Ep 580: Nature’s Medicine for You and Your Pet with Angela Ardolino

Podcast Introduction and Guest Overview 0:00

Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly fix of tips, tools, and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds, fit physiques, or life. Hey Health Junkies, on this episode of the Health Effects Podcast, I'm interviewing Angela Ardolino. She is a plant and mushroom medicine educator, formulator, and speaker, as well as an advocate for animals and a trailblazer in holistic pet wellness. With over 25 years of experience caring for She's made it her life's mission to empower pet parents with the education and tools they need to support their pets naturally.

From running a bustling rescue sanctuary at Fire Flake Farm to criss-crossing the country to speak on holistic healing, Angela is devoted to sharing the power of plant and mushroom medicine. Now her journey into natural wellness began after her own diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis back in 2013 and refusing to accept a lifetime of pharmaceuticals, she dove into the world of cannabis, herbalism and functional mushrooms and never looked back. Today, Angela combines cutting-edge science with centuries of traditional wisdom to teach others how to support the endocannabinoid system, balance the body, and unlock true vitality for pets and their owners.

She's also the creative force behind multiple ventures that champion education and wellness, including the House of Alchemy and she previously founded the Miami Children's Theater and Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine. Whether she's on stage, online, or in the field, Angela is a bold voice for change in a way we care for our animals naturally, compassionately, and holistically. I brought on Angela because she reached out to me and I was fascinated by what she was up to online. If you've seen me on Instagram or you know me, you'll know I love animals.

And animals are so near and dear to our hearts. They're our family. they are an extension of us, I believe, and they experience what we experience. and if we're not feeling great, chances are they're NOT feeling good. So being able to use products that can help both them and us at the same time, game changer. And this is what Angela is doing. She has figured out the formulations that help pets and their humans so you can share your herbs with your pets. So many people contact me about what to do about their pets.

And of course, I'm not a veterinarian. I don't want to practice out of my scope. But I do find that a lot of herbs do help pets and I've used quite a few different things on my dogs over the years. I thought it would be fun to bring Angela on and chat about what she's up to, what's she seen, and all the progress that she has made using a combination, not in the same formula, but a combinations of mushrooms and cannabis, NOT THC, we're not getting your pets high, BUT a COMBINATION of herbs and adaptogenics as well.

So herbs that help you adapt to life stressors and the stressers that are within your body and how she's utilizing that with her furry companions and herself at the same time. She gave me a little trial of Ease, which is a pain relieving CBD product and it does work. It helps quite a bit and calms my Brian down when nothing else does. And Clarity was another product she had us try for cognitive support. And I have to admit, I think it helped me too there. So I love the idea that I had something that is safe for both me and my pets and I'm using it at the same time between the two of us.

Genius. Alright, so hopefully you're intrigued by now. Let's introduce you to Angela Ardolino. Angela, Ardalino, welcome to the Healthfex Podcast.

Angela's Journey Into Holistic Pet Wellness 4:00

Thanks for having me. My goodness, this is a long time coming just because we have a love for animals that we've shared. And then we also have love or herbs. Here in this podcast, I can't wait to talk about what you're up to, how you've helped my little critter calm himself down, which is big deal because he's a hyper golden, and how we're learning new things about the skin and what we can do with this. Out of all of this, I've seen on Instagram, on your websites, you've got stories of how you helped certain critters along the way.

And it sounds like you have a couple of soul animals and things of that nature. Tell us, were you always interested in herbs since a little kid? Or did this start to come about because of the dogs? How did your interest in nature and herbs and growing your own food and all that stuff come out? What a great question of where it started, but yes, I attribute animals, uh, for saving my life. Basically all I did was spend all my time outside with my animals. I actually wasn't allowed to have pets inside, which was okay.

Cause I spent all of my times outside. So yes. Like when I look at everything, compare myself to my sisters, everything. It was all because I was outside, with animals But in 2015, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which made no sense to me because I literally had a media company which all I did was talk about natural living and getting toxins out of her life. I thought I had already done that. How is this possible? Well, is because i was a workaholic, stress all the time, working all time doing too much, i gave myself this autoimmune disease.

Which the good thing is, is that means I could reverse it. That means, I can get rid of it, so that's what, you know, that sucked, but at the same time I, can do something about it and at this very same, time, my soul dog, Odie, who was nine years old, he was a miniature Schnauzer also stopped going up the stairs, wouldn't get up on the couch anymore. So I knew he, was starting to experience pain and that when small dogs turned into seniors is about age nine or 10. He was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy, which is kind of the same thing as rheumatoid arthritis.

Um, and I, uh, when that happened to me, I was like most people prescribed a conventional drug called Humira, Which of course, When I and i don't take pharmaceuticals, um, I believe pharmaceuticals need to exist. They're great for emergencies situations, but they don't get to the root cause and just suppress symptoms. So I knew that I wanted to get the route and they prescribe Humira, which has already been linked to lymphoma. and I wasn't going to do that. And I found FECO, full extract of cannabis oil and tried that I will never forget.

That was 10 years ago now. I knew I was in pain, but not until I took that tincture did I literally feel it leave my body. Then I remember what this feels like. Now I'm pain free and why the hell is this prohibited and restricted? So taking that tincture made me instantly an advocate and want to know more. So I lived in Florida, which it wasn't medically legal there yet. I fought like crazy to get it legalized there. It took us four years to do it. On top of that, I literally sold my business and threw myself into the cannabis industry.

I wanted to know more. So I immediately found a group of moms who were treating their kids. uh... tumor cancer seizures with cannabis so i started reporting on those stories and things like that ended up selling my business throwing myself into the industry hired at the best consultant in the country traveled everywhere with him learned how does source seeds how to grow medicine How to extract it, how to preserve it. What the different cannabinoid profiles do. And then in 2016, the University of Vermont School of Medicine started their first cannabis program at the School Of Medicine for its study for therapeutic uses in biology.

They literally reached out to my consultant and said, hey, do you know anybody we want to kill our inaugural class? And he was like, oh, yes, I do, and so I got to attend that program, which blew my mind. that's where i learned about the endocannabinoid system and that all animals have them fish to our dogs lizards birds and it's a lot like ours we do have some some additional research on dogs they are more sensitive they have more receptors than we did that why they're a little bit more sensitive to THC, but all the same things that benefit us benefit our animals also.

