Dr. Marlene Siegel: 6 Easy Steps to Help Your Dog Live a Longer and Healthier Life | E53

[00:00:00] In our allopathic or traditional veterinary training, we're taught to name it, blame it,

[00:00:05] and then come up with a pharmaceutical or a treatment. But we're not taught to identify the

[00:00:10] root cause of the problem. And that's where the difference lies. I actually do what I call

[00:00:16] bioregulatory medicine, which is actually understanding the biology of the body so that

[00:00:22] we can identify what's going wrong. Welcome to the Pet Care Report podcast by Pet Summits.

[00:00:37] Here's your natural dog healthcare host, Alora McKinley.

[00:00:40] G'day pet lovers. Thanks for joining me again for another episode. Joining us today is Dr. Marlene

[00:00:46] Siegel, who after being told by an acquired veterinarian that there was no options to heal

[00:00:51] her horse, she set out to prove them wrong. With nearly 40 years of experience, she founded Pasco

[00:00:58] Veterinary Medical Center, offering the widest range of alternative therapies and detox services.

[00:01:04] An international speaker and entrepreneur, Dr. Siegel also created evoloveraw.com, a raw pet food and

[00:01:12] supplement company, and is launching Spores Family Wellness in 2025. Connect with her at

[00:01:18] drmarlensegel.com. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Siegel.

[00:01:22] Thank you, Alora. It's so nice to be here.

[00:01:24] Congratulations on all your amazing work setting up Pasco Veterinary Medical Center. That sounds just

[00:01:29] absolutely fabulous. For those that may not be familiar with integrative veterinary medicine,

[00:01:36] can you explain what it is and how it combines traditional therapies and alternative therapies

[00:01:40] to enhance a dog's health? Fabulous question. So in our allopathic or traditional veterinary

[00:01:47] training, we're taught to name it, blame it, and then come up with a pharmaceutical or a treatment.

[00:01:52] But we're not taught to identify the root cause of the problem. And that's where the difference lies.

[00:01:59] I actually do what I call bioregulatory medicine, which is actually understanding the biology of the

[00:02:05] body so that we can identify what's going wrong. Is there a deficiency? Is there a toxicity? Usually,

[00:02:13] it's a combination. And by identifying what's either deficient or toxic, then we can actually help to

[00:02:19] repair the biology, the innate intelligence of the body, and then the body goes on to heal.

[00:02:25] What we practice in our allopathic medicine, I call it symptom suppression, because you have a symptom

[00:02:32] and then you squash it. And we do that in our human world as well. I think we're all familiar with

[00:02:37] getting a headache. And what's the first thing we do? We take an aspirin. Well, I don't anymore. But

[00:02:43] there was the day where that's what we thought we should do. And we never questioned why we got the

[00:02:48] headache or diarrhea for people. They go out and they take their Imodium or their symptom suppression

[00:02:54] without ever questioning why is the body actually having diarrhea? That's a major organ of elimination.

[00:03:01] So with the pets, they do talk to us. You know, a lot of people go, well, your pets can't talk to you.

[00:03:04] No, they do. You just have to be able to listen in their language. But the most important part that I

[00:03:10] want to distinguish is helping pet parents to understand that a symptom is like the dash light coming on

[00:03:16] in your car. It's saying there's a problem. And it's okay to treat the symptom. We certainly want

[00:03:22] our patients to be comfortable. But we don't want to stop there. We want to investigate and find out

[00:03:27] what are we doing that's actually causing the body to create the symptom. So then we can actually fix the

[00:03:33] underlying problem. And I know in your practice, you talk about six steps to healing. Could you talk us

[00:03:40] through what those six steps are and how they contribute to shifting a dog from just surviving to truly

[00:03:45] thriving? If people would just follow these six principles and embrace a good portion of it,

[00:03:52] it would literally transform their lives and the lives of their pet. So step number one,

[00:03:57] we have to stop doing the things that are causing the dis-ease. So mind you, I'm saying the word

[00:04:03] dis-ease with a hyphen between the D-I-S and the E-A-S-E because I don't believe there's actually

[00:04:09] disease in the world. I think there is dis-ease, meaning that the body is just not in balance.

[00:04:14] So step number one, when we talk about stopping the pollution or stop doing the things that are

[00:04:19] causing the problem, there are many things that fall under this category. Number one, we have to

[00:04:25] feed these animals a species-appropriate diet. And that's what they were biologically designed to eat.

