December 31, 2024 • 55 mins
Bonus Episode From the Vault: The #5 Most Downloaded Episode of 2024!
While we’re on a break until Feb 4, we’re bringing back one of your all-time favorite episodes of 2024 from the vault!
In this episode, Dr. Marlene Siegel joins us to explore how integrative veterinary care can transform your pet’s health and longevity. Forget masking symptoms—Dr. Siegel focuses on addressing root causes of disease and shares practical tips to help your pet thrive. From nutrition to detoxing and emotional care, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways you can start using today.
What We Cover:
- The danger of treating symptoms instead of the root problem.
- Why your pet’s diet matters more than you think.
- How inflammation wreaks havoc on pet health.
- The surprising role of water quality in wellness.
- Healing the gut for long-term health.
- Detoxing your pet’s environment for optimal well-being.
- Why emotional well-being is crucial for your pet’s overall health.
- How to educate yourself and advocate for your pet effectively.
Special Resources:
- Learn more about Dr. Siegel: www.drmarlenesiegel.com
- Access her free e-book and courses: www.transformingvetmedicine.com
- Special Offer: The first 10 people to purchase Dr. Siegel's Pet Parent Course and share a photo of their completed purchase on Instagram, tagging @drmarlenesiegel with the hashtag #starlight, will receive a free 15-minute online consult with Dr. Siegel.
Hit play and get ready to take your pet’s health to the next level!
Love the show? Please share it with another pet parent who wants less chaos and more clarity. Please leave a 5-star review to help others find real-life, judgment-free advice.
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Big pet challenges we help pet parents solve include: puppy training, cat behavior, pet budgeting, stress-free vet visits, solutions for multi-pet households, and more.
Contact: Amy@muddypawsandhairballs.com
©Ⓟ 2025 by Amy Castro.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amy Castro (00:11):
Hey, there it's Amy.
Welcome back to Muddy Paws andHairballs.
So while we're on a littlebreak before we officially
launch in 2025, I thought it wasthe perfect time to bring back
one of our top five episodes of2024.
If you missed it the first time, lucky you, because this one is
a game changer and now you'vegot a second chance.
In this episode, I sat downwith Dr Marlene Siegel, who is
(00:33):
an absolute rock star inintegrative veterinary medicine.
She's been in the field forover 40 years, but what makes
her so fascinating is the waythat she blends holistic pet
care with cutting-edge scienceto help pets live longer and
healthier lives, and I don'tthink there's anyone amongst us
who's listening right now thatwouldn't want to get another few
years, especially if thoseyears were quality years with
(00:56):
their pets.
So we are talking aboutpractical, real-world tips that
you can use right away toimprove your pet's health, from
the best diet choices todetoxifying your pet's
environment, healing their gutand even addressing their
emotional well-being.
Honestly, I couldn't believehow much I learned during this
conversation and, based on theresponse from listeners like you
(01:17):
, I wasn't the only one.
So grab your coffee or leash upthe dog, or just kick back and
relax, because this episode is amust-listen, or leash up the
dog, or just kick back and relax, because this episode is a
must-listen.
Let's dive back into my chatwith Dr Marlene Siegel.
My special guest today is DrMarlene Siegel, a true pioneer
in bioregulatory veterinarymedicine.
When traditional treatmentsfall short, dr Siegel steps in
(01:38):
with innovative solutions.
She's an international lecturer, researcher and consultant who
is always finding new ways tohelp pets and their parents.
In her practice, she usestherapies like ozone and
photodynamic therapy and focuseson identifying and treating the
root cause of disease, not justsymptoms.
Dr Siegel also shares herknowledge with the world through
(01:59):
journal articles, webinars andonline courses for both pet
parents and veterinarians, whichI think is awesome.
I definitely want people tocheck out those courses.
When she couldn't find theright diets and supplements for
her patients, she created herown raw food and supplement
company and now, in her latestventure, she's gearing up to
launch SPAWS Family WellnessCenters, which are detox centers
(02:21):
for pets and their people.
So, dr Siegel, thank you somuch for joining me here today.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (02:26):
Oh, you're so welcome and I'm excited to be
able to speak to your audience.
Amy Castro (02:30):
I know we've been looking forward to this for a
while because I think you'redoing so many cutting edge
things that people haven't heardof and some of it's a mouthful
kind of like bioregulatoryveterinary medicine.
What exactly is that?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (02:45):
Well, thank you for letting me define it,
because we are now hearing aboutmore and more veterinarians
that are saying they areholistic.
Well, what does that mean?
And holistic actually wasdefined as whole body medicine,
but what it's being used atcurrently is if a veterinarian
takes an acupuncture course orthey take a course in herbs or
chiropractic, they callthemselves a holistic
(03:06):
practitioner.
But they're really not, becausein order to truly understand
holistic medicine, you have tounderstand biology and the whole
patient.
And then the term integrativemedicine came about, which means
that they're mixing a littlebit of Eastern medicine, the
alternative holistic,integrative stuff along with the
traditional allopathic Westernmedicine.
(03:27):
But the problem that I havewith a lot of veterinarians who
say they are integrative isthey're using their acupuncture
needle as, instead of a pill forthe ill, now it's a needle for
the ill and they're still notaddressing the root cause of
dis-ease.
So, bioregulatory medicinethere's no way to mess that one
(03:49):
up.
It really means that youunderstand the biology of the
body for that particular speciesand you're able to direct your
diagnostics and yourtherapeutics to enable the body
to do what it innately andintelligently knows how to do.
So, amy, most people think theygo to the doctor and they get a
pill.
And the doctor made them better.
(04:10):
No, their body made them betterwhen they gave their body the
opportunity to heal.
In most cases the body heals,despite us, because we're doing
so many things to screw it up.
But in bioregulatory medicineit's truly understanding the
biology of the body, thebiochemical pathways, what gets
(04:32):
turned on, what gets turned offby our epigenetic lifestyle.
What are we doing in our world?
What are we eating, what are wedrinking, what's our thoughts,
what's our behavior?
And how is that affecting thebiology of the body?
Are we hurting it or are wehelping it?
And that's as simple as it gets.
Amy Castro (04:50):
Right, well, and you know when you said about giving
the pill and we think it'shealing it and it's really your
body healing, but sometimesisn't it true that sometimes
it's not even being, it's beingmasked, it's not being healed at
all?
You're just covering things upmasked.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (05:05):
It's not being healed at all.
You're just covering things up.
We call that symptomsuppression, which is a
beautiful point that we want tomake, because we are a society
where we have been conditionedand trained by the Medical
Institute to have a symptom andimmediately go for suppressing
that symptom.
We get a headache, we take anaspirin, which is a
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.
(05:27):
Despite all the side effects,people still do that.
And if you have, let's say,diarrhea, we don't question why
we have the diarrhea or why didyou have the headache, because
it's your body talking to youand you take a medication that
makes the symptoms go away.
And when the symptom is gone,you go oh look, I'm all better.
(05:50):
But we wouldn't do that to ourcar.
If the dash light on your carcame up and said you have a
check engine light or nowadaysit's just a general you need to
go find out what it is.
But back in the day, when Istarted driving, it actually
told you there was a problemsomewhere, and it told you what
the problem was.
Well, we wouldn't considerunplugging the dash light and
saying, look, the problem isgone.
It's insane, right?
(06:10):
We laugh at that, but yet we dothat to our body, and our body
is the most magnificent machinewho is communicating to us all
the time.
It's okay, if you want to treatyour symptom, just don't stop
there.
Ask that big, important questionwhy do I have a headache, why
am I having GI problems, why doI have skin disease?
(06:34):
And that's for yourself.
And we're taking the exact sameapplication to our pets, which
is even more important becauseyou know they say they don't
talk to you.
I think they do talk to us.
We just aren't listening withthe right ears.
But let's just suffice it tosay they're showing us the
symptoms that they have andinstead of addressing the root
cause, the average veterinarianhas only been trained to address
(06:57):
the symptoms.
We name it, we blame it andthen we come up with a treatment
or a pharmaceutical and then wemake it go away.
But most pets' parents wouldagree that their pets relapse.
And now the symptom comes backand oftentimes it's worse than
the initial or it comes back asa more severe complaint from the
(07:18):
body, a more severe disease.
Amy Castro (07:21):
Yeah, that's such a good point.
I mean, I even I was having alot of problems with my knee,
which it has a torn ACL, sothere's definitely damage in
there, and to the point where Ithought, okay, I probably need
to seek surgery because it'sjust, it was miserable,
miserable, miserable.
Anyway, go to the orthopedicsurgeon.
Doesn't think surgery is goingto do anything, prescribes a
(07:42):
drug for it and it worked.
But what I discovered after thefact, when I made some diet and
lifestyle changes, that I trulybelieve that the key to a lot
of my aches and pains wereinflammation, and I have
eliminated some inflammatoryinducing things from my diet and
I've not had to take a pill forany of that and nothing else
(08:04):
has changed.
You know, it's just that oneelement.
So it is so amazing how muchthe body can heal itself if we
just let it.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (08:13):
Absolutely.
And inflammation, as you justsaid, it is the underpinning of
all dis-ease.
Now, I said it that way, I didD-I-S space E-A-S-E because I
truly, after 40 years inpractice, I truly appreciate the
fact that there is no disease,there is dis-ease, the body not
(08:35):
being in balance, and when thebody is in balance, we have ease
and flow.
So number one is addressing whyare we seeing the inflammation?
And that inflammation willsettle in the weakest link in
the body.
So for you, on your ACL, itactually stemmed from leaky gut,
which led to inflammation alongyour spine, which caused a
(08:58):
decrease in blood flow andcirculation from the nerves of
the spine going out to the endusers, ie the cells and the
joints, and so your jointsbecome weak because they don't
have good nutrition and theycan't get rid of cellular debris
and they get weak.
And then all you have to do isstep the wrong way or make a
turn and poof, that's a weakenedjoint.
(09:19):
But it came from the gut,leading to inflammation, leading
to the spine.
And I am using that as anexample because we see so many
ACL tears in dogs now more thanwe have ever seen.
It's almost epidemic.
And we're also seeing, when wedo radiographs that a majority
of our patients are havingspinal disc degeneration or
(09:42):
osteoarthritis in the spine, andso it makes sense.
The story actually plays out Ifyou have all that inflammation
in the spine, just like in yourcase, you're going to have a
weakness of energy and bloodflow and circulation and
nutrients getting to the enduser that those nerves are
supposed to be feeding, and thenyou get a weakened distal area
(10:02):
and then it has more of anopportunity to break.
Amy Castro (10:10):
Yes, the whole thing to me is completely, completely
fascinating.
I'm assuming you didn't learnall this stuff early on.
This is stuff that came inlater in life.
How did you develop to thepoint where you have taken this
journey into looking so muchmore deeply at our pets and
their biology?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (10:24):
I think it's true for all people that step
out of the box and are willingto do great things in the world
is there has to be some painpoint that you experience,
whether it's in yourself orsomeone that you love.
And so for me, it was one of myhorses becoming injured and
that horse had saved mydaughter's life, was one of my
(10:45):
horses becoming injured and thathorse had saved my daughter's
life physically saved mydaughter's life.
So when it came time for me tounderstand what had happened in
that riding accident, I wasdetermined to fix this horse,
and when I had equineveterinarians come out to see
her, their short answer was wedon't know what's wrong with her
, she's not safe to ride, you'llnever show her again and you
could put her out to a pasturefor the rest of her was.
(11:05):
We don't know what's wrong withher, she's not safe to ride,
you'll never show her again andyou could put her out to a
pasture for the rest of her life, or you could put her down.
And it was those words thethere is nothing more that can
be done that lit something up inme.
First of all, I refuse toaccept that, and I think there's
so many stories of people whoare diagnosed with stage four
cancers and they're told go home, get your affairs in order,
(11:26):
there's nothing more you can do,and they, just something in
them says no, I am not willingto accept that as an answer and
they are able to heal themselvesfrom stage four diseases.
And it was that kind ofmotivation.