So that's where I was like, Oh, okay. My favorite things, cannabis and dogs. And I'm like this is going to be my career. This is what I am going concentrate on and do. Um, I also at the time had a rescue farm where I rescued farm animals and old dogs with problems. So I really started to concentrate on that. You know, they thought there was nothing else that they could do, and it either was a pet parent who was like, what else can I do? Or the dog was being euthanized because they though there's nothing they can do.

I'd get the do and I would totally change its diet to a real food diet, take it off its 10 to 12 to 15 different pharmaceuticals and creams and shampoos and sprays, And literally bring these animals back to homeostasis. And they were always old and diseased, and I was still able to bring them back to homeostasis. So being able do that over and over again was pretty incredible. I had this education, but when I went to the holistic veterinarians, I said, hey, do you know about the endocannabinoid system?

Nope, we believe in it. Um, I'm like, what do you want to know? I'll teach you. They're like how are you using it? What are your cases? what does it work on? Well, it works on everything. And the reason that it worked on, everything is because the endocannabinoid system is our master system in our bodies. It is in control of all of the other systems. If you treat just a respiratory issue with also, without also dealing with the, endo cannabini system, you literally can't get back to homeostasis might get better.

But she won't get back to completely balanced. So what's so messed up about this is that our doctors and veterinarians aren't taught anything about the system. True. Yeah. And so that's why we never really can get to, as you know, if we don't get the root of the problem, we're never going to solve the issue. We have to get through the route and conventional medicine usually just suppresses symptoms and doesn't to the roots. So we get back to true health. So being able to do this over and over again at my own farm with my cases, um, and I formulated all of my, I formulated all my products in 2016, but couldn't release them until 2018. So literally had two years to test them nonstop.

I bought a groom shop that, like I said before, that was, we'd get on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 75 dogs a day. It was very busy and it had been there for 30 years and then I've totally changed its reputation. So we would take sick dogs, old dogs aggressive dogs any dogs. We were very. And 85% of those dogs coming through that shop were suffering. They all were suffering. And I'd ask pet parents, you know, are you aware of this lump on his leg? Are you wear of. You know yeast infection, or are of the ear infection?

Or are aware this rash? And they'd be like, yes, I don't, we don' know what to do. We've been, i've spent thousands of dollars. Nothing ever gets any better. Then here I was going, try this, let's do this. Change the food. It was that simple. Sometimes not that simple because as you know when you suppress the symptoms and turn off the immune system when it comes back on,

Cannabis, Endocannabinoid System, and Healing 13:00

there's usually a flare up and some things you need to deal with but for the most part it worked every time. Real food, this is like something I say all the time, Mother Nature provides us with all of the food and medicine that we need. and we really can bring the sickest person or animal back to homeostasis if we give them real food and real plant and fungi medicine. I absolutely agree. I have a very interesting story about this. My dog, the golden retriever I currently have right now, had chronic ear infections.

We knew it was the food. Of course, I was busy with work. Couldn't cook for him as much as I wanted to. Pulled him off of all of the foods. He lost weight. he got healthy. i took him to the vet because we were going back and forth about the ear thing and I said, hey, i got rid of that ear It was, you know, it was his food. Well, here's what happened. They took him away from me while they saw him in the office, because he had lost so much weight, and they said, golden retrievers don't lose this much.

weight. While being a doctor, I know what happens when you take a pet in a visit away, they thought I had abused him. And then they were said well, we're going to have to look at the labs and see how he's doing. And you know, I'm sitting there going I just want I came in just for a double check that you could see that his ears are better and he is I am a doctor. I I know what's going on right now that. You think that I abuse my dog and so, you it was it. Was kind of horrifying and eye-opening for me to see because this was actually considered quote holistic doctor office.

And and so I will never go there again and and because we are made to feel like we had abused her dog and he was healthier and. So at that point I said the heck with this I'm never gonna do that again I am now going to work on herbals and different things with them. And, you know, I haven't, this is the first time I've actually shared this story because my background, more helping people. But like how you found me and what you said was so beautiful was that, yes, i feel like our dogs go through what we're going through.

And at that same time,I was having more gut issues. There was different things that I was experiencing. So, we changed up things with him. We worked on me slowing down with food and making sure that i was eating actually eating versus not eating because of being busy. And so, you know, looking at this and seeing it, full circle, like you're explaining, it is whole food for the pets, but we are kind of convinced that we need to buy pet food. Nope, it's like real food is real. Food is really food.

And please don't ask me. Where is the research? Are you kidding me? It's real, food, real plants, mushrooms, the original medicine, not the alternative. But you can't patent food, plants, or fungi, and make a billion dollars off of it. So what we do is we invent, change, pull out certain isolates, components that worked bioactives out of that food plant or mushroom, And make medicine out it, but when we that, there's always a side effect because the body doesn't know what the hell it is. The body doesn't recognize a synthetic isolate.

So what you do is you cause the body to go in overdrive to figure out what this is, the liver has to work on it, it depletes our glutathione, It literally takes away all of our defenses. It disrupts our gut where our immune system literally lives. By the way, it's called the endocannabinoid system. They've already changed the name to the Endocanabinidome because it incorporates the microbiome. There are receptors all over our organs, everywhere, all through our body for this endo-cannibinoids system, and if our receptors aren't producing these endocrinoides, that means we're off balance.

And it just so happens this beautiful plant called the cannabis plant literally produces phyto cannabinoids which fill those deficiencies and bring us back to homeostasis. All disease is based on inflammation of something and that's its main driver is to get rid of inflammation, systemic inflammation throughout the body. And that is what it does. That's why it seems like it helps everything. because everything's based in inflammation. But that's what the problem is. It's the biggest threat to every pharmaceutical drug out there.

Pain meds are made to interact with just one of the five signaling pathways for pain. Cannabis immediately, all of them, best painkiller ever with no side effects. It's not going to destroy your gut lining. It is not gonna deplete glutathione. Its going help those things also. So it's always every time I see something, read something can't figure out why something is, why do they do it that way? It always about the damn money. Always about them and their profits and making more money not about actually healing you and getting you back to homeostasis.