[00:04:31] Dogs and cats are carnivores. Cats are literally obligate carnivores. They have no dietary requirement

[00:04:38] for carbohydrates. So we're feeding these animals processed foods, which are heated at high temperatures.

[00:04:45] The enzymes that used to be in raw meat that was available to help the animal digest is no longer

[00:04:52] present. If they're feeding a kibble diet, it's devoid of moisture. And then they add all kinds

[00:04:57] of synthetic vitamins and minerals and preservatives. And if it is not an organic diet, then it's going to

[00:05:04] have genetically modified ingredients in it as well. And all of that contributes to that dis-ease that

[00:05:10] we're seeing. We talk about water. I could spend hours talking about water, but water should be

[00:05:15] filtered, highly filtered, structured. And in a perfect world, we add molecular hydrogen to that

[00:05:21] water to give it more of an antioxidant effect. And then we look at the electromagnetic pollution

[00:05:26] that's coming from our cell phones, our computers, our routers, and 5G. I'm sure even where you live,

[00:05:32] but 5G is everywhere now. And it is really devastating to the fourth phase of water,

[00:05:38] which again, we can talk about water, but the fourth phase of water is a type of water that we

[00:05:43] have in our bodies and our pets have in their bodies. And it is actually different than the

[00:05:47] water that comes out of the tap. And we talk about, oh, we're made of 70% water, but it is not the water

[00:05:53] that comes out of the tap. It is a different structure. It's actually a gel. The electromagnetic

[00:05:57] pollution disrupts that and collapses that water, that fourth phase water. And then the body can't

[00:06:04] function very well. And then we looked at the things that you wash your clothing and the xenoestrogens

[00:06:10] or hormone disrupting elements that are in cleaners and laundry soaps and shampoos. We want to make sure

[00:06:17] that's not affecting our pets as well. And the most important is actually the ants that live in our brains,

[00:06:24] our pet parent brains. And those are automatic negative thoughts. Because when we are thinking

[00:06:30] negative thoughts and we're under stress and we're angry and frustrated or bitter and shameful,

[00:06:34] whatever it is, all those negative thoughts create neurotransmitters as a consequence. And our pets

[00:06:42] entrain to those neurotransmitters. They're entraining to those energies. So we're basically giving off

[00:06:49] this signal that says super bad danger out there. You need to stay in a high sympathetic

[00:06:54] tone so that you can run away from the bear or the tiger. They don't know why there's danger out

[00:07:00] there. They just feel it from us. And we need to heal in a parasympathetic state. That's the opposite

[00:07:06] of sympathetic. That's where we rest, repair, digest, detoxify, and reproduce. And it makes sense.

[00:07:13] If you are in eminent danger of being killed, you really don't care if you have to go to the bathroom,

[00:07:19] you're not hungry, and you're not thinking about who you're going to have sex with.

[00:07:22] So the animals are the same way. They're only in a state of fight flight. But when they stay there

[00:07:28] all the time, then their bodies can't rest, repair, and regenerate and detoxify. So that's really

[00:07:33] important to be thinking about that. That's all step number one. And the cool part is that doesn't

[00:07:38] cost anything. That is really becoming conscious and aware of your lifestyle. What are the epigenetic

[00:07:45] factors that you are creating that are affecting you and your pets?

[00:07:50] So number two is making sure that we supply all the essential nutrients that the body needs to have

[00:07:57] in order to function. Now, I think it's really amazing that this earth suit that we have

[00:08:01] is incredibly adept at producing almost everything that we need except for the essential nutrients.

[00:08:09] And it's a small number of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids that the body cannot produce

[00:08:16] on its own. We have to eat them in our diet. Well, I'm sure worldwide people recognize that the food

[00:08:24] that we're eating, even if it's organic, is nutrient depleted because our farming practices have not been

[00:08:30] sustainable. They've not been regenerative. And I live in a food farm. I literally have a forest around

[00:08:36] my house and I grow all my fruits and vegetables. However, even after 15 years of developing healthy

[00:08:42] soil, I don't know what my soil is deficient in. So I just make sure from my personal body that I'm

[00:08:49] taking my essential nutrients, the vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids that my

[00:08:54] body needs. And I don't have to wonder, are they in my food or not? I just make sure I supply them.

