Kris's Turn. Poor Kris

Kris, who has perfected the "poor puppy" look. :)

We've had a poor Jasmine post. Now we have a poor Kris post. Fortunately he has not broken his leg (or anything else), but he did start limping, which alarmed us. Upon taking a closer look, we discovered that his elbow was enlarged. He got to where he would lay around most of the day, not moving much and looking forlorn (a look he has perfected, BTW). Diagnosis? Probable elbow dysplasia.

Kris, 5 month, & Kody, 4 months

I say probable, because even though elbow and especially hip dysplasia are common in large breed dogs, and even though symptoms can be seen in puppies as young as 4 to 10 months, a true diagnosis can't be made until the dog is 24 months old, according to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. X-rays are commonly used to diagnose, also cat scans. Treatment is surgery and anti-inflammatory drugs. Arthritis always sets in, apparently even with surgery.  Rather devastating news for a puppy barely 5 months old.

I still have to get my photos from the other side of the fence
Otherwise I'm mobbed by wiggles and puppy kisses

Heredity and diet are considered key factors (fat dogs are more prone to it). Besides the medical regime, I wondered if there wasn't something else we could do. I presented the question to the Holistic-Goats group.

A response came back quickly, about a Golden Retriever who had been diagnosed with dysplasia. Her owners started giving her a couple tablespoons of unflavored, unsweetened gelatin twice a day, simply mixing it in with her food. The results were reported to be amazing, and the dog continues to be active and pain free 7 years later.

Pet me! Pet me! Pet meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I had run across similar information when I was researching for Dan's arthritis, and in fact mentioned it in my "Honeysuckle For A Good Cause post. In particular, I had found an article by biologist and researcher, Ray Peat.

"For a long time, gelatin's therapeutic effect in arthritis was assumed to result from its use in repairing the cartilage or other connective tissues around joints, simply because those tissues contain so much collagen. (Marketers suggest that eating cartilage or gelatin will build cartilage or other collagenous tissue.) Some of the consumed gelatin does get incorporated into the joint cartilage, but that is a slow process, and the relief of pain and inflammation is likely to be almost immediate, resembling the antiinflammatory effect of cortisol or aspirin."     Ray Peat, Ph.D. "Gelatin, Stress, Longevity"

The particular substance responsible for this is a simple, nonessential amino acid, gylcine.

Traditional diets were richer in glycine than modern diets today: head cheese, fried pig skins, pork ears and tails, chicken feet for soup broth, fish head soup, pork chops, chicken drumsticks, etc. All of these are rich in collagen, which is what makes gelatin what it is. Today's highest sources, (per 100 grams) are gelatin powder (19 grams of glycine), followed by pork skin (11 grams), and pork meat and products (4 grams). Another good source would be homemade bone broth, also called meat stock (how to make it, click here), though I don't have numbers on that one. The highest plant sources are raw spirulena seaweed, sesame and sunflower seed flours, and soy isolates, all 3 grams of glycine per 100 grams of food substance.

Dogs would ordinarily get glycine from eating skin, tendons and cartilage, something they do get from a raw meaty bones diet (which my dogs get as much as our budget allows). As a treatment, the use of gelatin in dogs is known to be effective not only for dysplasia and arthritis, but also canine epilepsy. For more information, read this article, "Gelatin," at The Epi Gaurdian Angels website.

Kody and Kris, enjoying their raw meaty bones

I started Kris on plain Knox gelatin on a Friday, 1 packet twice a day. By the following Tuesday, (5 days later!) he was running, jumping, and playing with Kody like he used to. The swelling in his elbow was gone and felt exactly like the other one. What a blessing! I will say that buying gelatin as Knox brand packets at the grocery store is not an economical way to do it, so I found a bulk source online (but you can check with your local co-op or bulk food store). Much cheaper that way.

Kody & Kris, BFFs

Guess who else this has helped? Yup, Dan. The honeysuckle tea brought great relief, but had to be sipped all day, every day. Within a matter of days after starting the gelatin, he had excellent results. Mixing a heaping half tablespoon in juice or water twice a day is a super easy way for him to get this on the road.