It's definitely money driven and something that you come to really realize in every industry, just as much the vet, the dental, health, it's every Industry. Now, one of the things that I'm very curious about, and I get a lot of questions from my patients, is about the different types of CBD. You know, CBD N versus CBD G versus, you know. And a lot of people are, I think right now, we've gotten to the point where folks know that CBD and cannabis products can make a huge difference in their health.

I think now you got to go find a good one. Yeah. And now, you're going to find sourcing, and that's definitely something that anytime someone pitches something to me, I'm always going look and see where they're sourcings. But then the other thing is because a lot of people are going think like, oh, there's some stoner and no offense to Northern California, but they imagine Weed California and they are imagining something like that or they've seen the Sons of Anarchy show or whatever. something like that but like truthfully the folks that I have met who are working on cultivating the the cannabis plants and even growing mushrooms are like the most scientifically fascinating folks I've ever seen in my life they just know so much and so one of the things that a lot of people ask me about because that once we get past the like no it's not gonna get too high in unless you want that particular part plant.

The CBD ends in the G's and the A and all of those different things. Can you help us to kind of, you know, look at it, but also look it in in a lens of like what does best for animals and dogs in particular, like is there a better And I don't even know how to like describe it. This is my naive, you know, derivative. Is that what we say? What do we? It's a, what a great question. So what you want is a full spectrum hemp extract every single time. Okay. And that is what works best for you and for your pet.

Um, when I said FICO full extract of cannabis oil, that's what we need. So I mentioned that dogs have more receptors than we do. They're more sensitive to it. A full spectrum hemp extract is amazing for pets. It's also amazing. But we may need a little bit more THC. Go to your dispensary and get it, but if you're just mild, I mean, literally treat my, uh, treated my RA with a full-spectrum hemp. Extract. I also went to my medical dispensary and got something with a little bit more THC also, but our dogs don't need that.

In a full spectrum hemp extract is 118 different cannabinoids. TBD and TH C are the two major ones that always should be in the plant and everything's the cannabis plant. So if that cannabis plant has more THC versus, I'm sorry. If that Cannabis plant Has more thc, it therefore has less CBD and is considered marijuana. And if it has More CBD, It therefore Has less THc and it's considered hemp. Why that's all confusing is that these are definitions made up by the United States government. So it makes no sense.

I have to operate in this realm that makes sense and explain to you what it means. When you see something where they have isolated CBD or one of the 118 THC, CBN, and CBG, they all have a T or a C on them. They're making pharmaceutical drugs. You gotta have the plant, what do we know? We know that that plant extract has to have all the compounds to do what research has shown that cannabis can do, cannabis and hemp can. When you isolate just one thing, you've now created a pharmaceutical, the body doesn't recognize it, and CBD isolate is a Pharmaceutical drug on the market right now, which is why I can't say the word CBD.

I, can have it in my, on my website. Can't explain, I cant talk about it, anything because I'm, now pretending like I have a pharmaceutical drug, which I don't. So that's why it's so damn confusing. Thank you. That pharmaceutical drugs went through research. And CBD isolates cause liver injury and damage. They had to stop the research because so many humans were having liver injuries. So you want to stay away from isolants just like you wanna stay from isolated pharmaceutical drugs because they're dangerous and the body doesn't recognize them.

Always make sure you get a full extract of cannabis oil which is more THC or a Full Spectrum Hemp extract. And the only way for you to know you're getting that is if that product gets a certificate of analysis. Never ever. I don't ever buy a herbal product, mushroom or hemp or any herbal products without a COA proving to me that it really is that plant, that has those compounds in it, and that is free from contaminants, pesticides, herbicides, solvents, mycotoxins, all of those things. If you can't easily access a CoA for a product move on.

It's you and certificate of analysis is costly. It has to be done at a third party lab and it ain't cheap. And we do it for every batch that we produce. So that's why a lot of companies don't do. Nobody's making sure that they're potent that their safe that you're getting something real in the bottle except unless you getting it from a medical marijuana dispensary, but medical Marijuana Dispensaries don't sell hemp. They sell cannabis. So you can't go in and and get something for your pet most of the time or something that is free of flavoring and those types of things.

Yeah, for instance gummies aren't medicine. Why are, why are we doing that? Stop. And I get it. It tastes weird sometimes, right? So you might have to put it in your food or, you know, your dog's food, or whatever, but it, that's, medicine isn't supposed to taste like candy. Well, yes, it is a thing to get people to take it right. And obviously there's no gummy tree. I mean, there is gum tree, but not the one we're thinking about with that's purple and tastes actually good. It has sugar on top. Right.

There's little sugar crystals on it as well. But it brings the point back with all the different cannabinoids.

Choosing Full-Spectrum Hemp and Quality COAs 25:00

That's the word that I couldn't think about. So I'm like, derivatives? Boy, my brain's not working. Need some more. But in that point, it is something that we talk about a lot in formulations with herbal medicine as a whole and folk medicine. I live in the realm of being a naturopath, right? And so there are supplements that are extracts. There are, you know, products and I've always wondered and seen that when we get something that's the whole plant, we do a lot better than we're getting than when were getting things that are like, this is the ashwagandha 295 extract that was researched, and we don't know.

Because I can patent that. Right. And I could make a million bajillion dollars off of it. Exactly. Which also doesn't make sense to me because the people, the way we do things is so different than another person who does extractions. Like our mushrooms, for instance, we'd do a spagyric preparation. Most people never even heard of that. It is a true, it's the ancient way of doing things and it is true whole extract of a mushroom. It's considered a triple extract. So like the way we do our mushrooms is we only grow them on the substrate found that they're found to grow on in nature because they will not have the bioactive compounds, medicinal compounds in them If they're grown on oats, rice, grain or something like that.

Yeah. Cardboard. I mean, these people and that's the thing. That's a difference between people, mushroom enthusiasts, someone who loves them and someone, who knows how to make mushroom or hemp medicine. So that's the difference between the getting high or just loving them type of thing and growing them. But if you want true medicinal mushroom medicine, it has to be grown on the same substrate found in nature. So we either wild forage or we wild cultivate. And then we do a dual extraction, both hot water and you have to do alcohol.