[00:08:59] And the same applies for our animals. We just, we can't take the risk of them being deficient because

[00:09:04] that leads to our dis-ease. And then number three is healing the gut. And I think most people are

[00:09:10] familiar with the term leaky gut. Our gut has a lining. I'm going to make it equate to a piece of

[00:09:17] cheesecloth because most people know what cheesecloth is. And when you're making chicken soup and

[00:09:21] you have all your vegetables and your herbs and everything in there, and then it's time to strain it.

[00:09:26] So you're going to take and put the cheesecloth over the pot and you're going to pour the juice out

[00:09:30] so that all you have is the broth and all the materials are going to be caught in the cheesecloth.

[00:09:36] But if somebody punched holes in that cheesecloth, they literally took a pen and just

[00:09:41] and made all these holes in there and ripped pieces of it. Then when you went to strain that

[00:09:46] soup, you're going to have pieces of whatever was in that soup that can fit through that hole

[00:09:52] fall into your soup. And that's what's happening in our body. Our gut lining is designed to separate

[00:09:58] the outside world, meaning the tube that connects your mouth and your anus. All of that is the

[00:10:04] outside world from one end to the other. The inside world is your internal body. So the particles that

[00:10:11] were not supposed to come into the body are supposed to be caught by this intact gut membrane. And then

[00:10:17] the right nutrients that fit through those tight junctions are allowed to come into the body.

[00:10:22] They're transported by the bloodstream to the liver and the liver is going to warehouse the amino acids,

[00:10:27] the fatty acids, the vitamins, minerals, all the things that it needs in order to be able to build

[00:10:32] and repair and to grow. But when we cause damage into that lining, then a lot of things come through

[00:10:40] that aren't supposed to even undigested food comes into the body and the body thinks that's foreign

[00:10:46] material. It doesn't recognize it itself. And so it mounts an inflammatory response. Wow, this is a

[00:10:52] mini crash course. Guys, I hope you're enjoying this. So when the body senses an invader, it mounts

[00:10:58] an inflammatory response. We call it the cytokine storm. And it's all of these mediators that produce

[00:11:05] inflammation to go out and kill the invader. Now that's a wonderful thing. And that's how we were

[00:11:11] designed to function. But we weren't designed to function 24 seven, there should have been a time where

[00:11:17] they took care of the invader. Now there's no more invader. And now the body goes back into its

[00:11:22] parasympathetic state and it repairs. But in our modern world, the invader is coming in nonstop every

[00:11:29] day, every bite of every meal, and stress is all day long. So we really never have a chance to let our

[00:11:36] bodies heal. That means inflammation is happening all the time. And inflammation, tying it all together,

[00:11:44] is the underpinning of all dis-ease. No matter where it came from, ultimately we produce inflammation

[00:11:51] that starts a cascade of effects that leads to dis-ease. That was number three. Number four is

[00:11:57] detoxification. So our bodies and our pets' bodies have six organs of elimination. The kidney, the colon,

[00:12:06] the lungs, the liver, the skin, and the lymphatics. Now don't be blaming your veterinarian because they

[00:12:13] don't remember all of this because we weren't taught to think about the organs of elimination

[00:12:18] as a detoxification mechanism. Sadly, we live in a world that is so toxic. There's over a hundred

[00:12:26] thousand toxins, synthetic toxins that have been developed since World War II. It's 1942. And in that

[00:12:34] time, the numbers are extraordinarily high. It's in our drinking water. It's in the rain. It's in the food

[00:12:41] that we're eating. We just can't get away from it. And our organs of elimination are becoming

[00:12:46] overwhelmed. And they're not able to keep up with all the stuff that is happening. As a consequence,

[00:12:53] it leads to the accumulation of products that shouldn't be in the body. And we start seeing

[00:13:00] dis-ease. So we have specific things that we can do to help those organs of elimination.

[00:13:05] And the number five is the mitochondria. These are little organelles that have become adapted

[00:13:11] with our bodies and they live in our cells. We have trillions of them and they do two major things.

[00:13:18] Most people know that they make the energy that we use to actually function. Like literally,

[00:13:23] that's the energy that we use to drive our metabolism and have the energy to get up and go to work and

[00:13:29] have fun and whatever we want to do. But they also are the communication network between themselves

[00:13:35] and the microbiome. All those organisms that live in and on us, these guys are communicating through

[00:13:43] that structured water that I mentioned in the beginning. They have a communication highway.

