thing about citrus. So that is mostly a mechanically processed essential oil where it is squeezed out from the rind. Have you ever like had an orange, you know, peeled an orange and you get all that essential oil on your hands, right? It's beautiful, right? If it's not an organic orange, not only do you have essential oil on your hands, but you have glyphosate on your hands and you have pesticides and herbicides and

fungicides on your hands. If you press those oils mechanically, all of that is in your essential oil. And then you're diffusing it in your house or you're putting it on your body or you're using it in your products. So if you have citrus-based oils, orange, lemon, lime, you know, things like that, you want organic only. So you want to look for organic citrus oils or you want to find out from the distiller or the person pressing that oil if that fruit rind is sprayed with anything. Because there are some small companies out there that are absolutely wonderful, that are doing really great work, that can't afford organic certification. So you can ask. And if someone can't tell you, leave the website.

Don't purchase. Floricopia is a good one that I know the David Crowe who owns Floricopia. He does a lot of his distilling. There is the Essential Oil Institute of New York, Jade Schutz. Jade Schutz. She is an essential oil expert. She has this beautiful property that she distills a lot of her own essential oils on. That's a lovely resource. Then there is Kathy Skipper, who is a French aromatherapist.

She's an herbalist as well. Her and her husband, Florian, go all around the world distilling these beautiful oils, you know, small batch oils. There's Mountain Rose Herbs. There is, you know, I don't have any experience with like Young Living or do Tara. I'm really not into those oils. Some of them are very good. And like I said, it's not the company per se.

It's the distiller and the batch because just you, if you can have a really good batch of lavender and then that same company can have kind of a poor batch that next year based on wind, rain, planting times, harvest times, you want people that are caring for the plants when they're distilled and they're distilling single area plants. A lot of the big essential oil companies are distilling from all over the world and some oils are only found in one lot of the big essential oil companies are distilling from all over the world. And some oils are only found in one part of the world. You know, like I don't use frankincense anymore because frankincense is a critically endangered tree. So I love frankincense. However, I don't use it anymore unless it's an emergency or a cancer because of its because the essential

oil world is literally killing that plant. So that's another thing like essential oils are not sustainable in many ways except for you know like peppermint and lavender and things that things that can be cultivated are okay but our wild crafted essential oil plants are being decimated by frivolous essential oil use. So, and also like one drop of peppermint essential oil equals 72 cups of peppermint tea. I bet you any money that most things can be solved with two to three cups of peppermint tea instead of 72. So I always go back to using the plants in their more natural form because you are going to get some essential oil like in a tincture or in a cup of tea. You're going to get a very, you know, dilute, but it's going to be a small amount. Yeah. Well, and I think I have some other

questions I want to ask you. So, but I'll just leave it at this. I think it is important for people to understand the essential oils is that they're so highly concentrated that you really have to use a very small amount. Like I just really want to emphasize that because it's really high dosage because they're very concentrated. Very. So what would you consider to be a species appropriate diet for dogs? Well, my little tagline is dogs are individuals. I love that. A species appropriate diet for me is a cooked or a raw diet, hands down for every dog that I work with. Now, I do work with people that feed their dog kibble, and our goal is to get them

on a more minimally processed diet. If you are a person that are like, oh, I don't, like, I'm scared of that. I don't know what to do. That seems crazy. My vet doesn't agree. That's, that's just, let's just get this out of the way. Vets do not have any education unless it is elective on nutrition. Now, that is changing. Vet schools are starting to make a change. And vet schools are paid and sponsored by Hill Science Diet and Royal Cane. And Purina, right? Yeah.

Yes. And so we need to get dog food companies out of our vet schools, okay? They don't need to be there. And I don't care if it's a raw food company, a home cook company, or a kibble company. Get them out of our schools. Nutrition is nutrition.

And there is a kibble hierarchy. Okay. There's really horrible kibble. One of them starts with an A. Other one starts with a B. And then there's, you know, I would say doable kibble. There's a hierarchy. Susan Thixton.