I was determined to fix thishorse, because I owed that to
her, and this passion came up inme that I had no idea was that
(11:48):
strong and despite the fact thatI had an incredibly busy life
and my practice was busy I wasraising and homeschooling two
children and I just I don't know.
You find room and when theuniverse says it's your time to
do something, you just step upto the plate and you do it,
because if you don't, it's goingto come back at you and going
to say, oh, you missed the firstopportunity.
(12:09):
We're going to come back andtell you again.
So that's how I started.
My journey was really to try tofix the horse and as I learned
more tools to fix her, Iincorporated those into my small
animal practice, into mypersonal life.
I incorporated those into mysmall animal practice, into my
personal life and honestly, amy,when I look back at pictures of
(12:29):
myself 20 years ago, I lookolder then than I do now and I'm
almost 70 years old, and it'sthe difference on how I have
learned to understand my biology.
So I biohack my own body andnot for any other reason that I
want to be here for a long timeand I want to feel good and I
(12:49):
want to have lots of energy andI want my brain to work and I
have so much I want to do and Idon't want to be slowed down.
So, at Pushing 70, I have zerohealth issues and I'm on zero
allopathic medications, but Itake a boatload of nutritional
supplements that are all gearedtowards helping my biology do
(13:10):
its job.
Amy Castro (13:12):
Yeah, and I would highly recommend that everybody
go out, and we're going to putin our show notes a link to your
website, but the video whereyou're telling in more detail
the story about your horse Lily.
I was boohooing when I waswatching that video.
You're a very good storyteller,but it's a very compelling
story about that pivotal eventand how much it changed you and
how you see things and how muchpeople's pets have benefited as
(13:35):
a result.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (13:36):
You know, on a spiritual level, I believe
everything happens for ourhighest and best good and
everything is a blessing, eventhe most ouchy things that you
can go through.
So if you're experiencing apainful moment in your life or
it's been going on a long time,just know that if you can lean
into it and ask for evidence ofthe blessings, you will find it.
(13:59):
And when you look back you gooh my gosh, I wouldn't change a
thing because I wouldn't be whoI am today if I didn't go
through what I did then.
And every experience in ourlife helps to mold us who we are
today.
And then we find our purposeand our passion and then after
that it's just lean in and do it.
Amy Castro (14:17):
Yeah yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent on
that.
So we know that you know, weknow the story of what got you
down this path and, like I said,I highly recommend people go
check out that video because itwas very compelling.
But tell us about yourfive-step approach to pet health
.
It seems simple, but yet soprofound at the same time.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (14:36):
When we talk about medicine and health and
you go.
From the allopathic perspective, it's so complicated that you
sit there and you go.
I don't know how to figure outmy own health challenges, let
alone my pet's health challenges, and I just asked for some
clarity on how do we make itconcise and clear and easy to
(14:56):
follow and sustainable, becauseif you don't have a sustainable
plan, you're not going to keepdoing it.
Yeah, that's huge so what I cameup with was it's actually six
steps, but in my book I only sayfive, because the sixth step is
our woo-woo step, it's ouremotional side.
But let me go through them foryou because it'll make more
sense.
So, step number one we have tostop doing the things that are
(15:18):
causing the dis-ease.
Like we can't go and take apill for the ill or a diet for
the disease and expect things tobe different when you haven't
changed any of the things thatyou're doing.
Einstein, one of his famousquotes, was insanity is doing
the same thing over and over andexpecting a different result.
Oh my gosh, that is so true.
(15:39):
He also said you can't solveproblems with the same mindset
that created them.
So not only do we have to dosomething different, but we have
to think differently, and theworld that we're living in right
now isn't the same world thatwe had even 20 years ago.
So it's extremely importantthat we have an open mind to say
(16:02):
okay, what else can we do?
So with that setting the stage,step number one is stop doing
the things that are causingdisease.
And we look at the diet In diet.
Are we feeding a speciesappropriate diet?
I just did a talk with agentleman who is all about doing
webinars and we were havingthis business conversation and I
(16:22):
said do you have pets?
And he said, no, I don't have apet yet, but I know my pet's
name when I get one.
And I said, well, what are yougoing to feed your pet when you
get it?
This is a very intelligent manwho lives an organic lifestyle.
He and his wife.
They cook organic, they try togrow their own food.
They're in a CSA, you know.
They're really into exerciseand all the things that are
(16:42):
biohacking human health, andhe's a very handsome man, very
well built, and when I asked himthat question, he goes well, I
guess, based on the commercialsI watch on TV, I think I would
feed Purina.
And it was such a beautifulopportunity for me to help him
understand why it is that I'mtrying to get my programs out to
(17:04):
the world is because he isgoing off of a belief system.
We will now call it BS.
A belief system is not a badword and that BS is that he is
simply learning from what he'sbeing taught around him.
Is that he is simply learningfrom what he's being taught
around him?
We're taught from our parentsand what they did if they had
(17:24):
pets, and our caregivers and ourteachers and what we see on TV.
And if we believe that, then wedon't go any further in asking
is that actually a healthy diet?
Like you know, we wouldn't goto McDonald's and Wendy's and
Taco Bell every day and expectto be healthy because it's
processed foods.
Why in heaven's name would wethink it's okay to feed our pets
(17:46):
processed foods?
But if you don't know better,you can't do better.
So that's step number one islearning about a sustainable,
species appropriate diet.
What does that look like?
And then water.
Oh my gosh, that water.
We could spend two hourstalking about just water.
But water is not the water thatcomes out of our tap that we
want to be drinking.
(18:06):
That water is full of heavymetals and chemicals and
pesticides and geneticallymodified glyphosates in there.
It's horrible.
Depending on where you live, itcould even be worse.
I live in Florida.
We have terrible water.
So learning how to get good,clean, filtered water and
structured water, whichstructured water is the water
(18:28):
that is in our bodies.
We all know we're made of 70%water, but that's not the water
that's coming out of the tap.
This is actually a differentmolecular construction and it's
a gel phase.
So, yes, we are made of 70%water, but it is structured
water and that structured wateris what is critical for our body
to be able to function.
It surrounds every cell in ourbody, the organelles in the cell
(18:50):
.
It's a communication highwaybetween the mitochondria and the
microbiome, the guys that makeenergy, and the bugs and
parasites and viruses and allthat live on us that actually
contribute more geneticinformation to us than our own
genetic information.
Isn't that a shocker?
So we don't want to be justcutting out all the different
(19:13):
parasites.
It's not about making thebacteria and the viruses the
villain, it's about theenvironment that they're living
in.
We call it the terrain, theinternal terrain, and we've all
seen gardens and land wherethere's a lot of weeds because
the terrain isn't healthy, thesoil's not lush.
Well, what happens?
You get a lot of weeds thatcome in because they're trying
(19:34):
to establish something for otherthings to be able to grow after
them, and that's what happensin our bodies.
When the terrain is poor.
Then the pathogens start tomultiply as the first line of
defense to try to at leastmaintain a home, and then
hopefully things improve and thehost organism gets a little
(19:55):
smarter and then starts tonurture the body, and then the
terrain goes back to being ahealthy terrain, which is a
balance for all the microbes tolive in and on, and then we have
all the pollutants that are inour air, in our home environment
.
What are we cleaning with, whatare we doing laundry with?
And, last but not least, is theants that live in our brain, and
(20:18):
they are called automaticnegative thoughts.
So the acronym is ants, and itmay be the most important of all
the things, because if youthink it, that's what you're
going to get.
So if you believe you're goingto have a certain outcome, you
probably will, because you'refocusing on it and you bring
that into reality.
And I know it sounds a littlewoo woo, but I think nowadays
(20:41):
people are starting tounderstand that if they stay in
a negative mindset, theyactually make neurochemicals
that are derived from thisnegative mindset.
That is communicating from thehormones that you're producing
to the cells and your DNA and itsays bad place, here we're
(21:01):
going down the tubes, things arenot good, and so that leads to
more inflammation, more highsympathetic tone, which is
stress, and everything juststarts to go south from there.
But when we have a verypositive mindset when we're
thinking the world is half fullof wonderful things instead of
(21:22):
half empty.
When we are in gratitude andkindness and we can give
compassion, you send out anentirely different group of
neurotransmitters and you canstay in a parasympathetic tone
where your body can actuallyheal and repair.
Why this is important for us tobe talking about what our
(21:43):
thoughts are is because our petsentrain to what our energies
are.
So if you're giving off a lotof anger, frustration, hatred,
bitterness, all of that, thenyour animals are entraining to
that energy.
They don't understand why.
All they know is there'ssomething bad, there may be
danger, there's something notgood happening.
(22:06):
And what do they do?
They come over to us and theyput their head underneath our
hand to be petted, or they geton our lap, or they lick us, or
they just lay next to us and,instinctually, what do we do?
We reach out and we start topet them.
And every pet owner says yes towhat I'm about to say.
No matter how bad they feelwhen they start holding and or
(22:29):
petting their fur, baby, theystart to feel better.
And that's because you'retaking some of that low
vibration energy and you'reoffing it to that pet Not to be
guilty.
You're not causing them disease.
I think they incarnate with usfor that purpose.
I think they're here to help usnavigate this very dense fifth
(22:51):
dimension.
And isn't it interesting that ofall the species on the planet
they say dogs in particular haveunconditional love.
What a great model.
If we just start payingattention to dog behavior and
how happy they are and how inthe moment they are, that alone
would change people's lives, ifthey could just be happy and be
(23:14):
in the moment.
So that's step number one.
And of course, electromagneticpollution.
I didn't include that, but it'svery important.
That's the EMF that we'reexposed to, our Wi-Fi, our
computers, our cell phones andall of that and 5G.
It's devastating to our pet'shealth.
So that's all step number one.
Any questions on that one?
Amy Castro (23:32):
Yes.
Well, because it's a lot.
It's a lot to digest and saythat I, as a pet parent, am
working two jobs and I havethree pets and I'm running and
gunning with my.
I don't have little children,but you know what I mean.
You've got a very busy life.
How do we take charge of that?
I mean EMFs and toxins andwhatever I mean.
(23:54):
It's what's the starting point,because obviously we're not
going to do it all.
We're not going to do it allright away, but what are some of
the first things we should bedoing?
Like the water thing to me is ahuge thing.
Like that to me should bepretty easy to control the
ingredients in your pet foodsand avoiding toxins from that
perspective, even if you're notgoing to like make your pet its
food, kind of thing.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (24:14):
Absolutely.
Step number one is awareness,like step number one is
recognizing what does my lifelook like.
Am I stressed out all the time?
Are we in high sympathetic toneall the time?
Am I using cleaners that arefull of xenoestrogens and toxins
?
Am I doing laundry in somethingthat isn't organic?
(24:35):
That is actually contributingto endocrine disruptors, these
chemicals that change ourhormones?
So awareness is number one.
It really is the first step,and then step number two, there
has to be a desire to change.
Sadly, I think a lot of peoplearen't motivated to change until
some crisis happens in theirlife.
I would love to encouragepeople to make little baby steps
(24:59):
before that, but it is what itis, and even for me, the big
motivator was saving my horsewhen I thought I was too busy to
take on anything else.
And amazingly, now I look backand I go wow, I took on so much
more and I'm so much happier andI'm so much more productive
(25:19):
because I have learned how tomanage my sleep and my mind and
my energy and my body.
It's amazing Like people hangout with me and they go.
How do you do what you do atyour age, at any age?
And it's because I amconstantly biohacking and
staying in a positive energy.
I do gratitude exercisesthroughout the day, not just in
(25:42):
the morning and not just atnight, throughout the day.
But step number one is awareness.
Step number two is deciding isit important enough to you to
make a change?
And then it's really simplefrom there, because I have
people when they take my courseit's very thorough, it's a three
hour course and I have themtake a piece of paper and fold
(26:03):
it in half.
They have a column A and acolumn B.
Columna are all the things I'mtalking about that they should
be doing in the course, butthey're not doing that yet.
No judgment, you're just goingto write it down.
