Something You Should Know - Easy Ways to Rid Toxins From Your Home & Secrets to Having a Happy Pet

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

You have likely had the experience of walking into a room for something – and then forgetting why. You probably feel foolish, yet it happens to everyone. What's the reason? This episode begins with an explanation. http://news.nd.edu/news/27476-walking-through-doorways-causes-forgetting-new-research-shows Should you be concerned about toxins in your home? And if so, how do you get rid of them and where do you even begin? That is what toxicologist Daniella Chace is here to discuss. Daniella works with clients to rid their homes of potential toxic hazards and she has written a book called HomeDetox: Make Your Home a Healthier Place for Everyone Who Lives There (https://amzn.to/3HmzKKU) . Listen as she offers a systematic approach to start to make your home less toxic.  If you have a pet dog or cat, you have questions – we all do. Here to answer some of the most important and often asked questions about keeping pets happy and healthy is veterinarian Dr. Carol Osborne author of the books, Naturally Healthy Cats and Naturally Healthy Dogs (https://amzn.to/3XPml54). Every pet owner needs to hear her advice.  Anyone who has felt lonely – REALLY lonely, knows it feels horrible. Almost painful. And that is for a very good reason. Listen as I explain how the pain of loneliness is actually a good thing. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/loneliness#:~:text=Loneliness%20is%20the%20state%20of,a%20deep%20and%20pervasive%20loneliness. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Dell Technologies’ Presidents Day event is here! The savings start now on select sleek XPS laptops and more powered by 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors. Don't forget special pricing on the latest monitors, docks and accessories, plus free shipping on everything and monthly payment options with Dell Preferred Account.  Just call 877-ASK-DELL for these limited-time Presidents Day deals! With With TurboTax, an expert will do your taxes from start to finish, ensuring your taxes are done right (guaranteed), so you can relax! Feels good to be done with your taxes, doesn’t it? Come to TurboTax and don’t do your taxes. Visit https://TurboTax.com to learn more. Intuit TurboTax.  Did you know you could reduce the number of unwanted calls & emails with Online Privacy Protection from Discover? - And it's FREE! Just activate it in the Discover App. See terms & learn more at https://Discover.com/Online Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Today on Something You Should Know, why you sometimes walk into a room and forget why you're there. Then toxins in the home. They're everywhere. The kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom. Just using lotions and cosmetics that when they add up all the different chemicals in those products, shampoos and conditioners and hairsprays and so on, the average woman is using 515 synthetic chemicals on her body daily.

Also, why loneliness feels so bad and why that's actually a good thing. And a top veterinarian reveals the important steps to having a healthy and happy pet. The fact is you want to reward calm behavior. When that animal is quietly laying on the floor chewing a bone, that's the behavior that we want to reward. So the big hellos, the big goodbyes, you need to nix all of those things. All this today on Something You Should Know. This is an ad for better help. Welcome to the world. Please read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you and have a nice life.

Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's betterhelp.com. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. the world's top experts, and practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hey, hi, welcome to Something You Should Know. Have you ever had, well I know you've had, everybody's had this experience. You walk into a room and you forget why you're there.

Well, the next time that happens to you, you can blame it on the door that you just walked through. It's a mental phenomenon known as the location updating effect. In a study from Notre Dame, 28 volunteers were split into two groups and both groups were asked to place objects in a room. The first group had to walk into another room and recall where they had placed the objects. The second group had to walk into a different area without passing through a door to do their recollection. The group that had to pass through a door struggled significantly more with their recall than the other group. When we pass through a door, our more with their recall than the other group. When we pass through a door, our brain registers that our location and situation has changed.

The new location data can sometimes be enough to push some information out that never really had a chance to take hold. And that is something you should know. For years now, people have talked about toxic dangers in the home. Cleaners, air fresheners, cookware, pesticides on food, carpets, furniture. Now, some people claim that if you just use common sense, most of these things pose no real threat. That there are government agencies watching out for us, so suspect, fall somewhere in between. Most of us would probably like to reduce the number of toxins in the house because, well, you know, fewer toxins are better than more toxins, it would seem.

