August 2003: In This Issue

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
-The Grapes of Wrath
Are grapes poisonous to Pets?

RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Kool Diet for Hot Doggies

DR. BASKO'S EDITORIAL
The Choices We Make as Consumers can Perpetuate Evil,
or the Healing of the Planet

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Heart Health: Be Proactive or Wait Till Something Happens
· Part I: Prevention & What You Can Do
· Part II: Diagnosis & Symptoms
· Part III: Herbs & Nutraceuticals Can Help

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The Grapes of Wrath? Controversy exists as to whether grapes are Poisonous to Pets / The Experts Don't Agree

Pet owners have been scared to death by reports that feeding grapes to their dogs can cause death. I have never seen any of my clients who feed grapes to their pets have any problems.

My investigations in this matter found the following:
· One dog died after eating 4 lbs of raisins
· One cat ate 1 cup of organically grown raisins and could not be saved by their vet / death due to acute renal failure = kidney damage and shut down.
· One dog stole and ate a whole "bunch" of grapes off the table and died the next day of renal failure

Most other vets proclaim that they have never seen dogs nor cats with any problems related to eating grapes or raisins, even those who live in the wine country where grapes are prevalent.

Most vets have never seen any problems in animals that only ate a few grapes or raisins.

Of the dogs and cats that were poisoned, most responded very well to fluid therapy and were fine after treatment.

No one seems to know why, except 4lbs for a dog or 1 cup of raisins is excessive for a cat.

The causative agents in my humble opinion could be the following:

· Molds and fungi (raisins are sitting out in the sun drying and can easily be infected with whatever is in the air)

· Grapes can ferment inside a cat or dogs digestive system and produce some toxic molecules.

· Residues from what they spray on the grapes (anti-fungicides could be toxic when concentrated as in raisins that are dried out.

· When grapes are shipped they may be sprayed with chemicals to keep them from getting moldy before they arrive at grocery stores.

So What To Do?

· Stop feeding your pets grapes and raisins until more research is performed to identify the reasons animals are getting sick
· Wash grapes well, dry them and keep them covered with
A clean cheese cloth or cotton dish towel
· Only give a few grapes a day
· Avoid giving grapes or raisins to older dogs and cats with kidney problems
· Feed Kiwi fruits (peeled) (they taste kind of like grapes)
And have high amounts of antioxidants.

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DR, BASKO'S EDITORIAL:
The Choices We Make as Consumers can Perpetuate Evil, or the Healing of the Planet

Sometimes, for some of us, life seems to be a series of struggles and challenges that continue, progress, and take over & overwhelm us.

You may be having "survival issues" with money. For example, you may be trying to buy your first house while the mortgage rates are still low, but you also have to pay the rent, feed your family, put gas in the truck, and your old dog is coughing and scratching for weeks, and you have a root canal scheduled tomorrow that will cost you $1,500. You consider using your over-burdened, over-extended credit card…..….you are faced with the dilemma, of making a choice. Your root canal, or Fido's vet bill.

On the global scale of life, making environmentally friendly, proactive choices of the pet products, pet foods, cosmetics, and our own food can save the world. Really.

Do we buy from a burger fast food joint that supports (directly or indirectly) the destruction of rainforests to raise more cattle, or do we support family farms that are going back to nature, farming without chemicals, damage to the environment, and are humanely caring for their food producing animals.

Do we buy our food from corporations that support chemical and genetically modified crops whose agricultural methods are contributing to 40% of the pollution of all our Americas rivers and streams? Or the small farmer?

Do we continue buying products to eat from companies that are inhumanely caring for the farm animals in factory farm confined pens awaiting slaughter to serve our dinner plates?

We are letting advertising choose for us?

"Soylent Green" is here in our pet's food. (You gotta see this movie with Charleston Heston about recycling "human" food)
Animal food companies are recycling wastes from our American culture, back into food for our pets. With fancy packaging, "natural" looking bits of chemicalized food enhanced with flavoring agents, wonderful commercials on TV, supported by veterinarians who do not investigate and do their homework on nutrition. Most people feed their pets these foods. They eventually come down with some serious disease years later…..cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, skin problems, hepatitis and allergies.
And you ask "Why and How did my pet become sick?" All the "experts" just shrug and say nothing.