Alcohol is the only way to get through down to those triterpenoids and those incredible bioactives that you can't get when you just do it in water. And then we do something after we that hot water and alcohol, everything that's left, the spent, gets purified and put back into the tincture and that what a spagyric is. So you're getting all of the minerals, all the salts, and everything the mushroom has to offer. Even then, I am so different than anybody else out there making a mushroom extract. Most mushroom products aren't even mushrooms in the first place.

They take grain and they inoculate it with the spores. The spore eats everything up. It's called the mycelium. And then the Mycelia pops up a little primordial mushroom. throw it, grind it up, put it in a pouch or a capsule, and call it a mushroom product. And it has no mushrooms in it at all. It's ground up grain with mycelium. Myceliums incredible, but you can't separate it from its substrate. And often those bioactive compounds are often also found in the fruiting body, which is what we know as the mushroom.

That's where the extraction is supposed to be done on those caps and stems of those mushrooms. So to me, it makes no sense. Um, but what people need to understand is that it's completely unregulated. Supplements. I just, I, just did an incredible podcast with, um, which I should introduce you, uh, with a person who's basically a supplement expert, all she does is help practitioners choose supplements because it's completely unregulated and 85% of them are worthless. anybody can turn around and put something in a capsule or or a pouch and call it a mushroom powder and it has nothing out nothing no mushrooms in it whatsoever so you have to do please don't jump on the internet and go buy the first things that you find or the most this one Right and don't and exactly.

Natural medicine isn't cheap. I mean I just told you what I how my process of what i do and I make products for pets. All my products are human grade by the way I take them all but my product are for pet so when I do that alcohol extraction I then take the time to evaporate all of the alcohol off because alcohol's not good for us, and it's really not for our pets. They have, they lack the enzyme that helps them break it down. It stays in their body and its a lot more toxic to them than it is to our, to us.

So that's why I take it out. All of that costs a lotta money and is really hard. Just finding people who grow mushrooms correctly. Like how many mushroom farmers I've gone to who are probably growing them for culinary use, cause that the only way they were making money. And I'm like, hey, Could you do this a little bit different and then I can use your product too. Can you grow it on the right substrate? And then also the powders, why is a liquid extract from something from a mushroom that's 80% water, 70 to 80 percent water.

Why are we drying a Liquid extract? I know why. Because the majority of them are coming from the same two bulk suppliers from China and it's a lot cheaper to send a powder over from china than it is a liquid. A liquid is very heavy and would cost a lotta money. So they dry it They introduce others additives in it like malodextrin. They do things like spray drying where something else gets in. That's a fluffing bulking agent. So you're also getting some sort of weird ass additive in your mushroom extract.

I always like to see it in its original form. Don't dry that extract. It's an extra process. Is it easier to throw in your coffee or throw on top of your dog's food? Yes. But you've put it through another process and that's not the way it should be. Keep it in its liquid form. And then hemp is an oil. So hemp, is best, you know, going through the mucus membranes and directly going to the bloodstream. Um, if you put it on food and eat it instead, then it's going to be metabolized by the liver. It's gonna be broken down.

So instead of getting like 95% of the medicine, when you. Put it. On your gums, you're getting about 50 to 35% percent of. The medicine when. You consume it, so if it something serious, like seizures or cancer or pain, hemp right on the gum so that it's absorbed into the bloodstream. And again, has to be made right for that to even happen. So homogenizing, nano emulsifying it so when it does hit your mouth, it goes directly into your blood stream. You should be able to feel when you take a tincture of a hemp or cannabis product, you should feel it pretty immediately.

You should literally, like I said, when I took it the first time, I could literally feel the pain leaving my body. I felt it go through and I was like, Oh my gosh, what is this? And that's the way it should be. That's how, you know, it's made right. That makes sense. That make sense and definitely, you know, I'm looking at Brian I my golden tree where I give him some of the ease before the podcast because sometimes he gets worked up in the neighborhood and people talk to him and he definitely is is chill right now.

He has he has eased. He hears me talking about him, so now he's back up. And you know all about adaptogens. So the reason that adaptogen are so magical is, A, they adapt to whoever takes them. They adapt their stressors and work to bring the body back to homeostasis. but they're interacting with the endocannabinoid system. So when you combine an adaptogen with cannabis, holy cow, it literally makes it more synergistic, more powerful, helps it do its job better. My actual calming formula is full spectrum hemp extract with lavender extract.

The one that you have is the ease, the one I created for myself and my soul dog, which is a full spectrum hemp extract with frankincense extract and turmeric extract, and they share some of the same compounds as cannabis. So when you put them together, it is. no more pain so he's feeling calm absolutely that's something that is a side effect of of it but he is also feeling no pain and feeling really really good So I just love it. It's something that's the way medicine should work. Right. We give it to them.

Not only does it take care of whatever it is, it's also helping their bodies innate ability to heal itself. And that all we should be doing when pharmaceuticals literally take the body's ability away to heel itself and never never, we never reach homeostasis again. It's wild. It is wild to think about that. I think one of the things that I definitely want to clear up for folks, because you mentioned that the yeast has the frankincense and the turmeric extract, let's help folks understand that it's not the extract they would think like extracted only BCM95 turmeric.

You know, it is a full extract. Yes, thank you for clarifying that. Everything we do, again, I trust Mother Nature. She's made it perfect. I don't need to mess it up. If I've grown it the right way and I know that this is the peak time of when I should harvest that flower or that root, and how do I extract it so that I best get all of those medicinal compounds? Like hemp, we super critical CO2 extraction. You're like, what the hell is that? Well, what it is is that it's the best way to get all of the bioactives out without damaging them.

That's what is. It's a lot better than alcohol. I don't know. There's so many different ways that they're doing it now, but this is, I wanted to make medicine. What do we expect from medicine? We expect that every time we take that medicine, we get the same result. And it's kind of hard to do that with plants and mushrooms, but if we do grow them the right way and the correct way, the way the, way they did in nature, and we all of these steps to extract it and preserve it the. We can, we can get, uh, get that same result every single time.