And so what could it hurt? And it could have a significant positive impact on you and your family. So let's discuss potential toxic hazards in your home, some of which you may not even know are toxic. And we're going to do that with Daniela Chase. She is a toxicologist, a health writer, and she has a book out called Home Detox, Make Your Home a Healthier Place for Everyone Who Lives There. Hi, Daniela, welcome. It's great to be here, Mike. So what are the things that we should be concerned about that are likely in our home? What do you mean by household toxins? So when I use the word toxin, I'm really referring to toxicants.

I just feel like that's such a big word. But toxins are really things like heavy metals, like lead and mercury and aluminum, phthalates from plastics, which are all around us, agricultural chemicals like glyphosate, you know, used in the yard as an herbicide and PFAS, which is like Teflon. So they're really common things that are found in consumer products all around our homes. Just because these chemicals are in products doesn't necessarily mean they're dangerous. And what I mean by that is I have gasoline in my gas tank in my car. Potentially it's dangerous, but as long as it stays in the tank and fuels the car, it doesn't do me any harm. So how is it that these things that are in products in our homes, how do they become dangerous? So all of these consumer products in our homes, they shed, they're constantly kind of

breaking down and releasing little particles of plastics and things like fabrics, like fleece is completely plastic and it releases tiny little particles, synthetic bedding, polyester bedding memory foam so all of these items are shedding and they actually become the dust in our homes so years ago when we had just natural inert materials in our homes like wool rugs and wood our dust was really just kind of human detritus like skin cells and hair and cat fur but But now when scientists have actually studied dust collected from homes all across the United States, they found that the dust is actually comprised of toxic materials and not only little bits of products like plastic products in our homes, but the dust acts like a sponge and soaks up chemicals that are in our homes from air fresheners and cleaning products.

So it's a highly toxic dust. And the most surprising thing about this is that the way we're exposed is by ingesting dust. We actually ingest about two tablespoons of dust per day. There are a lot of little anecdotal stories like we've all heard about, you know, you shouldn't handle receipts from the grocery store or the gas pump at the gas station because they contain BPA. And if you touch it, it gets in your skin and goes through your skin and can, I don't even know, do something hormonally or something. But I also recently talked to someone who said, well, yeah, but in the amounts on that receipt are so small that even if the chemical itself is dangerous, it's never going to be enough to harm anybody. That's true.

The receipts is not something that I would even mention as a concern. We have much greater exposures from other sources and other vectors. So one example is we have exposure from things that burn like polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and they come from burning wood in the fireplace or burning candles or incense. And these all release chemicals that can trigger cancer. But one of the worst burned materials is from a burned food like burnt toast or the blackened material on barbecue. That black material has something in it called FIPS, which is an acronym for a long chemical name. But they found now now that phips is a three strikes carcinogen so it initiates cancer development it causes the cancer cells to grow and it causes angiogenesis or the spread

of cancer cells so that's a big one um really avoiding burnt material especially in your diet what else what what else should we, because we hear about things like carpeting and furniture and that's letting off all this horrible stuff in our indoor air and indoor air is horrible. And so demystify all that. As I was really diving into this and looking at, you know, specific health conditions, I started with cancer, but then really that led me into research on heart disease and issues with like fibroid tumors. And the information,

like the research is so clear now, it's just such an exciting time to be able to pull this all together. And as I looked at these kind of hundreds of toxic items in our houses and realizing that there's about 40,000 chemicals that are used to manufacture common consumer goods now, I really narrowed that down to about 10 super toxins. And these include air fresheners. So, fragranced items almost always contain high levels of solvents. So, that's like benzene, which can cause neurological damage. And air fresheners are just incredibly common these days. People use powders on their carpets, use plug-in air fresheners or sprays. And these are all highly risky.

That's a huge category to really just eliminate. And generally speaking, people use air fresheners because there's some offending odor in the home and it's best to just identify what that problem is and correct that issue. And then also the PFAS chemicals. So these are the chemicals used in these products like Teflon and they're used in more items than you'd believe in your home. It's not just Teflon pans, which is a significant source. So when pans get scratched, they release little particles of Teflon that we ingest. And when a pan is used over high heat, it releases so many fumes that it can cause something called Teflon flu, which is inflammation in the lungs.

