Well, duh, your veterinarian. But I too dabble in the world of Dr. Google. I know that we, A) want to save money, B) don't want to waste our vet's time on something idiotic, And C) Google everything anyway, even if we have the facts, because we want MORE facts, or better facts. I get that. So, barring your veterinarian, lets take a look at how we can tell fact from fiction in the articles shared by our friends, and turned up in our searches.
Cited studies: I'm going to tell you that anyone can claim to be an expert, but not everyone takes the time to find out if the snake oil that they're selling will work. Studies help separate the wheat from the chaff. Any article that tells you 'facts' but doesn't cite studies and the literature is providing hearsay and opinion. It could be learned opinion, or it could be junk. Without studies you are in the dark.
Are all studies created equal? No. Can studies be manipulated or twisted? of course, but, if a study is cited, then you can go look and see for yourself. If no study is cited you need to find your facts elsewhere.
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| This dog's cancer was cured by science |
Sometimes articles will cite studies, but the studies and the article just muddy the facts. What are some signs to look for that can help you know that an article isn't medically sound?
Food solves all: There is only two conditions scientifically proven to be cured by a food change, and those are malnutrition and food allergies. That's all. Food does not cause cancer, and food will not cure cancer. There are no 'good' foods and there are no 'bad' foods, there are only adequate foods and inadequate foods. An inadequate food will not provide for your pet's nutritional needs and will lead to malnutrition. Want to know what the number one feeding regimen cited for vitamin and mineral malnutrition in pets is in the US? Raw and homemade diets, 1,2,3.
There are some diets that may help with some medical conditions. There is some anecdotal evidence that a higher quality, limited ingredient food may help with some pets suffering from allergic dermatitis or other forms of allergies (see how wishy washy that sentence was? punctuated with 'maybe's' and 'some's'? That's what science sounds like; uncertain in the face of limited facts).
Hills, Science Diet has a diet formulated for cats that stands in for medication in the event of hyperthyroidism. It limits iodine which is necessary for the functional tumor responsible for hyperthyroidism to produce excessive thyroid hormones. This food actually can be used to treat disease, and is unique for doing so. 1.
Unless your pet is too skinny or too fat, or allergic to beef, food ain't gonna cure what ails him.
Cure-alls: We're back to the land of snake oil on this one. And while food, and feeding a raw or home-cooked diet is the snake oil du jour, it isn't alone. Essential fatty acids, various vitamins, garlic, etc... have all been touted as cures for everything from cancer to allergies (notice nothing cures things that need hard evidence that a cure has occurred, like deafness or a broken limb).
Nothing cures everything. Nothing. Sorry. And to my knowledge there is zero evidence linking any of the magic cures to an actual cure for anything at all.
The flip side of the cure-all equation is no side-effects. I will tell you right now that there is no drug, no chemical that is strong enough to affect an animal's body that is not, a) going to have unintended, unwanted, or unanticipated effects beyond those that we are seeking to treat, and b) dose dependent.
Here's an example from the real world. Aspirin was initially compounded from a naturally derived chemical found in the bark of willow plants. It has an analgesic (pain killer) effect in small doses. It can also thin blood, cause GI bleeding and ulceration, cause rashes, nausea, and drowsiness, in some children it can cause a fatal disease called Reyes Syndrome, and oddly, it can cause headache. Take too much aspirin and you can anticipate, vomiting, dizziness, confusion, hallucinations, rapid breathing, seizures or coma. 1,2.
A study of willow bark and the active ingredient found in aspirin found that even in same-species, same location trees the amount of drug ranged from 0.8%-12.6%. This is a huge variance (and why we shouldn't trust herbal 'remedies') Dose dependency is why we have Bayer and why we don't all have our own willow tree in our yard and strip off the bark on an as-needed basis. 1.
Anecdotal: Anectdotal means that someone told us that it worked. Its the old, "cod liver oil cured my cold" story (all colds are eventually cured, most in 24-48 hours, therefore, anything cures a cold after a day or two). Anecdotal evidence is weak at best, stupid and dangerous at worst.
You want to try XYZ food because your Aunt May's Golden Retriever had fewer ticks when she ate it? sure be my guest. You want to ignore a rattle snake bite because the rancher's dog down the road did fine with no treatment? You're an idiot.
Anectdotal evidence keeps the diet, erectile dysfunction, and baldness cure people in business. It is also driving tigers and rhinos to extinction, so it is no innocent thing to dump our money into stories of cures where none exist.
