Diabetes and Your Pet with Dr Christina Chambreau Show #23

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The text below is additional information to the show above. Please listen to the conversation with Dr Chambreau to learn more.

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Diabetes and Diet
In our previous radio shows, we spoke about diet as an obstacle to cure. Poor diet can block healing or it can simply not be sufficient for the healing process. In today's show, Dr. Chambreau will explain to us how diet can actually be the cause of disease.

Illness caused by commercial diets
Back in 1980, when cat food was basically re-packaged dog food, Dr. Chambreau saw about 10% of cats in her practice with dilated heart disease (Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) affects the ventricular heart muscle) and blindness that was determined to be due to insufficient taurine. At that time, she did not have holistic training so did not realize it was a combination of the sensitivity of the animal’s vital force and the lack of this nutrient.

Blindness: Cats eating an improperly balanced home-cooked diet or a vegetarian diet are susceptible. Other less common causes are loss of taurine via the intestinal tract, insufficient production of taurine, or decreased protein digestion.

Fast forward to 2007, when hundreds and possibly thousands of dogs and cats die from insufficient diet and contamination by melamine. Studies of kidneys from 2004 show deaths reaching back at least that far.

Today, we notice many recalls in the pet food industry, some “just to be on the safe side” and some definitely needed. Commercial formulas have been changed because they were possibly causing bladder stones. Can linings have been implicated in hyperthyroidism.

Pet Food Recalls
Dr Jean Hofve talks about feline hyperthyroidism

Holistic veterinarians have been documenting almost every disease being caused or worsened by commercial diets. Diabetes is one of them.

Startling revelation
Dr. Hodgkins, a veterinary nutritionist was working for Hills Food company. She was feeding dry food to her cats, when Punkin, her middle aged cat, developed diabetes. Devastated, she began to think as a veterinarian and a nutritionist. "Hmmm. . . in people diabetes is linked to excess carbohydrate consumption; cats are obligate carnivores. I have been feeding carbohydrates (dry food) . . . ding ding ding." She switched to canned food and Punkin’s blood returned to normal. Two years later, a boarding kennel refused to follow the directions to feed the meat canned food and instead fed dry. Punkin’s blood glucose shot up to 400 and she needed insulin for several weeks. Now Dr. Hodgkins has written – You and Your Cat and has several web sites.

Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life

Dr Hodgkins says
Quoting Dr Hodgkins and this echoes what Dr. Chambreau has taught for the last 20 years, “Diabetes in the cat is a man-made disease, which is completely preventable by avoiding the "kitty junk-food" that is dry kibbled cat food. Without question, it is the continuous, day-in, day-out consumption of this poor-quality, highly processed, carbohydrate rich "breakfast cereal for cats" that causes so many felines to become diabetic.” Speaking at various conferences, Dr. Chambreau has been saying for at least the last 5 years, “dry food for cats has come back to bite us.” She likes the analogy of trying to run your car on the wrong octane of gas, or using diesel in a regular car.

What is Diabetes?
Because diabetic animals have too much sugar in the blood, they drink a lot, urinate a lot, eat a lot and lose weight. Diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas, the gland that produces insulin and fat digestive enzymes in the body, doesn’t produce enough insulin. This will happen in animals who have a vital force imbalance that is susceptible to pancreatic problems. Insulin is required for the body to efficiently use sugars, fats and proteins. The other hormones produced by the pancreas are glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic Polypeptides. Decreased pancreatic enzyme production can be found by using a 'Comprehensive Stool and Digestive Analysis' lab test. Blood sugar is measured by a 6 hour glucose tolerance test.

USDA nutrient database

When do we most often see diabetes in our pets?
Diabetes most commonly occurs in middle age to older dogs and cats, but occasionally occurs in young animals. Certain conditions predispose a dog to developing diabetes. Increasing rapidly incidence now at a range of 1:100 to 1:500. Banfield hospital did a survey, finding a 32 percent increase of diabetes in dogs and a 16 percent increase in cats since 2006. When Dr Chambreau graduated from veterinary college in 1980, diabetes was very uncommon.

Predisposition to Diabetes
According to the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, “Animals that are overweight or those with inflammation of the pancreas are predisposed to developing diabetes. Some drugs can interfere with insulin, leading to diabetes.” While these facts appear to be statistically accurate, they mask the real reason – a vital force sensitivity to improper diet, too many vaccines, too many drugs and chemicals, suppression and lifestyle in general.

Prevention of Diabetes
Follow the 7 Keys to Healthy Animals.

Know the current health status and re-evaluate on a regular basis. Record this.
Feed the best diet. Never dry food for cats. Probably little grains for dogs. Preferably local and sustainable.
Vaccinate the least
Use the fewest chemicals and drugs
Understand how healing and illness occur. When you quickly stop a symptom, you may cause suppression – the skin clears and the pancreas weakens.
Use holistic healing methods yourself and
Have a healing team that includes holistic healers.

Treatment of diabetes
The conventional treatment of choice for diabetes is insulin, but it is often very hard to regulate the animals. Dr. Hodgkins has a site with specific guidelines she says will cure (not manage) 80% of cats with diabetes. Many veterinarians are using processed “diabetic foods” that make no sense. A holistic treatment plan includes;

Feed no grains and few carbohydrates.
Use insulin only if the animal is critical. I hope you will already be working with a holistic practitioner (there are so many now, that each of you can access one. Try different ones (every by phone) until you find one you like and trust.
Sometimes, especially with cats, diet change will be enough.
You may need good Chinese medicine, homeopathy, chiropractic, reiki, Healing Touch for animals, Flower essences, Essential oils, and other energetic healing modalities to resolve the pancreatic problems.

