← The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
582. The Menopause-Pet Connection: How Healing Your Pet Can Heal You with Dr. Marlene Seigel
00:53:56
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- [00:00]
A
You're doing the best that you can with the information that you have. Accept that. And then own where you are at or where your pets are at. Not about blaming and shaming. It's about saying, wow, now I have an opportunity to do better. I know better. I do better.
- [00:17]
B
Welcome to the Thyroid Fixer podcast, where we dive deep into the world of thyroid and hormones, especially for you ladies navigating perimenopause and menopause. And really for anyone struggling with hypothyroidism, I'm your host, Dr. Amy, thyroid and hormone specialist and CEO of a global telemedicine practice where we prescribe the right thyroid treatment and bioidentical hormones to all 50 states and most of Canada, helping you become that badass human that you're meant to be. So if you're battling weight gain and hair loss, you can't lose weight no matter what you do. Your energy levels are plummeting and your libido left town. Then you're in the right place and you have found yourself your tribe. Remember, I want you to embrace every inch of that badass woman that you truly are. So if you're ready to dive in and fix things, let's get started. You all know how much I talk about root causes, and that includes the air that we breathe. The air inside your home can be up to five times more polluted than outside. Those toxins, chemicals and particulates, they don't just irritate your lungs. They can disrupt your hormones, your thyroid, your. Your metabolism and your energy. Yes, they can. And by the way, they're also affecting your pets and your kids, not just you. That's why I love my Jasper Air scrubber. Not just an air filter, it's an air scrubber. It gives your air a huge deep clean to remove the fine particles, the VOCs, the chemical pollutants that mess with your body's balance so your thyroid, your metabolism, and your brain can actually breathe. And for Black Friday, Jasper is offering my listeners an exclusive 400 off with the code. Dr. Amy. That's D R A M I E. So go to Jasper co. Dr. Amy, I'm going to spell that for you. J A s p r.co d r a M I E and grab yours. Now start healing from the air up because better air means better hormones, better energy, and a better you. I completely and totally hear you and I see you and I understand you and I know exactly where you're at. You're gaining weight. You can't lose. You have all the symptoms that no one's listening to the fatigue, the hair loss, the brain fog. You can't remember why you walked into a room. You don't want to get dressed and and go out because you know if you have that glass of wine with your friend, if you have that dessert with your husband or even order an appetizer, you're going to be five pounds heavier the next day and your clothes are already tight. Every single doctor is telling you that you're normal and everything is fine. You've been to multiple conventional medicine doctors trying to use your insurance, hoping to God that somebody has an answer. Then you've dropped thousands of dollars on functional medicine or integrative medicine because you keep hearing how functional medicine gets to the cause of the problem. But not every functional medicine practitioner knows the thyroid and knows the hormones and can treat you as a nuanced, personalized individual, a unique person. That is exactly what my team and I do. We specialize in thyroid problems. We specialize in hormones. You can't do one without the other. You cannot just see someone for your thyroid and have them ignore your hormones or have them half ass your hormones. They better be a hormone and thyroid expert. If you are going to spend your time, your energy and your money if you are going to invest in functional medicine, they need to be a thyroid and hormone expert and treat you as an individual. They can't have a cap on how much T3 that they're going to give you. They have to personalize your treatment plan to get you feeling your best, no matter what that looks like, so that every system in your body functions at the very top, at the very best. And that is exactly what we do. I made it my mission because I went through this. I was dismissed, I was gaslit, I was misdiagnosed, and I dropped thousands of dollars before I found an answer. That is why I made it my mission to be able to treat people in all 50 states so we can prescribe via telehealth, thyroid and hormones and peptides. Yeah, the GLPs as well. To all 50 states, most of Canada and now Puerto Rico. That is my mission to be able to help you wherever you are because I want you living your best life. I want you to join me in optimization land where you can go out and love life and go out with your friends and go out with your partner and not gain weight looking sideways at a brownie. Yes, we do have financing options available. I'm talking like 0% or 12 months, the whole thing. Based on your credit score, we got you and our programs are affordable. They're completely and totally affordable. And they will get you from point A to point B. They will bring you into optimization land. So please don't waste another moment struggling, please. I want you living here with me, a great, happy life in optimization land. So go to my website@dramy.com, click the Become a patient button so we can have a chat. Let's talk it out. Let's hear what you've done, what you haven't done, what's worked, what hasn't worked, and let's get you on the right path to feeling your absolute best. If you can imagine the best life ever that is absolutely possible for you. I'm not BSing you. I am not BSing you. I was in your shoes. Many of my patients have been in your shoes. We will get you there. And that is my promise to you. Well, this is going to be one of my favorite episodes because my audience knows how much I love my dog, Riley. And like many pet parents out there, our fur babies are really at the top of the list. I mean, sometimes they even nudge some other family members out. Let's face it, right when it comes to where we give our time, love and attention and how much love they give to us and how they enrich our lives, so rightly so. But Riley's been with me for 15 years, and my goal is to get him to 20 and beyond, which I am now learning through my friend and colleague, Dr. Marlene Siegel, that that is entirely possible when we really dial in some processes, some steps, really dial in our pet's health and take care of them the way that they deserve to be taken care of. Now, I would argue that some people like myself would spend more money on our pets than on ourselves. But here's the thing. I've been in this health space for decades now, and I just learned from Dr. Marlene things that I didn't know about Mr. Riley, that I didn't know about taking care of our pets. And, and that really enlightened me to go, oh my gosh, here's me. I thought, I thought I knew it all. I thought I was doing good, but there's so much more we can do for our pets. And then, let's face it, that comes back and enriches our health and our lives as well. So, Dr. Marlene, thank you so much for jumping on the show.