Susan Thixton. The truth about cat dog food, I think, the dog food project, I'm pretty sure. Her name is Susan Thixton. She is an expert on dog food. And she has done so much research and so much work for us people, us lay people on dog food ingredients how dog food is made different you know the hierarchy about dog food i mean it she has amazing resources it's it's a it's truth about petfood.com and there's another really great book by dr um connor brady it's called feeding dogs it just came out last year. And then a book that I highly, highly, highly recommend is The Forever Dog by Dr. Karen Becker, who is one of the most popular vets in the entire country

and dog researcher, Rodney Habib. Just a really wonderful book to educate and for people to understand what's happening with our dog's longevity and why. And it's just a wonderful, wonderful book to give your veterinarian, to give out as a gift. It's just a good starter, you know, if you're just starting out in natural dog world. But a species appropriate diet is definitely a diet that works for your animal.

Like for instance, like animal, like what they would innately eat if left to their own devices. And like cats, cats, hardly any cat is eating a species appropriate diet. You know, cats eat rabbits, birds, and mice for the most part. They eat squirrels too. Okay. Depending on where you live, those are not what you get in cat food. There's only a couple of species of cats that are a couple of types of cats that actually eat fish, which I found, I did not know that until just like about a year ago. And I was like, what? And yeah, there's, it's just, it's interesting. We've made it a thing, but yeah, it's very interesting. So yeah, they don't naturally hunt fish in the wild. So. Sounds about right. I mean, we mess up a lot of this stuff.

Yeah. So, but for dogs, you know, if you're going to, if you're going to feed kibble, then try to make it the best bowl possible. There's another little company that I love called Green Juju. It's greenjuju.com. And Kelly Marion is the owner of Green Juju. And she started this company a long time ago and it was to help put fresh food in the bowl, to in the kibble bowl. And she noticed the huge difference in her, she had a Frenchie in a lab, and the huge difference in her dogs once she started feeding organic produce in small amounts to her dogs. And this is the basis of her company. And now, you know, they're much bigger and they have a lot more products, but it's a really great resource to help improve the kibble bowl. And my goal is always to move slowly from

kibble to a minimally processed diet, which includes home cooked or a raw food diet. And for any of you that, you know, are freaked out by raw food, I just want to let you know that I'm 52 years old. I've had about 17 dogs in my life and all of them have eaten raw. And I didn't start out that way. My pug, Finbar, the Irish pug, he was eating, he was eating perina with yogurt. It was this beautiful, like shiny bag.

And it had like fresh cuts of chicken and vegetables raining down the bag. Greenwashing. And I thought I was doing a really good job. He got pneumonia at least once every other month. And I had to put him on steroids. It saved his life. And when I looked at the back of the bag, because I just couldn't figure out why he was so sick all the time. And he was less than three. And I started looking in the ingredients in that bag. Like, what are these ingredients? And I thought, oh, my God, there are no rules for the back of that bag except for nutritional information. And it is just enough to keep your dog alive. And it was so sad. And as soon as I started putting him on a minimally processed diet

I even changed the kibble right he stopped having pneumonia and when he went to a fully minimally processed diet there was no more pneumonia and he lived until he was almost 18 and he only died because we had dental surgery and there was a complication. Oh, that breaks my heart. Yeah. And he was almost 18 and he was, I never, he never had another problem. He rocked it. And he was, he's definitely been my inspiration for the power of fresh food and, and just

minerally processed, you know, dogs aren't meant to eat McDonald's their whole life, neither are we. And it's very sad because it's very deceptive. The dog food world is very deceptive. And you can find science on both sides. For people that want to look at the science, you can find science on both sides. But what I can tell you is that when humans change their diet to a fresh food diet and start eating energetically appropriate foods and foods that are live and whole and fresh, your health changes. And it's the same for your dog. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've seen it with friends, you know, when they change the dog's food, the allergies go away. The dog loses weight.

