Dr. Ava Frick: Fur Tissue Mineral Analysis in Cats | E24

[00:00:00] The fur analysis can measure 10,000 to 100,000 smaller increments than what can be determined on a blood test.

[00:00:09] So oftentimes things are missed in blood which will actually show up on the fur tissue mineral analysis test.

[00:00:16] And also the blood has to stay pretty consistent. It doesn't have a wide range because it's about saving you right now.

[00:00:24] And so this, this interstitial fluid is what really looking at when we measure a hair test which is being distributed for all the metabolic processes, everything physiologically that's happening in the body is going through the interstitial fluid. Not about the blood.

[00:00:40] Welcome to The Pet Care Report Podcast by Pet Summits. Here's your natural cat health care host, Dr. Megan Barrett.

[00:00:57] Welcome back everybody. Thanks for tuning in again. We've got a very special guest today, Dr. Eva Frick. She is a pioneering veterinarian with 42 years of expertise in animal chiropractic rehab and nutrition.

[00:01:11] Recognize globally for her contributions to veterinary microcurrent therapy and multiple published works. Dr. Frick has been distinguished as the heart's veterinarian of the year runner up and is an inductee into the animal chiropractic colo fame.

[00:01:25] And most importantly, she is a cat person. So welcome Dr. Frick. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for having me. I always enjoy being able to share some information especially for all my cat friends out there.

[00:01:37] Me too. Okay, so today we're going to be talking about one of your areas of expertise which is hair mineral tissue analysis.

[00:01:49] So for those unfamiliar with this, can you explain what it is and how it is changing the landscape of feeling health assessments? Very good.

[00:01:57] Hair tissue mineral analysis is a simple laboratory test. The reason it's so good for cats is because you really don't have to take them anywhere. The fur can be collected at home.

[00:02:08] And how this works is that when the hair follicle is growing, it's being fed by the interstitial fluid which contains all of the nutrients

[00:02:18] all the hormone precursors, everything that's floating around in the body that's feeding all of the other organs.

[00:02:25] And it's trapped within that hair follicle as the fur comes out. And so now with the laboratory test we're able to exude that information and find out what mineral levels are, what toxic metals might be present.

[00:02:42] And understanding how this works with your research goes back way into the 50s and 60s. So this is nothing new, but it's really gaining a foothold within the veterinary profession because of the fact that many people like myself are starting to utilize it more.

[00:02:57] The CDC uses it for a lot of different testing for chemicals and toxins and things like that. And so there's a lot of substantiation.

[00:03:06] And with the new technology, everything's gotten more modern. It's easier and easier to apply it.

[00:03:13] And the standards have gotten even more consistent and reliable.

[00:03:18] That's very cool. So it's almost like a time capsule for what's going on with your cat's health, right?

[00:03:25] Very good. It is exactly that. And I kind of talk to it like it's talking about it like it's a globe.

[00:03:32] Like you're being able to see what had happened in the past. And this can start with young kittens.

[00:03:39] You don't have to wait until there's something wrong, but it tells you where they've been and that it also gives you a forecast of where they would be or could be if you didn't alter what's happening right now.

[00:03:52] Yeah, I feel like it can be hard to know exactly whether the diet you're feeding is adequate or not.

[00:03:58] Yeah. And you can oftentimes feed it like a really high quality. They could be feeding the cats the raw diet and it's really, really good.

[00:04:05] But maybe they've got a little metabolic situation going on or they've got some of these other nutrient deficiencies.

[00:04:11] And the food can't change the issues that are happening. So even like in a stressed state, the gut shuts down and you might be eating well, but it doesn't get assimilated.

[00:04:24] It's not absorbed and it's not being utilized. And then sometimes we have the chemicals in the toxins that are sitting in the spot where these really good nutrients are supposed to be, but you don't know that.

[00:04:35] So that's where this hair test comes in. And again, with the cats they don't dogs too big. It can be done at home. You know cats hate getting in the in the total going for the car ride most of them.

[00:04:47] And then being in that strange environment and the bark and dogs and all the sounds and it's really scary farm.