- [08:16]
A
Oh, it's wonderful to be here. I'm so excited.
- [08:19]
B
So know, we were kind of talking off air about the six step process that you go through with pets and to improve their health. But we're going to get to that. I'm going to dangle that carrot for the audience right now. So, yes, everyone, you will learn some tangible things that you can do with your pets right now to uplevel their health. You will learn things that, like I said, I had no idea. Even after consulting with integrative functional veterinarians in my area, they didn't tell me the things that Dr. Marlene has taught me. But where I want to really start is pets in general and how they can actually shift our own health. And it goes pretty deep. And you and I have had those discussions of really, like, they are our soul mates in a way. Like, we are soul connected to our pets and they're really here to enrich our life.
- [09:18]
A
Yeah, I think they are our fur guides, if you will, that are in physical form because like you said in the beginning, we will do things for our pets that we won't do for ourselves. And it's in that quest to make sure that they have the best life possible that we start to open up and to learn. And what I have learned that belief systems, which are simply thoughts that we keep repeating, some of our belief systems are coming up for the explicit purpose of reshaping them. So instead of keeping all these belief systems, perhaps they're coming up for the ability to be able to look at them and decide, do I need to delete that belief and replace it with something that's more serving in this time space dementia that I'm currently in. And I actually do think that the experiences that we're having, the emotions that we have created, are part of that guidance system. And when our pets bring us to that experience, to that emotion, it's never an accident. And what I find is that oftentimes that pet is bringing that person to a moment in their life that they've been repeating over and over. Kind of like when the GPS keeps saying, make a U turn. You passed your exit. Make a U turn, and we keep missing the exit. But our pets will bring us to this moment where we can't deny it anymore. And then somebody like myself who's experienced in understanding how to connect the dots, because nothing's random and nothing's an accident and there are no coincidences. So I look at that particular pet and that particular person's life with whatever their particular challenge is, and then what are the emotions that that owner has associated with that? And there is always a connection and there's always a healing. If the person is ready to go through that, wow.
- [11:12]
B
Now, will you ever see, let's say, coinciding diagnoses between pet and owner? Meaning, okay, you find cancer in a cat and then their owner, who is like, oh, my gosh, how did this happen? Oh, no. All of a sudden gets diagnosed with something, maybe cancer, maybe autoimmune, something else. Do you see that a lot?
- [11:36]
A
I do. And then I'll also see, well, like you said, not just cancer, but organ systems. So the emotion that is attached to the organ system oftentimes will be reflected or mirrored in that particular pet. And it's almost like they're saying, here's your sign, and do you see it or do you miss it? But yeah, and you got to straddle both worlds. We have a physical body, we live in a physical world. It is a very dense third dimension. Yes, yes, yes. However, there's a metaphysical balance to it. So when we can stop and always look at, this is interesting. Oh, there's a third component to that, and that is that we create everything. So quit blaming and shaming others. You're doing the best that you can with the information that you have. Accept that. And then own where you are at or where your pets are at. Not about blaming and shaming. It's about saying, wow, now I have an opportunity to, to do better. I know better, I do better. So if we can start our conversation there and have people just be a little more open and receptive to saying, wow, I had a belief system, but now maybe I can open up to something more. And I'll tell you a funny story. One of my business partners had her cat at a veterinarian yesterday, and the cat was having urinary tract issues. And the veterinarian had seen the cat last week and did not get a urine sample and put the cat on an antibiotic. Way wrong thing to do. They don't even know if they have an antibiotic treatable disease. So they had no diagnostic information and they just threw an antibiotic, which is going to affect the entire microbiome. Bad choice. So they went back for the recheck yesterday. And so she had had gotten me on the phone while the doctor came in the room and I was asking her, well, what was the urinalysis? And she was telling me that she suspected that this cat was going to form stones, yet there were no crystals in the sediment. Like nothing she said was making sense. And yet she wanted to treat because her belief system was, this is how we do it. So she's going to put her on a prescription diet, which is full of all kinds of hormones, chemicals, pesticides, genetically modified foods, and it's highly processed. And that was her solution, to feed the cat this diet, Rather than step back and say, well, what's the underlying cause here? And so when I gently tried to bring up the conversation of, well, perhaps we can address some of the symptoms, but then look for the root cause, she said, well, do you just want to manage the case now? They live in another state, so it's not like I can physically see the cat. But we all instantly realized that this young veterinarian was feeling very challenged, and her belief system was that there was no other options, and she was being challenged. And so she was just going to. In frustration, anger, or whatever. She was just shutting me out and not. Not willing to say, oh, I don't. I've never done that before. How does that work? So when we all can remain curious, this is the mic drop for this particular little segment. Remain curious. Remain. Remain open to at least hearing what is being told to you. And then you can use critical thinking skills and discernment and your natural intelligence to figure out, is that really the right answer? Is that the truth? Or do I need to look elsewhere? So always be curious. Let's have that childlike approach to life and go, wow, that is cool. I wonder why.