It has more energy. It's more youthful. They have a shinier coat. I mean, the list goes on. And actually, so I asked my followers earlier on my Instagram if they had any questions. And one of the questions was allergies. My poor doggie has the worst allergies outside of diet. What else do you think helps with that?

Well, first, diet. I have to say, I'm sorry. No, no. But if you're already feeding a minimally processed diet, most dogs that have really bad sensitivities and allergies have low stomach acid. The worst thing you can do is give them an antihistamine. Histamine is very important in the body. I have a really great podcast about allergies and sensitivities on my Dogs Are Individuals podcast for that.

But, and I talk all about stomach acid and how important it is. I could talk like four hours about it. So, but you want to give a digestive enzyme. And I really, there's a basic enzyme out there that I really like. It's called Dr. Good Pet. I don't carry it on my website because minimum orders are hard, but it's called Dr. Good Pet and it's a basic enzyme. I always start out with a quarter dose and work my way up to the suggested dose because

it's just suggested. Dogs are an individual, so you don't really know what your dose is. So just kind of work your way up and having good stomach acid is going to keep our stomach acid and our dog's stomach acid are our first defense against pathogens. And we want our food to break down because what happens is the food's not breaking down properly. And then those undigested proteins get in the small intestine and then they're marked for termination. And then all of a sudden you have a dog who can't eat hardly anything without reacting. So we have to heal the gut.

We have to increase these things called glycocalyx and IgA, which is usually a result of too many antibiotics or a lovely antibiotic called Zol. Yeah, metronidazole. And it's also called Flagyl. I like to just call it Flagyl because I can pronounce that. But Flagyl turns on inflammation in the gut. And it's very hard to meet a dog that hasn't been on that medication. So it's a standard for diarrhea. And if your dog has diarrhea, give it blackberry tea. Nice. Easy picks.

Right there. Blackberry tea. Blackberry leaf tea will estrange diarrhea in a pinch absolutely almost without fail. So, but yeah, I think that it's really important for good stomach acid. Also getting enough essential fatty acids in the diet is also important and liver liver health so you know i always see these commercials for people that are suffering from pollen right and they like they they hate certain times of the year please know that if you suffer from those types of things where you can't deal with this plant or that plant or that tree, your liver is in need

of help. So once you support the liver and get the, and our livers definitely need help. They need, all of our livers need help. There isn't a single person on the planet that doesn't need a little liver love. And when our livers are functioning correctly, it can handle those environmental allergies that are antigens, which are things that cause allergies. It can handle those antigens that are being thrown at it. But when the liver is too taxed and there's too much oxidation in the body from a lot of fun from eating poor oil, lots of oils, that's where I have a huge problem with kibbles is there's rancid oil. There's so many oils in the food now, in dog food that wasn't there before. No. And they're also in other good, you know, what would look like a good food too.

Yes. Yes. We have to be careful with these oils. So, but like oxidation, the liver needs help with that. And so, you know, giving your dog some good liver support. One of my favorites that I have in my store is called Adored Beast Liver Tonic. It's a very mild liver support. It's water-based. It's a glycerin extract for dogs. I've had really good luck with it.

I really love that. And then you could do just, you know, a plain milk thistle or artichoke, burdock root. These are all things that help the liver. Turmeric, if your dog is kind of more of a cool dog, turmeric is an excellent liver support, really helps with phase two liver detoxification. And just having a healthy liver and kidneys can help so much with not being reactive to everything. And one of the worst things we can do is live on antihistamines because they destroy our gut someone else asked and i'm really curious about this too why do dogs eat grass uh for many reasons but usually it's minerals you know our dogs are