As a consumer you have the power to change society through the choosing how you spend your money.

You can buy a cheap silk shirt at a chain "Box Store" that imports from Asian sweat shops where women and children are working for 25 cents an hour, or buy a more expensive silk blouse from a local artisan in your community. You make a difference with that dollar.

The choices you make can support the Healing of our Planet, or it can support the Evil forces.

By "Evil" I mean, those forces In our society, locally and globally that lack respect for the Gifts of God, our planet and it's resources, including all the wonderful & beautiful animals, and the natural spaces and places. Evil will burn, destroy, pollute, and desecrate natural habitats for personal or corporate profit.

By "Evil" I mean all those businesses that benefit from the illness of people and pets on purpose. The companies that knowingly put dangerous chemicals, carcinogens, and hormones and recycled agricultural waste into the animal feeds they sell to pet owners, breeders, farmers, and humans! Companies that sell such toxic products to us have to experiment on poor animals inhumanely to obtain government approval for fulfilling their requirements.

(I play the Music piece: "Zombie" by the Cranberries……on the Radio)……and continue….for the next part below.

"All of us….who have let ourselves be "brainwashed"
by TV, news, news papers, commercials, and advertising….
And the Marketing Forces …The Matrix ( See the Movie.)
All of us….are part of the problem instead of the part of the solution."

The Forces which control the sales of chemicals, drugs, animal feed, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, munitions & war supplies, herbicides, and 80% of our Agriculture (the food we eat) is motivated by money and, is perpetuated by advertising that is akin to "mind control"
It is easy to buy into it to some degree.

Ask your self the next time you buy a food item, a household cleaner, flea & tick product, shampoo, or pet food, or anything you buy:

"Why am I buying this company's product?"

" What do they represent?"

"What is their contribution?"

"What besides making billions of dollars, do they contribute to the well being of this planet, its people, animals, plants, and all the creatures of the sea?"

Medicine (including Veterinary Medicine) is getting more and more expensive. You must get yourself educated outside the current "box" of thinking.

The current medical paradigm of health management has failed us, and degenerative diseases including mental health and drug abuse are increasing faster than we can keep up with them. If we would have spent the trillions of dollars we spent on new drugs, on prevention, food, diet, exercise, supplements, and lifestyle changes, we wouldn't need a "Prescription Drug Bill" for the elderly to buy more expensive drugs.
If our current medical establishment was truly helping to forward health, we wouldn't be need to save money now for our future care in rest homes.

If pet owners would start looking "outside of the box" of drugs, surgery and chemicals as "the only way", you would have healthier pets, that lived longer. You would not need to spend so much money on veterinary bills (I don't mean to say that, surgery is not necessary, or we shouldn't use drugs, but these are your only choices).

On my radio show, and in this newsletter, I will let you know what other choices you have in the care of your pets, not just from my point of view but from the experience of hundreds of wholistically orientated veterinarians that I interact with on a daily basis through the internet and in seminars and lectures.

It is your responsibility to make educated choices in caring for your pets in a way that supports good health, supports humane treatment of all animals, and does not cause harm to our rainforests, oceans, and mountains.

Start with preparing "wholesome" and "fresh" foods. Just add, Love to the "stew" and you will make the best and healthiest food that money can buy. Buy locally, and "organic" as much as you can, or from companies with a good reputation for human and environmental health.

Find a veterinarian that can guide you on this path. One that has not been totally brainwashed by the marketing schemes and gimmicks of most pet food and drug companies.

The Choices you make can change the world, and the health of your pet.

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COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Special 3 part Series On Heart Disease will begin in my next newsletters.

Heart Health: Be Proactive or Wait Till Something Happens
· Part I: Prevention & What you can do
· Part II: Diagnosis & Symptoms
· Part III: How Herbs & Nutraceuticals can Help

America's number one killer, heart disease, has been the focus of much interest and energy by physicians, the media, and the general public. More than 40% of all human deaths are due to cardiovascular disease from high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Most of the funding of research money has been directed towards the treatment of heart disease and reducing cholesterol with drugs.
In comparison, very little money has been dedicated to preventing it, and maintaining heart health, especially in animals.