- [15:17]
B
And for all medical professionals listening to this, you basically just summarize the experience that my listeners have with their PCP and OBGYNs when they're talking about the thyroid and their hormones, you know, they get shut down from that whatever belief system is driving that practitioner.
- [15:35]
A
And it's.
- [15:36]
B
It's what they've done. It's standard of care. They check the box. Here's what we do. And so that message really permeates everyone listening. Regular people that are just pet parents and physicians, maybe vets listening too, to stay curious, because somebody may have figured out something that could really up level your practice and up level your care of people to then up level their health. And the other thing I want to touch on, Marlene, is, is that you said, and I thank you for this, is, you know, no blame, no shame, because I myself am going, oh, my gosh, God, how did I go 15 years not knowing this stuff?
- [16:19]
A
Not.
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B
Not even. I mean, like, come on, Amy, you know what's in the food supply. You know that as human beings were exposed to glyphosate, that our soils depleted. Why in the actual hell did I ever think that feeding even a high quality kibble would be adequate for Mr. Riley? Like, there is a Lot of shame that goes with that. There's self blame and shame.
- [16:43]
A
Yeah, there could be, absolutely. But again, where does forgiveness begin? It begins with ourselves. Because, you know, and I'm saying this to all of our pet parents out there, no one is intentionally trying to harm that fur baby that they love so dearly. Let's put that one to bed. Because we know that you're not intentionally trying to cause harm. And, and you're veterinarian as well. Don't go. Yeah, we could turn around and go, well, my vet told me to feed this. Well, they said that because they were trained into a system to have a belief system, that this was actually okay because we've been taught how not to use critical thinking skills. Now because I was forced out of that box, my bubble exploded and I got to see the real matrix out there. And because of that, I, I had to find my teacher, I had to find my leader. And the best one I could find was nature. So everything I do is based in science and nature, if nature supports the science. So you got to be a little careful these days because we've seen a few things happen where they said, fauci, follow the science. Well, it was no science. It was all lies. It was fabricated. So science in its true sense of the word was probably a great thing. But now we have to add some critical thinking skills. And really, I think the best way to understand how to take care of ourselves and our pets and the planet even, is understanding biology. How does the body work? And then are you doing things that are supporting the body or are you doing things that are harming the body? And then it becomes super simple because now we're talking about deficiencies. This is a machine. We are a physical and a metaphysical, spiritual, energetic light being. We're very complex, but there are certain metabolic pathways that are in our body that are designed to function a certain way. And we have certain nutrients that are the co factors to helping those biological processes function. As an example, the innate immune system, that's the one that we don't control. It does it automatically. So if something invades your body, your innate immune system kicks in and sends out the right army to do the right thing so that the healing can begin. And you don't have that under your conscious control. But that innate immune system needs two cofactors. It needs vitamin D and magnesium. Well, for most people in the United States and 85% of pets that are eating a kibble diet are vitamin D insufficient. And oftentimes they're also magnesium deficient. So now that entire innate immune system is turned off, it can't work. And then we wonder, why are we seeing the rate of dis ease? I don't think there's any disease, Amy. I think there is dis ease. When the body is not in balance, there is no homeostasis. The terrain, the living environment of our planet, called planet body, when that gets messed up, then the organisms that are living in an onus are living in a very volatile situation. And they go, wow, we got to figure out how to survive in this really bad terrain. And so they start to produce pathogens in order to be able to help the terrain recover the weeds in your garden. For those gardeners out there, the weeds in your garden are not the enemy. They're showing up to tell you that the soil isn't as rich or healthy. And that's why the higher needy things can't grow because they don't have the nutrients in the soil, but the weeds are less needy so that they can go in there, establish the foundation, and. And then when they die and over time they keep getting themselves repurposed into the soil and they start to actually heal the soil and create nutrients in the soil so other things can then take over and grow. So our bodies are no different than a garden. Right. It's just what is the terrain like? So I would just like to end this little segment with that mic drop. That is all dis ease comes from deficiencies of essential nutrients, the ones we were just talking about that the body can cannot produce in sufficient quantities on its own. I thought it was really interesting that God or the universe, whatever you call this, energetic of everything said, I'm going to make sure you're humbled and I'm going to make sure that, you know, there's a limiting factor here. Your body's amazing. It can reproduce, it can regenerate, it does all these amazing things. But I'm going to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you don't destroy the very earth that you're living on that is producing those nutrients that you need to eat for your body to work optimally. How funny is that?
- [21:48]
B
I love it and I love your mic drop moment segment. So keep up with those because those.