What are you looking for? You know, I understand with with the mushrooms, we're looking at something grown on a natural substance like maybe like a wood. Yeah, most of them are wood, my gosh, like chaga, for instance. Chaga has to be grown. On a birch tree. Hmm.

Mushroom Medicine, Extraction, and Safety 36:00

I did not know that. And I would say 95% of Chaga is not coming from a birch tree. It's coming off of a grain, grown on a green. If it does not grow off a Birch Tree, it doesn't have betulinic acid in it, which is the main bioactive compound that makes all of the good stuff happen that Chagas does. Chogas is a king of all antioxidants. There's nothing that has more antioxidants in them than Choga. Its amazing. But it has to be grown in that birched tree, Five birch tree, not even a dead one. So that's how important it is.

Chaga, you know, everything, there's a, scale of the best to shit. And most stuff is kind of in the middle, or they don't make it potent enough. That was the first thing. I always like dabbled with mushrooms, had a couple of my favorite, but it wasn't until my Doberman got osteosarcoma that I did the deep dive. And the mushrooms, I was literally a practitioner for another company until I found out how they were growing, where they we're growing. I started going what? Cause I starting going, okay, research shows that I should give this much turkey tail, this mush reishi, just much cordyceps.

Then I would look at the packet and go, Oh, have to put half. First of all, it was doing capsules. And then I read the ingredients of the capsuls under the other, or the inactive ingredients where I saw all the fillers that they weren't putting in there. So I got rid of those. Then I went to the pouches and realized I would have to put half a pouch in her food to reach the therapeutic dose. And that was for one mushroom. So if I'm going to do that for five, that means her foods was completely mud and she wouldn't eat it.

I was like, there's got to be a better way. There has to something better. So that's why I did that deep dive and finally found, um, a micro alchemist who was making a human product that I liked and, you know, got with him and go, Hey, can we make things for pets? And can I throw in some more adaptogens? Cause we've already have the proof, uh, the research showing us when you put more adaptive genes together, that they're more potent and therapeutic. It's not, not my opinion. And it's something that just came up with.

Oh, because there's no regulation and because most people, there is not another person in my industry. I'm in the pet industry that has an expert that knows what they're doing. They didn't go, how do they know how to make a product? They don't. just figuring it out. They're just putting it in a bottle. In 2018, I got an article every day from the pet industry telling me how CBD was the next, you know, $60 billion, whatever that they would say. So everybody jumped on that bandwagon. When I went to the industry event in 2018 there were 40 of us And this is a huge, it's called Super Zoo.

It's huge. Thousands and thousands and 1000s of exhibitors. And there were about 40 of us who had some sort of hemp, CBD, cookie, treat, tincture, whatever. That here, a company called Folium Biosciences, who's the biggest manufacturer of broad spectrum products, which a broad-spectrum product is when they remove the THC. And perpetuate the fear that THC is bad or toxic for dogs, which it's not. Uh, they even did a piece of research to prove that in 1973, it was called the Rosencrantz study. They wanted to find out how much TH you would take to kill a person.

they, you, did the research on rats, dogs and chimpanzees. and they gave them 9,000 milligrams of THC, which is insane. Why, right? Two rats regurgitated when they were asleep on their vomit and choked and died. No dogs died, no chimpanzees died it's called LD50. There's literally no lethal dose for animals. Because the body recognizes it and goes, I got too much. Let's get rid of it. It doesn't interfere with our heart, our breathing. it's something that's completely natural and the. Body recognizes so we can get.

Rid of that fear, you know there but. This company mass produced, um, broad spectrum products and went around to every exhibitor and said, do you want your own CBD? Do you own your CBD. So most products, just like mushroom are white labeled products from the same bulk people who are, who were making it. so the next year at super zoo, there were 200 and some CBD cannabis, something, whatever. And the majority of them aren't, you know, pure. They're filled with additives. they don't have anything in them.

There are actually dangerous. Uh, there's isolates on the market where I already told you, we've already proven that those cause liver damage. Um, now. You know almost 10 years later. most of those companies are gone, but I still see them pop up. There's a brand new company that's selling isolates. University programs teaching people how to make pharmaceuticals out of cannabis medicine. And so we're going to see it. It's really hard. We have all this incredible information, but now when we go out into the marketplace and go to try to find those products, there's so much crap out there.

And this is where, you know, we have to be educated listening to podcasts like podcasts like this, and just really understanding what to be on the lookout for. Because, gosh, you know, mushrooms, I mean, didn't even know that chaga needs to grown on birch trees. I'm now thinking, okay, what about lion's mane? What about the rest of them? How do we grow those? And I think a lot of people might be wondering, too, are all the mushrooms safe for dogs? Is there anything that's not? is there something we need to think about with mushrooms and dogs.

Whatever's poisonous to us is poisonous, to them too. So the mushrooms I'm talking about are not psychedelics. They're medicinal mushrooms, lion's mane, mitaki, shiitake, reishi, cordyceps, chaga, red belted conch, artist conk. Those are the ones that I really, king trumpet. those are ones I concentrate on. But there are so many different species of them and many of have medicinal qualities. Um, so those are the ones that I concentrate on and there is so much research out on them already. And now I've been using them for five years with just incredible results.

So yeah. You want to make sure that it's a mushroom that is safe for both of us. Um, you know, when you're out foraging in the woods, absolutely could come across a poisonous mushroom and you shouldn't just pick them and take them home. You should know what you are doing. But what's beautiful about mushrooms is that when eat them, first of all, this is one of my favorite pieces of research. Eating three grams of mushrooms, chopping them up, frying them in some ghee. Um, and eating three of them feeds your gut microbiome for 13 days.

So if every 13. Days, you could just eat some and feed them to your dog. You're literally taking care of the guts. Microbiome. For 13, days you're giving it the food that it needs. I've even tried this. Well, let me finish this part. If you're doing that, not only are you feeding the gut microbiome, but if your dog were to get those mushrooms and then you go on a hike and he were eat that poisonous mushroom, the good mushroom that he ate literally trains the cells to recognize the bad virus, bad mushroom the mycotoxin, bacteria and helps your cells remove it from the body so they really are incredible mushrooms share thirty percent of our DNA they're more like us than other animal other than plants and other animals are We literally are supposed to be consuming them and taking their, their medicine all the time.