[00:04:52] And we know when they go to all of that and you draw blood, there's changes in the blood that happened because of the stress effect of what the ingredients did because the blood is that minute of that day.

[00:05:04] But this is actually more like a doing a forecose I mean for glucose. It's a portrait of what happened over the past 90 days.

[00:05:12] And it's not instantly affected by that second of oh my gosh, I'm afraid and some surge of cortisol and hormones and sugar levels and all that.

[00:05:22] So we really do get a better average of how they are every day in their life and then can start to determine what do we need to do about that?

[00:05:31] So is it just like a tough to hear that you would mean?

[00:05:33] We need about a half a teaspoon or so, but you know like most cats that's not a problem. I usually shave it from because we want to get close to the skin because that's the most recent long hair.

[00:05:43] So like if you had a person or something, you want to cut it back to about an inch to an inch and a half, not more than that because the longer it is the older the information.

[00:05:52] And so it's not now it's still way back there somewhere.

[00:05:56] So about a half a teaspoon of generous volume of that and I guess that I clip from the neck or the tummy mostly because you don't have a ball spot that you have to see all the time and wait for it to grow in.

[00:06:09] So we shave it from there and it goes to the laboratory takes about three to four weeks to get the results.

[00:06:14] And then we get information that you don't get in the blood about the interrelationship of the thyroid, the adrenal glands and the pituitary all three of those there's information.

[00:06:24] There's information about how well that individual body at this point in time can assimilate carbohydrates also how they're doing with proteins.

[00:06:33] We can look at this past and tell do they have enough enzymes in their stomach or do they need some enzymes to help by the different minerals.

[00:06:41] Are they getting enough protein? So is it in the food as in like a cat that's on a kibble diet is probably going to have a low phosphorus because there's not really quality protein in that.

[00:06:51] And if they're eating more of a raw diet, then I would expect that their phosphorus level should be more than normal range because phosphorus is where protein is.

[00:07:01] And so we can tell from that how well their diet is and then you have this black and white where you can measure.

[00:07:08] Okay, we're going to make these changes. Let's see how this individual does so you can see changes than that come about.

[00:07:15] Oh, that's so cool. So is it something where owner would need a veterinarian to order it for them or can they just get it themselves?

[00:07:22] So yes, they would need to have a veterinarian that was trained in this and was doing this kind of testing.

[00:07:30] So there's more and more of us out there and certainly you can find somebody in your area. I do a lot of virtual testing so people can contact me and then I get the sample Senate to the lab and then work them through what we need to do and what some recommendations are.

[00:07:48] The other thing that's really cool for the cats just I can give you some ones that I've worked with there was a main coon cat that had been treating being treated for diabetes and the cat was on like six or eight units.

[00:08:01] And this had been going on for while and he really wasn't responding.

[00:08:05] Sure levels were still all over the place we did the test. We find out he's got some toxic metals his mineral levels are skewed and really the whole bottom line was his liver.

[00:08:17] So once we corrected this program got his liver handled there was no diabetes at all.

[00:08:23] And so we wouldn't have I wasn't the traditional veterinarian that saw him initially and he came to me because of what I do is like he's not getting better and this is going nowhere we want something different and we hear you're different and go yeah, I'm different.

[00:08:38] So here's a week and do so buddy like lived a long time after that without any of those issues.

[00:08:44] Also cats with the urinary problems like the urinary the crystals in that that farm one of the first things the veterinarians want to do is take away their magnesium and the calcium well magnesium has to be available for the calcium to stay in solution.

[00:09:00] And we can find on these tests oftentimes the calcium is higher than the magnesium which really there are a magnesium deficiency and if they get the right magnesium on board now it moves that calcium so you're not having these crystals being formed it's able to move through the kidney and stay in solution and not precipitate out.

[00:09:20] So there's a lot of urinary issues that are well handled by being able to direct this and then again if there's toxic metals we know exactly where they're at if it's the concern what's happening another example is a cat that had some liver problems with the blood test shows liver

[00:09:39] and they're doing liver things but the numbers are still staying high so I started on this guy will find out that the copper level is way up and copper backs up into the liver now the blood test so here's the cat.