- [21:54]
A
Are the other half of the nutrient deficiencies, are the toxicities. And it's really interesting now because this year we have been able to test for microplastics and mycotoxins. Before that, in the veterinary industry, we didn't have the ability to test. And the microplastics we've been testing now for about three months, and I'm the only veterinarian in the entire world that is testing animals for microplastics. I don't need to hold that badge of honor. We need everybody doing this. So, anyway, we test for heavy metals, we test for glyphosate, we test for mycotoxins, microplastics. And these are critical to how the body is going to function. So when you take the nutrient deficiency and you combine it with the toxicities, you've got a formula for disaster. The only reason we don't just stop dead in our tracks is because, by design, we and our pets are designed to survive. Because when circumstances get bad, you want to be able to survive long enough for the circumstances to come around, solutions to be found, and then you go back to thriving. We have just not been a society that has moved out of surviving for a few hundred years because we are dealing with all these deficiencies. Massive amount of toxicities. We have over 85,000, probably now, over 100,000 synthetic toxins that have been developed just since World War II. And they are now in our food, in our water, in our environment, in our air, and we're inundated with them. I think it's funny, this last comment I want to make when we get our test results back for glyphosate and for microplastics, they actually have a range that they call normal. No, no, no, wait a minute. Critical thinking. There is no normal. These were never in our body. These are not designed in any way, shape, or form to be part of our body. So therefore, zero is the right answer. And anything above that is just the degree to how sick you're gonna be. Isn't that crazy?
- [24:03]
B
That is crazy. So you would think that these. We'll call them functional tests, right? Because your average. Your average doctor isn't gonna test for glyphosate in a human. Your average vet isn't going to test for microplastics and glyphosate in an animal. So you would think that these functional tests would have optimal ranges, optimal being zero. But, you know, sometimes, at least we have people like yourself that, you know, will tell us this is how you interpret these tests. And this is exactly what we want. So, actually, I have those tests here waiting for Mr. Riley to do them, and we're gonna. We're gonna see. We're gonna see what. What his exposure is. My guess is that glyphosate is gonna be high because we live in Iowa and there are. I Can literally see planes during, you know, the spring season, whenever that is. I'm not a farmer, I don't play one on tv, but there's, you know, literally planes that I can see flying right over there over a corn field, a soybean field.
- [25:04]
A
Come on.
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B
It doesn't stay there. The strong breeze is going to blow it over into our yard where he walks.
- [25:11]
A
Absolutely. And it's water soluble. So now it's in the water. It's in our rain, the glyphosate we're talking about. So we are not going to get away from the conversation. This is no longer should I learn how to detox? This is really, how much do I need to detox? And what am I detoxing? Because we just live in a toxic bath. It is what it is. And so once we accept that, I think part of the fun of human beings and Earth School is that the problems that we create, maybe they're there so that we create the solution. Because what gives us the greatest pleasure in life is achievement. Like, if we never achieved anything, there's not a lot of value, there's not a lot of accomplishment. You don't feel good about yourself. So maybe part of the story of Earth School is to create enough pressure to create or to motivate us to create something better. Right? So that's how I look at it. We may all go back into that big auditorium in non physical and go, what were you thinking, Amy? Like, really? Or, you know, they'll look at me and go, really?
- [26:26]
B
Did you drink that koolaid?
- [26:29]
A
Hey, it sounded great at the time. It made sense. It made the critical thinking skill list. I don't know, but whatever you, whatever you do, just do your best.
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B
Exactly. No, I think you're on the right path. I really do. Now, we were talking about the six step process, the six pillars that you start with with any pet parent. And it really does remind me of what we should all be doing as human beings. Because before we get into that, we were talking off air and I had said to you over the weekend, I'm like, oh, can we do, like, emotional clearing for Riley too? And like, yes, but not right now. We need to start with all of the six steps of the process that you learned in the Empower pet parent course. I'm like, oh, yes, yes, yes.
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A
Okay.
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B
That's right. Bring me back, Marlene. Ground me. Because even as humans, this is what we are doing with biohacking tools. I just released a podcast that's entitled GLPs don't work unless you're doing this and it's these people that are like, oh, I'm just going to take a peptide. Meanwhile, they're eating McDonald's, their hormones and thyroid are in the toilet, they're not even pooping every day and they think that a peptide is going to make them better. Well, same thing like trauma, healing, emotional clearance, all of that is relevant and important after, right? So let's start with the basics.