Column B are all the things youshould not be doing, and you
still are because we haven'ttaught you what to replace it
with.
So, column A all the things youshould be doing.
(26:24):
Column B all the things youshouldn't be doing.
And then I simply have thempick what's the one most
important thing on column A thatyou should be doing.
Pick that, start doing it.
What's the one most importantthing on column B that you need
to stop doing?
And sometimes it's the samething, it's just replacing a
behavior.
Right, and then just stop doingit and then, when that becomes
(26:46):
comfortable and it's who you are, you don't have to think about
it.
It's your routine, it's yourbehavior, it's your habit.
Then go back to your list andpick something else.
For most people, they're not ina crisis situation where you're
never going to make the wholelist change in one day.
Right, it truly is a lifestyle.
So this isn't about what you'redoing, it's about who you
(27:09):
become in your lifestyle.
Now it's very hard to go back.
So for me, as an example, I onlyeat organic.
I don't do gluten.
I don't do canola oil and soyoil or anything genetically
modified like that.
So when I go out to eat, I haveto call ahead to the restaurant
, ask them what oils they use intheir food, and if they can't
(27:31):
accommodate me, then I won't eatthere.
So I have a great story to tellabout Bonefish Grill.
We had a going away party forone of my staff members and you
know, bonefish brings you alittle plate of oil with herbs
in that and then you can dunkyour bread in it.
So I asked the gentleman whatis in your oil?
I already knew it was halfcanola oil and half olive oil,
(27:53):
and they said well, I can't eatthat because it has canola oil
in it.
So I said I'll pass.
This young man went next doorto Carrabba's, which is their
sister restaurants, got straightolive oil with nothing else in
it, came back to my table andgave me straight olive oil with
the herbs in it, just for me.
(28:13):
Oh my gosh, you talk about awonderful tip for going out of
his way to do that, but you know, what's even more important,
amy, is that that made animpression on him because he
learned that canola oil is bad.
People are inherently goodpeople, especially in the
restaurant industry.
(28:33):
They don't want to know thatthey fed you a meal that's going
to make you go home and be illor promote your cancer.
They really don't, but theydon't know better and people
aren't demanding anythingdifferent.
So when people start to demandthings this is where I'm going
with the story when we startvoting with our dollars and we
make those behavior changes andwe choose certain things that
(28:53):
are not going to be in ourlifestyle because they are bad
for us and our children and ourpets, the world is going to
respond because we still live ina world that is based on
consumer demand.
So when we, the consumer, startto demand healthier items,
whether it's your laundry soap,whether it's your food, your
condiments, whether it's yourwater, whatever it is when we
(29:16):
start to demand it, thecompanies will shift and start
to offer it.
So if you get nothing else outof this podcast, know that you
have a tremendous amount ofcontrol and impact when you make
buying decisions.
It's the only way we're goingto make change.
Amy Castro (29:33):
Right, and it's obviously when you're referring
to that, you're talking aboutour pet products as well.
I mean it's Absolutelyreferring to that, you're
talking about our pet productsas well.
I mean it's.
You know, if we continue to buythe stuff that's full of
unhealthy things, then it'sgoing to continue to be made,
and until you start making, Imean what it brings to mind, and
I'm not.
I don't want to go down thepath of having a discussion
about vegan diets for dogs andcats, but there's no way on this
(29:57):
earth that that would have evencome about had there not been
some type of demand for it,because it's counterintuitive
and it creates a whole notherprocess for the pet food
companies.
And so you know, the fact thatthere are entire vegan pet food
companies and pet food productsis a testament to the consumer
(30:18):
demand and the impact that thatcan have is a testament to the
consumer demand and the impactthat that can have.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (30:25):
Absolutely, and when you look at the number
of raw companies and fresh foodcompanies that are coming out in
the last 10 years, obviouslythere's a major trend.
Now all raw food is not thesame.
You have to learn to readlabels and understand what those
labels mean, because there's alot of people jumping, a lot of
companies that are jumping onthe consumer demand bandwagon
and they want to make the moneyoff of that and that's wonderful
(30:46):
.
But they're taking andproducing a less than
appropriate diet and calling itraw.
And if people don't understandwhat makes a balanced, healthy,
raw diet, then they're betterthan kibble, but they're still
creating problems.
So again back to education.
Right.
Amy Castro (31:05):
Yeah, and it's the same.
I mean anyone that's done anyresearch or seen any of the many
, many documentaries and suchthat have been out about just
the human food and what'sallowed to be called natural or
organic and it's really reallynot and it's not very natural,
or you know, even the grain free.
If the grain gets taken out,something else gets put in its
(31:26):
place, and do you know what thatother thing is and is it just
as bad, if not worse, than, foryour pet?
So I think I mean if peopledidn't change anything else
other than go to your pantryright now and pull that pet food
can, bag whatever you'refeeding out and go down that
entire list of stuff in thereand identify what the heck is it
(31:47):
, that would be a step in theright direction, cause you'd be
shocked and probably appalled atsome of the things in there
that are not good.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (31:56):
Yeah, and and that's you know to end that
part of the discussion is no petowner that I have ever met is
joyful about harming their pet.
Even veterinarians there are.
Veterinarians do not want to doharm to their patients.
We spend so much time inmedical school, we put so much
of our emotion into our jobs, welove what we do and we want to
(32:19):
do good.
But if you don't know better,you can't do better.
So part of my program is alsoin educating veterinarians so
that they learn that there areother things that they can do.
Our toolkit needs to expand,because the level of complex
diseases that we're seeing todaydidn't exist 20 years ago.
So we have to do somethingdifferent.
(32:40):
We have to have a differentmindset in order to meet those
challenges.
So if you have a veterinarianand you love that veterinarian
and this sounds good to you,then encourage them to at least
go on a webinar that I do, orconsider taking my course for
veterinarians, or something thathelps them to start expanding
that toolkit in the mindset.
Amy Castro (33:00):
well, that was all number one that's such a huge
piece of it.
It's the trick, it's thefoundation for everything.
There's so much.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (33:07):
And if you don't go there first, then
everything else you do is reallydoomed for failure, and I
literally will have doctors comeup to me and go oh, I use ozone
in my practice and I don't getresults like you do.
Why?
Well, cause you're stillfeeding processed foods and
you're still doing toxic thingsto that pet.
How do you expect them to getbetter?
All right, so number two isidentifying the essential
(33:28):
nutrients that that animal needsto have.
Now I am a test don't guesskind of gal, so I do the
nutrient testing for my pets, mypatients, to see what are they
actually deficient in, and Ialso test for toxicities, and
then I make sure that Isupplement the diet with those
essential nutrients that theanimal needs to have.
(33:48):
Let me define an essentialnutrient.
It is defined as that nutrientthat the body cannot manufacture
in sufficient quantities on itsown, so you have to get it from
your diet.
Guys, when I tell you foodtoday is nutrient depleted, it's
a blanket statement.
The foods that we're eating ashumans are grown on nutrient
depleted.
It's a blanket statement.
The foods that we're eating ashumans are grown on nutrient
(34:09):
depleted soils.
So we've known for over 30years that the food that we're
eating is nutrient depleted,which is why so many of the
government laws say that ifyou're going to sell a food,
particularly pet food, ascomplete and balanced, that you
have to add the essentialnutrients into that diet before
you can sell it.
(34:29):
They already know it's nutrientdeficient, but the problem is
they don't qualify what thosenutrients are going to look like
, and so they allow syntheticnutrients to go in which aren't
getting us any further down theroad than having a poor level of
them.
So, again, it all comes back toeducation and understanding how
(34:50):
to read labels and how to getthe right diagnostics.
Amy Castro (34:53):
The essential nutrients are going to be
obviously species specific, butis it also individual to the pet
?
So you can't just say this iswhat cats need, or am I wrong on
that?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (35:03):
I would say more species specific than
individual case specific.
But let's say an animal.
We do a test and they're low onvitamin D.
Well then we know we have tosupplement the vitamin D.
But the essential nutrients arethe essential amino acids,
vitamins, minerals and fattyacids.
It's those four categories thatwe and you can look them up on
(35:26):
the internet to see what theyare and if they are not in the
diet in a biologically availableform, that animal is going to
be nutrient deficient andthey're the building blocks for
many.
The fatty acids are thebuilding blocks for the cell
wall, the proteins are what weuse to make muscle and to grow,
and aminos they're the basematerial for the proteins.
(35:48):
So all of these are critical tobe able to have in the body and
we're just not taught how tomake sure that we have the
proper nutrition in our body forour bodies to be able to
function.
And then number three was healthe leaky gut.
And there are specificprotocols that we follow for
healing the leaky gut.
Obviously, you have to stopdamaging it before you can heal
(36:10):
it.
So think of the gut lining as apiece of cheesecloth.
Okay, if you're going to strainchicken soup, that has your
meat and your vegetables andyour herbs, but all you want is
the broth.
So you take and you cook yourchicken soup for whatever time,
and now you're going to strainit out.
You take your cheesecloth andyou cook your chicken soup for
whatever time and now you'regoing to strain it out.
You take your cheesecloth andyou put it over the container
(36:31):
and when you pour it thecheesecloth catches all the
elements that aren't supposed togo into your bowl.
But if you caused holes in thatcheesecloth like somebody took
a pen in the middle of the nightand made big holes in your
cheesecloth and you didn't knowit and you go to strain your
soup, now you're gettingmaterial that can fit through
(36:51):
that hole to go into your soup.
It's coming through the holewhen it wasn't supposed to.
That is literally what ishappening to the lining of our
gastrointestinal tract, butinstead of having a cheesecloth,
they're called tight junctionsand the cells look like this,
like one cell next to another,and then there's this protein
that exists between them.
(37:12):
Glyphosate is one example.
It melts the actin filamentthat holds that cell together
and then it causes it to becomeseparated.
So if you can appreciate howtight that is versus how tight
that is.
So now things come into thebody that aren't supposed to and
they travel by the bloodstreamto the liver.
(37:32):
The liver sees those foreignmaterials and goes oh my God, we
have an invader here.
Mount the inflammatory response.
And so it mounts this cytokinestorm of all these different
mediators that are designed togo out and kill the invader.
That's how we have survived foras long as we have.
So it's a good thing.
But it's not a good thing whenit never turns off, and in
(37:54):
today's day and age it justnever turns off.
Amy Castro (37:58):
And gut health.
I mean, I think so many peopleare so unaware of not only how
important it is, but that farreaching impact it's not.
You know, I think when peoplesometimes hear gut health, they
think oh, if my dog doesn't havegas, it's not burping, it
doesn't have diarrhea.
You know that it's got ahealthy gut.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (38:17):
It's so much more than that, yeah.
And then we have a lot ofpeople talking about gut health.
They come in, they say my dog'sfine, no, no problems.
Or my cat.
And then when I ask the rightquestions like does your animal
ever spend a day where itdoesn't eat?
Oh yeah, happens all you know,at least once a month.
Do you ever hear a grumblytummy?
Oh yeah, does he vomitperiodically?
You know these are symptomsthat are not big enough to make
(38:40):
them go to the vet because bythe next day the animal's better
.
But there's certainly the dashlight coming on and saying
there's a problem here.
But there's certainly the dashlight coming on and saying
there's a problem here.
Or the biggest one, the biggestone of all my animal's a picky
eater.
Well, have you ever watched alion or tiger when they're
hungry on a NationalGeographic's video?
They don't hesitate.
They spend a tremendous amountof energy to chase down, kill
(39:04):
and devour their prey.
When they're hungry.
That's a healthy animal.
They're really driven to beable to use all that energy to
be able to feed themselves.
But when an animal goes over tothe bowl kind of looks, oh,
I'll take a bite or two, but mytummy doesn't feel good, so I'll
just do a couple of bites andI'll come back later and see if
I feel better.
That is the number one indicatorof an animal with a problem is
(39:29):
a picky eater.
So that was number three healthe leaky gut, and we have lots
of protocols to be able to dothat.
And then number four is myheart passion, which is
detoxification.
