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Prior to Riley's diagnosis, the only experience I ever had with diabetes was a few years ago when my brother was diagnosed. He changed his diet and started exercising, and tested his glucose levels every day. He became well regulated within a few weeks without using insulin. In fact, his doctor never even put insulin on the table as a possibility.
Our vet said that diabetic dogs always have to use insulin, a statement that has always nagged at the back of my naturally skeptical brain. If people can regulate their glucose levels without using exogenous insulin, why not dogs too? Is it because Big Pharma (aka Eli Lilly, Novolin, et al) says so?
In searching around for a variety of diets for Riley, I came across this fascinating web page, bookmarked it, but never read it until last night (sure, it's a little "sales-y", but what isn't on the net these days?):
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/dia...d-eat-fat.html
Is it possible that removing all of the fat from Riley's diet is doing more harm than good?
After reading about vanadium, I wanted to see independent confirmation of its effectiveness, and found this article:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/4/1277.full
It's interesting that all of these studies for humans are first tested on dogs, and if they're effective, they move on to human trials. My question is, if some of these natural remedies have been effective in canine laboratory studies, why aren't we taking them seriously? Frankie thinks aloe vera might be the reason her dog's blood glucose level dropped (see this thread: http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/show...highlight=aloe). The American Diabetes Association study linked above lists aloe vera as one of the botanicals with potential.
Most veterinarians are just like most human doctors, that is, trained in the traditional methods and to rely on manufactured drugs to cure disease. Many of you have had to educate your vets about Cushings and diabetes. If they can't keep abreast of developments in these two diseases, it is unrealistic to expect our traditionally trained vets to say, "eat this plant and call me in the morning."
Perhaps it's time we take a serious look at results in human clinical trials and take advantage of the well-worn phrase, "Just because it works in dogs doesn't mean it will work in humans." Precisely! If it works in dogs, is it time that we use these animal studies to our pet's advantage and figure out ways to lower blood glucose with diet and herbs and botanicals, instead of relying solely on injected insulin?
Our vet said that diabetic dogs always have to use insulin, a statement that has always nagged at the back of my naturally skeptical brain. If people can regulate their glucose levels without using exogenous insulin, why not dogs too? Is it because Big Pharma (aka Eli Lilly, Novolin, et al) says so?
In searching around for a variety of diets for Riley, I came across this fascinating web page, bookmarked it, but never read it until last night (sure, it's a little "sales-y", but what isn't on the net these days?):
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/dia...d-eat-fat.html
Is it possible that removing all of the fat from Riley's diet is doing more harm than good?
After reading about vanadium, I wanted to see independent confirmation of its effectiveness, and found this article:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/4/1277.full
It's interesting that all of these studies for humans are first tested on dogs, and if they're effective, they move on to human trials. My question is, if some of these natural remedies have been effective in canine laboratory studies, why aren't we taking them seriously? Frankie thinks aloe vera might be the reason her dog's blood glucose level dropped (see this thread: http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/show...highlight=aloe). The American Diabetes Association study linked above lists aloe vera as one of the botanicals with potential.
Most veterinarians are just like most human doctors, that is, trained in the traditional methods and to rely on manufactured drugs to cure disease. Many of you have had to educate your vets about Cushings and diabetes. If they can't keep abreast of developments in these two diseases, it is unrealistic to expect our traditionally trained vets to say, "eat this plant and call me in the morning."
Perhaps it's time we take a serious look at results in human clinical trials and take advantage of the well-worn phrase, "Just because it works in dogs doesn't mean it will work in humans." Precisely! If it works in dogs, is it time that we use these animal studies to our pet's advantage and figure out ways to lower blood glucose with diet and herbs and botanicals, instead of relying solely on injected insulin?
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