So as long as you're sticking with those and it's a reputable company and you've got that certificate of analysis, that COA that shows you because both hemp and mushrooms are bioaccumulators, meaning they suck everything out of the air and earth. That's why it is very important how they're grown, how their processed and why you have to have that coa to prove that you are getting an actual mushroom or hemp product and that there is no contaminants. Yes, those COAs. Um, I've heard that there are some folks who have manipulated the COA situation in the industry.

Yes they have. So, uh, yeah, make sure that you understand it. First of all, it's easy to find. Meaning you can easily access it, like you'll see on our products, we have it on every single label. So you scan every bottle. Every bottle also has a batch number on it. You can look at this batch's certificate of analysis showing you all of that. they should be less than two years old. So some people will get a COA and use that one COE for the history of the company. And I have already experienced people forging COAs or lying on COAS and a new thing that's happening is that people are adding isolates to their products to make certain cannabinoids look like there's more of them in there.

That's anytime you see something that says 99% pure, CBD or whatever, that's an isolate. Tasteless, odorless, That is an Isolate. If it's clear, if it is white, it an isolate! Um, you know, real extracts from plants and mushrooms should be brown and kind of green or yellow and have a little bit of a bitter taste and actually tastes like a plant material. So you literally can taste it if it's a true extract. Wow. Some of the expert behind them, Or go to people like you who have done and vetted. That's one of my, one my reasons I love independent pet stores, you know, the, The crazy person who I was that crazy.

Person who was like, okay, I have 20 dogs. I do not want to pay retail. So I can get everything wholesale and then learn and pick all of the best products out there. But those independent retailers or people. Like you, who really are doing their research and homework. have vetted the products or tried them. The other thing that sucks is that when you do find a good product, you always have to keep up on it because really good products get bought up by the big companies and then the companies go, we want to make a bigger profit.

So they don't test anymore or they. Bother with that myco alchemist who's doing it right. Or they, don' bother growing it on the wood anymore, or doing the CO2 extraction. So things start to change. Um, and matter of fact, that mushroom company I told you that I was a practitioner for when the tariffs hit, I suddenly noticed a new, um, inactive ingredient and that's because they're cutting. You know, they're not putting the plan or mushroom material anymore. They're putting more fillers in because they need to make up that bottom line.

Part of it makes me cringe because, you know it hurts the natural medicine industry as a whole because it it looks like our stuff doesn't work. And I'd be lying if I said that there are times in my career, I've been like, this stuff doesn't work. It's junk. And it's because of this exact reason not, you know, patients not getting the highest quality, not using something that I recommended or having a source that i thought was good quality. Then we find out, oh, they got bought out like two weeks ago.

Not that two week ago would make a difference, but they were bought-out, weeks-ago. they change formulations already and i mean it it happens all the time for sure it's why i'm looking to see the owners of the small companies that's what i want to know that my connections you know and and. What are the big things that you would kinda mentioned you i like to learn how to use products. effectively. And I like to talk with folks because I can look at certain things and go, okay, I know what that's for.

I knew all the herbs in it. But each and every formulator has an intention. You also have your energetics into it and this is one of the things I really want folks to really understand is that when we're buying from someone that

Adaptogens, Formulations, and Pet Applications 49:00

is still involved in their business, creates the formulas themselves, Your energetic essence is being put into that. And that's more important to me. A lot of times than what an actual formula is because I find things that are powerful when there's the love with it. We've just lost the life. Intention. My intention is to heal animals with plants and mushrooms the way they should. And that's my intention. My intention is not for my profits to be at a certain level or something like that. And look at that, that a huge difference because you will find a $29.99 bottle of a hemp extract or mushroom extract.

Then here's this $60 to $100. What do you think the difference is? It's a huge difference. And unfortunately, a lot of people will take the 29.99 and then think CBD doesn't work. Every single time I hear I've tried it and it didn't. I go, could you, can you tell me what you tried? Do you have the bottle? Can you take a picture of it? And the moment they send it to me, I can immediately tell why it. It didn' work, it's probably an isolate. That's what was blows my mind is the therapeutic dose. it's too expensive for the company to make it a therapeutic dose people won't buy it how many times i was told not to do a staff nobody's gonna buy that i'm like okay but dogs have three layers of skin i own a groom shop and i've tested it and I've gotten rid of this this and this Um, so it is, it isn't easy, but when you do find those products that really work, they are game changers and they're fast too.

It's not, you know, give a potent full spectrum. You're you can get rid of that pain. Stop the seizure. My Doberman that I talked about was a geriatric Dobernman. She has broken records. I extended her life for two years past her diagnosis when osteosarcoma spreads to the lungs within four months and kills the dog. At 18 months, I took her in and we did eight diagnostic tests to see where the cancer was. It hadn't moved. Literally on her lungs, not even a speck, which I don't know if you've ever gone through this.

How many times vets will go, I think I see something on the lung. I'm going to look a little closer. Not even aspect. She did a live blood analysis to show me what the cancer. Nowhere. and that is because cancer i'd i mean sorry cannabis i told you interacts with the five signaling pathways of pain and thats why it's so incredible for pain for cancer there's twelve signaling path ways and cannabis has already been proven to interact with eight of those pathways and more ways than one so Metastasis, for instance, is one of those pathways.

It literally stops the metastases of the cancer and that's why my Doberman had no spread of it anywhere else in her body. So I love learning these things and then literally watching it happen. You know, cannabis and mushrooms do things like train ourselves to be natural killer cells, which then go throughout our body and find rogue or cancer cells and kill them. And then another pathway is called autophagy, where we then remove those dead cells out of our bodies. So yeah. So you combine cannabis, mushrooms, adaptogens and diet on a dog that's suffering from just about any disease, especially cancer, and you really can make an impact.