- [27:54]
A
So I'm going to give people a visual so that they can really understand why the six steps are what they are. So if you're going to build a house versus a shack, they all get built the same way. One's more expensive, it has better tools and toys and, and accomplish the decorations and stuff may be more high end, but they all start the same way. You have to have a foundation. Then you have to put the infrastructure, the electric, the plumbing, the H vac. You have to have the infrastructure before you start putting in the walls and the ceiling and the roof. So the same thing happens with our health. We can't be pulling the ceiling on before you've created the foundation, which is your terrain and your lifestyle. So we know that literally 95% of all DIS ease is epigenetic. It is your lifestyle, it's the choices that you make, it's the things you get up and think and do every day that is impacting what message you're sending to yourselves internally. Because as we experience things, we have an emotion attached to it. And your belief system, right, and the belief system is simply a thought you keep repeating that has an emotion attached to it. So as we create these emotions, if they're low vibration, if they're anger, shame, frustration, guilt, victimhood, those are all low frequencies. But you're still creating neurotransmitters that are then being sent through your fascia to communicate to the microbiome and ultimately to your cells so that they know what to turn on and turn off. So the mitochondria pick up the signal, the bacteria are all in communication and they say, oh, look, our planet is really toxic right now. We need to have a different gene expression so that we can try to survive. And when you're in a state of love and gratitude and harmony and a high vibration, that's a totally different signal. Now you're saying, hey, we can be in a parasympathetic state. We don't have to fight the saber tooth tiger. We can look at healing and regenerating and repairing. And it's a whole different complex that you Send out. The reason all of that is important to your pets is that they're in training to the frequencies you're giving off. So it is not just you. When you are in a sympathetic state, your fight flight, you're angry, you're frustrated, your pet is going to entrain to those frequencies. And we know that they do that because when we're upset, our kitties will jump in our lap and we start to pet them and we feel better because we're off setting some of that negative emotion. And I think that's part of what they came here to do. I think they came here to be the light, the path for us to be able to get out of our ego and love something more than ourselves and be willing to do what it takes to care for them because we are their guardian, just like we're the guardian of the planet. But we don't always behave like a good guardian. We do toxic things and we don't think about it. So we need to change that. Anyway, let's get back to the six steps because that's ultimately, I want to leave people with a blueprint. I want you to know how to build your health because otherwise you're. You just get exposed to so many shiny objects and there's so much noise and confusion and there's so many opinions. You know, opinions are like rectums, the butthole. There's. Everybody has one, but something worse than others. And so I don't want you to have to filter through all of this noise. And then ultimately you go into analysis paralysis, because you don't know what to do. And so you do nothing and you just keep doing what you're doing. And if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to get the same result, which is usually not what we want. Right, so the six steps. Ready? Yep. Step number one, we got to stop doing the things that are causing the problem. And I know that sounds so simple, but you break it apart and you go, what am I feeding my pet? Is it a species appropriate diet or is it highly processed food that is actually not contributing to their health? You look at your water source. Is the water highly filtered, structured, and in my ideal would have molecular hydrogen, but at least filtered and structured. So we can have a whole topic on that. But if you don't know what that means, go to my website, check it out, or I'm sure Amy teaches that. And then number three is what is the environment that you're in? What are you breathing? What is the quality, quality of air there's so much information now that shows that the quality of our home construction is so airtight that the air in the home is way worse than the air outside because we don't have the wind, we don't have the rain, so we're not cleaning our air. So I, I really help people to figure out if they have good air quality and get good air filtration going and then what's touching the skin. So what are you cleaning your house with? What is your laundry? Are you using xenoestrogens, which are estrogen mimicking compounds that are destroying our hormones? We look at the amount of emf, the electromagnetic frequencies that are in the home. Just the since COVID the dirty electricity that is coming into the homes has skyrocketed since COVID And people aren't aware of that because, oh yeah, I've had the same electric coming into my house all this time. But it has to do with these frequencies that, that are being loaded because 5G takes so much more power. And so they're loading what they call the ground, or what's supposed to be the neutral line is being contaminated with frequencies. And so now the amount of dirty electricity that we're exposed to is off the charts. But we can fix it because now we have a device that can actually clean that up before it comes into the house. And then of course, the 5G, the smart appliances we really have to take a look at. Is it really worth all the damage to say, what is that? Alexa. Alexa play. No, we don't need to be teaching Alexa. Alexa's harming you besides collecting your data. All right, so all of that, plus the ants that live in your brain, which are the automatic negative thoughts. We've already talked about what negative thoughts do and the frequencies it creates and how your pets and train to that. So that's all step number one. And I know I did it really fast, but I could spend hours on each individual one. But we have a ton of information on my website. Number two.
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B
Wait, Marlon, before we jump to number two, I just want to, I want to blow people's mind and go back to number one on the food. So, okay, we don't have to go into.
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A
We.
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B
We know kibble's bad. That's kind of a no brainer. People can go into your website, take the course, learn more. But the one thing that I learned. So I actually changed Riley over to a raw food diet when we moved here two years ago when I saw that integrated vet because we didn't have one back in Pennsylvania. And so I was all excited, right. So I did change him to raw food, only to learn from you that my raw food is meat and veg together. Dogs do not have a digestive enzyme for vegetables. How many times have I fed him carrots as a, as a little treat or like I'm cutting up a pepper, organic pepper, I feed him a piece of pepper and. And the produce is in his food and he can't even digest it. That was mind blowing.
- [35:27]
A
Yeah. So the interesting part about why they put vegetables into a lot of these raw diets, when I made my own raw diet, it was, there were three companies, I was number three, and now there's gazillions out there. Sadly, all raw is not equal. So raw diet should be grass fed, grass finished, absolutely no other. Like you cannot use processed meats that are full of glyphosate. Whatever that animal was eating needs to be outside on grass without a lot of chemicals and all that. So grass fed, grass finished or free range. And then it needs to be raw because the animals don't have amylase in their saliva and they don't chew their food. Any cat and dog owner know this. They don't chew their food because biologically speaking, nature showed us that when a carnivore, this is our dogs and cats are. When a carnivore is in the wild, they have to hunt their food, catch it, expend a lot of energy to wrestle it, kill it, and then eat it. But they also attract a lot of commotion when they do that. So other scavengers are going to be coming around going, oh, there may be a free meal. And so biologically speaking, dogs and cats were designed to kill something, eat it in the state that they killed it in, and eat it quickly, stuff themselves when meat was available, because you don't know when the next meal is going to happen. And within that model, because they're not chewing their food, there's no sense in putting amylase in the saliva. What? Nature doesn't waste anything. I guess, Amy, that's the best way for me to help people to understand is when you look at the model from nature, when you understand the, the biology behind it, then you go, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Why would you put energy into a system if you never have to use it? Right? So, so that was number one. And then when that meat drops into the stomach, they have a very acid stomach and then protein digestion starts there. Now, maybe the universe knew that man was going to mess everything up and so they Added. They added a pancreas for the dogs and cats. And that pancreas is going to kick in when there is something there that doesn't have enough enzyme to digest itself. So what happens is you start taxing that pancreas over and over and over again, and now it gets angry or it becomes cancerous. So we get a lot of pancreatitis, a lot of obesity, insulin resistance, because these animals were just not designed to be an eater of carbohydrates yet. 40 to 60% sugar in all kibble diets. And the more expensive, the more sugar, the more carbohydrate that they put in there. And oftentimes it's corn. So 95% of all corn used in industry is genetically modified. It's full of glyphosate. So seriously, you're going to feed that to the pet and you expect them to get better? Sometimes the symptom suppression happens, but under the hood, you're really creating more damage.