So that's a really significant chemical compound in our homes. And it's used on carpets and even in dental floss to make it more slippery. It's just used in really odd ways, I think, but we do have multiple exposures. And another one is dryer sheets. You know, that's a fragrance product that has solvents and numerous chemical compounds that are very toxic. So identifying kind of the more significant sources in the home and just removing them completely can just drop your exposure level just overnight by making a sweep through the house for these really high-level toxins.

But listening to you, I mean, it's everything. I mean, I would have never thought my dental floss, my dryer sheets, my, I mean, I wouldn't know where to begin. Well, when I take clients through this, and I do this with my clients that have diseases, we go room by room, and we really just try to drill down and find the biggest sources of toxins in each room and remove those right away, help them clean up their dust so that their exposure is reduced. And then just, it's a process, it takes a while. You know, even for myself, I've been very aware of these things now for about 20 years. And I still have to be pretty vigilant about what comes into my home and, and watching for things like plastics. So really, you just have to think of it as a process. And, and as you

become aware, just, you know, replacing Tupperware containers with glass food storage containers, not buying chemical cleaning products, instead just using natural things like just some natural soap and essential oils for killing bacteria and that kind of thing. So most people find that once they get rolling with it, it's not so hard. When you say, you know, use natural things like soap, well, I don't know what that means. I mean, if I'm going to do a load of laundry, I'm not going to throw a bar of soap in there. So, so good point. What does, what does that mean? And, and who, if you don't use a dryer sheet, which is also a fabric softener and also, you know, removes static electricity.

Well, then what do you use in its place? Well, for soap, for doing laundry, I just use Dr. Bronner's products. They've been around forever, and they're completely natural. So there's many natural products that you can get at your local co-op that don't have these long chemical names in them. So you can switch your soaps for your dishes and for laundry easily that way. And in terms of laundry, we really don't need dryer sheets. And if you do have static electricity in your clothing, when you pull them out of the dryer, you can just have a little mister bottle of water and just spray a tiny bit on there,

and that just releases that immediately. So I feel like we've kind of been duped by consumer products and commercials and we've started to think that we need so many of these products in our daily lives that we really don't need. It seems like it's such a big topic, like it's hard to get your head around it as to like, well, where do you, what's the most important thing? What's the least important thing? You know, what's the, where do we start with this? Well, I think a really good place to start is by removing plastics from your home because

they're so pervasive and they really do cause many health conditions. So the phthalates in plastics, these chemicals in plastics, they are endocrine disruptors. So they're causing all sorts of endocrine issues from diabetes to thyroid conditions. And plastics mimic estrogen. So they're triggers for certain types of breast cancer that are estrogen receptor positive. This was actually discovered by some cancer researchers who were using glass test tubes, and they were dropping in their cancer cell line samples to do some research. And one day they had to switch to plastic test tubes because their glass ones were all dirty. And when they dropped the cells in, they just started growing on their own with nothing

added to that. And so they started researching plastics to see how much they could be affecting hormone related cancers. So starting in the kitchen and removing plastic from your kitchen is a really great place to get started, I think. We're talking about toxins in your home, and my guest is Daniela Chase. She's a toxicologist and author of a book called Home Detox. Make your home a healthier place for everyone who lives there. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

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Yeah, isn't that amazing? Plastic has just really become so commonplace now in our homes. You know, you could start with the items that really cause the most toxic dust in the home. So changing your bedding out and getting a natural mattress, something made out of natural rubber rather than memory foam. And when you buy clothes, buying natural fabrics like hemp or cotton or linen or wool, silk, you know, anything natural versus chemical compounds like polyester or fleece that's made from plastic. And one little note there, I went into a mall recently to just look at clothing labels to see, you know see what kinds of materials are being used in kind of commonplace clothing these days. And I went into one of these stores that's really popular with

young people. And as I walked through, all the clothes looked very beautiful and they look like natural materials, like they mimicked natural materials. Some felt like angora, some felt like wool, some felt like silk, but every single label I looked at was polyamide. So it was plastic with chemicals, each of those items. So I think being more aware of what we're actually buying and bringing into our homes and then just slowly making changes to remove the items that we know now are toxic. Where is the government in all of this? We'd like to think that these things are regulated to the point where there aren't a lot of dangerous toxins in the home.