lacking minerals a good humic and fulvic acid supplement like ion gut support is good or like kind of a shungite shungite resin but but humic and fulvic acid is very good. Even like a pinch of like 87 mineral Himalayan salt once a day in the food is good to add minerals because our soils are so depleted. And so grass is full of chlorophyll. My animals turn into cows in the spring, but they really only eat it in the spring and they it helps with detoxification it helps support the liver you want to make sure they're eating non-sprayed grass and or it can also mean that their stomach is upset and they want to puke okay they'll eat they'll eat enough grass so that it'll make

them throw up. And that's nothing to be worried about. Like dogs, dogs throw up pretty easily. Dogs puke. Yeah, they do. And so, yeah, those are two reasons why they definitely eat grass. Okay. That's really fascinating because I've always wondered that. And actually, okay. So this leads into another question I was going to ask you. So I talk a lot about this on my Instagram and I'm sure you talk a lot about this as well. Tap water is a really big issue because pharmaceutical drugs are getting into our tap water, like birth control, SSRIs, you name it, because everyone's peeing them out and it's getting in the water system. Pesticides, because we have farm runoffs, there's pesticides, herbicides, glyphosate in there, heavy metals, there's chlorine, there's

fluoride. I mean, there's so much going on in our tap water now. And even if you live in a really big city like LA, New York, Chicago, I would encourage everyone listening to go to the ewg.org, which is the Environmental Working Group's website. Go to their water database and type in your zip code and it will tell you all the levels of the various things that we're talking about in your water. And so I always tell people, don't forget to also give your dog filtered water. And I want to say though,

that I know like I always have to remineralize my water because it filters out everything. So we want to make sure we're adding back in minerals. And I didn't never want or I never know what to do with Turkey. Can I just put like trace minerals that I put in my water in his water or does it need to be a specific mineral for a dog? Nope. We're the same. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I love tap water, but I love filtered tap water. I'm not a proponent of plastic bottled water. It's an environmental disaster and it's an endocrine disruptor disaster. Yes. And a lot of it is absolute crap. Most of it's filtered tap water anyway, so why don't you just get a good filter? Yes. Yes. Most of it is filtered tap water, but it sits in warehouses. It gets heated up in that plastic and we are our hormones.

So, you know, endocrine system is super important and plastic bottled water, not only is an environmental disaster, but it is also, it's a hormone disaster. So with filtered water, you know, I like to use different types of filters, but what's really cool is there's a company out there called Hydroviv, H-Y-D-R-O-V-I-V. And they, you put in your zip code and it is my understanding, don't quote me, but it is my understanding, I have one, but it is my understanding that they use the Environmental Working Group's database, and you put in your zip code, and they send you the filter that is best for those toxins in your area. And they filter out chlorine.

It does not filter out fluoride. Now, there's a pitcher that filters fluoride. I think it's clearly zero. Here, we'll look this up so people can... Yeah, there's one filter that filters fluoride. So I don't have fluoride in my water, okay? But this has been on my list of things to do this week is to find

that pitcher. Honestly, I think it might be the clearly, because there is one called clearly filtered that a lot of my community writes me about and they have a water pitcher that's apparently really good. So I would take my filtered tap water and run it through that pitcher. If you have fluoride in your water, I actually moved to where I live right now because they don't fluoridate the water. So I don't have to worry about fluoride, but the Hydroviv does filter out forever chemicals and it filters out chlorine. And here's the thing about chlorine. Chlorine is so important to filter out of your water because it causes anxiety. And another thing, speaking of allergies, the interesting thing is when there is too much chlorine in your system, it can raise your histamine levels by over 80%.

80%. And when your histamine levels get really high, you one, can't tolerate high histamine foods, which are in everything practically. And two, you can get really bad levels of anxiety and don't even know that it's the water you're drinking. So if you have chlorine and you can't get rid of it in your water, or if you bathe in chlorine, you can put vitamin C tablets in your bathwater to neutralize the chlorine. You can take vitamin C and you can also

take taurine. You can take taurine as a supplement if you are exposed, like if you swim or if your dog goes to rehab and goes in a salt, not a salt water, but that still has chlorine, but a highly chlorinated pool. And also there is a homeopathic remedy called chlorinium. It's homeopathic chlorine that does a really good job of getting it out of your body as well. But the chlorine is, it's just not something that people talk about. I have some personal experience about this. I won't go into it, but it was a thing.