[00:13:49] So the mitochondria are sensing things that are happening from the neurochemicals that we're producing and

[00:13:55] the emotions that we're creating. And then they communicate to the microbiome and they're turning

[00:14:01] on and turning off gene expression based on what they're experiencing. So it's really important that

[00:14:08] we become a lot more conscious and aware of what are we thinking? How are we behaving? Are we sleeping?

[00:14:14] Are we eating species appropriate? Are we eating healthy? And what are we doing to help our organs detox?

[00:14:20] And then number six, which I is not in my ebook, but I do like to talk about it are trapped emotions

[00:14:28] and trapped emotions are associated with all dis ease. In Chinese medicine, it's very popular to know

[00:14:36] that if you have a problem in your liver, then the emotion associated with the liver is anger and the

[00:14:44] kidneys and the bladder, the emotion associated with that is fear. So we know that emotions play

[00:14:50] a really big role in how we express dis ease. And the same is true for our pets as well.

[00:14:56] Wow. You've covered so much there.

[00:14:59] I do this every day.

[00:15:01] Yeah, no, hopefully all our listeners are taking notes so they can go back.

[00:15:04] But in terms of maybe just little steps that people can do in their daily routine,

[00:15:10] what are some practical examples of how these steps can be applied?

[00:15:13] So number one is become empowered through education. And I can't stress that enough because

[00:15:19] in the world that we live in with social media and the internet, there is a massive amount of noise and

[00:15:25] everybody has an opinion. I equate it to buttholes, bungee holes. You know, everybody has one,

[00:15:31] some stink worse than others. But when you're trying to siphon through all of this information,

[00:15:36] how do you know what's good? How do you know what's not good? How do you know what's even true?

[00:15:43] Right? It's just it's very hard to navigate that. So step number one is find a good source,

[00:15:49] somebody that you resonate with, it could be me, I would love that. And take some courses with that

[00:15:54] individual and start to really learn. Don't be taking courses from the neighbor or the guy who

[00:16:01] is just an influencer, though they may not really understand good medicine and good biology. You want to

[00:16:08] know somebody understands bioregulatory medicine? How does the body really work? And that's step number

[00:16:14] one. Because otherwise, when somebody says, Oh, my dog was itchy, and I use product XYZ. Well, you know,

[00:16:22] you're going to run out there and buy product XYZ. And maybe there's, you know, estrogen than that

[00:16:27] product, maybe you're actually doing more harm than good. And you're certainly not addressing the root

[00:16:31] cause of the problem. So truly, step number one is get educated. I have a wonderful course that covers

[00:16:39] all six principles, but a really deep dive. And that helps people to know what testing should I have?

[00:16:45] What supplements should I have? What diet should I be feeding? These are all really important things.

[00:16:52] Because if you're going to start somewhere, you want to start with step number one, learning what is

[00:16:58] causing the problems that you're experiencing. And nowadays, we all talk about longevity, right?

[00:17:05] And my motto is, these animals should live into their 30s. So I say 20 and beyond is really realistic.

[00:17:12] My cat transitioned at 23. And he was absolutely healthy to the last week of his life. And he wasn't

[00:17:19] a raw eater until he was about 10 years old, because I didn't know better. So anybody that's out there

[00:17:24] that's starting to feel guilty, like, Oh, I should have known and I've been doing the wrong thing,

[00:17:28] things. No, everything happens in divine timing, you're listening to this podcast at this time in

[00:17:33] your life, because you're ready. So just know everything is divine timing. And there's never a

[00:17:39] wrong time to start. Now is the best time and just embrace it. You know, if I look back at my first 25

[00:17:46] years of veterinary medicine, and the things I didn't do anything bad, I just didn't do them as good as I

[00:17:52] should have, because I didn't know, you know, I, I had to have something push me out of my comfort

[00:17:57] zone and go, Whoa, you need to wake up and step up to the plate. And you know, really understand this.