Our regulatory agencies are becoming more and more aware, and I really think that we will have more regulation very soon here. Even the EPA now has stated on their website that our indoor air is two to five times more polluted than our outdoor air. So just admitting that and talking about that will help direct laws that will help protect us down the road here. What about air filters? I mean, we have them in my home. We have them in several rooms in my home. How effective are they in mitigating all the problems that you're talking about of things degrading I live in Washington state and we often get forest fires that bring a lot of smoke into my area and it can really cause sinus problems and make it harder to breathe.

So I use an air purifier just in one room to help really clean the air up really well in the area where I spend the most time. So yeah, they can be great. They have lovely filters in them that take out solvents and formaldehyde and, of course, dust because those are large particles. So I think they're a great idea. Well, I've noticed that there are certainly big price differences in air purifiers, and I imagine there speaking to libraries, that's the number one question that's come up as people have been asking me about kind of my top three air purifiers that I recommend. And honestly, I've just been using the Dyson air purifier so far because they have a little computer that tells you the level of solvents and formaldehyde and specific toxins. And it shows the level coming down as it's running in the room. So I've been really pleased with that. But, you know, there's actually some great videos

out on YouTube where people do all sorts of testing to do comparisons and show you how well those air purifiers work. So let's review here quickly. Just if someone is taking this to heart and thinking, OK, well, I'm going to do something about this. Where are the top five things to start and what do we do? So starting in the kitchen, because, you know, if you're cooking in toxic pans or storing your food in plastic food containers, that's a real significant exposure in the kitchen. So I think that's a great place to start, just getting rid of those plastic food storage containers, getting glass instead. Many of them now have wood lids or cork lids. And if they have a plastic lid, it's okay as long as the liquid or the food isn't touching the lid. And switching out your cookware. So making sure you don't have Teflon or aluminum cookware. Aluminum is another, it's a heavy metal.

It's very toxic. In fact, it has an affinity for breast tissue, meaning that when breast tumors are biopsied, there's often high levels of aluminum. So really important for women to avoid aluminum. What kind of cookware is left if you don't use Teflon or aluminum? What's left? Yeah, good question. Stainless steel is great.

It's inert. It's completely safe. It's not too expensive. I use green pans. It's a ceramic pan that's nonstick but completely non-toxic. It's just a mineral surface. And glass like Duralex is an old school kind of heavy glass that can go from the freezer to the oven and won't break. And it's completely inert and safe.

The bathroom is probably the next best place to go because I just read a study last year. It was really mind-blowing. The average woman is exposed to 515 synthetic chemicals that she puts on her body every day. That just really blew my mind. I don't wear a lot of makeup myself, but apparently just using lotions and cosmetics that when they add up all the different chemicals in those products, shampoos and conditioners and hairsprays and so on, the average woman is using 515 synthetic chemicals on her body daily. So cleaning out our bathrooms and really getting rid of mascara that has lead in it and dental floss that has Teflon used on it. And certainly there's some wonderful lines of non-toxic cosmetics that have just very natural ingredients in them. You know, jojoba oil and essential oils and things.

So that would be a really big change, cleaning up the cosmetics in your life. And then our bedrooms really are key too, because we spend so much time sleeping and our faces are right there against our mattresses and our pillows. And I know it's a bit expensive to make a switch with a mattress, but one thing you can do is buy an organic cotton cover for your bed. And that will help at least create a barrier from the toxins and things like memory foam and molds from an older mattress. And then with pillows, just either natural rubber pillows or a newer feather pillow is a great way to go. Older pillows have a surprising number of microbes in them. It's just amazing how many particles of dander and little bugs and mold are in older pillows. So if your pillow is older than six years, it would be a great idea to switch it up now.

Well, as I said in the beginning, it does seem some people are very concerned about these things. Some people are not very concerned about these things. And most of us are probably somewhere in the middle. And it's good to hear, as you point out, that the EPA says indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air. So there's clearly something going on. And it's just, it's good to hear like, well, what could I do to help the problem? I've been talking to Daniela Chase. She's a toxicologist, and the name of her book is Home Detox. Make your home a healthier place for everyone who lives there.