We have six organs ofelimination.
Our pets have the same sixorgans of elimination the kidney
, the colon, the lungs, theliver, the skin, and I used to
(39:53):
say the lymphatics.
Now I say the lymphatics andthe fascia, because the lymph
runs through the fascia.
So they're very important andwe just live in a society where
everything is so toxic and we'vebeen exposed to so much that
these organs can't keep up withthe elimination process, so they
start to get backed up.
So that is critical to eitherbeing healthy or healing.
Amy Castro (40:19):
What would that entail?
What tools are available forpet parents?
Obviously, if I live near you,I could come to your practice
and have you assess my pet andthen employ all these things
that we're talking about.
But if I'm not there, if I'm inHouston, I'm working with my
regular veterinarian.
What kind of things would we bedoing to detoxify our pets?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (40:40):
Well, some of them are supplements, some of
them are behavioral things todo, and then some of it requires
technology.
But I think it's so divinebecause, as I was going through
developing systems fordetoxification, I was looking
for the next tool, the next tool, the next tool, and at the end
of and I'm always still lookingfor tools, but at the end of a
(41:01):
period of time when I had areally good toolkit, I had
something for every organ I satback and I went oh, isn't that
interesting.
Every technology that I havecan be purchased by a pet parent
and used at home.
I thought that is not anaccident.
How divine is that?
That doesn't mean that everypet parent's going to spend a
(41:23):
hundred thousand dollars andequip their home as a spa's
family wellness center.
Some might you know, somepeople might want to buy a
franchise from us and open theirown franchise, open their own
spa's family wellness centers.
But the point is that peoplecan purchase certain things and
I think there's a hierarchy ofwhat's most important and then
(41:44):
the layers that go along withthat, so that they can start to
implement the things that needfrequency and need to be
maintained, because it's like anever growing issue.
Like you just don't detox in 10days and then go back to your
old lifestyle.
This is a lifestyle that we'retalking about.
(42:05):
So one of those is using ozoneand hyperbaric oxygen.
So to me those are two thingsthat should be in everybody's
toolkit.
As a pet parent, so when theycome to me, we talk to them
about that pretty low investmentand for ozone, and we do the
training for them so that ifthey purchase equipment through
us, we do all the training forthem.
It's included, so that if theypurchase equipment through us,
(42:26):
we do all the training for them.
It's included, there's no extracost, and we help them with
protocols.
And then hyperbaric oxygen, thesame way you know there's.
You can do that at home now,and it's neat because not only
does the pet benefit, but thepeople in the house benefit as
well.
So can you imagine if, duringthe C word, when it happened a
couple of years ago, if peoplehad the ability to stay
(42:48):
healthier and make themselveshealthy and get rid of illnesses
quicker by simply having thetools in their own home?
How cool would that have been.
But don't go out, and this isone warning I would say, or one
caution Don't just go out andbuy the shiny object or think
you're buying something becausethe ad says oh, it's a water
(43:10):
bottle and it produces hydrogen.
You don't know the quality ofthat product, and is it really?
Amy Castro (43:15):
doing it.
Yeah, it's kind of like CBD.
You know that was.
The whole thing with CBD is howmuch is really in it?
What's the quality?
Has it been verified?
Et cetera, et cetera.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (43:26):
You know, amy, when I was looking to
develop my supplement linebecause I couldn't find a clean
line that I could stand behind,it was four years and going from
company to company to companyto company to find a company
that didn't just want to throwme out a product and say, here,
but we're going to put all theseadditives in there, I go, no,
(43:47):
I'm not going to do that.
Oh, one company had theaudacity to say, well, nobody's
going to know what's in there.
I know what's in there and Iknow it's harmful for my patient
.
I'm not going to do that.
But I finally found a companythat makes pristine products
that are effective, that arebacked with science and testing,
and so that's what I ended upworking with is a company that
(44:09):
has that kind of level ofintegrity.
So back to my caution statementis don't just go out and buy
something because it's on Amazon.
You really have to understandwhat you're buying.
Does it actually do what you'rethinking it's going to do?
Is it cost effective?
And I'm not saying you have tobuy the most expensive, because
most expensive doesn't alwaysrelate to being the best.
(44:30):
But when you're looking atsomething like CBD, you want to
know that you've got a qualityproduct in there.
And then number five is themitochondria.
They are these little organismsthat live inside our cells.
We got trillions of them andthey produce energy for our
(44:51):
bodies to function.
But they do more than that.
They are actually thecommunication network that helps
to dictate what should andshouldn't be turned on or off,
or how we should be responding,and so they send chemical
messages from them to themicrobiome through the fascia.
So we want to make sure we havethe healthiest microbiome, that
(45:15):
we have the healthiestmitochondria, that we call it
mitochondrial biogenesis.
We want to make bigger,healthier, more robust
mitochondria so that we havemore energy and better
communication to be able tofunction.
And the number six, which is soimportant it's not in my ebook
because it's a little woo-woo,but it is critical and that is
(45:36):
clearing the emotions that areassociated with the dis-ease.
So with all dis-ease there arealways associated emotions.
How animals play this role isreally interesting, because they
(45:58):
can be reflectors to their soulfamily, their two-legged family
, about things that need to beaddressed.
There's never a coincidencethat you have a particular pet
at a particular time in yourlife with a particular problem.
There's always messaging thereand or so they're either
reflecting or they're mirroring,or they're delivering a message
.
You know, there's some.
(46:19):
There's always a meaning behindeverything that happens.
I'm just absolutely convincedthat nothing happens by accident
.
So then it's a matter of how doI receive the message and how
do I make things better.
So that's the six steps.
Amy Castro (46:35):
So how do we pull all this together for the pet
parent?
What else do we need to bedoing next?
I know one of the things thatjumped out at me on your website
was having pets that could live20 years.
I mean, there's nobody thatI've ever met that has said I
wish I had less time with my pet.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (46:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
In fact, when I ask people whatis your goal and they go I want
you to help my pet live forever.
Yeah, exactly, you know, we allknow we're leaving this planet
right.
Everybody has an exit strategy.
We don't know when that is, butwe know we're all going to
leave.
What they're really asking foris quality time.
We don't want to be spending itnursing an animal that is
(47:12):
miserable and itching or in pain, and we don't want that.
We want to have a vibrant,healthy, fun life for ourselves,
for the animals in our life, wewant our family to enjoy life,
and that's what we came to earthschool to do.
We just have to figure out how.
How does that look?
And it's about making decisions,like we talked about in the
beginning.
(47:32):
So you're, where do you start?
You start with education and Iam going to shamelessly
encourage people to take our petparent course, because it is
three hours of solid informationwith case examples, telling you
how to know what testing to askyour veterinarian to do, how to
(47:55):
know the detoxification stepsfor your pet, what diet looks
like, what supplements shouldlook like, what emotional
clearing looks like.
So it really takes you from thebeginning all the way through
to understanding the framework.
Now, for most people, they wantto have somebody help them a
(48:16):
little bit more, because maybethey're already into a
challenging situation.
So in order to do a consult withme, we require that they do the
pet parent course, because ifthey don't understand the basics
, I can't explain it to themquickly and you have to let it
sink in.
It has to become who you are,and you can't do that in a 10
(48:37):
minute conversation.
So they start with the course,which is $197.
It is very inexpensive.
It is less than an hour with meand you get three hours of
content and then we have anintelligent conversation to move
forward.
But by then people have alreadygone through and go oh, I'm not
(48:59):
doing do-do-do-do-do and I amdoing do-do-do-do and I need to
stop that.
They may not know what toreplace it with, but that's
where our consult time comes inand so, very effectively, I can
help people make massive changes, and I work with their
veterinarian as well.
So that's where we need tostart.
We all need to start withtaking that first step, which is
taking back our power, and wetake our power through education
(49:22):
.
Amy Castro (49:23):
First of all, I highly recommend everybody who's
listening to this to check outthe course, but I understand
that you have a special offerjust for our listeners that you
wanted to share.
I'd love to hear about that.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (49:34):
Okay.
So the first thing is that theycan download a free ebook that
is, the five steps to holistichealing for your pets.
So you go towwwholistichealingvetcom it's
all one word, all lowercase,holistichealingvetcom.
(49:55):
And the second thing and Idon't do this very often, but I
just I feel it on my heart to dothis for your audience and that
would be for the first 10people who purchase the
Empowered Pet Parent course,that they can have a free
15-minute consult with me afterthey've completed the course, so
(50:17):
I can help them withimplementation or answering
questions.
I'm very strict, I'm going tokeep it to the 15 minutes, but I
think that would be atremendous value add for
somebody who seriously wants tomake this a way of life for
themselves.
So we'll create a coupon codethat you would just put in
Starlight and that way we knowthat it's from Amy's audience,
(50:40):
and then you can have a free 15minute consult with me after
you've purchased the EmpoweredPet Parent course.
Amy Castro (50:46):
That would be great.
Thank you so much.
I feel like in doing thispodcast, every episode I learn
something that benefits my ownpets.
I've made a lot of changes, butI think this one in particular
could really lead to somesignificant changes and
significant benefits to my pets.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (51:03):
So I had mentioned the lymphatics and the
fascia and how important thefascia is and I co-created a
course for pet parents and it isfascia decompression for your
fur family and you learn how todo the fascia decompression for
your animals and all you use isyour hands.
(51:23):
There's no equipment needed andwe walk you through large
animals, small animals, cats,and we teach you how to actually
work in the fascia.
It is one of the mostremarkable pieces that I have
ever put into my practice andI've got a video of a dog.
He is in some.
If you go on my YouTube channel, there's a lot of talks on
(51:46):
there and there's one inparticular about this little dog
who came in walking like an Land he was doing that for six
weeks before the owners broughthim to me and I did a
chiropractic adjustment and thefascia decompression and in six
hours he was back to normal.
He'd been that way for sixweeks.
It was like watching a miraclechange in this dog's body.
(52:06):
It's really remarkable.
On my website and in the courseI go over miracle stories after
miracle stories after miraclestories, and they're not
miracles, they're reallyunderstanding the body's biology
and just fixing the biology.
So dogs that were diabetic thatare no longer diabetic, animals
that were paralyzed, that arerunning around with no surgery
(52:27):
and no steroids, and cancercases that were reversed, some
in as little as five weeks, somelonger.
But the fact that we canactually reverse cancer is
remarkable when on the people'sside they struggle right.
So you know, we have theability to show in so many
different aspects skin disease.
We have the ability to show inso many different aspects skin
(52:48):
disease, allergies, gi problems,autoimmune diseases in every
aspect.
Amy Castro (52:53):
I have examples of that in the course and that
doesn't mean that we fixeverything, but we always
improve quality of life, right,well, and the allergy thing is
just such a big thing that petparents are facing now and
spending tons of money onBand-Aid fixes for allergies.
It's like, did we not have to,you know?
Did our pets not have allergiesback then?
(53:14):
Well, yeah, we probably didn'thave the toxins that we have in
our environments, like you said.
So such a huge thing.
Any final thoughts, words ofencouragement that you want to
share with us before we wrap upfor today?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (53:32):
You know, a lot of people feel like they're
a victim in the world and thingsare happening to them.
So my message is life isn'thappening to us, it's happening
for us.
When we choose to look at ourlife as a gift, when we choose
to realize that we are creatingeverything in our life for our
(53:54):
highest and best good and thatthe pets that are in our life
are here as part of thatmessaging and that experience,
then we have that opportunity tobe the victor of our life, to
look for answers, sometimeswhere answers didn't exist.
That's my story.
There were no answers for meBack when I started doing this.
(54:17):
There was no class I could take, there was no one to go to.
Thankfully, functional medicinehad just started on the human
side, so I just startedconsuming everything I could
come across and figuring out howto apply it to pets.
So there was no roadmap.
I had to create the road whenone didn't exist.
And I will tell you, it's themost gratifying feeling in the
(54:40):
world to be empowered, to be incharge, to know that you're
making a difference.
And every single one of us hasthat opportunity.