[00:18:02] I had no idea how much I was missing until I found out how much I was missing. So you got to know more

[00:18:08] to do better. So no better do better. And you only know what you know, you don't know what you don't

[00:18:13] know. Yeah. And then what are some other practical steps that owners can do other than just educate

[00:18:17] themselves? So looking for species appropriate diet, understanding what clean water is. So food and

[00:18:23] water are those first two basic steps. So step number one, understanding what a species appropriate

[00:18:28] diet is, and always it should be grass fed grass finished, because a grass fed label can be accurate

[00:18:37] if that animal that was in that can or bag or whatever wasn't outside for one day. And then if

[00:18:43] they're back on a feedlot, and they're fed genetically modified corn, it still can say grass fed. But grass

[00:18:49] grass finished and organic would mean that they have not been fed any genetically modified foods.

[00:18:56] So that would be step number one, food and water, you've just got to start there. And once you get

[00:19:02] that dialed in, and you know, it's not easy, sometimes you have to do a lot of undoing, helping

[00:19:08] to heal the gut so these animals feel better. So that would be the first two steps to take. And then

[00:19:14] looking at your environment, I know, using toxic cleaners is everything Wi Fi and smart appliances

[00:19:21] in your home really bad, you need to be doing something to mitigate the EMF. If you can't get

[00:19:26] rid of your smart appliances, and you can't turn off your Wi Fi, then we have devices that are non

[00:19:33] electric, but they help to change the incoherent frequencies in the house to coherent frequencies.

[00:19:40] So it's things like that, that's totally in your control. And it's not really expensive. It's just

[00:19:46] making different choices. So when you go to the grocery store, and you're going to buy your laundry

[00:19:50] soap, if it's not a healthy soap, it's full of chemicals and xenoestrogens and, you know, things

[00:19:56] that are going to be harmful to your skin, then you just buy a different product. So you know, you're

[00:20:01] already spending it and you're already spending money on dog food and cat food. Now just changing to

[00:20:05] something that's healthier. If it's raw, it's going to be a little bit more expensive. But for a cat

[00:20:10] and a dog under 50 pounds, no brainer. It's really not a big difference. Compared to what you spend in

[00:20:17] broke care, healthcare is a wonderful option. Absolutely. I wish my dogs were a little bit

[00:20:22] cheaper to feed, but that's okay. And now

[00:20:27] And then the right supplements, you know, making sure it's not about every wonderful product that's

[00:20:33] out there. Curcumin, yes, it's wonderful. It's not in the list of essential nutrients.

[00:20:38] So focus on the ones that are essential because the body has to have those. And again, you know,

[00:20:43] I, I have a product line that I worked on to make sure that it was organic, that there were no

[00:20:50] synthetics in there, that it was actually absorbable by the body. It was in a form that the body would

[00:20:56] recognize and be healthy. And so you have to, if you just go to my website and just use me as the

[00:21:01] benchmark and make sure whatever you're using is as good as that or better, then now you're really

[00:21:08] going somewhere and being very positive, but you just have to have those essential nutrients.

[00:21:13] Gut health, easy. It's just once you stop doing the things that are causing damage,

[00:21:17] and then using some probiotics and prebiotics. I love fermented foods and you can make them at home

[00:21:24] or you can buy them in the store, but they have to be raw and they have to be organic. So sauerkraut

[00:21:29] may be just an easy start. You eat the vegetable part of the sauerkraut and you give the animals the

[00:21:35] juice. Everything should be low and slow. In other words, when you're starting to make changes, do it very

[00:21:40] gradually, a little bit at a time, getting rid of the things that are not healthy and adding in the

[00:21:45] things that are healthy. Yep. I love that idea that, you know, it doesn't have to be all at once,

[00:21:50] but maybe just one thing at a time when we do change stuff in our dog's life. Now, when an owner

[00:21:56] changes stuff, how long should they wait before maybe they see a change? Well, we see owners when

[00:22:02] they make a diet and water change, they see results or changes within a few days. It's really remarkable.