I've done it several times. Which makes no sense. I did get my first FDA, uh, warning letter this year, which was really fun. Which I know people like us, it's a badge of honor, but it really sad for them to sit there and take the time to write me to tell me that I'm not allowed to talk about my cases on my podcast. Yeah. I'm going to go move to another country or somewhere in the woods and I am going keep on doing it. Freedom of speech. I did this, I practiced it, and made it! Why are you so concerned with what I'm doing over here?

Oh, I know why did you know? This is one of my other favorite pieces. Can you tell I love research? My other pieces of favorite research is um, they did this I think in 2020 where every time a state becomes medically legal for marijuana big pharma loses 1.5 to 2 percent of their revenues, which is Billions of dollars. So at us made, I'm sorry, Pfizer made $100.3 billion in 2023. Yeah. They don't want you to have any of it. Like, why can't they just let us do our stuff over here? We can, free choice.

Why do you got to shut me up? Why am I such a threat to you? I'm so sorry. Oh, and here is the critter speaking already. He agrees. I am speaking for you, Brian. So, you know, let's show folks who are watching on YouTube right now. And for those of you who aren't, we're just going to tease you that maybe come over to the YouTube side and you can see kind of a couple of things. You had described to me your Nourish Balmstick. One of my big things that I started using this on on Brian, because I'm going to share my case, is that he's had some tick bites and we've had to deal with that because we live in the Northwoods.

Ticks are common. It happens. And if you want to go hike, you got to do with it. So I've put this. On and I. Started to put it on his little lump that. He has one little lumps like the size of. My pinky, it is starting to shrink. Is it gone yet? No, but I haven't had enough. I feel like I probably need like maybe 90 days. on it, giving the tincture internally is also going to reduce inflammation and help the body remove whatever bad is in it. Same. I had never in Florida, we didn't, didn' have a tick problem, but then now I'm out here.

What the hell? These things are everywhere. Um, but yes, anything lumps, bumps, irritations, I, you know, say every senior citizen should be dog animal person should on a full spectrum, hemp extract and medicinal mushrooms. They literally just help your body do what it's supposed to do. It just helps it keep it going, gets rid of inflammation, helps operate. So it is something that every seniors should take. And if you have a senior dog, they're seniors by age seven. Uh, if you got a little dog by age 10, but age seven, he's now like 50, 60 years old and we need to look at them that way.

Cause they don't look that they, they act that but they do go through the same, you know, things that we go. And one of the things that I was mentioning on the podcast and I alluded to earlier is that we're getting older, I'm getting old, or I am starting to see that he's kind of experiencing a lot of what I've been experiencing. He's mimicking it. And so, going back to the nurse thing and you're saying like, hey, put on your skin, it can work on, the spots on you skin. I need a bath. Do you have a bathtub?

I do. Dip me in, pull me back out. Oh, that would be nice. Like a bath in a, in, uh, tub. Yes, that would be nice. I do, I cover myself in those. Uh, humans that have had skin cancer that use the remedy, Uh all the time on their skin and get rid of skin, you know, cancer. Um, we know Rick Simpson RSO, which Rick Simson was a hemp farmer who got skin. And, um, got rid a skin with hemp. And is now famous and has products named after him. Um, but yeah, it's, there's no denying anybody who's like into using chat GPT or AI.

And you want to know literally type in there and go, show me the research for reishi for skin. Show me all the. Research on Reishi extracts. You guys your mind will be blown they don't talk about this on the news they dont talk abut this only internet but it is all there it's being kept from you and that is literally all I did was start researching what plants what mushrooms what adaptogens that's when I became I'm in love with adaptogens and those of you don't know what adaptogen are, they are plants, shrooms, sometimes even dirt.

I don' know if you've heard of Shilajit, but it's literally a combination of plants and mushrooms that when we take them, They adapt to what our stressors need, what are body needs. So, If I when I take it and you take in our dog take its it literally adapts to what we need which I think is a beautiful thing and that's the way medicine should work when instead conventional medicine is standard of care. You've got this disease, you take this drug, get this surgery, whatever it is instead of looking at the individual.

So literally adaptogens are personalized medicine because they adapt to what that person or that animal needs. And if you get too much, it just gets rid of it. Cause it knows it, if it needs more than it's going to keep more of. But it really incredible what they do and they need more attention because they're everywhere. Shilajit, which what Shillajith is, is literally, um, the Himalayan's mountains, when they, that snow melt happens, it's all of the, snowmelt, all the dirt plant material that comes down off of it.

That's literally what it is. And it was considered an adaptogen and it literally has, you know, fulvic and humic and all, of, essential minerals that we need. I can, I, can tell when I don't take my shoe legit, you know, we are fruits, our vegetables, or water. Everything is lacking these essential minerals and this adaptogen provides them all. It's one of the things that I highly recommend to all women, you know, over 40 in particular, but I mean, everyone can benefit. But it is something that we need it, whether it's for our nervous system, for just adapting to life's environmental stressors too.

Clarity, Senior Dogs, and Where to Find Angela 1:00:00

Now, one of the things and I don't know if I've kind of highlighted this enough in this podcast, but I want to make sure that we get the point across before we find out more about where we can find you and things of that nature is that one in your signature offerings is really that you are blending mushrooms and hemp oil together. And this is the thing that I keep them separate. So my mushrooms are separate from my hemp because hemp is oil and mushrooms or water. So they could be taken together and they're amazing together.

And I add other adaptogens to them, but I don't have them together for that reason, because they, it's more bio available for the hemp to go. It's an oil to right into our mouth, But mushrooms are water like we are. So it literally can go in our, our water or in her food and it will have the same effect. Yes, good clarification. But your, but your premise or idea is wanting to blend them together for the protocol. Absolutely. Okay. Yes. Want to make sure that we have- And you had brought up energetics.

This is my favorite thing about cannabis. So also that cannabis is the queen. She's the Queen of all adaptogens. It is called the endocannabinoid system after her. Literally will take the energetics of a hot herb or a cooling herb and if that body needs the opposite, it will adapt and change the energy of it. So a lot of times turmeric is very warming. And I'll have people worried that tumor is warming and that they, you know, maybe shouldn't give it to their, give the ease to the dog. And like, yeah, but it's combined with cannabis.