Most if not all of the emphasis has been on the use of pharmaceuticals in the treatment of heart disease. Because "business is business" more money can be made by pharmaceutical companies selling patented drugs, than growing and extracting active ingredients from plant sources. It is much easier to create a synthetic drug based upon a plants active ingredient than to grow, harvest and extract active ingredients, which may differ in the concentration from location to location, season to season, and year to year.

But now, the tide is changing. Fueled by public awareness and the limitations of drug therapy with its side effects and escalating costs, the demand for non-drug alternatives is increasing. The last 10 years of research has demonstrated that nutraceuticals and botanicals known as "cardio-protectant agents" can and will prevent some diseases such as cardiomyopathy, and assist in the treatment of most other cardiovascular diseases. Most of these compounds are vitamins, antioxidants, amino acids, minerals, essential fatty acids, and botanicals.

The advantages of using botanical cardio protective and cardio tonic agents are:
1.) improved heart function,
2.) reduction in oxidative stress to the heart muscle
3.) safety with minimal or no side-effects
4.) increased longevity (pets live longer)
5.) can be used with most standard drug treatment protocols.

In many cases, drug dosages can be reduced after a few weeks or months of supplementation depending upon the condition.

The veterinarian and animal owner have the opportunity to do more for an ailing pet than just treat the symptoms of heart disease with drug intervention. "Feeding" the heart (Nutritional Functional Intervention) by supplementing the diet with the appropriate substances can create long-term beneficial physiological effects that will increase the longevity of the patient. Being aware of the early symptoms can help delay the consequences of serious heart disease. Being proactive at home with exercise programs, diet therapy and supplementation can add years to your pets life.

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RECIPE OF THE MONTH - Kool Diet for Hot Doggies

During the summer many dogs suffer from skin problems, because the diet they are eating is causing their metabolism to "burn hot". Energetically speaking food has a physiologic effect that can make your cooler or hotter in the summer depending upon what you feed them.

This concept has been extrapolated from Traditional East Asian Medicine where food is considered more deeply than just figuring the amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins.

The process of making commercial dry food entails the overcooking of food with heat, pressure, and dehydration changing the energetic quality to more "Yang". Dry dog foods will in general, make dogs feel warmer than foods containing water, ie. freshly boiled or raw foods.

Below is a List of the Energetic Quality of Common Foods:

Cooling Foods:
Watermelon Pork, fish, egg, tofu
Gobo Wheat
Squash Cauliflower
Celery Red Hibiscus Flower Teas
Mung bean sprouts Broccoli
Millet Bok choy
Pearl barley Bamboo shoots
Tomato Beets
Strawberry Alfalfa sprouts
Citrus Asparagus
Banana Seaweed
Pumpkin Corn
Eggplant Daikon
Cantaloupe Cucumbers
Apple

Warming Foods (to be avoided in hot weather):

Beef
Chicken
Lamb
Dry dog food
Ginger
Garlic
Basil
Green beans
Kale
Grapes
Mango
Lychee
Oats
Molasses
Vinegar
Soybean oil
Coconut milk
Red wine
Whiskey (for the alcoholic dog)

Quick Kooling Snacks
On a hot day, a little snack of peeled cucumber, watermelon, piece of banana or strawberry can make your dog feel much better…or any of the foods above that are listed under "Cooling Foods".

Kool Diet for Hot Doggies

2 cups of ground pork
2 cups of squash (cubed)
2 cups of egg plant (peeled & cubed)
1 cup broccoli
2 scrambled (raw) eggs
½ cup of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of corn or vegetable oil (not soybean oil)

In a large bowl, mix the scrambled eggs with the squash, eggplant, broccoli & tomato sauce

In a casserole dish, line the bottom of the casserole dish with vegetable oil, and ½ of the ground pork

Fill the rest of the dish with the squash mixture.

Top off this with the rest of the ground pork

Cover and cook in the oven for 45 min. at 450 degrees.
Serve at room temperature.
Store the rest in the refrigerator

Feed ½ cup per 20 lbs twice daily.

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©2003 Ihor Basko, DVM

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