The power to heal is truly ours.
We just have to own it For sure.
Amy Castro (54:57):
Well, dr Siegel, thank you so much for being here
with us today and I'm feeling abit overwhelmed, but luckily we
can go back and listen to thispodcast and learn even more by
taking your course.
But you've really, hopefully,opened some eyes.
I know you've opened some eyesand got me really thinking about
the very simple but powerfulthings that we can be doing to
(55:17):
improve not only our pets' livesbut our own.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
You're welcome.
Many blessings.
Thanks for listening to MuddyPaws and Hairballs.
Be sure to visit our website atmuddypawsandhairballscom for
more resources and be sure tofollow this podcast on your
favorite podcast app so you'llnever miss a show.
(55:37):
And hey, if you like this showtext someone right now and say
I've got a podcastrecommendation.
You need to check the show outand tell them to listen and let
you know what they think.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
new episode.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
Hey, there it's Amy.
Welcome back to Muddy Paws andHairballs.
So while we're on a littlebreak before we officially
launch in 2025, I thought it wasthe perfect time to bring back
one of our top five episodes of2024.
If you missed it the first time, lucky you, because this one is
a game changer and now you'vegot a second chance.
In this episode, I sat downwith Dr Marlene Siegel, who is
(00:33):
an absolute rock star inintegrative veterinary medicine.
She's been in the field forover 40 years, but what makes
her so fascinating is the waythat she blends holistic pet
care with cutting-edge scienceto help pets live longer and
healthier lives, and I don'tthink there's anyone amongst us
who's listening right now thatwouldn't want to get another few
years, especially if thoseyears were quality years with
(00:56):
their pets.
So we are talking aboutpractical, real-world tips that
you can use right away toimprove your pet's health, from
the best diet choices todetoxifying your pet's
environment, healing their gutand even addressing their
emotional well-being.
Honestly, I couldn't believehow much I learned during this
conversation and, based on theresponse from listeners like you
(01:17):
, I wasn't the only one.
So grab your coffee or leash upthe dog, or just kick back and
relax, because this episode is amust-listen, or leash up the
dog, or just kick back and relax, because this episode is a
must-listen.
Let's dive back into my chatwith Dr Marlene Siegel.
My special guest today is DrMarlene Siegel, a true pioneer
in bioregulatory veterinarymedicine.
When traditional treatmentsfall short, dr Siegel steps in
(01:38):
with innovative solutions.
She's an international lecturer, researcher and consultant who
is always finding new ways tohelp pets and their parents.
In her practice, she usestherapies like ozone and
photodynamic therapy and focuseson identifying and treating the
root cause of disease, not justsymptoms.
Dr Siegel also shares herknowledge with the world through
(01:59):
journal articles, webinars andonline courses for both pet
parents and veterinarians, whichI think is awesome.
I definitely want people tocheck out those courses.
When she couldn't find theright diets and supplements for
her patients, she created herown raw food and supplement
company and now, in her latestventure, she's gearing up to
launch SPAWS Family WellnessCenters, which are detox centers
(02:21):
for pets and their people.
So, dr Siegel, thank you somuch for joining me here today.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (02:26):
Oh, you're so welcome and I'm excited to be
able to speak to your audience.
Amy Castro (02:30):
I know we've been looking forward to this for a
while because I think you'redoing so many cutting edge
things that people haven't heardof and some of it's a mouthful
kind of like bioregulatoryveterinary medicine.
What exactly is that?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (02:45):
Well, thank you for letting me define it,
because we are now hearing aboutmore and more veterinarians
that are saying they areholistic.
Well, what does that mean?
And holistic actually wasdefined as whole body medicine,
but what it's being used atcurrently is if a veterinarian
takes an acupuncture course orthey take a course in herbs or
chiropractic, they callthemselves a holistic
(03:06):
practitioner.
But they're really not, becausein order to truly understand
holistic medicine, you have tounderstand biology and the whole
patient.
And then the term integrativemedicine came about, which means
that they're mixing a littlebit of Eastern medicine, the
alternative holistic,integrative stuff along with the
traditional allopathic Westernmedicine.
(03:27):
But the problem that I havewith a lot of veterinarians who
say they are integrative isthey're using their acupuncture
needle as, instead of a pill forthe ill, now it's a needle for
the ill and they're still notaddressing the root cause of
dis-ease.
So, bioregulatory medicinethere's no way to mess that one
(03:49):
up.
It really means that youunderstand the biology of the
body for that particular speciesand you're able to direct your
diagnostics and yourtherapeutics to enable the body
to do what it innately andintelligently knows how to do.
So, amy, most people think theygo to the doctor and they get a
pill.
And the doctor made them better.
(04:10):
No, their body made them betterwhen they gave their body the
opportunity to heal.
In most cases the body heals,despite us, because we're doing
so many things to screw it up.
But in bioregulatory medicineit's truly understanding the
biology of the body, thebiochemical pathways, what gets
(04:32):
turned on, what gets turned offby our epigenetic lifestyle.
What are we doing in our world?
What are we eating, what are wedrinking, what's our thoughts,
what's our behavior?
And how is that affecting thebiology of the body?
Are we hurting it or are wehelping it?
And that's as simple as it gets.
Amy Castro (04:50):
Right, well, and you know when you said about giving
the pill and we think it'shealing it and it's really your
body healing, but sometimesisn't it true that sometimes
it's not even being, it's beingmasked, it's not being healed at
all?
You're just covering things upmasked.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (05:05):
It's not being healed at all.
You're just covering things up.
We call that symptomsuppression, which is a
beautiful point that we want tomake, because we are a society
where we have been conditionedand trained by the Medical
Institute to have a symptom andimmediately go for suppressing
that symptom.
We get a headache, we take anaspirin, which is a
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.
(05:27):
Despite all the side effects,people still do that.
And if you have, let's say,diarrhea, we don't question why
we have the diarrhea or why didyou have the headache, because
it's your body talking to youand you take a medication that
makes the symptoms go away.
And when the symptom is gone,you go oh look, I'm all better.
(05:50):
But we wouldn't do that to ourcar.
If the dash light on your carcame up and said you have a
check engine light or nowadaysit's just a general you need to
go find out what it is.
But back in the day, when Istarted driving, it actually
told you there was a problemsomewhere, and it told you what
the problem was.
Well, we wouldn't considerunplugging the dash light and
saying, look, the problem isgone.
It's insane, right?
(06:10):
We laugh at that, but yet we dothat to our body, and our body
is the most magnificent machinewho is communicating to us all
the time.
It's okay, if you want to treatyour symptom, just don't stop
there.
Ask that big, important questionwhy do I have a headache, why
am I having GI problems, why doI have skin disease?
(06:34):
And that's for yourself.
And we're taking the exact sameapplication to our pets, which
is even more important becauseyou know they say they don't
talk to you.
I think they do talk to us.
We just aren't listening withthe right ears.
But let's just suffice it tosay they're showing us the
symptoms that they have andinstead of addressing the root
cause, the average veterinarianhas only been trained to address
(06:57):
the symptoms.
We name it, we blame it andthen we come up with a treatment
or a pharmaceutical and then wemake it go away.
But most pets' parents wouldagree that their pets relapse.
And now the symptom comes backand oftentimes it's worse than
the initial or it comes back asa more severe complaint from the
(07:18):
body, a more severe disease.
Amy Castro (07:21):
Yeah, that's such a good point.
I mean, I even I was having alot of problems with my knee,
which it has a torn ACL, sothere's definitely damage in
there, and to the point where Ithought, okay, I probably need
to seek surgery because it'sjust, it was miserable,
miserable, miserable.
Anyway, go to the orthopedicsurgeon.
Doesn't think surgery is goingto do anything, prescribes a
(07:42):
drug for it and it worked.
But what I discovered after thefact, when I made some diet and
lifestyle changes, that I trulybelieve that the key to a lot
of my aches and pains wereinflammation, and I have
eliminated some inflammatoryinducing things from my diet and
I've not had to take a pill forany of that and nothing else
(08:04):
has changed.
You know, it's just that oneelement.
So it is so amazing how muchthe body can heal itself if we
just let it.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (08:13):
Absolutely.
And inflammation, as you justsaid, it is the underpinning of
all dis-ease.
Now, I said it that way, I didD-I-S space E-A-S-E because I
truly, after 40 years inpractice, I truly appreciate the
fact that there is no disease,there is dis-ease, the body not
(08:35):
being in balance, and when thebody is in balance, we have ease
and flow.
So number one is addressing whyare we seeing the inflammation?
And that inflammation willsettle in the weakest link in
the body.
So for you, on your ACL, itactually stemmed from leaky gut,
which led to inflammation alongyour spine, which caused a
(08:58):
decrease in blood flow andcirculation from the nerves of
the spine going out to the endusers, ie the cells and the
joints, and so your jointsbecome weak because they don't
have good nutrition and theycan't get rid of cellular debris
and they get weak.
And then all you have to do isstep the wrong way or make a
turn and poof, that's a weakenedjoint.
(09:19):
But it came from the gut,leading to inflammation, leading
to the spine.
And I am using that as anexample because we see so many
ACL tears in dogs now more thanwe have ever seen.
It's almost epidemic.
And we're also seeing, when wedo radiographs that a majority
of our patients are havingspinal disc degeneration or
(09:42):
osteoarthritis in the spine, andso it makes sense.
The story actually plays out Ifyou have all that inflammation
in the spine, just like in yourcase, you're going to have a
weakness of energy and bloodflow and circulation and
nutrients getting to the enduser that those nerves are
supposed to be feeding, and thenyou get a weakened distal area
(10:02):
and then it has more of anopportunity to break.
Amy Castro (10:10):
Yes, the whole thing to me is completely, completely
fascinating.
I'm assuming you didn't learnall this stuff early on.
This is stuff that came inlater in life.
How did you develop to thepoint where you have taken this
journey into looking so muchmore deeply at our pets and
their biology?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (10:24):
I think it's true for all people that step
out of the box and are willingto do great things in the world
is there has to be some painpoint that you experience,
whether it's in yourself orsomeone that you love.
And so for me, it was one of myhorses becoming injured and
that horse had saved mydaughter's life, was one of my
(10:45):
horses becoming injured and thathorse had saved my daughter's
life physically saved mydaughter's life.
So when it came time for me tounderstand what had happened in
that riding accident, I wasdetermined to fix this horse,
and when I had equineveterinarians come out to see
her, their short answer was wedon't know what's wrong with her
, she's not safe to ride, you'llnever show her again and you
could put her out to a pasturefor the rest of her was.
(11:05):
We don't know what's wrong withher, she's not safe to ride,
you'll never show her again andyou could put her out to a
pasture for the rest of her life, or you could put her down.
And it was those words thethere is nothing more that can
be done that lit something up inme.
First of all, I refuse toaccept that, and I think there's
so many stories of people whoare diagnosed with stage four
cancers and they're told go home, get your affairs in order,
(11:26):
there's nothing more you can do,and they, just something in
them says no, I am not willingto accept that as an answer and
they are able to heal themselvesfrom stage four diseases.
And it was that kind ofmotivation.
I was determined to fix thishorse, because I owed that to
her, and this passion came up inme that I had no idea was that
(11:48):
strong and despite the fact thatI had an incredibly busy life
and my practice was busy I wasraising and homeschooling two
children and I just I don't know.
You find room and when theuniverse says it's your time to
do something, you just step upto the plate and you do it,
because if you don't, it's goingto come back at you and going
to say, oh, you missed the firstopportunity.
(12:09):
We're going to come back andtell you again.
So that's how I started.
My journey was really to try tofix the horse and as I learned
more tools to fix her, Iincorporated those into my small
animal practice, into mypersonal life.
I incorporated those into mysmall animal practice, into my
personal life and honestly, amy,when I look back at pictures of
(12:29):
myself 20 years ago, I lookolder then than I do now and I'm
almost 70 years old, and it'sthe difference on how I have
learned to understand my biology.