[00:09:52] The fur analysis can measure 10,000 to 100,000 smaller increments than what can be determined on the blood test so oftentimes things are missed in blood which will actually show up on the fur tissue mineral analysis test and also the blood has to stay pretty consistent it doesn't have a wide range because it's about saving you right now

[00:10:17] and so this this interstitial fluid is what really looking at when we measure a hair test which is being distributed for all the metabolic processes everything physiological that's happening in the body is going through the interstitial fluid not about the blood

[00:10:33] but really actually seeing more of a true shot of what's happening so once I saw this copper was high which is really an adrenal gland problem but the liver makes many hormone precursors so now we have this copper kind of back enough into the liver once we corrected the adrenal gland situation and was able to correctly reduce the copper without affecting the liver more the liver problems more.

[00:10:59] Wow that's so cool yeah I think a lot of pet owners don't understand too that when we do our routine blood test the levels of certain minerals and other things in the blood it's not necessarily indicative like you're explaining of what's happening all the time in the body it's just what's in the blood and so the body wants to keep the blood at a very specific parameters

[00:11:24] so just because you know your calcium looks good or magnesium or other parameters like that it may not mean that the rest of the body is okay it's just that they're keeping the blood where it needs to be to survive.

[00:11:37] Exactly exactly yes so on a conventional vet might say you know the blood work looks good everything's fine it's actually not it's only telling you a small piece of the picture exactly and that's why this is such a cool different way to test for health issues that maybe subclinical.

[00:11:54] That's where to the pet parent knows something isn't right they go into the vet and you have the tests and they examine and then all that comes back looking like you said looks fine nothing's wrong but you know they know something is not right something is changing just can't put your finger on it because again the blood's this narrow range it's looking at a much smaller volume it's only a window of that minute of that day when the blood blood is coming out of the blood

[00:12:23] that day when the blood was drawn it doesn't give this broader picture like the Fertish Humaneral Analysis testing does yeah it really opens up what's happened and what's going on and what could be and and it gives you this opportunity to really make as a as a doctor better significant nutritional recommendations.

[00:12:48] Is this something that you would recommend for a cat on just an annual checkup yes it's part of what I recommend for their annual visit is that you get doing these so initially when you do the first one which here's the other caveat is that a baby we like to think of these little babies kittens or they're so cute and they smell so good and that they're like perfect but they're not there are they're a picture of what the mother was.

[00:13:12] And the mother's body looks at these fetuses is a weighted dump toxins so oftentimes babies can be born very toxic but you don't see that in them because the body's job is to survive and so it hides things in order to appear to be externally to our eye everything's co-acetic.

[00:13:32] So this test can start with the regular routine early kitten visits and you do it then and oftentimes it takes a few of them like we don't do them closer than three months so you may have one and then in somewhere between three to six months you do another and then you see where you're at and then you may do another one in six months and then after that it becomes part of an annual visit.

[00:13:56] That's very cool. Yeah, very different than the traditional approach but it can become a part of traditional because if we look back also at health veterinary the veterinary profession even before was really veterinarians that thing was about what's wrong with the livestock what's wrong with this animal it was looking at is there a vitamin access is there a vitamin deficiency what minerals test the soil which for us to be testing foods or their environment it was all about that because we're not going to be able to do that.

[00:14:26] So we didn't have all these drugs and the drugs are just changing what is visual but it's way at the end of the problem if we want to find the original why we want to get to the very beginning this is where we have to go and this is where the veterinary profession the health industry was for centuries and centuries it was about correct the nutrition use some herbs something that that animal would go find an eat any way out in the way.

[00:14:56] And then in a while you add some of that in to tweak something and then get that body back into that homeostatic nutritional paradigm which were so terrible at doing because most don't do this and don't understand it and there is a it's a fun puzzle I mean there's some training it's not just like oh here's the test here's what we do there is some learning that goes along with it but it's really fun it's like being a detective and it is so cool when you learn and know what it's telling you.

[00:15:26] And you realize that's why this is happening and that's why this is going on I think about all these cases before I learned this I mean I've been doing this now for almost 20 years.