- [38:25]
B
Yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you for touching on that. Booth, I had to pause you on the food component.
- [38:31]
A
Yeah, and we've been so deceived because one more thing on the food is they're marketing to us now. You and I are supposed to eat the rainbow. We're supposed to have a lot of vegetables, and we're supposed to chew our food to a pancake battery. And we have amylase in our saliva, which works when we chew our food thoroughly, bringing it down, mixing it with the saliva, and then you drop it into the stomach for now your protein digestion. So they're marketing to our ignorance, and they're marketing as if we're eating it, but it's not us. We need to feed them their species appropriate diet, which is not processed foods. If nature or God intended for an animal to eat a kibble diet, there would have been a model in nature that would have processed that and made a kibble. But there's. That's a good point.
- [39:24]
B
So here's the Minecraft for that.
- [39:25]
A
Well, to go, you know, because everybody's going to have their belief system and it's kind of like, you know, the bungee hole. Everybody has their opinion, and that's okay. But at some point, we need to stop and go. If processed foods were so good for us and or our pets, why are we the sickest nation in the country? Why is cancer rates in animals? We one out of 1.65 dogs. That's almost 100% of dogs. And now we're seeing cancer under one year of age. That was Unheard of. When I started practicing, I'm 40 years into practice, and when I started practicing, we saw one or two cancer cases a year. I now have four to 10 cancer cases a week. And if I include the consultations I do, it's higher than that. So something is obviously not working. And the cancer rates and chronic degenerative diseases that we're seeing across the board for all of our mammal species is egregious. So at some point we have to stop and go, gee, maybe I need to start looking at the root cause, what is not just symptom suppression, not a pill for the ill and a diet for the disease. And then keep doing the things that you're doing. Hence, step number one, stop doing the things that are causing the problem. Which means we have to be open to making some lifestyle changes.
- [40:43]
B
Well, and I think the interesting thing is people have that mindset of. And because I've heard this from my husband. Right. Well, my old dog Lucy, she lived till 16 years old eating kibble. And I go, right, could she have lived to 22 if she didn't? Because we tend to go with the norm as the norm. Well, it's normal for dogs to live to, you know, 8 to 15. 15 would be an old. That'd be a ripe age. But according to what I've learned from you, no, the norm is 20 and beyond. When they die at 15, 16, 8 years old. That's a problem.
- [41:19]
A
Yeah. And not only that, but we have the statistics to show that dogs are living seven years shorter than they did 25 years ago. So the appearance of glyphosate in a big way into our food supply and into the environment has, over time been one of the contributing factors to decreasing longevity. We're going the wrong direction now. It's. To get an animal even to 15 or 16 is a real feat. And they're just decrepit when they get there, so they're not thriving and getting there. So, yeah, you're right. We. We really need to stop and. And go. What has changed in the world in the past 25 years? The past hundred years? And there's been a horrific change in many aspects of the world, including, and most egregiously is the amount of toxicity that we've introduced into the environment.
- [42:14]
B
Do you ever feel like your energy is just off, like you're not fully alive during the day and then you're restless at night? Chances are your circadian rhythm, your body's natural clock, has been disrupted by a lack of sunlight. So what's the solution. This is where I bring in the Mitolux sun lamp. It is designed to mimic the best of the sun, helping restore your body's rhythm. UVB for vitamin D, that helps our energy. Red and infrared light for mitochondria, mitochondrial support and let's not forget our skin and collagen formation. It's amazing. It's like a reset button for your health that you just turn on and then sit in front of and enjoy. And during those long gloomy winters, those long days, it's a lifesaver. No more winter blues by the way, improves your mood, no more low energy, improves your energy. So you need to get yourself a mito luxe lamp. It's so portable, it's so easy. I sit it on my desk, I take it with me to my bathroom, I stick my face in front of it. After I wash my face, put on my serum. It is amazing for your skin but amazing for your energy, amazing for your mood. You want to go to mitolux.com forward/doctor Amy so that's M I T O L U X.com forward slash dash R-A M I E. You're going to use the code. Dr. Amy they are giving me the code to give to you for 10 off. You will not regret it. This is the best, best, best red light, hands down. I have many of them in my house. This is the only one that I use. It is so easy, portable and it works. The most important thing is it works. So mitoluxe.com forward/doctor Amy don't forget to use the code. Dr. Amy yeah, totally, I agree. Okay, sorry about that. I, I slowed us down here. We're gonna have to go through two through six quickly but let's. No problem.