So I biohack my own body andnot for any other reason that I
want to be here for a long timeand I want to feel good and I
(12:49):
want to have lots of energy andI want my brain to work and I
have so much I want to do and Idon't want to be slowed down.
So, at Pushing 70, I have zerohealth issues and I'm on zero
allopathic medications, but Itake a boatload of nutritional
supplements that are all gearedtowards helping my biology do
(13:10):
its job.
Amy Castro (13:12):
Yeah, and I would highly recommend that everybody
go out, and we're going to putin our show notes a link to your
website, but the video whereyou're telling in more detail
the story about your horse Lily.
I was boohooing when I waswatching that video.
You're a very good storyteller,but it's a very compelling
story about that pivotal eventand how much it changed you and
how you see things and how muchpeople's pets have benefited as
(13:35):
a result.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (13:36):
You know, on a spiritual level, I believe
everything happens for ourhighest and best good and
everything is a blessing, eventhe most ouchy things that you
can go through.
So if you're experiencing apainful moment in your life or
it's been going on a long time,just know that if you can lean
into it and ask for evidence ofthe blessings, you will find it.
(13:59):
And when you look back you gooh my gosh, I wouldn't change a
thing because I wouldn't be whoI am today if I didn't go
through what I did then.
And every experience in ourlife helps to mold us who we are
today.
And then we find our purposeand our passion and then after
that it's just lean in and do it.
Amy Castro (14:17):
Yeah yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent on
that.
So we know that you know, weknow the story of what got you
down this path and, like I said,I highly recommend people go
check out that video because itwas very compelling.
But tell us about yourfive-step approach to pet health
.
It seems simple, but yet soprofound at the same time.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (14:36):
When we talk about medicine and health and
you go.
From the allopathic perspective, it's so complicated that you
sit there and you go.
I don't know how to figure outmy own health challenges, let
alone my pet's health challenges, and I just asked for some
clarity on how do we make itconcise and clear and easy to
(14:56):
follow and sustainable, becauseif you don't have a sustainable
plan, you're not going to keepdoing it.
Yeah, that's huge so what I cameup with was it's actually six
steps, but in my book I only sayfive, because the sixth step is
our woo-woo step, it's ouremotional side.
But let me go through them foryou because it'll make more
sense.
So, step number one we have tostop doing the things that are
(15:18):
causing the dis-ease.
Like we can't go and take apill for the ill or a diet for
the disease and expect things tobe different when you haven't
changed any of the things thatyou're doing.
Einstein, one of his famousquotes, was insanity is doing
the same thing over and over andexpecting a different result.
Oh my gosh, that is so true.
(15:39):
He also said you can't solveproblems with the same mindset
that created them.
So not only do we have to dosomething different, but we have
to think differently, and theworld that we're living in right
now isn't the same world thatwe had even 20 years ago.
So it's extremely importantthat we have an open mind to say
(16:02):
okay, what else can we do?
So with that setting the stage,step number one is stop doing
the things that are causingdisease.
And we look at the diet In diet.
Are we feeding a speciesappropriate diet?
I just did a talk with agentleman who is all about doing
webinars and we were havingthis business conversation and I
(16:22):
said do you have pets?
And he said, no, I don't have apet yet, but I know my pet's
name when I get one.
And I said, well, what are yougoing to feed your pet when you
get it?
This is a very intelligent manwho lives an organic lifestyle.
He and his wife.
They cook organic, they try togrow their own food.
They're in a CSA, you know.
They're really into exerciseand all the things that are
(16:42):
biohacking human health, andhe's a very handsome man, very
well built, and when I asked himthat question, he goes well, I
guess, based on the commercialsI watch on TV, I think I would
feed Purina.
And it was such a beautifulopportunity for me to help him
understand why it is that I'mtrying to get my programs out to
(17:04):
the world is because he isgoing off of a belief system.
We will now call it BS.
A belief system is not a badword and that BS is that he is
simply learning from what he'sbeing taught around him.
Is that he is simply learningfrom what he's being taught
around him?
We're taught from our parentsand what they did if they had
(17:24):
pets, and our caregivers and ourteachers and what we see on TV.
And if we believe that, then wedon't go any further in asking
is that actually a healthy diet?
Like you know, we wouldn't goto McDonald's and Wendy's and
Taco Bell every day and expectto be healthy because it's
processed foods.
Why in heaven's name would wethink it's okay to feed our pets
(17:46):
processed foods?
But if you don't know better,you can't do better.
So that's step number one islearning about a sustainable,
species appropriate diet.
What does that look like?
And then water.
Oh my gosh, that water.
We could spend two hourstalking about just water.
But water is not the water thatcomes out of our tap that we
want to be drinking.
(18:06):
That water is full of heavymetals and chemicals and
pesticides and geneticallymodified glyphosates in there.
It's horrible.
Depending on where you live, itcould even be worse.
I live in Florida.
We have terrible water.
So learning how to get good,clean, filtered water and
structured water, whichstructured water is the water
(18:28):
that is in our bodies.
We all know we're made of 70%water, but that's not the water
that's coming out of the tap.
This is actually a differentmolecular construction and it's
a gel phase.
So, yes, we are made of 70%water, but it is structured
water and that structured wateris what is critical for our body
to be able to function.
It surrounds every cell in ourbody, the organelles in the cell
(18:50):
.
It's a communication highwaybetween the mitochondria and the
microbiome, the guys that makeenergy, and the bugs and
parasites and viruses and allthat live on us that actually
contribute more geneticinformation to us than our own
genetic information.
Isn't that a shocker?
So we don't want to be justcutting out all the different
(19:13):
parasites.
It's not about making thebacteria and the viruses the
villain, it's about theenvironment that they're living
in.
We call it the terrain, theinternal terrain, and we've all
seen gardens and land wherethere's a lot of weeds because
the terrain isn't healthy, thesoil's not lush.
Well, what happens?
You get a lot of weeds thatcome in because they're trying
(19:34):
to establish something for otherthings to be able to grow after
them, and that's what happensin our bodies.
When the terrain is poor.
Then the pathogens start tomultiply as the first line of
defense to try to at leastmaintain a home, and then
hopefully things improve and thehost organism gets a little
(19:55):
smarter and then starts tonurture the body, and then the
terrain goes back to being ahealthy terrain, which is a
balance for all the microbes tolive in and on, and then we have
all the pollutants that are inour air, in our home environment
.
What are we cleaning with, whatare we doing laundry with?
And, last but not least, is theants that live in our brain, and
(20:18):
they are called automaticnegative thoughts.
So the acronym is ants, and itmay be the most important of all
the things, because if youthink it, that's what you're
going to get.
So if you believe you're goingto have a certain outcome, you
probably will, because you'refocusing on it and you bring
that into reality.
And I know it sounds a littlewoo woo, but I think nowadays
(20:41):
people are starting tounderstand that if they stay in
a negative mindset, theyactually make neurochemicals
that are derived from thisnegative mindset.
That is communicating from thehormones that you're producing
to the cells and your DNA and itsays bad place, here we're
(21:01):
going down the tubes, things arenot good, and so that leads to
more inflammation, more highsympathetic tone, which is
stress, and everything juststarts to go south from there.
But when we have a verypositive mindset when we're
thinking the world is half fullof wonderful things instead of
(21:22):
half empty.
When we are in gratitude andkindness and we can give
compassion, you send out anentirely different group of
neurotransmitters and you canstay in a parasympathetic tone
where your body can actuallyheal and repair.
Why this is important for us tobe talking about what our
(21:43):
thoughts are is because our petsentrain to what our energies
are.
So if you're giving off a lotof anger, frustration, hatred,
bitterness, all of that, thenyour animals are entraining to
that energy.
They don't understand why.
All they know is there'ssomething bad, there may be
danger, there's something notgood happening.
(22:06):
And what do they do?
They come over to us and theyput their head underneath our
hand to be petted, or they geton our lap, or they lick us, or
they just lay next to us and,instinctually, what do we do?
We reach out and we start topet them.
And every pet owner says yes towhat I'm about to say.
No matter how bad they feelwhen they start holding and or
(22:29):
petting their fur, baby, theystart to feel better.
And that's because you'retaking some of that low
vibration energy and you'reoffing it to that pet Not to be
guilty.
You're not causing them disease.
I think they incarnate with usfor that purpose.
I think they're here to help usnavigate this very dense fifth
(22:51):
dimension.
And isn't it interesting that ofall the species on the planet
they say dogs in particular haveunconditional love.
What a great model.
If we just start payingattention to dog behavior and
how happy they are and how inthe moment they are, that alone
would change people's lives, ifthey could just be happy and be
(23:14):
in the moment.
So that's step number one.
And of course, electromagneticpollution.
I didn't include that, but it'svery important.
That's the EMF that we'reexposed to, our Wi-Fi, our
computers, our cell phones andall of that and 5G.
It's devastating to our pet'shealth.
So that's all step number one.
Any questions on that one?
Amy Castro (23:32):
Yes.
Well, because it's a lot.
It's a lot to digest and saythat I, as a pet parent, am
working two jobs and I havethree pets and I'm running and
gunning with my.
I don't have little children,but you know what I mean.
You've got a very busy life.
How do we take charge of that?
I mean EMFs and toxins andwhatever I mean.
(23:54):
It's what's the starting point,because obviously we're not
going to do it all.
We're not going to do it allright away, but what are some of
the first things we should bedoing?
Like the water thing to me is ahuge thing.
Like that to me should bepretty easy to control the
ingredients in your pet foodsand avoiding toxins from that
perspective, even if you're notgoing to like make your pet its
food, kind of thing.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (24:14):
Absolutely.
Step number one is awareness,like step number one is
recognizing what does my lifelook like.
Am I stressed out all the time?
Are we in high sympathetic toneall the time?
Am I using cleaners that arefull of xenoestrogens and toxins
?
Am I doing laundry in somethingthat isn't organic?
(24:35):
That is actually contributingto endocrine disruptors, these
chemicals that change ourhormones?
So awareness is number one.
It really is the first step,and then step number two, there
has to be a desire to change.
Sadly, I think a lot of peoplearen't motivated to change until
some crisis happens in theirlife.
I would love to encouragepeople to make little baby steps
(24:59):
before that, but it is what itis, and even for me, the big
motivator was saving my horsewhen I thought I was too busy to
take on anything else.
And amazingly, now I look backand I go wow, I took on so much
more and I'm so much happier andI'm so much more productive
(25:19):
because I have learned how tomanage my sleep and my mind and
my energy and my body.
It's amazing Like people hangout with me and they go.
How do you do what you do atyour age, at any age?
And it's because I amconstantly biohacking and
staying in a positive energy.
I do gratitude exercisesthroughout the day, not just in
(25:42):
the morning and not just atnight, throughout the day.
But step number one is awareness.
Step number two is deciding isit important enough to you to
make a change?
And then it's really simplefrom there, because I have
people when they take my courseit's very thorough, it's a three
hour course and I have themtake a piece of paper and fold
(26:03):
it in half.
They have a column A and acolumn B.
Columna are all the things I'mtalking about that they should
be doing in the course, butthey're not doing that yet.
No judgment, you're just goingto write it down.
Column B are all the things youshould not be doing, and you
still are because we haven'ttaught you what to replace it
with.
So, column A all the things youshould be doing.
(26:24):
Column B all the things youshouldn't be doing.
And then I simply have thempick what's the one most
important thing on column A thatyou should be doing.
Pick that, start doing it.
What's the one most importantthing on column B that you need
to stop doing?
And sometimes it's the samething, it's just replacing a
behavior.
Right, and then just stop doingit and then, when that becomes
(26:46):
comfortable and it's who you are, you don't have to think about
it.
It's your routine, it's yourbehavior, it's your habit.
Then go back to your list andpick something else.
For most people, they're not ina crisis situation where you're
never going to make the wholelist change in one day.
Right, it truly is a lifestyle.
So this isn't about what you'redoing, it's about who you
(27:09):
become in your lifestyle.
Now it's very hard to go back.
So for me, as an example, I onlyeat organic.
I don't do gluten.
