Speaker: Loren Nations DVM, DABVP, Founder & CEO, Veterinary Healthcare Associates
Loren Nations DVM, DABVP: Hello. My name is Doctor Loren Nations. I'm a small animal veterinarian. The founder and CEO of Veterinary Health Care Associates located in Winter Haven, Florida. We're a large practice. We have both general practice referral specialty and 24 hour emergency and critical care. all under one hospital. We've got a great campus. We're very excited about metabolic health.
Why is it so important to raise funds for metabolic health research?
Loren Nations DVM, DABVP: Metabolism or the biological processes that create energy that give us fuel and the vital force that allows us to flourish as a living organism. When metabolism is damaged, then those energy systems falter and our body starts deteriorating and rusting and the mitochondrial health and energetics begin to fail. And when that happens, we start succumbing to the chronic inflammatory conditions. In human medicine, they're considered they're called the four horsemen of death. Cardiovascular disease. Number one, cancer. Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and certainly metabolic syndrome with type two diabetes and all the sequela that occur from that The study of metabolism and ultimately metabolic health is foundational in being able to identify to treat and ultimately prevent those things from occurring or at least postpone them for as long as possible. Unfortunately, human health care and research that's being conducted with tremendous amounts of, of money are focused on the end result of that metabolic dysfunction. And, in that sense, we're kind of chasing the tail of the tiger and research and metabolic health is an opportunity to shift the paradigm and really understand and find a cure for the cause. Not necessarily just a pill for the ill. Unfortunately, the funding that's in this particular area is far, far less than what is needed to move the dial. And I think that from a standpoint of the future of health, both in people and pets, metabolic health, metabolic optimization, the understanding of how we can change the energetics and to live better and longer is so, so important. And that's why it's so critically important that we start finding funding for research in metabolic health and disease.
What is one tip or fact that you would like to share with people on metabolic health day?
Loren Nations DVM, DABVP: The best way to cure cancer is to not get cancer. Unfortunately, in our pet populations, dogs and cats, cancer has been the number one cause of death since the early 2000s, exceeding the human population by over 20 years. Unfortunately, it seems like our pets are a canary in a coal mine. And nutrition is one factor. One aspect that is paramount in turning the tides. I think that the investment in good nutrition in our pets is a low hanging fruit, so to speak, as far as our ability to really help improve metabolic health and longevity. The factors that are important in health and nutrition in animals aren't that dissimilar from people. We need to eat less highly processed foods. We need to eat foods that are more, evolutionarily based. And in dogs and cats, those are primarily more meat based types of diets and even raw has been found to be very, very helpful and it, it can be as little as 20%. The pet food industry has unfortunately done a good job of not really telling the consumer and even veterinarians what exactly is in the bag and what we're really feeding our pets and the high levels of cancer that we see certainly are a result, in part, by some of the foods that we're feeding. So, the outcome of the goal would be to shift to a more wholesome lower carbohydrate diet. Kibble foods are chocked with carbohydrates that are highly processed. And there's a lot of inflammatory compounds that can be found in those foods. Try and find something that's perhaps human grade raw formulations. Do consult with your veterinarian because it's a slippery slope. There's a lot of marketing out there for the dollars of the consumer. But I think that if we're diligent, we can truly improve the quality of our pets lives through nutrition as one of the foundational pieces that will help with metabolic health.