The difference between anecdote and science is numerical. Few cures are 100% effective, while because of the placebo effect, some cures will 'work' on just a few people. For instance, I believe that sitting in the spa 'cooks' disease germs and chases away colds. Now, there is a little bit of evidence that supports this (an elevated body temperature does kill viruses - hence our body's defense mechanism - fever) but to call it a cure sounds a little unlikely.
To test my anecdotal evidence we would need to eliminate the anecdotal aspect as well as the placebo aspect (after all, I believe it works). Lets say we took 1000 people with a cold and divided them into two groups. We do a placebo treatment on one (we need a placebo group to keep people from thinking it's working and feeling better -placebo is a very real thing) and my hot tub cure on the other. Now using the placebo group as the baseline, the percentage of people above the placebo group 'cured' by my hot tub experiment is the real effect of hot tub cures.
This is the difference between science and anecdote, and these are the things we need to think about every time we see something that attempts to tell us about our pet's health (or our own, or the planet's for that matter).
Thank you for reading, and please join the conversation on Facebook.
There are some diets that may help with some medical conditions. There is some anecdotal evidence that a higher quality, limited ingredient food may help with some pets suffering from allergic dermatitis or other forms of allergies (see how wishy washy that sentence was? punctuated with 'maybe's' and 'some's'? That's what science sounds like; uncertain in the face of limited facts).
Hills, Science Diet has a diet formulated for cats that stands in for medication in the event of hyperthyroidism. It limits iodine which is necessary for the functional tumor responsible for hyperthyroidism to produce excessive thyroid hormones. This food actually can be used to treat disease, and is unique for doing so. 1.
Unless your pet is too skinny or too fat, or allergic to beef, food ain't gonna cure what ails him.
 |
| Grain isn't evil. It's just grain |
Nothing cures everything. Nothing. Sorry. And to my knowledge there is zero evidence linking any of the magic cures to an actual cure for anything at all.
The flip side of the cure-all equation is no side-effects. I will tell you right now that there is no drug, no chemical that is strong enough to affect an animal's body that is not, a) going to have unintended, unwanted, or unanticipated effects beyond those that we are seeking to treat, and b) dose dependent.
Here's an example from the real world. Aspirin was initially compounded from a naturally derived chemical found in the bark of willow plants. It has an analgesic (pain killer) effect in small doses. It can also thin blood, cause GI bleeding and ulceration, cause rashes, nausea, and drowsiness, in some children it can cause a fatal disease called Reyes Syndrome, and oddly, it can cause headache. Take too much aspirin and you can anticipate, vomiting, dizziness, confusion, hallucinations, rapid breathing, seizures or coma. 1,2.
A study of willow bark and the active ingredient found in aspirin found that even in same-species, same location trees the amount of drug ranged from 0.8%-12.6%. This is a huge variance (and why we shouldn't trust herbal 'remedies') Dose dependency is why we have Bayer and why we don't all have our own willow tree in our yard and strip off the bark on an as-needed basis. 1.
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| A row of Chinese herbs that were used freely in conjunction with 'conventional' medicine. |
You want to try XYZ food because your Aunt May's Golden Retriever had fewer ticks when she ate it? sure be my guest. You want to ignore a rattle snake bite because the rancher's dog down the road did fine with no treatment? You're an idiot.
Anectdotal evidence keeps the diet, erectile dysfunction, and baldness cure people in business. It is also driving tigers and rhinos to extinction, so it is no innocent thing to dump our money into stories of cures where none exist.
The difference between anecdote and science is numerical. Few cures are 100% effective, while because of the placebo effect, some cures will 'work' on just a few people. For instance, I believe that sitting in the spa 'cooks' disease germs and chases away colds. Now, there is a little bit of evidence that supports this (an elevated body temperature does kill viruses - hence our body's defense mechanism - fever) but to call it a cure sounds a little unlikely.
To test my anecdotal evidence we would need to eliminate the anecdotal aspect as well as the placebo aspect (after all, I believe it works). Lets say we took 1000 people with a cold and divided them into two groups. We do a placebo treatment on one (we need a placebo group to keep people from thinking it's working and feeling better -placebo is a very real thing) and my hot tub cure on the other. Now using the placebo group as the baseline, the percentage of people above the placebo group 'cured' by my hot tub experiment is the real effect of hot tub cures.
This is the difference between science and anecdote, and these are the things we need to think about every time we see something that attempts to tell us about our pet's health (or our own, or the planet's for that matter).
Thank you for reading, and please join the conversation on Facebook.
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