- [44:21]
A
Number two is we have to have all those essential nutrients so there and you can look them up on the Internet. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids and the fatty acids. Now the fatty acids show should be the fatty acids that make up the cell membrane. They come from plant bases. It's an omega 3 and omega 6. Fish oil is way down the chain. So we fish oils have their own issues because they can turn rancid, they can have mercury in them. So what we really are looking for are the fatty acids that make up the cell membrane. And then the body has enzymes to help break down those into the components that make all those other amino fatty acids that the body needs in the quantity that it needs it in at the time that it needs it. It's a marvelous system. But what we're doing Is we're saying, oh, look, fatty acids are great, so let's get it from a fish source and let's flood the body with it. But that's not how the body works. So again, understanding the biology helps us to understand what products we want to use and in what quantity. So all the essential nutrients, number three is heal the leaky gut. And I can tell immediately when I'm hearing the history of an animal. Are they itchy? Do they have periodic GI disease? Do they periodically not want to eat? Do they have a poor, picky appetite? Number one, that's my clue that that animal actually has poor digestion. They have leaky gut. So we have to heal that. Then number four is detoxification of the six organs of elimination. It's my favorite area to talk about. We have a kidney, colon, lungs, liver, skin, and then lymphatics. I include fascia with the lymphatics. Maybe I should make it seven organs of elimination. But so I'll put lymphatic and fascia together because between the liver and the lymphatics and the fascia, they make up a majority of our detoxification pathways. We're seeing animals that are so congested, their liver enzymes are so low, they're almost non existent. And what the lab is doing is it keeps shifting those values lower and lower to make the average of the population that we're seeing. Well, the population we're seeing is a lot sicker than it was 100 years ago. I don't want to be compared to the sick population of today. I want to get back to thriving like we were 100 years ago or 25 years ago. So I look at those numbers and it gives me clues into how is this animal actually able to detox. And the important part here for everybody to realize, yes, all of the other treatments may be really sexy when we kill cancer and we do all these other things. Sounds amazing, but if your body can't get rid of the toxins because organs of elimination aren't working, you are just going to become more sick and more sick and more sick. So we have to go back to our biological roots and go, can this body actually detox? Is it working? So that's what I specialize in, is helping the animals to detoxify all six organs of elimination. And then the mitochondria are number five. Because without the energy that we get from the mitochondria, we couldn't function. We would literally not be alive. And so we need mitochondria to produce the energy in our body so that our bodies can function. But the mitochondria also have a second very important job. And they communicate with the microbiome and they speak through the fascia. So we need to have a good communication pathway. We need to make sure that the receptors are hearing what the communication is. Because cancer is simply a cell that has lost communication with the rest of the organism. They are now a rogue cell that isn't getting instructions. They're not being told, hey, thank you for your service, but it's time for you to do apoptosis and disperse yourself. And we're going to repurpose your particles and make something even better. They don't have that signal anymore. So if you're out on your own and you're not getting word from your higher ups on what to do, you're going to get pretty ingenious and you're going to figure out how to stay alive and how to keep growing. You don't mean to kill the organism. You just don't know that you're a part of it anymore.
- [48:49]
B
Right now, when you're talking about the cells being all like cancerous, mutated, messed up DNA, they're not communicating properly. This is kind of an off the cuff question, but I was diving into the research on how iodine turns on the p53 protein, which then downregulates VEGF and basically squashes these mutated DNA cells, cancerous cells. Can we give iodine to our pets?
- [49:17]
A
Yes, you can. Iodine is a fabulous topic. We can spend hours talking about that. But there's many other pathways that are already built into the body. You got the CYP1B1 pathway, you got the P450 PAT. And isn't it amazing that there are foods that we used to eat when we had more of a foraging lifestyle and our pets the same way, because our pets would have gotten these greens and their chlorophyll and their premium probiotics from the intestinal tract of the herbivore that ate all of them. So even though they weren't designed to be the primary eater, they ate them already digested and fermented from the intestines of the animal that they killed and are eating. Right? So what a cool system. But things like B17, you know, we know that the three molecules that are in there are able to be broken apart. A healthy cell will use that and kill the cancer cell based on the byproduct, because it has a certain enzyme that allows it to take the toxic element and neutralize it. But a Cancer cell doesn't have that enzyme, so it's affected and it's going to be killed. This already exists in our bodies, Amy, in our pets bodies. We don't have to recreate the wheel. We just have to understand the biology and how do we support that system. So there's a lot of different foods that are available in the market where we know another whole series of products. They're called Salvester als, and there's really not a product called Sylvester als. It's a group of compounds that are derived from fruit when it's ripening. So when fruits ripening in nature and there's a threat like a fungus or parasites or whatever, these produce these chemicals in the fruit to make them not be consumed by the parasites and the other organisms that are out there. So that way the fruit can develop. Well, we can harvest those chemicals and use them to actually fight cancer. So there's a lot of different things that we can do, but it's not by itself. You can't just go, oh, let me kill all the cancer cells. But the body can't detox, or there's no nutrition to support the biology. That's why I do the six steps. One, we stop introducing more of the damage. Then we supply all the essential nutrients it needs to do its job. We heal the gut, we support the body to be able to detoxify all six organs. We support the mitochondria to make more. More energy. And then number six is we clear the trapped emotions that are associated with it, which is the metaphysical side of Earth School. So we start to understand the meaning behind everything that we're creating.
