Will Falconer 0:01
A warm welcome to you. This is Dr. Will Falconer, a vet of 40 years and a homeopathic one for most of that time, and today's topic on the Vital Animal Podcast is fear. Fear is a crippling emotion, useful if there's a bear chasing you, but not so much the rest of the time. Many of us carry fear around in this age of supposed pandemic, but fear neither serves you nor your animals. Let's jump in. This episode is prompted by some earnest Vital Animal Alpha students who are studying acute veterinary homeopathy with me. At a recent live meeting—we have them every month—several questions came in that had a common theme. And if I had to sum it up, it would be, "I'm scared for my animal's well-being." Now, a natural emotion is to be concerned with your animal's well-being, right? But scared? Let's look at the difference.

Will Falconer 1:09
Concern means you're going to be choosy about what you allow into or on your animal. Wise people have concerns around these things. For instance, you might want to go to your vet for a diagnosis only if symptoms of illness start to show. But when offered treatment, you won't necessarily rush to take what a conventional veterinarian offers you. If you have a well-trained homeopathic vet, even one working from a distance by telephone, that might be your first line of treatment. Parenthetically, I'd hope so. Listen to Episode Five to learn why.

Will Falconer 1:49
Concern means you're careful about food choices, medicine choices, and pest control choices. Not to mention vaccines. Scared translates to doing lots and lots of things for them. "Well, we're already on nosodes for Parvo and Distemper, but can I add a rabies nosode too? Will that work?" And seeking nosodes for a fallen titer in an adult dog who earlier had a positive titer to Distemper.

Or in general, misunderstanding this thing called DOI. If you haven't run into that, that stands for duration of immunity. Does a fallen titer really mean no immunity? If that's of interest, see the show notes for this episode, where we'll have an important article linked called "The Fallacy of Titer Tests." And heartworm fears. Someone said, "You know, I've got your e-book, I just haven't had the time to read it yet. Can you summarize it for me?" And worms in general might have you thinking, "Maybe I need a monthly dewormer, just to be sure. They're talking about this as a pretty good thing. It's just a chewable, it tastes good. It knocks out all these worms." And worst case, scared translates to annual vaccinations, because Dr. White Coat says that's the way he rolls.

It could be in raw food where scared comes out. One is, "I've heard such good things about raw food, but the germs, they scare me. What about this salmonella? What about this E. coli? I hear about recalls all the time on these little small companies who are selling raw food." Another is, "What if I do it wrong? How do I make sure every meal is balanced?" Well, if you've had fear about these things, two episodes will help you. Episode Six on the Vital Animal Podcast with Kasie Maxwell, and Episode Nine with Thomas Sandberg. Both will help you understand these things and put these fears where they belong.

Will Falconer 4:09
So, let's look at a central theme around this that I think is worth keeping in the back of your mind. That theme is germs versus the terrain. It goes back to age-old stuff. Pasteur was called the father of the germ theory. He researched rabies virus and all sorts of things, long before we knew about bacteria and viruses, and he decided that germs were the reason for disease. And his contemporary at the time was Beauchamp, who said, "No, I don't think it's the germ. I think it's the terrain." Meaning, how healthy is the body that's exposed to the germs? As one of my wise Alpha students recently said, "Do the flies cause the garbage?" We can look at that as funny. But it's a logical question if you buy the germ theory. There's all these flies and there's garbage here. So, maybe the flies caused it.

We see this all the time in veterinary medicine. Ears that are inflamed, usually from allergies, turn out to attract all sorts of germs, and common ones are yeast, like candida, and, you know, Pseudomonas, other things, grow in those ears. And a vet who doesn't know better sticks a swab in, gets some of that goop out, looks at it under a microscope or puts it on a culture plate and says, "Aha, here's the germ. That's why your dog's ears are such a mess," not realizing that the ears are just a home, the terrain is screwed up by allergies, usually underlying, so these bacteria and yeast move in and set up housekeeping in that diseased tissue. And as Pasteur died, interestingly, he went back on his germ theory, and he said, "You know, I'm afraid Beauchamp was right."

Will Falconer 6:13
So, a human example, we can look at this germs versus the terrain. Terrain just means how resistant are you, how healthy is your body, versus the germ, which is the bad guy at the door. So, go to a party, somebody's house, hosting a party, and there's a woman there who's got a horrible cold, it probably just struck her that afternoon, and now you're in the evening and she hasn't gone home to take care of it yet. So, she's sneezing. And she's blowing her nose, and her eyes are kind of red. And let's say there's 50 people at this party. And we know viruses are airborne, right? That's common. We've known that for decades, if not hundreds of years. Why doesn't every one of those 50 people get this woman's cold? They don't, right? You just know this from common sense. Well, they don't because there are many in that room who are healthy. They've been working on their health, they've been eating a good diet, they've, you know, maybe used some health-stimulating, immune-stimulating herbs and such. They're just taking care of themselves. So, they're on one end of the spectrum, and probably the majority of people won't get this cold. On the other end of the spectrum are the people who eat junk food regularly, and maybe get every flu shot that's recommended to them, and maybe smoke and drink alcohol on a regular basis. Their immune systems are down. And they are, their terrain is kind of an open door to the germs. They're going to get the cold, right? Common sense would say that.

