In this day and age, it seems that everyone is looking for a magic elixir, pill, or potion that will ensure the longevity of health and well-being.
Enormous amounts of time, money, and effort are constantly being spent on these efforts.
In my 40+ years of practicing veterinary medicine, I’ve come to a conclusion that I feel can really help simplify this process.
Quick summary: bio-available minerals are the foundation for optimal health.
Our bodies are made up of millions and millions of cells, which make up various tissues...which make up various organs, and these make us up as a whole.
The same goes for our pets.
(Allow me to get a little Bill Nye the Science Guy on you for just a moment.)
Imagine that each cell in your pet is like a battery.
In the instance of say, a lead-acid battery — it needs acid to be able to take a charge and do its job.
Similarly, the cells of our bodies (and our pets’ bodies) need specific minerals in order to do their jobs.
If you buy a battery for a motorcycle and simply install it, guess what?
Nothing's gonna happen : /
You have to add acid so it can be charged up and THEN do its job.
Likewise, our pets’ bodies require hundreds of what we call “enzymatic cascades” in order to function properly and do their jobs.
As we all know, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link!
In these “enzymatic cascades” minerals are essential.
However, minerals are often in short supply and this prevents these cascades from functioning. (Which is what in turn makes them the weakest link for our pets.)
This begs the question: Why aren’t bio-available minerals in most of the pet foods we buy?
As with most problems, it comes down to money.
The cheapest way to add minerals to a food is basically to add ground-up rocks.
(Yes, really. Let me explain.)
NOTE: Don't go adding rocks to your pet's food! The following explanation is simply a way for me to describe a very in-depth topic within a short blog post.
A high-quality commercial pet food will contain something called, “chelated minerals”.
Chelated minerals are easy to absorb into the bloodstream.
They’re reported to have over a 90% absorption rate, but this is only into the blood and only a very small percentage of them get absorbed into your pet’s actual cells (where they’re so desperately needed).
The reason minerals have to be added to your pet’s food is that there aren’t ideal levels of the amount truly needed in the vegetables and meats being used to produce commercial pet foods.
In nature, rocks are absorbed into the soil.
Rocks contain minerals.
And over time, those minerals are broken down into very small particles that are absorbed by the surrounding vegetation.
So, if your pet were to eat a plant from an area where many rocks had broken down over time, your pet would then be able to absorb the rich bio-available minerals directly into his / her cells.
Likewise, if your pet were to eat meat from an animal that ate one of these plants, he / she would then absorb the same bio-available minerals from that animal's tissue.
In conclusion on this point, your pet ideally would be eating animal protein and plants that come from an area that has mineral-rich soil, which isn't going to be what commercial pet food companies are prioritizing.
While we're on the topic of nutrition, feel free to download my simple 5-step PDF to improving your pet's nutrition below.
My gift to say, thanks for being here!
Some interesting info for context on minerals:
• Floods are actually the best way for soil to become rich in minerals. • Modern agricultural practices say floods are bad and that dams and levees are needed to prevent flooding on farm ground.
• Conversely, in ancient times, farmers prayed for floods because they knew it would enrich their soil and make their produce extremely valuable. • To this day, crops grown on river deltas that flood regularly are highly sought after for this very reason.
It's taken a lot of research on my part to understand the amazing results that minerals can help achieve.
After becoming extremely fascinated with this topic, I’ve found a hero in Dr. Roderick MacKinnon, MD, Ph.D.
This rockstar of a doctor / scientist received a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in understanding something called “transmembrane ion channels”.
(Stay with me now, this is some awesome stuff!)
Essentially, these “transmembrane ion channels” are superhighways that allow minerals to get into and out of cells almost instantly.
NOW, I understand a great deal of the problems I've seen with the effectiveness of other treatments in the past.
It's become so apparent.
I'd always assumed cells would respond like they’re supposed to, but since the pets I was treating were deficient in minerals, there’s no chance their cells could have responded.
Seriously...no chance!
There are SO many conditions that respond very favorably to mineral supplementation.
Stroke and hypothyroidism are two of the most common, and in many cases, pets can return to a very healthy state.
In addition to this, minerals also enhance the effectiveness of many other treatments, so I’m a huge advocate of them here at my practice.
You see, these days I follow the principles of Eastern medicine more so than Western medicine.
Eastern medicine says, if your patient gets sick, you’ve failed.
(Hence my avid emphasis on preventative care with all my patients).
This is why traditional Chinese medicine spends so much time and effort giving various herbs and tinctures.
They're trying to build up the patient's health before any symptoms even have a chance to manifest.
Whereas on the opposite end of the spectrum, modern Western medicine says, if your patient presents symptoms, treat to suppress those symptoms and you’ve done your job (as opposed to discovering the root cause of the actual problem).
Today, I'm proud to announce I've found a company that produces molecular minerals that are virtually 100% absorbed into the cells and I'm excited to share them with you!
The company is called Complete H2O Minerals and I carry many of their products here in my clinic.
If you aren't nearby, you can learn more about them and order their products here: CompleteH2OMinerals.com
If we define good health as the absence of disease, then supplementing the diet with minerals should be right at the top of the list as a protocol for preventative care.
As a holistic veterinarian, it's my duty to ensure that my patients stay as healthy as possible BEFORE any symptoms arise, so that the likelihood of illness is drastically reduced.
On that note, one of the best possible preventative care measures you can take for your pets is to provide them with great nutrition.
If you’d like to learn more about improving your pet’s health through nutrition, sign up below for my free pet nutrition cheat sheet (if you haven't already).
I created this cheat sheet to save you hours of doing research on the Internet to determine what to feed your pet.
I hope you find it helpful and please feel free to share this post with a friend, so they can sign up to receive a copy as well.
Thanks so much for reading!
Until next time,
Dr. Terry R. Wood