I've also started Kody on it and me too. The long term goal would be to incorporate more glycine rich foods into our diet. Since pork is so high in it, it's got me thinking about our goal to raise pigs. Maybe even learning how to make head cheese (something I never thought I'd do). So. Does anybody have a gelatin based recipe or two they'd like to share?

A happier, tail wagging, Kris

Kris's Turn. Poor Kris © May 2012 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Honeysuckle For A Good Cause

Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) was one of the top three vines on the place when we bought it. With it's sweet fragrance, profuse white and yellow flowers and pretty green foliage it is a favorite of Dan's and is certainly the most welcome. The other two, being poison ivy and kudzu were not welcome at all, though these have since shown some use, (see "Immunities & Milk (Another of My Theories)" and "Kudzu For Hay").

Honeysuckle has value as a nectary plant to attract hummingbirds and beneficial insects. It is also used for erosion control and can make a pretty, sweet smelling privacy screen in the summer. On the down side, it can become a nuisance because it spreads and wraps it's way around everything in sight. In some areas it's considered an invasive species and can indeed strangle out what it grows on. I pull ours out where we don't want it, otherwise I let it be.

It also has medicinal qualities, which I didn't pay much attention to until the arthritis in Dan's knees started bothering him. Arthritis is considered a relatively common degenerative disease, characterized by pain and inflammation in the joints. It is considered manageable but not curable. Commonly it is treated with acetaminophen or NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammitory drugs) like aspirin, ibuprofen, or prescription strength drugs. Trouble is, Dan can't tolerate any of these.

We started researching and discovered the condition is primarily found in industrialized areas. This is an immediate diet connection red flag. Many natural health gurus immediately recommend a strict vegan diet, citing meat and dairy as the culprit (among other things.) While I definitely agree that diet is key, I also always have vague sense of doubt about this advice, based on what I've been learning from Nourishing Traditions (the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats) and biologist Ray Peat.

What we learned, is that there are a number of dietary factors that can precipitate and aggravate arthritis: hormone imbalance including low thyroid, excessive polyunsaturated fats (i.e. most of the vegetable or plant oils, probably because of the free radicals these oils produce when subjected to heat, oxygen, and moisture during processing and cooking, Nourishing Traditions pg. 10), calcium deficiency, an allergy to carrageenen (a common "natural" food additive/thickener derived from seaweed), and certain amino acids (too much tryptophan, or too little glycine). Unfortunately pinpointing which one is the problem is no easy task because people are different and so may have different causes. Except for pain meds, there is no one size fits all solution.

Dan has more trouble with diet than I do, because he is an over the road truck driver. The foods, ingredients, and additives that we want to avoid are all that's out there, particularly the unsaturated oils/fats and carrageenen. Even though I send him home cooked foods and meals, there are a lot of little things that he ingests regularly that could, according to my research, aggravate his arthritis.

What's all this got to do with honeysuckle? While I was thumbing through The Complete Medicinal Herbal by Penelope Ody (I just love Dorling Kindersley books), I ran across the entry for honeysuckle. I read that one of the constituents of honeysuckle is salicylic acid (which is the active ingredient in aspirin), and the stems are sometimes used for inflammation. I made a decoction by simmering 30 grams of chopped stems in 750 mils of filtered water for 15 minutes.

Dan started sipping on this tea and took a jug of it with him the next time he went out on the road. He also started avoiding packaged snack foods and commercial coffee creamers. Within about a week, the swelling and pain in his knees was nearly gone. I know that seems like a rather dramatic result, and I can't say for sure which it was, except that when he stopped drinking the tea, his knees started bothering him again when he stopped drinking the tea. When he resumed that, the pain and swelling diminished just as quickly as before.

While I would make no claims that this would help everyone with arthritis, I will say that we were fortunate to hit on relief for his particular problem. Well worth a try.

Related Post:
Kris's Turn. Poor Kris - using gelatin for dysplasia & arthritis

Honeysuckle For A Good Cause © May 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/