[00:22:10] The body is so resilient and the body has so much desire to be in balance that as soon as you quit

[00:22:17] damaging it, it starts to heal itself. If it has the ability to, you know, I want to go back for a

[00:22:22] second because you said, where do we start? I'm going to give you guys a biohack here that will

[00:22:27] make it easier. When you're listening to podcasts or if you're taking, I have free modules as well,

[00:22:33] whatever you're taking to learn, take a piece of paper and you fold it in half. Now you're going to label

[00:22:38] one side, column A and the other side, column B. Column A are all the things that you're learning

[00:22:45] that you should be doing, but you haven't learned to do them yet. You haven't implemented them into

[00:22:50] your lifestyle or your pets. Column B are all the things that you are learning that you should not

[00:22:56] be doing, but you still are because you haven't learned what to do instead. And nonjudgmental,

[00:23:03] you're just going through and listing everything. Column A, the things you should be doing. Column B,

[00:23:07] the things you should not be doing. And then you go back and you pick one thing from column A and you

[00:23:13] start doing it. Usually they say it takes 21 times or 21 days until something is a habit because you

[00:23:20] want this to be a habit. This is not what you do. This becomes who you are. And so once it becomes

[00:23:26] comfortable and it's just who you are and you don't think about it, then you go back and you pick the next

[00:23:30] thing from the list and you incorporate that. So one thing that you're starting, one thing that you're

[00:23:35] stopping. And before you know it, you've made massive changes in your health and your pet's

[00:23:40] health and your life. I love that. That's such a great simple tip. What are some improvements that

[00:23:45] owners are seeing in their pets when they do make these little changes?

[00:23:48] Well, I can tell you itching resolves. So what we call allergies can diminish and actually go away

[00:23:56] because the symptom suppression part is atopica and steroids and cytopoint. Those are all symptom

[00:24:03] suppression. They're not fixing the problem. And most pet owners will raise their hand right now

[00:24:09] and say, yeah, I tried that and it worked initially and now it's not working anymore. So now you have

[00:24:14] to come up with the bigger pill and the bigger injection and the more toxic product because you

[00:24:18] haven't fixed the root cause of the problem. The body keeps saying, wow, they missed the point.

[00:24:23] Let me go back and get a little louder and a little louder and a little louder. And then the loudest one

[00:24:28] is ultimate degeneration like cancer. We see cancer resolutions when we make our protocol changes. Now

[00:24:37] that is not done with just food and water. There's certainly a lot of other things that have to happen

[00:24:42] in there, but when we fix the biology, the body can go back to healing. Gastrointestinal diseases,

[00:24:48] autoimmune diseases, vomiting, diarrhea. These are the things that people see most commonly,

[00:24:54] even obesity. And we're at the point now where nearly 100% of the animals that we're seeing

[00:25:00] in clinical practice have some form of chronic illness, whether it's vomiting, diarrhea,

[00:25:06] obesity, autoimmune disease, cancer, osteoarthritis. Oh my gosh, that's, we're seeing dogs with their

[00:25:13] osteoarthritis markers. That's arthritis under the age of two. And they're already showing based on

[00:25:18] blood work that they have active osteoarthritis. So we're, we're not talking old age diseases anymore.

[00:25:25] We're seeing cancer in dogs under two years of age and cats. So we have to do something different.

[00:25:32] Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

[00:25:37] That's what we just talked about.

[00:25:39] Is it ever too late, do you think, to make these changes?

[00:25:42] Never too late. Never too late. You just start where you're at and you start making those changes.

[00:25:48] If you are that absolute go-getter kind of person, then maybe take two things off the list

[00:25:53] to start on the A and two things to stop on the B. And sometimes it's the same thing.

[00:25:59] Like just even getting rid of processed foods, processed foods would be on column B,

[00:26:04] we don't want to be feeding processed foods and we want to feed a species appropriate living food.

[00:26:09] So right there, that's something in A and something in B that you've just done by making

[00:26:13] one change.

[00:26:15] Now, what is one tip that you think people should take away from this episode? I know we discussed

[00:26:19] so much, but just one thing.

[00:26:21] You have the power to heal and you have the ability to be the hero of your pet's life and their health

[00:26:29] journey. And we don't have to accept the norm where animals are dying right now, seven years

[00:26:36] shorter than they did 20 years ago. We do not have to accept that. And we don't have to accept

[00:26:42] that the marketing industry, the food industry, the product industry, we don't have to accept

[00:26:49] what they're serving us in the way of toxicity. Once we know better and we can do better,

[00:26:56] we spend our dollars on products that are actually going to help us and our pets live a longer,

[00:27:03] healthier life. It can't get more simple than that, but you have to take action. You have to be

[00:27:09] empowered and you have to take control. Like there's no one out there that's going to do it for you.