You will find a link to that book at Amazon in the show notes. Thank you, Daniela, for sharing the information. Okay. Thank you so much, Mike. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet.

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Mike. So let's start with what you consider one of the biggest concerns that you're asked about. There's something called separation anxiety. And separation anxiety is a syndrome created by the owner that ends up, you know, hurting the pet. And in simple English, what that means is that the pet becomes so reliant and so dependent on that person that if that person goes to work or goes to the grocery store, gets a hamburger for dinner, the pet basically loses it. You know, they run around the house barking, tearing up your furniture. And that is a giant problem all across the country. And, you know, Mike, basically what it is, is you have to teach a dog to be confident and to realize that even if mom and or dad are not there,

everything's going to be fine. And the pet, the dog in 99.9% of the cases, whether they're chewing a bone, they've got some toys, they have access to the backyard because of an invisible fence, etc. Not hard to do, but it has become just an absolutely incredibly big topic. People walk into your office and right away they're going to put the dog on Prozac. Not a great way to live. Do people put their dogs on Prozac? Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. And they walk right in the door and they say, you can examine the dog. I need a prescription for Prozac. So what does Dr.

Carol do? She says, well, you know, having your dog living on some antidepressant his whole life probably is not an ideal situation. In many cases, I am speaking to blank ears because when dogs become so dependent on mom and or dad it can be very challenging to get this resolved. But that is probably one of the biggest issues affecting people literally coast to coast. So explain the strategy then. What is it a pet owner does to relieve this? All kinds of little steps, again, to build independence and to teach confidence. You know, when you walk in the door, don't reward the dog and run up to him and give him the big hugs and kisses.

The fact is you want to reward calm behavior. When that animal is quietly laying on the floor chewing a bone, that's the behavior that we want to reward. So the big hellos, the big goodbyes, you need to nix all of those things and reward them because they stayed in the room, for example, while you were working in another room and happily played with their toys. Even if it's just five minutes, you have to start somewhere. Even if you're just dropping your dog off at the groomer, for example, you just want to drop Fido off. You don't want to make a big deal out of it because they sense a nervousness, anxiety, et cetera. They sense that in you. And then when you make these elaborate hellos, goodbyes, et cetera, it just builds and builds.

What about feeding pets? I mean, some people feed their dog once a day, some people twice a day, some people feed off the supermarket shelf, other people get really expensive dog food. What's your take on that? All animals should be fed at least twice a day. Young puppies up to six months are often fed three times a day as are elderly, geriatric, and convalescing pets. As far as what is the best diet for your pet, again, always talk to your veterinarian. You want to feed a food that is organic, natural, something that works with your lifestyle and fits your budget. There are many choices out there. When it comes to the vegan diets, once again, if we have certain medical conditions, epilepsy, kidney and liver disease, these vegan diets can be very helpful. Purina even makes a vegan diet.

But is that the best diet to put your puppy on? Usually not. Yeah, because dogs are not. I mean, I would imagine, and I've heard people put their pet on a vegetarian, vegan diet, but that's their preference, not the dog's preference. The dog wants meat. Yeah, the dogs, like you and I, Mike, are omnivores. Their system is designed to eat meat, to eat grains, and to eat vegetables. Cats, on the other hand, are obligate carnivores. And that means that they were created

to eat meat, just as plain and as simple as that. Declawing a cat is, I mean, people, I've heard that it's, you know, we couldn't do it any other way because of the cat ruins the furniture, but it just seems so horrible. So what do you think? It is considered cruel and inhumane in many areas of the world. It's been outlawed in Germany and other sections of Europe. Basically, it's an amputation of the last digit of each little claw, kind of like if you would cut off the last part of your finger. You can have your cat's nails trimmed. You can learn how to trim them. There's nothing hard about it at all. What about just general hygiene for dogs and cats? And what I mean by that is bathing, brushing teeth, things like that. First of all, if you want to

