Keep Your Dog Healthy in a Toxic World
Nutritional deficiencies with a combination of our toxic earth and some poor genetics over the last one hundred years make a lethal combination for our furry companions.
The first place we should look is at our Earth, and more specifically, our soil. Glyphosate, produced by Monsanto, is a chemical herbicide responsible for 1.2 billion pounds of chemicals that are spread on crops, and as we know, these chemicals cause cancer. The sterilization of good soil results in soil depletion, where the decline in nutrient, vitality, and fertility in soil occurs. Nutritional deficiencies with a combination of our toxic earth and some poor genetics over the last one hundred years make a lethal combination for our furry companions.
What Does This Mean for Your Dog?
There are more bacteria in your dog’s gut than there are nervous cells in their entire body. Glyphosates primarily attack your dog’s gastrointestinal tract, and destroy probiotics, healthy positive bacteria required for nutrient assimilation and balanced immunologic health.
Unfortunately, it does not matter if you feed your dog the best diet ever—every single one of our bodies (humans included), have a measurable load of glyphosate. Every dog that has exposure to this has some form of dysbiosis.
Dysbios
Dysbiosis is also commonly referred to as “Leaky Gut Syndrome”. There are cells in the intestine called tight junctions. Glyphosate does not allow there to be a healthy, stable environment in the gut. The tight junctions swell up and Leaky Gut is the end result, eradicating innate GI defenses. This can occur as early as 8 weeks of age, where the puppies are born with naturally open junctions, which is what allows colostrum to enter.
Leaky Gut is inflamed nutrient malabsorption that spikes an immune response that at best causes gastrointestinal problems (food intolerances and allergies), and at worst, autoimmune diseases like cancer.
What Does This Mean for ME?
You might be wondering what this means for the health of your dog, and what you can do to help. Yes, while it sounds like the odds are stacked up against us, there are still ways we can help keep our pets healthy in a toxic world!
Here are 10 ways that will positively impact the health of your dog, and help ensure they don’t become a statistic:
1. Feed a fresh, wholesome diet.
We have up to 95% control over whether or not our dogs develop inflammatory conditions like cancer through the use of wise lifestyle choices like providing a nourishing diet. Dry foods will increase inflammation, and work adversely for this situation, as opposed to whole, fresh foods.
2. Address ailments or concerns non-toxically.
There is a solution to every problem! And, in the animal world, there will always be a holistic, natural approach to every concern, whether you’re using preventative measures or curative treatments. Reach out to a pet food nutritionist to find out more about the positive influence whole foods have, along with proper high-quality supplementation.
3. Avoid unnecessary over-vaccination.
Once your dog or cat receive their core vaccines, they are protected for life! If you are not convinced, there are titre-tests available to prove immunity. This is a non-toxic approach that is healthier for them than pumping more chemicals into their bloodstream. The same applies for flea and tick medication!
4. Wait until your dog is mature before altering them.
Desexing (spaying or neutering) at an immature age removes all the sex hormone secreting tissues from an animal’s body, however the problem is that a dog requires a certain level of circulating sex hormones in the correct proportions for normal physiological and biologic function. Removing reproductive hormones at an early age will negatively impact everything in the body, from brain, to gut, to bones and more. There are other ways to sterilize a pet without it costing them important sex hormones.
5. Buy organic beds only.
Did you know that most dog beds, much like all of the furniture we buy for ourselves, are all sprayed in flame-retardant? Flame-retardant spray is widely known as an endocrine disruptor. Organic beds will ensure that they are not subject to high chemical loads.
6. Get rid of your Bath and Bodyworks candles!
If you have scented candles at home, wall plug-ins, or diffusors, in order to keep your home smelling pleasant, it is doing more harm than good for the health of your dog. Mainstream candles will contain harmful chemicals that when breathed, have been linked with severe health problems.
7. Irrigation therapy!
Irrigation therapy is just a fancy word for “rinsing your dog off!” We will often unknowingly walk our dogs on grasses that have been treated with pesticides. Our dogs’ paws are pretty absorbent, and will soak up those chemicals. A great method to ensure they are not affected long-term, is to use a water rinse to rinse off the pesticides (and anything else your dog might have picked up!).
8. Moving away from chemical household cleaners.
Along with pesticides outdoors, there are also many big-name brands that we use on a day-to-day basis inside our homes that could be negatively impacting our dog’s health. There is a non-toxic solution to every chemical based product. A great and natural choice is 1:1 parts of cleaning vinegar to water.
9. Serve filtered water.
An easy way to keep your dog healthy is to offer fresh, clean and filtered water. Filtered water will ensure that there are no impurities in their water. It will also reduce fluoride components, and eliminates bacteria, making it a safer choice for your dog!
10. Stay away from plastic.
Here’s one thing to know about plastic; plastic harbours bacteria! The best way to store food, treats, or anything relating to what your dog might consume is to store in a glass, ceramic, or stainless steel material. This also includes your dog’s feeding and drinking bowls!
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we can’t protect them from everything, as sometimes there are factors outside of our control such as poor genetics, unknown history, and other variables. However, we are ultimately our pets advocates, and the choices we make for them on a day-to-day basis will either produce a negative or positive outcome.