And chlorine, and it really taught me so much about the damages of chlorine in our environment and in our kind of our world that people aren't talking about and don't even know about. Yeah. Well, what's really fascinating and the whole reason that I have a shower filter now is because I read a couple years ago that chlorine is especially toxic when it becomes steam. And think about when your water is heating up in your shower. Exactly. It's steaming. It's literally you're in like a chlorine gas chamber in your shower. I hate

to say that, but that's kind of what's happening. And so it's really important that you also have a filter on your shower head that will filter out the chlorine. Yes. And that is a very important aspect because chlorine gas is even worse than like drinking it. And another thing, Courtney, just another fact on file is that chlorine, the way that chlorine is highly associated with bromine. Okay. And both of those lovely little chemicals

can get into the body, especially bromide. And it resembles thyroid hormone. Okay. So it can attach to the thyroid receptors and it really brings down thyroid function. Which is really interesting because we look at how many autoimmune disorders we have, especially a lot of people with Hashimoto's and hyper or hypo thyroid issues. Graves disease. Yeah. So it's important to understand and just get these things out of

our lives as best as we can. Exactly. And every time I have conversations like this, I always like to remind the listener that, look, we do the best we can. It's also not healthy to completely stress and freak out about all this. There are things that you can do, like the things that we've been talking about, certain things that you can implement, and then you know that you have a certain level of safety. And then also on top of that, you make sure that you are detoxifying.

You know, if you have access to a sauna, do a sauna or do a really hot Epsom salt bath, maybe like once a week, just support those detoxification pathways so that you can also like help your body get rid of it. And exercise, just, you know, exercising gets the lymph moving, you're sweating and you're getting some of the toxins out.

And so don't freak out. There's things you can do. And then you just, you know, you do the best you can. Yeah, make a list and just try to implement something, you know, once a month. Just, you know, don't, yeah, people can get go down the rabbit hole. And, you know, you just try to do a little bit here and there once a month to educate yourself and to implement these things in our homes to make our lives better. Exactly. And there's so many things that can help us. And actually, while we were talking, I Googled it. So it does look like it's the clearly filtered pitcher.

And it says that they remove tap water contaminants like fluoride, lead, mercury, arsenic, chromium, a lot of stuff. So that's a good one. And how do you spell that? It is called clearly. So it's C-L-E-A-R-L-Y, filtered. And they have a picture. It looks like they have a bunch of different ones.

Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. So it's a really good one. And it's important for people to know that Britas do not work well. You do not want a Brita. So if you want a good picture, go for a Clearly filtered. Because it looks like that's a pretty good one.

And I've had a lot of people write me about them actually. So they seem to be like pretty awesome. They're a fan favorite. So, well, we've covered so much. We've covered pretty much everything I wanted to go over. Is there anything else we haven't talked about that you feel like is important for people to know? Well, as an herbalist, I think that people need to understand that the body's an ecosystem and that everything is connected and that dogs are individuals and that dosages on packages doesn't mean that it's your dog's dosage. It's a recommended dosage. And I always recommend people start at a quarter dose and work your way up slowly. That way your dog's body can get used to it. And when you hit a point where your dog starts to show like maybe some symptoms like acid reflux or

kind of runny poo or, you know, gagging or a little tiny bit of vomit, when you up something, go back to where they were comfortable. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good advice. And you know, I was just thinking too, because I'm sure a lot of people are going to be blown away by all the information that you dropped on this episode. So if they are, for whatever reason, unable to work with you, how does someone find, obviously they can reach out to you and I would encourage anyone listening to reach out to you because I think hopefully you're still taking clients.

