Dr. Goldstein and his dogs Dr. Martin Goldstein: Dr. Martin Goldstein's Smith Ridge Veterinary Center is in South Salem, New York. He received his D.V.M. from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He has many cats and dogs, all of which are quite old and healthy. Buy these Books: The Nature of Animal Healing: The Definitive Holistic Medicine Guide to Caring for Your Dog and Cat by Martin Goldstein D.V.M. Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard H. Pitcairn Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog by Wendy Volhard and Dr. Kerry L. Brown Natural Healing for Dogs and Cats by Cheryl Schwartz, D.V.M. Four Paws Five Directions: A Guide to Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs, by Cheryl Schwartz, D.V.M. Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food by Ann Martin Keep Your Dog Healthy the Natural Way by Pat Lazarus Natural Dog Care: A Complete Guide to Holistic Health Care for Dogs by Celeste Yarnall Websites: Holistic Hound AltVetMed Natural Holistic Pet Care WellPet.com Our conversation with Dr. Martin Goldstein, holistic veterinarian and author of the book The Nature of Animal Healing (Knopf), begins an exploration of the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) using discussions with leading practitioners as our navigational device. Many of us are aware that there is a whole world outside of conventional medicine, for both ourselves and our pets, but making sense of it can be challenging. Nutrition is at the heart of most investigations into alternative medicine. Protein–to-carbohydrate-to-fat ratios, cooked versus raw, bones/no bones, balancing the yin with the yang and the issue of supplements alone offer a dizzying array of alternatives; after a few rounds with different orthodoxies you understand why confused consumers might make beelines for their can openers. Dr. Goldstein helps to redirect that temptation. He recognizes that each individual animal differs in her/his needs, as too do the people who must care for them—individuality and comfort levels need to be respected. The Bark: I gather from your book that you think one of the most important and first things to do to ensure that pets have longer and healthier lives involves a change in diet—switching from processed food to real food. Why does this make such a big difference? Aren’t most dog foods balanced and nutritious? Dr. Goldstein: The balanced diet itself is the fallacy. Sometimes it is more important to properly combine foods than be concerned with what the food is. That’s the thing about the balanced-pet-food dictate in the commercial food industry; they are trying to get every single thing the animal needs into every single meal. It overdoes the system. It overdoes the pancreas so that the pancreas cannot secrete the enzymes to digest all the different food kinds at the same time. The Bark: In your book you discuss cooking up a delightful stew for your pets made with free-range chicken, brown rice, vegetables, garlic, purified water. Isn’t this balanced? Dr. Goldstein: It is a balanced diet, and it is such a big step up from commercial dog food. The balancing is not as important as giving quality pet food on a daily basis. My Golden Retriever, Danny, died at nineteen and a half years. And right now 82 percent of all Goldens get cancer. I have seen three Goldens with cancer this week and it is only Tuesday. The number one cause of disease these days, and especially with cancer, is genetics. Danny lived on mostly chicken, turkey, lamb, millet, brown rice, vegetables and potatoes. I never would balance it. You see, nature will compensate. You don’t have to balance that meal, as long as you eat good food with some supplements. One day my dogs will eat nothing but a bowl of pasta and vegetables and leftovers, they’ll get their protein the next day or the day after. The Bark: Many people are becoming interested in a BARF diet (bones and raw food). This seems to be one of the more contentious issues in the veterinarian community. So how would you ease the fears including fears of salmonella, E. coli, gastroenteritis and the like? In your book you not only discuss providing cooked food for your animals but you also relate how you are now becoming a raw food enthusiast. What can you say about that? Dr. Goldstein: That is a toughie. It is hard to just say go out and get raw food, so that is why I kind of hedged on it and left it open in the book. As I said, there are so many ways to get healthy. My Golden lived to nearly twenty with cooked food and I know some Goldens fed raw food that lived ten years and died of cancer. All animals are individuals and need to be dealt with that way. There are so many different flows to go with but as long as you go in the direction of overall health and enjoyment too, you are going in the right direction. If you could see the documentation I have of “before” and “after” cases, it speaks for itself. [Editors note: in his book, Dr. Goldstein acknowledges that the healthier a dog is (from eating a good diet) the more “they seem to grow more capable of handling bones, too.” He also warned that a dog with a weakened immune system resulting from too many antibiotics or other drugs could be more sensitive to the bacteria in raw meat.] The Bark: In your book you talk a lot about the “healing crisis” in which you allow an animal to stage her own recovery—you allow the animal herself to weather the crisis and then to create a recovery. It must be terribly difficult to identify when the time is right for you to step aside. How do you allow yourself to step back and let nature take its course? Dr. Goldstein: We live in a society that is obsessed with “what can I do to get myself and my animal better?” and that healing crisis chapter is really about what the body actually has to go through. Like a heroin addict—do you know what you have to do to cure a heroin addict? Take him off heroin. That is the cure, but what does he go through? Detoxifying is not quick. The process is called a reach and withdrawal mechanism. As a holistic vet what you do is reach at the body with a whole bunch of stuff and as the body starts to kick in you have to know when to withdraw and let nature run its own course. In nature there are no veterinarians. There are just the fasting, sleeping, not-eating aspects, which is what animals do. They hibernate. The Bark: As long as you are able to interpret this and have the courage to read it correctly. Dr. Goldstein: It isn’t easy and when I started it certainly wasn’t easy. Almost every case I take on is a critically ill animal. A conventional vet sees animals, gives them drugs and either they get better or they don’t. With my guys, you have to monitor it for months, maybe years. And at any given time I can get 150 calls a day about an animal that is going through a healing crisis. Bloody diarrhea, high temperatures, what do I do? But that is why I wrote the book. The Bark: How about allergies? Pets seem to be plagued with more allergies these days. Dr. Goldstein: Underlying this are the vaccines, especially those administered every year in combinations and high potencies. I saw three animals yesterday, three in one day that came in with severe allergic skin problems and all of them were fine until they had their vaccines. If pollen caused hayfever we would all have hayfever because it is everywhere. We are all different. The more toxic you are, the more you have a predisposition to allergy. There is not just one factor, there are many. We look for the magic bullet in our society. “What do I take to get rid of these headaches?” Take some health! Double whammy is the nature of animal healing; nature is the healer, not us. HOME | TOP | CONTACT US | ABOUT THE BARK | WEBMASTER