[00:15:36] But before I had it as a tool and like I didn't know like where went wrong I mean I know where I went wrong now but at the time you're doing this and you thinking okay it should work and then you start collecting up these skeletons in your veterinary closet of these ones that aren't going right where are they not going right.

[00:15:53] But you haven't gotten to the real why.

[00:15:55] Yeah that's cool to learn about the history of it and we're living in an age of highly processed foods and diets that really none of us humans or animals have had to deal with before but that's just the norm for so many animals is eating the highly processed foods

[00:16:13] and you know looking back to see what it used to be so that we're trying to get them back on more ancestral diets and looking at that as a way to correct some of the more common health problems that we're facing nowadays with cats.

[00:16:27] And that's always got to be the starting point but I can say because of history, because of their lifespan, because of environmental toxins and chemicals that usurp many of these minerals and nutrients

[00:16:42] that there isn't any food no matter how good it is that's going to provide that body everything that individual needs or any stage of its life.

[00:16:52] It's just impossible now old days long time ago yeah you could improve your diet and you could correct everything but it's not concentrated enough in the foods for the volume that some of these bodies need so what we're actually doing as doctors is using,

[00:17:08] we're applying these vitamins and minerals at a pharmaceutical level in order to get a change in these bodies to fill in these gaps for these metabolic physiological processes that have to happen.

[00:17:21] And then once you get those gaps filled in now you start back and off, now the doses become less, the items they need become less and you get to that point where okay there's one or two things but other than that with that really good food program

[00:17:37] using the archetype there's very little else you have to do that's very cool so what are some of the types of recommendations that you system examples from this type of tests that you might then suggest correcting.

[00:17:51] Well okay so the first three are going to be that are key is calcium magnesium and zinc because of where they tend to be because of all the different toxic metals and minerals that interact and affect those because of the significance like zinc alone is needed just as an enzyme in over 200 reactions in the body.

[00:18:13] So it's needed for the immune system for the skin for the liver.

[00:18:18] There's not hardly any system in the body that doesn't need zinc and zinc is key to keeping inflammation down so we're in an era of inflammatory conditions and the adrenals are going to need the zinc so there isn't anybody out there that I found that is not zinc.

[00:18:34] And there is not a zinc toxicity you just I mean they would have to be abusively over a long period of time before the zinc became toxic.

[00:18:46] Everybody needs some zinc so zinc is one and then the calcium and magnesium but you have to figure out the pH of the body makes a difference on which forms of the calcium magnesium that would be recommended.

[00:18:58] Also with the magnesium is super low than the calcium we start with just adding the magnesium we don't always use them at that to one one to one ratio as what might be considered the norm so you got to have the test to know but those are the three key wants is going to be calcium magnesium and zinc and if we can start getting those level and more of these cats getting them to where I say level level close to that optimal line where we want them to be.

[00:19:27] Then many of the problems you see the allergies stress factors thyroid thyroid in it a cat that's hyper thyroid needs 250 times more calcium than a youth thyroid cat.

[00:19:41] It is the calcium deficiency that makes their heart beat like it's going to dump out of their chest.

[00:19:47] How Sam alone in any hyper thyroid cat that is what has been missing for too long that is part of why they got that position and the thyroid is so starved for calcium those cats oftentimes will take a human dose of calcium for two or three months before the dose becomes less in order to accommodate the deficiency that is created that hyper thyroid state.

[00:20:16] And that is rarely discussed or applied in veterinary practices they don't know that.

[00:20:23] Yeah I would agree so in your opinion what's the best you know baseline diet for most cats to be on but if you know they don't aren't able to do this test and you just would suggest a general recommendation for a diet what would you say for that again this is a little bit more than just diet because again the diet isn't going to provide everything they need but

[00:20:45] to feed the cats what a cat would eat in the real world so what do they eat birds and mice mostly that in some areas maybe they oh bugs they get bugs they eat different kinds of bugs they like that so to feed them those things that they eat in real world you know a mouse has 750

[00:21:06] 750 milligrams of tarine in it the next closest thing that a cat would eat in the same volume is chicken and it's like 320 the jump between you know so like why do cats why do cats need so much tarine for some reason in the real world they're provided mice which have a lot of tarine in them.