I say hopefully because you're amazing. But if for some reason they're unable to, for whatever reason, maybe they're in the UK or whatever it is, like how can they find someone like you to work with? Just email me at canineherbalist at gmail.com. I have a network of people that I have trained and also that I respect. And I also know a lot of great holistic vets. Amazing. This is so helpful. Well, hopefully you'll get- And listen to my podcast. Yes. So yeah, that's a great resource too. And obviously get your book. So what's the name of

your book? Drop the book. Where can they find it? It will not be published probably for another year. Oh, okay. So it's not out yet. It's at the publisher and they're all running behind. So it's at the publisher, but I have a website, caninerbalist.com and I have a course site at caninerbalism.com and again, I have my Dogs Are Individuals podcast. So that's about it. That's what I got going. Amazing. Okay, well, I was wondering about the book

because I was like, I felt like I would have known but that makes sense. It's not out yet. Okay, so I feel better. She's still there. It's there. Okay, good. Well, then everyone look out for her book.

Obviously, reach out to her if you guys are looking for individual help for your dog. Check out the podcast. It's a great resource for your dog and all pet health in general. It's been a while since we've done this. So I ask all my guests this, which is just more of a personal question, because I know you care a lot about health in general. What are your health non-negotiables, things that you do daily or weekly to take care of yourself?

A proper amount of sleep. I guard my sleep like they guard the Pentagon. I just, you know, getting enough sleep is so important to me. Basically going for a walk, doing mind-body connection exercises, breathing, and self-care, like just putting myself first, you know, before my dogs, before anything, I put myself first because without me, they don't have anybody like, you know, and it's, it's, it's so important to put yourself first. And some people get angry with me about that. I'm not talking about being self-centered. I'm talking about just caring for yourself and giving yourself permission to take a nap, go for a walk, read a book, make a nice dinner for yourself. We're showing up for everyone else. And a lot of times

with me, I work with people too. And a lot of the people I work with don't show up for themselves. And we all need to show up for ourselves. Absolutely. I don't know why it's painted as it's selfish to take care of yourself. Because if you're not taking care of yourself first, you're not even going to be able to show up as the best version of yourself to help others. You know, I mean, I think about a time where I got incredibly burnt out because I was not taking care of myself at all.

And not only could I not show up for myself, I couldn't even show up for other people in my life because I was not taking care of myself at all. And not only could I not show up for myself, I couldn't even show up for other people in my life because I was so burnt out. And when I realized that I needed to take care of myself first, now I show up as the best, most authentic version of myself. And that's how you can actually help people. It's so true. And it's so important because, you know,

we are plagued with chronic illness right now. And I do think that one of the reasons why chronic illness is so prevalent is that people feel that they need like an illness, you know, to actually take care of themselves. And that's a subconscious thing, but I see it all the time you know and i was i've been there like i have been there i'm a cancer survivor and and i have been there and it taught it definitely if the one thing that it taught me is that i don't need to be sick in order to take care of myself and to be there for myself and to show up so that's a little powerful but but it is it's it's i believe it's what's needed i love how deep that is That's really powerful. But it is. I believe it's what's needed. I love how deep that is.

It's a really powerful message. Especially for women. Yes, yes. Because we're always putting everyone else in front. Always taking care of everyone else. Yeah. And it's a beautiful thing about women. I will say, I think it's something we should celebrate

because it's our nurturing natures. But we need to also remember to nurture ourselves too. Absolutely. And don't be afraid to feed yourself as good as your dog if you feed your dog better than yourself. Yes. I know I always joke that turkey eats like a king in this house. Yeah.

That's great. I've had a great time. Thank you so much, Courtney. Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate you coming back. I think this episode's gonna help a lot of people. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast.

If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resonant media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team,

go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship.

I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Looking to build a more robust foundation in your health and well-being? From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes one of the most popular alternative health shows on Apple Podcasts, The Dr. Tina Show. Dr. Tina Moore is a naturopathic physician and chiropractor, traditionally and alternatively trained in science and medicine.

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