brush your pet's teeth, the best thing to do is start when they're a puppy. You can get a little baby toothbrush, a nice little soft one. You can dip it in some chicken soup and you can just gently try to run that along the outer surfaces of the two uppers and the two lowers. Once we get used to that, you can then get one of these toothpaste, poultry flavor is popular. You don't have to rinse it out. And the goal is 30 seconds on each of the four outer surfaces of the teeth. If you're not comfortable brushing teeth, there are some over the counter products that we add to the water that are not as good as brushing, but can certainly be very helpful when it comes to your pet's dental hygiene. As far as bathing, again, it's going to depend on the length of the

hair coat. What I tell my clients is the more hair you have, the more you're going to spend because you're going to be at the groomer every four, six, or eight weeks in general. As far as just bathing your dog, if you've got labs and goldens and short-coated dogs like that, if you have a nice shampoo made for your dog, you can give them a bath every day if you want to. You can do it once a week or at least once every 30 or 60 days. That keeps their skin and hair coat healthy. And remember, the skin and hair coat is the largest organ in the body. So your skin and hair coat is an external reflection of your pup's internal health.

You often hear the term indoor cat or outdoor cat, meaning that, you know, people keep their cat inside all the time or they let the cat out to do what it does. Some people say that's not right because the cats will kill birds and other little animals and drag it home. And what do you think? Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. You also have to remember, Mike, that many of the anxiety-driven behavioral problems that cats suffer from, and that's a very big topic, are because they're locked up inside and they would like to be outside. So they start ripping out their hair and doing all kinds of things that are very, very self-destructive. So starting with a little kitten, you know, you can teach them to wear a harness,

take them out for walks, just like a dog. And although that sounds good, it's not something that many people do. If you do have a kitty that enjoys the outside, you just have to remember that vaccinating, deworming, and bringing your cat in hopefully every evening, having them sleep inside, those are all important factors to consider. And although you might get hit by a car and there are all these other hazards to consider when you are outside, emotional distress, mental anguish, particularly in these cats that are not allowed to go outside, that is just absolutely huge and very expensive for the feline owner. Wow, that's surprising. Because my image, I'm not a big cat person. I've had cats when I was younger. But my image of a cat is it's

pretty low maintenance. It seems to just kind of keep to itself and seems to be fine, that there isn't a lot of emotional turmoil going on in that head. Well, there is all kinds of emotional turmoil going on in that head? Well, there is all kinds of emotional turmoil going on. You have to remember that cats are nocturnal. In general, cats sleep 18 out of 24 hours a day. But when they are out and about, what do cats like to do? They like to hunt, they like to stalk, they like to find their prey. Those are natural feline behaviors, not very different from the big cats that we see on television or enjoy at the zoo. So they are tiny and they are for the most part independent, but their wishes and their needs are their number one concern. So their living accommodations, their territory, and their meals are number one to that cat. And if their needs are not being met in mental, emotional, and physical ways, the owners will know about it quickly.

Whether they're urinating all over the house, you know, ripping out their fur. It's a big issue. Based on what you see with dogs and cats that come to see you, would you recommend or do you see better results when a dog has another dog in the house or a cat has another cat in the house? Is that typically better or is it not better or is it doesn't matter? Dogs are very social. Cats, on the other hand, very independent. Cats don't really care if it's just the one cat or if there's a couple of cats. One of the biggest problems that we as

veterinarians see is because each cat has a very defined territory. We get these multi-cat households where the territory has been infringed upon and then the cats start fighting with each other and it just kind of keeps going downhill. Dogs, on the other hand, as I said earlier, they enjoy the company of other dogs. So having a couple dogs, I think, is good. If you want to just get one cat, it's perfectly fine. What about the lifespan of pets? Are dogs and cats living longer than they used to? Yes, absolutely. Just as the human lifespan

has increased over the years, so in fact has the canine lifespan. 20-30 years ago, 8 to 10 years of age was as long as many dogs were with us. In today's world with natural diets, great veter care we've we've seen these dogs going strong at age 19 which is unbelievable so what I would say to you is small medium dogs going to age 15 to 20 plus years is not at all uncommon in my practice. The bigger the dog, again, the lifespan is going to be a bit shorter. But we have these giant breed dogs going to 14, 15, sometimes, you know, 16 plus years of age. So absolutely. As we get into, you know, natural medicine and not too many pesticides, not over-vaccinating our animals, the owners reap the rewards for having a healthy animal that can spend a little bit more time with them. What do you mean not over-vaccinating?