I don't do canola oil and soyoil or anything genetically
modified like that.
So when I go out to eat, I haveto call ahead to the restaurant
, ask them what oils they use intheir food, and if they can't
(27:31):
accommodate me, then I won't eatthere.
So I have a great story to tellabout Bonefish Grill.
We had a going away party forone of my staff members and you
know, bonefish brings you alittle plate of oil with herbs
in that and then you can dunkyour bread in it.
So I asked the gentleman whatis in your oil?
I already knew it was halfcanola oil and half olive oil,
(27:53):
and they said well, I can't eatthat because it has canola oil
in it.
So I said I'll pass.
This young man went next doorto Carrabba's, which is their
sister restaurants, got straightolive oil with nothing else in
it, came back to my table andgave me straight olive oil with
the herbs in it, just for me.
(28:13):
Oh my gosh, you talk about awonderful tip for going out of
his way to do that, but you know, what's even more important,
amy, is that that made animpression on him because he
learned that canola oil is bad.
People are inherently goodpeople, especially in the
restaurant industry.
(28:33):
They don't want to know thatthey fed you a meal that's going
to make you go home and be illor promote your cancer.
They really don't, but theydon't know better and people
aren't demanding anythingdifferent.
So when people start to demandthings this is where I'm going
with the story when we startvoting with our dollars and we
make those behavior changes andwe choose certain things that
(28:53):
are not going to be in ourlifestyle because they are bad
for us and our children and ourpets, the world is going to
respond because we still live ina world that is based on
consumer demand.
So when we, the consumer, startto demand healthier items,
whether it's your laundry soap,whether it's your food, your
condiments, whether it's yourwater, whatever it is when we
(29:16):
start to demand it, thecompanies will shift and start
to offer it.
So if you get nothing else outof this podcast, know that you
have a tremendous amount ofcontrol and impact when you make
buying decisions.
It's the only way we're goingto make change.
Amy Castro (29:33):
Right, and it's obviously when you're referring
to that, you're talking aboutour pet products as well.
I mean it's Absolutelyreferring to that, you're
talking about our pet productsas well.
I mean it's.
You know, if we continue to buythe stuff that's full of
unhealthy things, then it'sgoing to continue to be made,
and until you start making, Imean what it brings to mind, and
I'm not.
I don't want to go down thepath of having a discussion
about vegan diets for dogs andcats, but there's no way on this
(29:57):
earth that that would have evencome about had there not been
some type of demand for it,because it's counterintuitive
and it creates a whole notherprocess for the pet food
companies.
And so you know, the fact thatthere are entire vegan pet food
companies and pet food productsis a testament to the consumer
(30:18):
demand and the impact that thatcan have is a testament to the
consumer demand and the impactthat that can have.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (30:25):
Absolutely, and when you look at the number
of raw companies and fresh foodcompanies that are coming out in
the last 10 years, obviouslythere's a major trend.
Now all raw food is not thesame.
You have to learn to readlabels and understand what those
labels mean, because there's alot of people jumping, a lot of
companies that are jumping onthe consumer demand bandwagon
and they want to make the moneyoff of that and that's wonderful
(30:46):
.
But they're taking andproducing a less than
appropriate diet and calling itraw.
And if people don't understandwhat makes a balanced, healthy,
raw diet, then they're betterthan kibble, but they're still
creating problems.
So again back to education.
Right.
Amy Castro (31:05):
Yeah, and it's the same.
I mean anyone that's done anyresearch or seen any of the many
, many documentaries and suchthat have been out about just
the human food and what'sallowed to be called natural or
organic and it's really reallynot and it's not very natural,
or you know, even the grain free.
If the grain gets taken out,something else gets put in its
(31:26):
place, and do you know what thatother thing is and is it just
as bad, if not worse, than, foryour pet?
So I think I mean if peopledidn't change anything else
other than go to your pantryright now and pull that pet food
can, bag whatever you'refeeding out and go down that
entire list of stuff in thereand identify what the heck is it
(31:47):
, that would be a step in theright direction, cause you'd be
shocked and probably appalled atsome of the things in there
that are not good.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (31:56):
Yeah, and and that's you know to end that
part of the discussion is no petowner that I have ever met is
joyful about harming their pet.
Even veterinarians there are.
Veterinarians do not want to doharm to their patients.
We spend so much time inmedical school, we put so much
of our emotion into our jobs, welove what we do and we want to
(32:19):
do good.
But if you don't know better,you can't do better.
So part of my program is alsoin educating veterinarians so
that they learn that there areother things that they can do.
Our toolkit needs to expand,because the level of complex
diseases that we're seeing todaydidn't exist 20 years ago.
So we have to do somethingdifferent.
(32:40):
We have to have a differentmindset in order to meet those
challenges.
So if you have a veterinarianand you love that veterinarian
and this sounds good to you,then encourage them to at least
go on a webinar that I do, orconsider taking my course for
veterinarians, or something thathelps them to start expanding
that toolkit in the mindset.
Amy Castro (33:00):
well, that was all number one that's such a huge
piece of it.
It's the trick, it's thefoundation for everything.
There's so much.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (33:07):
And if you don't go there first, then
everything else you do is reallydoomed for failure, and I
literally will have doctors comeup to me and go oh, I use ozone
in my practice and I don't getresults like you do.
Why?
Well, cause you're stillfeeding processed foods and
you're still doing toxic thingsto that pet.
How do you expect them to getbetter?
All right, so number two isidentifying the essential
(33:28):
nutrients that that animal needsto have.
Now I am a test don't guesskind of gal, so I do the
nutrient testing for my pets, mypatients, to see what are they
actually deficient in, and Ialso test for toxicities, and
then I make sure that Isupplement the diet with those
essential nutrients that theanimal needs to have.
(33:48):
Let me define an essentialnutrient.
It is defined as that nutrientthat the body cannot manufacture
in sufficient quantities on itsown, so you have to get it from
your diet.
Guys, when I tell you foodtoday is nutrient depleted, it's
a blanket statement.
The foods that we're eating ashumans are grown on nutrient
depleted.
It's a blanket statement.
The foods that we're eating ashumans are grown on nutrient
(34:09):
depleted soils.
So we've known for over 30years that the food that we're
eating is nutrient depleted,which is why so many of the
government laws say that ifyou're going to sell a food,
particularly pet food, ascomplete and balanced, that you
have to add the essentialnutrients into that diet before
you can sell it.
(34:29):
They already know it's nutrientdeficient, but the problem is
they don't qualify what thosenutrients are going to look like
, and so they allow syntheticnutrients to go in which aren't
getting us any further down theroad than having a poor level of
them.
So, again, it all comes back toeducation and understanding how
(34:50):
to read labels and how to getthe right diagnostics.
Amy Castro (34:53):
The essential nutrients are going to be
obviously species specific, butis it also individual to the pet
?
So you can't just say this iswhat cats need, or am I wrong on
that?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (35:03):
I would say more species specific than
individual case specific.
But let's say an animal.
We do a test and they're low onvitamin D.
Well then we know we have tosupplement the vitamin D.
But the essential nutrients arethe essential amino acids,
vitamins, minerals and fattyacids.
It's those four categories thatwe and you can look them up on
(35:26):
the internet to see what theyare and if they are not in the
diet in a biologically availableform, that animal is going to
be nutrient deficient andthey're the building blocks for
many.
The fatty acids are thebuilding blocks for the cell
wall, the proteins are what weuse to make muscle and to grow,
and aminos they're the basematerial for the proteins.
(35:48):
So all of these are critical tobe able to have in the body and
we're just not taught how tomake sure that we have the
proper nutrition in our body forour bodies to be able to
function.
And then number three was healthe leaky gut.
And there are specificprotocols that we follow for
healing the leaky gut.
Obviously, you have to stopdamaging it before you can heal
(36:10):
it.
So think of the gut lining as apiece of cheesecloth.
Okay, if you're going to strainchicken soup, that has your
meat and your vegetables andyour herbs, but all you want is
the broth.
So you take and you cook yourchicken soup for whatever time,
and now you're going to strainit out.
You take your cheesecloth andyou cook your chicken soup for
whatever time and now you'regoing to strain it out.
You take your cheesecloth andyou put it over the container
(36:31):
and when you pour it thecheesecloth catches all the
elements that aren't supposed togo into your bowl.
But if you caused holes in thatcheesecloth like somebody took
a pen in the middle of the nightand made big holes in your
cheesecloth and you didn't knowit and you go to strain your
soup, now you're gettingmaterial that can fit through
(36:51):
that hole to go into your soup.
It's coming through the holewhen it wasn't supposed to.
That is literally what ishappening to the lining of our
gastrointestinal tract, butinstead of having a cheesecloth,
they're called tight junctionsand the cells look like this,
like one cell next to another,and then there's this protein
that exists between them.
(37:12):
Glyphosate is one example.
It melts the actin filamentthat holds that cell together
and then it causes it to becomeseparated.
So if you can appreciate howtight that is versus how tight
that is.
So now things come into thebody that aren't supposed to and
they travel by the bloodstreamto the liver.
(37:32):
The liver sees those foreignmaterials and goes oh my God, we
have an invader here.
Mount the inflammatory response.
And so it mounts this cytokinestorm of all these different
mediators that are designed togo out and kill the invader.
That's how we have survived foras long as we have.
So it's a good thing.
But it's not a good thing whenit never turns off, and in
(37:54):
today's day and age it justnever turns off.
Amy Castro (37:58):
And gut health.
I mean, I think so many peopleare so unaware of not only how
important it is, but that farreaching impact it's not.
You know, I think when peoplesometimes hear gut health, they
think oh, if my dog doesn't havegas, it's not burping, it
doesn't have diarrhea.
You know that it's got ahealthy gut.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (38:17):
It's so much more than that, yeah.
And then we have a lot ofpeople talking about gut health.
They come in, they say my dog'sfine, no, no problems.
Or my cat.
And then when I ask the rightquestions like does your animal
ever spend a day where itdoesn't eat?
Oh yeah, happens all you know,at least once a month.
Do you ever hear a grumblytummy?
Oh yeah, does he vomitperiodically?
You know these are symptomsthat are not big enough to make
(38:40):
them go to the vet because bythe next day the animal's better
.
But there's certainly the dashlight coming on and saying
there's a problem here.
But there's certainly the dashlight coming on and saying
there's a problem here.
Or the biggest one, the biggestone of all my animal's a picky
eater.
Well, have you ever watched alion or tiger when they're
hungry on a NationalGeographic's video?
They don't hesitate.
They spend a tremendous amountof energy to chase down, kill
(39:04):
and devour their prey.
When they're hungry.
That's a healthy animal.
They're really driven to beable to use all that energy to
be able to feed themselves.
But when an animal goes over tothe bowl kind of looks, oh,
I'll take a bite or two, but mytummy doesn't feel good, so I'll
just do a couple of bites andI'll come back later and see if
I feel better.
That is the number one indicatorof an animal with a problem is
(39:29):
a picky eater.
So that was number three healthe leaky gut, and we have lots
of protocols to be able to dothat.
And then number four is myheart passion, which is
detoxification.
We have six organs ofelimination.
Our pets have the same sixorgans of elimination the kidney
, the colon, the lungs, theliver, the skin, and I used to
(39:53):
say the lymphatics.
Now I say the lymphatics andthe fascia, because the lymph
runs through the fascia.
So they're very important andwe just live in a society where
everything is so toxic and we'vebeen exposed to so much that
these organs can't keep up withthe elimination process, so they
start to get backed up.
So that is critical to eitherbeing healthy or healing.
Amy Castro (40:19):
What would that entail?
What tools are available forpet parents?
Obviously, if I live near you,I could come to your practice
and have you assess my pet andthen employ all these things
that we're talking about.
But if I'm not there, if I'm inHouston, I'm working with my
regular veterinarian.
What kind of things would we bedoing to detoxify our pets?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (40:40):
Well, some of them are supplements, some of
them are behavioral things todo, and then some of it requires
technology.