- [52:01]
B
And their trapped emotions are basically our trapped emotions or any kind of stress that they've lived through while. While in our life. Right.
- [52:09]
A
It could be a little more complex than that. Sometimes they're mirroring and sometimes they are showing us something that we need to do in our life. I will tell you the number one theme that I see is helping people into either forgiveness for themselves or for others, and also to stop the blaming and shaming that is directed towards the self. But I would say if I had to pick one theme over everything else, that the experience lends us at the end of the experience, and that would be learning how to do forgiveness for ourselves and for others.
- [52:49]
B
Wow, that's so powerful. That's a great way to end this segment because that's very, very powerful and literally gives us a window into things that we even need to deal with and to face and to face. I mean, Dr. Marlene we could literally talk for a another hour. I cannot believe the time has flown by because I'm so captivated by everything you're saying and I even took your course. So please let people know where they can take the empowered pet parent course as well, because eye opening, everyone eye opening and touching at the same time. You're going to hear multiple stories of cancer that was cured, dogs lives saved, lives extended when they were supposed to be cut short per conventional veterinarians. So please tell people where they can find you and where they can take this course and, and now they can work with you, right?
- [53:44]
A
Yeah. Okay, so I can do telemedicine now. It the education, knowledge and somebody to hold your hand. Those are the formula for success. Because otherwise you're going down a luge and you don't have a steering wheel and you just keep hitting walls and you don't understand why it's not working. But you know, there's always the little nuances that are unique to every individual. So it's not like I can say here, this is a one size fits all. And everybody's going to do that. There's no way. People are individual people have their own stories, their own emotional attachments to what's going on. It's their own window into their soul that they have to get and then their own circumstances. So everyone, we can help them individualize once they get the foundation, but you have to have the foundation. And if I can't shift that belief system, if we can at least start with, gee, I need to feed a better diet, if I don't cross that hurdle, then we're not going anywhere like that. That machine is not going forwards. It's probably going to go backwards. And so I accept the fact that not everybody is ready to hear what I will say is my truth. And I do have to say one thing, because I was chatting with some of my colleagues and the whole subject of spay and neuter came up. And we have learned over the past hundred years that doing these full hysterectomies on dogs, I'm gonna say dogs only, has really been harmful. And so what can we do differently? But the belief system of most veterinarians are that what they're doing is the right thing by doing full hysterectomies and full neuters. And for those people who are so set in that belief system that they can't open their eyes and go, well, maybe there's some evidence that shows that maybe we're doing the wrong thing, I've spayed and neutered hundreds of thousands of animals in my career. And I thought I was doing the right thing. Sure. And I have now learned something different. And so now my conversation around that subject is very different. Am I going to beat myself up? Because in the beginning 20 years of my career, I told people to feed processed foods and I spayed and neutered their animals. I could implode. I could become so incapacitated with the guilt that I could never do any good. I don't think that's the purpose. I think the purpose of learning is so that we could go out and do better. But we know what we know. We don't know what we don't know. So please pet parents that are listening and veterinarians, because I have courses for veterinarians. If any part of this conversation was inspiring, intriguing, it opened up a thought process, then please take another step forward. Start with the education and then find what other things that you resonate with. You may want to do consultations with me. You may want to encourage your veterinarian to start looking at some of these other opportunities. There's so many different ways that we could take this information and use it and. But you have to start with the education. So Dr. Marlene Siegel.com is the hub of everything. Me, our online store, our courses, our hospital everything, the blogs. There's so much information out there, you know, as I round 70 and I don't know how many more years I'm going to be able to practice at the level that I'm at, but I know that my purpose is nowhere near finished. And it keeps evolving and it keeps emerging and. And the next amazing conversation and opportunity keeps coming up. So I plan on being 120 and still going strong.
- [57:33]
B
Well, she didn't look 70 all. So you're gonna have to check this out on YouTube. Just see Marlene's beautiful face and to go, holy crap, no, she doesn't. She looks like 49. But that's a testament of you taking care of yourself. And that's how well you also will take care of our fur babies. And so I'm so happy that you can do telehealth now, because when I was first introduced to you by our mutual friend JJ Virgin, you were only in Florida. Now, I have no problem jumping on a plane and bringing Riley down, but we're not at that place yet. So right now, to be able to work with you virtually is a complete and total blessing, and I'm so grateful for it. And I want everyone out there listening to take advantage of this blessing too because you're not going to find another vet like Marleene. And I will mention too that the new food that Riley is on created by you, it is on your website as well. So we're going to put all of that in the show Notes.
- [58:30]
A
Yeah.
- [58:31]
B
Marlene, thank you. Thank you for doing what you're doing and for saving our fur babies and for coming on the show and giving all of my listeners gem like information. And of course they can go deeper with you as well.
- [58:43]
A
Thank you and back at you for doing the work that allows me to actually share. So thank you.
- [58:49]
B
Absolutely. So for all the listeners out there, check the show notes. Please check out her site do well by your fur babies. They rely on you and they give you so much back in return. So until now, next time, thank you so much for listening. The information shared on the Thyroid Fixer Podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcasts have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussing or promoting certain products or services. Any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the host or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.