[00:27:15] You have to take action. And that means being responsible for your outcomes. No one's going to

[00:27:23] do it for you. And it's not hard. It's a little different because you want to be able to go out to

[00:27:28] eat dinner in a restaurant and not question what's in your food. I can't do that anymore because now

[00:27:34] it is a habit for me that I'm going to question what are they putting on my plate. And if it's

[00:27:39] something that I'm not willing to eat, canola oil or bad seed oils or gluten, I won't eat that.

[00:27:45] I will leave the restaurant if they have nothing that they can feed me. So we all have to make

[00:27:50] choices. It's that line in the sand. How far are you willing to go? But you can't unknow,

[00:27:56] you can't unsee and you can ignore it, but you can't unknow it and you can't unsee it.

[00:28:01] So once you understand what actually makes health, then take your column A, column B and start making

[00:28:08] little baby steps to get there. And you don't want to go back. You know, I see people that have had

[00:28:13] chronic illnesses and we're talking on the people side and they go, now that I've healed myself,

[00:28:18] I don't want to go back to that. That's why I'm so set on what I do. I didn't think I had

[00:28:23] a gluten intolerant. I had a lot of allergies my whole life. But when I cut gluten out,

[00:28:28] my allergies went away. I don't want to go back to having a sneezing rag all day long and being stuffy

[00:28:34] and can't breathe through my nose. I don't want to go back to that. So I would rather live a lifestyle

[00:28:39] where I help my body stay healthy. And I'm almost 70 years old. I have no health challenges

[00:28:45] whatsoever. Thank God. And, but I work at that, you know, I don't do things that are going to be

[00:28:52] causing dis-ease in my body. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And knowledge is power at the end of

[00:28:57] the day. I think that's why we do these podcasts and that's why we are so passionate about teaching

[00:29:03] pet parents because they just don't know. And I think so many people look to their local vet, maybe,

[00:29:08] who says, you know, maybe de-sex at six months and here's the good dry food you should feed.

[00:29:13] And that's what they go off. So providing these platforms is really important.

[00:29:17] That's where knowledge, what you're doing in having people like myself get on and don't

[00:29:23] blame your veterinarian. Veterinarians are the greatest people on this planet. They have the

[00:29:28] kindest, most compassionate hearts and they mean well, but they weren't taught that way.

[00:29:33] So until they have some kind of a life altering experience like I had that said, no, no,

[00:29:40] you have to learn better so you can do better. And then once I started opening my eyes and I

[00:29:45] started becoming conscious, I couldn't go back. I couldn't, I cannot consciously think of a pet

[00:29:51] parent and say, oh, it's okay to feed your pet a kibble diet. I can't do that. Now there's a rare

[00:29:57] person who will get angry with me and leave my practice and leave me a one-star review.

[00:30:01] God bless them. They're entitled to that. They're not ready. They're not ready to make changes.

[00:30:06] And we're good with that. I can't help everybody in the world. I am looking for those pet parents that

[00:30:13] are awakening and they're realizing that maybe some of the things that they're doing are creating

[00:30:19] the problems for their pets and they want to do better. It's their sole pet and they want to do

[00:30:24] the most positive things that they can for that animal. Those are the people that I'm trying to reach.

[00:30:29] Thank you so much, Dr. Siegel, for your time today. You've taught us so much.

[00:30:33] Now, if our listeners want to find more about you and maybe some of your courses that you do,

[00:30:38] where can they find that information? Everything is at drmarlenesegel.com.

[00:30:43] And I have a free PDF at holistichealingvet.com or at the drmarlenesegel.com site. It's available

[00:30:51] in both places. And they can just download that for free. That's the six steps to healing.

[00:30:55] It's not super deep dive, but it's a lot. You could get through that. You're going to make

[00:31:00] massive changes. And then I would love to connect with more and more people so that

[00:31:04] we become the tribe. And in the support as a community, we can have a lot more say and a lot

[00:31:11] more power and be supported. So I love that. Lovely. Thank you. And I'll put some links down

[00:31:17] in the show notes so our listeners can find that very easily. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to

[00:31:22] have you on today. It was my honor. Thank you so much. And for our listeners, don't forget to

[00:31:27] subscribe, leave a review. If you've got a question, go ahead and ask it. And I'll see

[00:31:31] you again for another episode next time.