Will Falconer 7:58
Well, if you buy into the germ theory, one of the outcomes of that is the overuse of antibiotics, which ruins immune systems. We now know that 80 or 90% of immune systems reside in the gut. True in our animals, true in ourselves. And that gut health depends on a healthy microbial population, now known to have more cells there than our own cells by about 10-to-1. So, the overuse of antibiotics ruins those immune systems, and they're commonly prescribed, right? You hear every day about unnecessarily prescribed antibiotics. Another side effect of that is that we've got ever-greater populations of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, as we call them.

And another place that germ fear comes up is these hyper-sanitized environments, especially now where we've got germ killers for the hands everywhere. And we've got kids that aren't allowed to play in the dirt, who, by the way, get more asthma and more allergies by not having their immune systems challenged by some germs. Good studies out there showing that the people who grew up on farms and get out around the cows and the horses and in the barns at an early age have way less asthma, way less allergies.

And fear has been used as a tool to get you to do things. "Well, there's no cure for COVID-19, you know, so how fast can we rush that vaccine to market? Where can I go to get it? Mandatory vaccines? Oh, heck yes. If the alternative is death, and you want to track me, oh, no problem, if that helps control this dreadful disease from spreading." You give away all your freedoms when you think along these lines of fear. And another is tracking cases, lately, this is all in the news, versus the reality of mortality rates, which haven't risen a skosh since these case rates have supposedly increased. And we've got so many false positive COVID tests. Are they really true cases? The tests are known to be problematic. But the government bodies are accepting a positive test to mean they have the right to lock down populations further, and tell everyone, "Wear your masks now, be a good citizen."

Will Falconer 10:38
Let's go back to the animals. How about a heartworm heart in a jar? You've seen these? We used to have one in my practice when I was in conventional medicine my first seven years. A heart that's dissected from a dead dog, laid open with a scalpel, sitting in a jar big enough to hold it that's filled with formalin, formaldehyde. And in the opening of this heart that's been cut with a scalpel, you see this wad of heartworm. Now, talk about a motivator to get you to buy a heartworm poison. That's what these preventatives are, really, they're pesticides. I mean, who can argue with that? Well, I can. I've researched this and found those jars to often originate in Mexico, with some down-on-his-luck street dog who either died of natural causes or maybe died of heartworm. And they got the heart dissected, and sent it north to, guess who, the drug companies. The drug companies would have these in stock and the drug rep will bring them to the vet clinic and say, "Here, this oughta sell some more of our stuff." So, that heart didn't come from your neighborhood, or your state, or your province. It didn't even likely come from your country. And yet, what a fear inducer, right? Sign me up.

Rabies is a low-hanging fruit for the fear monger vets among us. What they, and probably you, are missing is this, again, DOI, duration of immunity, long-lived duration of immunity. Whether you've had a vaccine as a youngster or had a couple, the odds are, say the immunologists in veterinary medicine, that immunity lasts for years, if not for life. They're also missing this origin of the supposed "law." I always put the "law" word in quotes for rabies, because it's what's called colorable law. Look that one up if you're curious about it. Turns out these "laws," many of them are rubber-stamped from other laws, and the origins, if you dig a bit with the Freedom of Information Act, the origins in some places were, they were made in the midst of zero epidemic of rabies, not even any cases going on in their county.

Will Falconer 13:16
But how many are able to ignore these phony "laws"? That's also missed, as the rush to get yet another rabies vaccine, most times unnecessary, because your animal was previously vaccinated. There are many of my students who've been able to get around these ignorant laws and raise healthy animals. And finally, current vaccines. "We've got to have current vaccines," says Dr. WhiteCoat. And groomers follow the same line, and kennel owners and, whoops, apartment managers? Do any of these know anything about DOI? And are they going to care when your animal gets chronically ill after unnecessary shots? The fear is, how can I get these services without doing this current vaccines dance?

And here's probably the linchpin, before we wrap up with some good news. Fear is infectious, in and of itself. Do you have any doubt that your animals pick up on your emotions? You can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their bodily posture. And if fear is your M.O. They'll join you in keeping a high cortisol level. That's our stress hormone, all of us mammals have that. And they'll be staying, like you, in some version of low-level fight-or-flight. Again, useful if a bear is chasing you, but really damaging if you're staying in that state. I'll have a link in the show notes to a Swedish study that showed parallel high cortisol levels in both owners and pets. Well, guess what high cortisol does? It increases your and their susceptibility to disease. Chronic fear means chronically elevated cortisol, and that means a decrease in your immune system. We've known this for decades, if not 100 years. The same thing happens if you get injected with corticosteroids, or you have your animal on prednisone orally. Did you know that? It's true.