It seems to me that I didn't know that was a controversy that you just get the little postcard in the mail says your dog needs, you know, whatever vaccine it needs and you go take them in. Very good point. And not to hit a tough subject. Some vaccines are good. Too many vaccines are generally not going to be in your pet's best interest. So what are the basics? Rabies is a basic vaccine as well as a law in just about every state, I believe. For dogs, your distemper, hepatitis, and parvo vaccines are considered essential depending on where you live in the country. Bordetella, which is a respiratory virus spread through the air, has reached epidemic proportions, mostly going back to the pandemic and a lot of well-meaning people adopting dogs and just not having any idea what those medical needs are in order to keep their new companion healthy. When it comes to cats, the rabies is something you want to do. Leukemia is somewhat controversial.

And then there's an upper respiratory vaccine complex. They call it FVRCP. That is what I consider mandatory for a cat. We run titers. A titer is a blood test that documents whether or not an individual has a protective level of internal immunity for the disease in question. In dogs, rabies, distemper, parvo, hepatitis, leptospirosis, you can run titers on all these things so that if your pet's level of antibodies is where it should be, then you don't have to give them another vaccine. We simply check the titer the following year. When dogs and cats die, particularly, you know, later in life, do they typically die like humans from all kinds of things, or do you see the same things over and over again?

Elderly pets, like elderly people, often suffer with liver, kidney disease, heart issues, et cetera. So usually there is an underlying disease process, which gets to the point where the quality of life is no longer satisfactory for that particular animal. And so I would say that it's quite similar to you and I, because when you're lucky enough to get old, you have to deal with what old age brings. So everyone has heard about the obesity problem with human beings on this planet.

What about pets? Are we seeing a real obesity problem with pets, dogs and cats? Absolutely true. Over 50% of our four-legged canine and feline friends are suffering from obesity, which is a very big deal and which decreases their lifespan by one third and predisposes them to all kinds of chronic diseases heart liver and kidney disease being right on the top as well as cancer which is the leading cause of death in dogs today I know people sometimes give their dogs

and cats people food you know scraps from the table leftovers whatever and then I've also heard people say oh no no you can't give a pet people food, you know, scraps from the table, leftovers, whatever. And then I've also heard people say, oh no, no, you can't give a pet people food. You need to give them food that is formulated for that animal. So weigh in on that. I'll tell you how I think of it, Mike. I think that food is food. And I think that if a chicken breast is as good for your pup as it is for you and I, and the reason that these multi-billion dollar pet food companies pay graphic artists incredible amounts of money to paint the chicken and the carrot and the vegetables and all

those things on the bag of dry food or the canned food, et cetera, is because they want you to believe that that is what is in that bag or the can. And unfortunately, it's unfortunate that cost is always an issue, it seems. What they are touting now globally and very popular in Europe is insect protein. Food is food. It's not like pet food and people food. The truth is when that chicken, for example, goes into the rendering factory, the part of the chicken, Mike, that you and I think about, the breast, the thigh, and the leg, that goes over to the human section. The part of that chicken literally left on the slaughterhouse floor, the parts that you and I don't want to think about, the head and the beak

and the guts, et cetera, those are the parts that go over to the animal section. Well, I know every pet owner has questions and concerns, and hopefully we've addressed some of them today. And I think there are so many theories people have about everything, feeding and medical care and all that, that it's good to get some expert advice on that. Veterinarian Dr. Carol Osborne has been my guest, and she's the author of a couple of books, Naturally Healthy Cats and Naturally Healthy Dogs, and there are links to those books in the show notes. Thank you for coming on today, Carol. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mike. It was my pleasure. If you've ever felt truly lonely, you know that the feeling is almost painful,

and that's for a reason. Loneliness is a motivator. Human survival has always depended on us working, living, and being with other people together. Loneliness exists to motivate people to connect with others in order to survive. That's the difference between depression and loneliness. Depression is a state. Loneliness is a motivator. And the magic cure for loneliness is to show up for something that means something to someone else. It works every time. Interestingly, living alone is not necessarily a symptom of loneliness. Many people who prefer to live alone have plenty of relationships that

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