[00:21:29] And so we're back to that if they're allowed to eat what they would in nature which was their upper modus operandi and the wild then we wouldn't have the heart problems in the cats because they were already getting so much more tarine out of that mouse than they were any bird.

[00:21:48] You see so yeah so feeding the raw diet that's like for cats feeding foods that have a lot of moisture in them because pretty much everything the cat eats is pretty moisture concentrated not dried up things so so those are really important to try to get that cat system and that also if they're on that I'm moisture content food obviously you're not going to seem drink it as much water

[00:22:12] they don't want to get worried about that because they've got the moisture in what they're eating but as you feed that you will see less kidney problems less bladder stones less everything that goes wrong with them.

[00:22:25] So are there any other things you would want people to know about this type of testing and how it could compare to the traditional tests that we typically use for cats well one thing would be is that it's not terribly expensive compared to many cats.

[00:22:42] So when you're looking at budgeting I mean this is a go to place in order to find a bigger spectrum of what's going on so cost wise it's less the fact that the samples can be collected at home is good for a cat versus half and to go to some place that's scary and have blood drawn or big machines and all that though those are two things that work really well for a cat cat situation.

[00:23:08] We discussed the differences between the blood and the first test so I won't go into that again but it the value of the test is that it gives us a deeper picture of what's going on metabolically than what the typical tests do.

[00:23:23] So we're able to work that picture a little bit more closely and be more accurate especially for the cats that are so clever about hiding symptoms.

[00:23:34] It's not like a dog which is like in your face and the soon as something's wrong it's more obvious cats hide problems for a while and sometimes by the time you see that it's there.

[00:23:44] It is kind of a big deal aside from the fact that kind of like try to not torment them and take them sooner than what they have to go to the vet because they don't like it so so being able to have this test that picks up these my new situations before the blood test does it allows the test to be able to get a better picture of the test.

[00:24:03] It allows the cat parents to feel like okay let's do this and let's do this now rather than thinking okay I would wait.

[00:24:12] So I think that's pretty key to being able to do the partition mineral analysis testing.

[00:24:18] Okay so I'm sure some of our listeners might be interested in trying it.

[00:24:22] Is there a way that they can contact you to get help with that?

[00:24:26] So they can go to my website it's life extend method dot com and then there's a section on there about this testing is a section for the dog section for cats and a section for horses so they can go to the cat section and look about the info on there and then they can email me from the site and let me know they can order it up and then I send them the info and then we get going on it.

[00:24:49] Okay that's great. You have a final last tip to leave our cat owners with just something that they can go away with and implement right away to help their cats?

[00:25:00] Well I guess the right away thing but they already probably know that now is about changing their diet that's the easiest thing to do right away is in a cat's being cats sometimes that's a challenge is like what some of these that are a little bit older that have already been on kivill oh my gosh they're not going to give that up so then get away from extruded kivill.

[00:25:18] And go to big to kill. There are ways that you can make it be less worse but still allow the cat to have what it thinks it has to have and then trying to sneak some of these other things in, you know like through treats and snacks and other ways to transition them there are some cats that will never be happy not having that.

[00:25:38] Kivill for whatever reason it's just how they are but there are better brands out there Lotus has a baked kivill still in two he says a big kiss like.

[00:25:48] There's I think close to 20 brands now that have some kind of a baked kivill and then there's some of the lightly cooked but again that's a different kind of a texture than what those are so that's going to be their quickest like do something now while they're working on improving everything else about their.

[00:26:07] Their dietary constituencies that's great well thank you so much for your time again and we will have links to dr fricks website down below and for everyone listening don't forget to check dr frick out and go ahead and follow and subscribe and leave reviews if you found the podcast interesting.

[00:26:30] But that's all the time we have for today so thank you so much dr frick for your time i'm sure we'll have lots of cat parents who are interested in following up and learning more about this and hopefully getting their cats tested right away.

[00:26:41] Sure thing yeah it's always fun I appreciate you and I appreciate pets so much for the opportunity okay until next time.

[00:27:00] you