Does obesity lead to diabetes?
While obesity does not cause diabetes, it is a health risk and Dr Christina Chambreau will discuss the proper diet to help your pet stay at the ideal weight. She will compare this type of diet to the typically recommended diabetic formulas suggested by many conventional veterinarians. We want to understand why they suggest processed foods that are low in protein and high in carbohydrates. These formulas are supposed to provide complete and balanced nutrition to manage dogs with a tendency to gain weight. It seems as if this goes against everything you have been teaching us in the radio shows up to this date. She says, “This makes no sense to me at all. Raw fed animals rarely develop diabetes.”

Example of ingredients in formulated diets for diabetic animals:

Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken by-product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Mill Run, Soybean Oil, Dried Beet Pulp, Lactic Acid, Soybean Meal, Caramel Color, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Flaxseed, L-Lysine, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Iodized Salt, L-Tryptophan, L-Carnitine, L-Threonine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Are these formulas safe?
Can these formulas really help maintain normal blood glucose levels and promote healthy digestion? How does corn and powdered cellulose help promote healthy digestion? Why would companies produce formulas of this nature?

Dr Chambreau answered these questions in previous shows. Since they take everything out during processing, they need to put something back in. Why not just give them what they need in the first place? She tells us to note how many of the ingredients are left overs from other commercial processes.

Words From A Veterinarian
Dr. Peter Dobias wrote an article that explains his point of view about preventing diabetes in your dog and the role of a raw food diet. In healthy dogs, cats and humans, pancreas has no problem digesting protein and it also takes part in the fat digestion. He has never seen a diabetic animal who had been fed a raw food diet.

What About Digesting Carbs?
The problem comes with starches and sugar. Complex carbohydrates digest into simple forms of sugar, glucose. A small amount of glucose helps the cell function, while too much can cause dysfunction. In order to clear sugar from the blood stream and get it into the cells, the pancreas must work harder and can easily become inflamed.

In order for the body to reduce pancreatic inflammation, the body produces natural antibodies, and leads to destruction of the islets of Langerhans β-cellswhere insulin is produced. The cycle continues and without necessary insulin from the pancreas, the blood sugar level increases and the cells starve due to lack of energy.

What about fat regulation?
You will be surprised to learn that it is not the protein and fat intake that causes problems, but the fact that the pancreas can't process the sugar and carbohydrates taken into the body when it is stressed, overworked and inflamed.

The necessary insulin from the pancreas and fat dissolving enzymes help regulate fat in the body. When pets and humans eat an over abundance of sugar and carbs, the pancreas produces more insulin and inhibits fat burning in the body. When stressed, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to process the sugar and carbs leading to excessive fat disintegration and a toxic state called diabetic ketoacidosis.

Does vaccination play a part in diabetes for children?
Dr. J. Barthelow Classen published study results in The Open Endocrinology Journal that link vaccines to diabetes in children. His work shows a 50% reduction of type 2 diabetes occurred in Japanese children following the discontinuation of a single vaccine; a vaccine to prevent tuberculosis. This decline occurred at a time when there was a global epidemic of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, altered blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and increased blood glucose resulting from insulin resistance.

A theory about type 1 diabetes in children
Classen proposes a new explanation for the epidemic of both insulin dependent diabetes (type 1 diabetes), which has previously been shown to be caused by vaccines and non insulin dependent diabetes (type 2 diabetes). Upon receipt of vaccines or other strong immune stimulants some individuals develop a hyperactive immune system leading to autoimmune destruction of insulin secreting cells. Other individuals produce increased cortisol, an immune suppressing hormone, to suppress the vaccine induced inflammation. The increased cortisol leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Japanese children have increased cortisol secretion following immunization compared to White children and this explains why Japanese have a relative high rate of type 2 diabetes but low rate of insulin dependent diabetes compared to Whites. The lower cortisol response attributed to type 1 diabetes and the higher cortisol response attributed to type 2 diabetes explains why type 1 diabetics are generally leaner than type 2 diabetics since elevated cortisol causes weight gain.

Are vaccines for children safe and have they been tested?
“The current data shows that vaccines are much more dangerous than the public is lead to believe and adequate testing has never been performed even in healthy subjects to indicate that there is an overall improvement in health from immunization. The current practice of vaccinating diabetics as well as their close family members is a very risky practice,” says Dr. J. Barthelow Classen.

Classen’s research has become widely accepted. To view the published papers and to find out the latest information on the effects of vaccines on autoimmune diseases including insulin dependent diabetes visit the Vaccine Safety Web site http://www.vaccines.net/newpage11.htm

Bentham Science | Lipotoxicity & Mitochondrial Dysfunction PDF
Type 2 Diabetes Risk PDF
Adverse Effects of Statins PDF

How this applies to your pets
As mammals, your cats and dogs have similar organs and organ function. Dependent upon proper functioning pancreas, hormones and enzymes, we cannot over stress our animals with constant vaccinations and poor processed diets. Once a dog has diabetes, it can be difficult to treat him without resorting to insulin injections. The best way to treat diabetes is through prevention and the best way to prevent it is by feeding a fresh, raw, species-appropriate diet and by avoiding any vaccine that isn’t necessary.

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