So if that dog shouldn' have that warming herb, it will literally change the energetics of it. That's the other beautiful thing about the adaptogen. so that's why I call cannabis the queen of all adaptogens. Cause she literally will make sure everything you put with her will be perfect for that body that it is going into. Nice, nice, good to know, all right, we gotta tell everybody Angela where they can find you, where can they find all your products, because I know you have your website, Angelina, now I'm mixing your, I need, I need some more clarity.

I'm just going to take some really fast here. So clarity is my favorite clarity when I, so we already have, it's an atropic. Also just did my first clinical research on it on dogs suffering from CCD, which is basically doggy dementia. And we had an 82% success rate improvement, sorry, improvement rate on dog. That we're taking it, meaning we reversed dementia, Um, great. I'm going to get an FDA letter for saying that, but I did that and was able to do that with these herbs. Watch this. And I have to tell this story.

If you'll indulge me, I had an old, a senior dog rescue. So here I was putting cancer into remission, stopping seizures, getting dogs who weren't walking again, exploding giant MCT tumors was doing it all. And then, and on old dogs, then I had this case where she missed Daisy. She was 16 at this point, getting up, going over to the water bowl, standing there, looking at it, not drinking, Going back, laying back down and doing it four times in a row. And I'm just watching it. It wasn't until my partner said, I think she has Alzheimer's.

I was like. Who were you and why do you, what makes you say that? Because his dad passed from Alzheimer's and he taught me that you lose the ability to swallow and chew. You forget how to do it. you don't lose. The thirst or the hunger, you just forget. And that literally ripped my heart out. I was like, What? So I lost her to CCD, not even knowing about it. And that's when I started the deep dive. That's where I found these no tropics. I was like, all right, well, we've got all this proof on these and tropic.

Let's put them together and watch it so the next dog or the net all the other older dogs that I would get, and my sole dog who was also about to turn 16. Like I'm not losing him to this. So literally created that. Now we just did a research study to prove it and watched. These dogs, those that were experiencing mild to moderate literally. brought them back to normal. Those that were at severe symptoms got better, but it literally, it's what our brain needs. These no tropics are unbelievable. A stragglers route, Bocopa maneri, um, lion's mane all have already been proven to regrow our telomeres, regenerate neurons.

That's. F and incredible that these mushrooms and plants do this. Um, so anyway, the study's called the senior dog study. If you want to look it up. And as you know, in research, they always started usually for humans started in vitro and then go to mice and rats, and I just proved it worked in dogs. So I'll just leave it at that. You can come to your own conclusions, but my website is Angela artelino.com. Um, everything that I make is human grade and take myself, But I do specialize in pets, um, and animals, uh, because I love them and that's my intention.

And I also have a podcast called your natural dog podcast, which you're going to be a guest on. Yes, such a good podcast. I've already geeked out on quite a few of them because it's stuff that people ask me about for, you know, like, what about this for my pets? And I'm like a naturopath. But I don't know. You know? Sure. That's what we're going to talk about. And that's where you're talking about on my podcast is the fact that there is not natriopathic doctors in the pet space. And what a difference and what is missing and how confusing that is, um, even for the few holistic that you can actually find.

Like you said, holistic is now a marketing term. A hundred percent, especially in the clinic that I went to, they have no clue. And you walk into a holistic. I'm using quotation marks, holistic vet and all the flea and tick, uh, poisons are sitting there in their little counter. That's not a holistic bet. Turn around and go out off is everywhere too. Yes. Thank you. You see those prescription? Nope. Get it out. And honestly, it is really hard to find a true holistic, um, veterinarian. If you are seeking one, the best way to get with them is telehealth.

So go get your labs done. Or you can meet with them, get the blood work. If you need x-rays, Get it done. This is what I do. And then I go send them to my holistic vet. Then I did telehealth with. Matter of fact, not only do I tele-health, I, go, this is the protocol I was going to do, what do you think? And you do that a several times over a couple of years. They're going, you got it. You got. Because that's the way it should be. But yeah, it's very different for our pets than it is for. Our humans.

Yeah, It makes me sad. It. Makes me really sad and you know, thinking I was trying to find someone that would align and and yes, I've since found some folks online that are that. Are great, but you. Know for those folks who aren't, you, know as savvy, this is one of the reasons I want to do this podcast to is to put the word out there that there are. you know, folks we can look for, there are products we use, things we do on our own because as far as I know even if I am a naturopathic doctor I can make recommendations for you and maybe your pet gets it too.

Yep. Absolutely. And what works for you works, for your pets too. There's literally like five things, uh, chocolate, um, onions, grapes, raisins. That's about it. I mean, I can't, try and think if I got everything, but literally there's one more. What is it? Yeah, there's probably one more. But honestly, guys, what works for us works, for them. That's the point across here. So instead of Angelina, angelaardolino.com guys head over there. I've now had my clarity, I hope that my brain will hold up now for this.

And MycoDog, that's mycodog. com too, right? That that a website too that you've got for the tinctures here And yeah, I really dig actually for human flavor on the Clarity. I like it. It tastes kind of smoky. Brian I have to coerce him on that one, but I've really liked that. And it's sweet. So I, because I evaporate the alcohol out, there's no alcohol in it and we preserve it in organic vegetable glycerin, which has a sweet taste to it. So a lot of dogs really like the taste. To me, I'm like, Oh my God, it's so much better than a tincture.

That's burning me from the. Which I hate that. And your dog and cat really hate it Really don't get the animals, the alcohol tinctures. That is so huge to make sure we get that point across. Angela, thank you so much for coming on my podcast. I look forward to coming to yours, The Natural Dog Podcast, and we'll be talking about that here soon. Guys, we will link to that in the podcast notes at drjcrossnd.com. Yeah, I'm sure will have Angela back on about some more topics because there's so many things I wanted to ask you.

I think so many folks have only attention span for so long, but I would keep you here for hours because I have so other questions that I get. So maybe what we'll do is we will do a repeat or a follow-up podcast where I list out all the things I'm commonly asked about fun herbs. All righty. Well, thanks for listening, guys. You guys have a great day, whatever you're doing. Hey fellow health junkie, thanks for listening to the health fix podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast, subscribe, rate and review and just get that word.

Thanks again for