Will Falconer 15:33
Well, here's the cure. Let's leave you with some positive work. Knowledge and empowerment is the fix, is the cure for fear. So, endeavor to learn more. In an ongoing, lifelong ...be a lifelong student. Be curious. Strive to see through the fog of fear, and latch on to some writers of truth, people you can trust. And generally, to help you choose those voices, you can follow the money. So, if a vet stands to make an easier profit, telling you that he thinks a vaccine is wiser than a titer test, and gives you some b.s. about, "Well, those can change all the time," or, "They'll cost you several hundred dollars, and this vaccine will only cost you 50." You want to see through that, and you want to know that it's a whole lot easier just to pull up a milliliter of a combo-wombo vaccine and plunge it into your animal's skin and make $50, than it is to learn about titers and do them affordably and interpret them for you. And if a food company spokesman stands to make millions by telling you how much science goes into his food, you're ending up feeling like, "There's no way I could make it that good. Look at that list of ingredients. It's as long as my arm." Again, that's a fear reaction, that's not going to serve you, and you want to follow the money on that. Or a vet with ties to the food industry who tells you the grain-free and boutique foods are what caused all that cardiomyopathy that made the news about six or nine months ago?

Will Falconer 17:53
As you learn, and when your b.s. detector gets more tuned, ask questions. It's always a good way to bring things to light without being necessarily threatening. Questions like, "You've heard of DOI, right? Duration of immunity?" Or, "Why don't we humans get vaccinated annually, or triennially, for smallpox, or measles, mumps and rubella?" Or, "When a vaccine is rushed to market, and the makers are held free of responsibility for any harm they cause, why, again, would I want to roll up my sleeve and get that vaccine?" Or, "Why all the news about more cases of COVID-19 when the fatality rate remains very, very low?" I saw data recently showing that's true across all age brackets. Or, "What is the basis of a positive COVID-19 test? Has anyone actually isolated this virus yet?" Not to my knowledge, by the way. And I'm hearing from credible sources that 40 cycles of this PCR test where they're amping up the amount of RNA they're testing for is ridiculously high, and results in a lot of false positive tests. So, how are we even going to believe your rising case statistics when there's so many false positives coming from these lousy tests?

Will Falconer 19:28
So, the good news is, fear withers in the face of inquiry and truth. And I'm most inspired by those who've learned something from me and who write me and tell me of their success stories. In those, I hear confidence instead of fear. So, let's wrap up with a couple that were recently sent in. This is from Denise. "Just wanted you to know I did the vaccine course when we got a puppy last January. Followed the nosode plan and gave her your immune-boosting product." She's talking about Canine Immune Complete, I believe. We'll have that in the show notes. "This summer when she was just about one year old, we were at my grandson's birthday party. Someone brought their dog that turned out a few days later to have had Parvo. Our Sadie was not affected at all, and it was business as usual for her. Thank you." So, as a special note, this dog had zero Parvo vaccines and resisted just fine. So, there we go back to the germ versus the terrain, right? This dog's terrain was really strong. And would you like to know more about how Parvo-vaccinated pups have a greater mortality rate when they do get Parvo? Listen to Dr. Cooney's episode, number three. By the way, that happens all the time. We have known for decades about this thing called vaccine failure with the Parvo vaccines, can be up to 40%.

Will Falconer 21:01
And Angela said, "Dr. F., I wanted to say thank you for this podcast." I think she just listened to Dr. Ward's on horses. "This one, and I just listened to the Dr. John Robb one yesterday, were very timely for me. I reached out to you some years ago about our dog Lincoln. Apparently, he was born with something when he was very young that caused kidney disease. I had him vaccinated for rabies at about nine months. And our vet wanted to do another one after a year, and you advised me against it. Thank you again. He will be six in February, and if you just looked at him from the outside, he's great. However, the bloodwork he had done last month paints a totally different picture. The kidneys are getting worse. There's anemia. Anyway, I also do a rabies titer every year on both of our dogs. Last year, Lincoln's was good. This year it came back as less than. I was worried, and then I heard Dr. Robb describe it as a pregnancy test. It's yes or no. Well, I don't know the number. I'm assuming it's very unlikely that suddenly it fell to zero!", exclamation point. "My vet recommended we vaccinate him. Seriously? His bloodwork is horrible, clearly from that you can't deem him as a healthy dog." So, Angela knows that only healthy dogs are in line for vaccines. That's what every vaccine label on every vaccine says, rabies included. She goes on to say, "They make you feel so guilty. And then I listened to your podcast and it reminded me what I know, and that I shouldn't let Dr. White Coat get in my head. So, thank you. Keep them coming."

Will Falconer 22:49
Well, finally, if you haven't already, and would like to help the Vital Animal Podcast reach more people, please visit Apple Podcasts and do two things. First, subscribe, which not only helps its ratings, but also make sure you never miss an episode. And if you're so inclined, you can leave an honest review there. Thanks so much for listening. This is Dr. Will Falconer. And until our episode next week, take care of those animals in your care, and let's get them vital. Bye for now.