But I think it's so divinebecause, as I was going through
developing systems fordetoxification, I was looking
for the next tool, the next tool, the next tool, and at the end
of and I'm always still lookingfor tools, but at the end of a
(41:01):
period of time when I had areally good toolkit, I had
something for every organ I satback and I went oh, isn't that
interesting.
Every technology that I havecan be purchased by a pet parent
and used at home.
I thought that is not anaccident.
How divine is that?
That doesn't mean that everypet parent's going to spend a
(41:23):
hundred thousand dollars andequip their home as a spa's
family wellness center.
Some might you know, somepeople might want to buy a
franchise from us and open theirown franchise, open their own
spa's family wellness centers.
But the point is that peoplecan purchase certain things and
I think there's a hierarchy ofwhat's most important and then
(41:44):
the layers that go along withthat, so that they can start to
implement the things that needfrequency and need to be
maintained, because it's like anever growing issue.
Like you just don't detox in 10days and then go back to your
old lifestyle.
This is a lifestyle that we'retalking about.
(42:05):
So one of those is using ozoneand hyperbaric oxygen.
So to me those are two thingsthat should be in everybody's
toolkit.
As a pet parent, so when theycome to me, we talk to them
about that pretty low investmentand for ozone, and we do the
training for them so that ifthey purchase equipment through
us, we do all the training forthem.
It's included, so that if theypurchase equipment through us,
(42:26):
we do all the training for them.
It's included, there's no extracost, and we help them with
protocols.
And then hyperbaric oxygen, thesame way you know there's.
You can do that at home now,and it's neat because not only
does the pet benefit, but thepeople in the house benefit as
well.
So can you imagine if, duringthe C word, when it happened a
couple of years ago, if peoplehad the ability to stay
(42:48):
healthier and make themselveshealthy and get rid of illnesses
quicker by simply having thetools in their own home?
How cool would that have been.
But don't go out, and this isone warning I would say, or one
caution Don't just go out andbuy the shiny object or think
you're buying something becausethe ad says oh, it's a water
(43:10):
bottle and it produces hydrogen.
You don't know the quality ofthat product, and is it really?
Amy Castro (43:15):
doing it.
Yeah, it's kind of like CBD.
You know that was.
The whole thing with CBD is howmuch is really in it?
What's the quality?
Has it been verified?
Et cetera, et cetera.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (43:26):
You know, amy, when I was looking to
develop my supplement linebecause I couldn't find a clean
line that I could stand behind,it was four years and going from
company to company to companyto company to find a company
that didn't just want to throwme out a product and say, here,
but we're going to put all theseadditives in there, I go, no,
(43:47):
I'm not going to do that.
Oh, one company had theaudacity to say, well, nobody's
going to know what's in there.
I know what's in there and Iknow it's harmful for my patient
.
I'm not going to do that.
But I finally found a companythat makes pristine products
that are effective, that arebacked with science and testing,
and so that's what I ended upworking with is a company that
(44:09):
has that kind of level ofintegrity.
So back to my caution statementis don't just go out and buy
something because it's on Amazon.
You really have to understandwhat you're buying.
Does it actually do what you'rethinking it's going to do?
Is it cost effective?
And I'm not saying you have tobuy the most expensive, because
most expensive doesn't alwaysrelate to being the best.
(44:30):
But when you're looking atsomething like CBD, you want to
know that you've got a qualityproduct in there.
And then number five is themitochondria.
They are these little organismsthat live inside our cells.
We got trillions of them andthey produce energy for our
(44:51):
bodies to function.
But they do more than that.
They are actually thecommunication network that helps
to dictate what should andshouldn't be turned on or off,
or how we should be responding,and so they send chemical
messages from them to themicrobiome through the fascia.
So we want to make sure we havethe healthiest microbiome, that
(45:15):
we have the healthiestmitochondria, that we call it
mitochondrial biogenesis.
We want to make bigger,healthier, more robust
mitochondria so that we havemore energy and better
communication to be able tofunction.
And the number six, which is soimportant it's not in my ebook
because it's a little woo-woo,but it is critical and that is
(45:36):
clearing the emotions that areassociated with the dis-ease.
So with all dis-ease there arealways associated emotions.
How animals play this role isreally interesting, because they
(45:58):
can be reflectors to their soulfamily, their two-legged family
, about things that need to beaddressed.
There's never a coincidencethat you have a particular pet
at a particular time in yourlife with a particular problem.
There's always messaging thereand or so they're either
reflecting or they're mirroring,or they're delivering a message
.
You know, there's some.
(46:19):
There's always a meaning behindeverything that happens.
I'm just absolutely convincedthat nothing happens by accident
.
So then it's a matter of how doI receive the message and how
do I make things better.
So that's the six steps.
Amy Castro (46:35):
So how do we pull all this together for the pet
parent?
What else do we need to bedoing next?
I know one of the things thatjumped out at me on your website
was having pets that could live20 years.
I mean, there's nobody thatI've ever met that has said I
wish I had less time with my pet.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (46:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
In fact, when I ask people whatis your goal and they go I want
you to help my pet live forever.
Yeah, exactly, you know, we allknow we're leaving this planet
right.
Everybody has an exit strategy.
We don't know when that is, butwe know we're all going to
leave.
What they're really asking foris quality time.
We don't want to be spending itnursing an animal that is
(47:12):
miserable and itching or in pain, and we don't want that.
We want to have a vibrant,healthy, fun life for ourselves,
for the animals in our life, wewant our family to enjoy life,
and that's what we came to earthschool to do.
We just have to figure out how.
How does that look?
And it's about making decisions,like we talked about in the
beginning.
(47:32):
So you're, where do you start?
You start with education and Iam going to shamelessly
encourage people to take our petparent course, because it is
three hours of solid informationwith case examples, telling you
how to know what testing to askyour veterinarian to do, how to
(47:55):
know the detoxification stepsfor your pet, what diet looks
like, what supplements shouldlook like, what emotional
clearing looks like.
So it really takes you from thebeginning all the way through
to understanding the framework.
Now, for most people, they wantto have somebody help them a
(48:16):
little bit more, because maybethey're already into a
challenging situation.
So in order to do a consult withme, we require that they do the
pet parent course, because ifthey don't understand the basics
, I can't explain it to themquickly and you have to let it
sink in.
It has to become who you are,and you can't do that in a 10
(48:37):
minute conversation.
So they start with the course,which is $197.
It is very inexpensive.
It is less than an hour with meand you get three hours of
content and then we have anintelligent conversation to move
forward.
But by then people have alreadygone through and go oh, I'm not
(48:59):
doing do-do-do-do-do and I amdoing do-do-do-do and I need to
stop that.
They may not know what toreplace it with, but that's
where our consult time comes inand so, very effectively, I can
help people make massive changes, and I work with their
veterinarian as well.
So that's where we need tostart.
We all need to start withtaking that first step, which is
taking back our power, and wetake our power through education
(49:22):
.
Amy Castro (49:23):
First of all, I highly recommend everybody who's
listening to this to check outthe course, but I understand
that you have a special offerjust for our listeners that you
wanted to share.
I'd love to hear about that.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (49:34):
Okay.
So the first thing is that theycan download a free ebook that
is, the five steps to holistichealing for your pets.
So you go towwwholistichealingvetcom it's
all one word, all lowercase,holistichealingvetcom.
(49:55):
And the second thing and Idon't do this very often, but I
just I feel it on my heart to dothis for your audience and that
would be for the first 10people who purchase the
Empowered Pet Parent course,that they can have a free
15-minute consult with me afterthey've completed the course, so
(50:17):
I can help them withimplementation or answering
questions.
I'm very strict, I'm going tokeep it to the 15 minutes, but I
think that would be atremendous value add for
somebody who seriously wants tomake this a way of life for
themselves.
So we'll create a coupon codethat you would just put in
Starlight and that way we knowthat it's from Amy's audience,
(50:40):
and then you can have a free 15minute consult with me after
you've purchased the EmpoweredPet Parent course.
Amy Castro (50:46):
That would be great.
Thank you so much.
I feel like in doing thispodcast, every episode I learn
something that benefits my ownpets.
I've made a lot of changes, butI think this one in particular
could really lead to somesignificant changes and
significant benefits to my pets.
Dr. Marlene Siegel (51:03):
So I had mentioned the lymphatics and the
fascia and how important thefascia is and I co-created a
course for pet parents and it isfascia decompression for your
fur family and you learn how todo the fascia decompression for
your animals and all you use isyour hands.
(51:23):
There's no equipment needed andwe walk you through large
animals, small animals, cats,and we teach you how to actually
work in the fascia.
It is one of the mostremarkable pieces that I have
ever put into my practice andI've got a video of a dog.
He is in some.
If you go on my YouTube channel, there's a lot of talks on
(51:46):
there and there's one inparticular about this little dog
who came in walking like an Land he was doing that for six
weeks before the owners broughthim to me and I did a
chiropractic adjustment and thefascia decompression and in six
hours he was back to normal.
He'd been that way for sixweeks.
It was like watching a miraclechange in this dog's body.
(52:06):
It's really remarkable.
On my website and in the courseI go over miracle stories after
miracle stories after miraclestories, and they're not
miracles, they're reallyunderstanding the body's biology
and just fixing the biology.
So dogs that were diabetic thatare no longer diabetic, animals
that were paralyzed, that arerunning around with no surgery
(52:27):
and no steroids, and cancercases that were reversed, some
in as little as five weeks, somelonger.
But the fact that we canactually reverse cancer is
remarkable when on the people'sside they struggle right.
So you know, we have theability to show in so many
different aspects skin disease.
We have the ability to show inso many different aspects skin
(52:48):
disease, allergies, gi problems,autoimmune diseases in every
aspect.
Amy Castro (52:53):
I have examples of that in the course and that
doesn't mean that we fixeverything, but we always
improve quality of life, right,well, and the allergy thing is
just such a big thing that petparents are facing now and
spending tons of money onBand-Aid fixes for allergies.
It's like, did we not have to,you know?
Did our pets not have allergiesback then?
(53:14):
Well, yeah, we probably didn'thave the toxins that we have in
our environments, like you said.
So such a huge thing.
Any final thoughts, words ofencouragement that you want to
share with us before we wrap upfor today?
Dr. Marlene Siegel (53:32):
You know, a lot of people feel like they're
a victim in the world and thingsare happening to them.
So my message is life isn'thappening to us, it's happening
for us.
When we choose to look at ourlife as a gift, when we choose
to realize that we are creatingeverything in our life for our
(53:54):
highest and best good and thatthe pets that are in our life
are here as part of thatmessaging and that experience,
then we have that opportunity tobe the victor of our life, to
look for answers, sometimeswhere answers didn't exist.
That's my story.
There were no answers for meBack when I started doing this.
(54:17):
There was no class I could take, there was no one to go to.
Thankfully, functional medicinehad just started on the human
side, so I just startedconsuming everything I could
come across and figuring out howto apply it to pets.
So there was no roadmap.
I had to create the road whenone didn't exist.
And I will tell you, it's themost gratifying feeling in the
(54:40):
world to be empowered, to be incharge, to know that you're
making a difference.
And every single one of us hasthat opportunity.
The power to heal is truly ours.
We just have to own it For sure.
Amy Castro (54:57):
Well, dr Siegel, thank you so much for being here
with us today and I'm feeling abit overwhelmed, but luckily we
can go back and listen to thispodcast and learn even more by
taking your course.
But you've really, hopefully,opened some eyes.
I know you've opened some eyesand got me really thinking about
the very simple but powerfulthings that we can be doing to
(55:17):
improve not only our pets' livesbut our own.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
You're welcome.
Many blessings.
Thanks for listening to MuddyPaws and Hairballs.
Be sure to visit our website atmuddypawsandhairballscom for
more resources and be sure tofollow this podcast on your
favorite podcast app so you'llnever miss a show.
(55:37):
And hey, if you like this showtext someone right now and say
I've got a podcastrecommendation.
You need to check the show outand tell them to listen and let
you know what they think.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
new episode.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
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