Keys to Health and Longevity

6 keys to a healthy, long life for pets

While Americans spend around $100 billion on their pets each year, few pet owners know what it takes to give their pets the healthcare they need to live long, healthy lives. 

Pet owners will often go to great lengths to meet every need of their beloved furry friends. The industry grew from $97.5 billion in 2019 to $99 billion in 2020, with pet owners splurging on everything from food and treats to pet sitting, toys and travel (American Pet Products Association).

Dr. Marlene Siegel, an integrative veterinarian in Florida, has made informing pet owners about a healthy, long life for their pets her mission. “Despite the fact that we have a pill for every ill and a diet for every disease, statistics about the pet health industry are shocking,” says Dr. Siegal. 

“It’s my intention to help you understand how to give your fur baby the longest, healthiest life possible.” 

Dr. Siegel was a traditionally trained veterinarian until a “life altering experience” changed the trajectory of her veterinary practice, as well as her personal life. 

Dr. Siegel says it’s no longer an option or a luxury to include alternative medicine into the care of pets because they are getting cancer at a rate of 60.5 percent. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, cancer is the leading cause of death in 47 percent of dogs, especially dogs over age 10.

Cats are not a lot better, says Dr. Siegel, with a cancer rate of 33 percent – a number that she thinks is highly under-reported. 

Add to that obesity, autoimmune disease, arthritis, allergies, and gastrointestinal disease, and nearly 100 percent of cats and dogs are expected to have some form of chronic disease over their lifespan. 

“What’s worse than that is that their life expectancy is down by seven years compared to 20 years ago,” says Dr. Siegel. 

Dr. Siegel offers six steps to help keep pets healthy and help them heal when they’re not. This includes supplying them with the essential nutrients that they need for their bodies, removing excess toxins and repairing their mitochondria when necessary. 

At the heart of her education for pet owners is helping them understand the source of poor pet health. “I think it’s important to understand how we got into this health mess,” says Dr. Siegel. 

According to Dr. Siegel, pet owners have been sold fast, cheap and convenient products when it comes to pet food. Knowing what will support pet health and longevity is key to accessing a better toolkit for pet health.

Consider an integrative veterinarian approach to pet healthcare

Dr. Siegel likes to remind pet owners that “You, as the pet parent, are part of the health team for your fur kids, You need to become knowledgeable because you are their advocate.” Dr. Siegel recommends a combination of Eastern and Western medicine for pet healthcare. This results in what she calls a “bigger, better toolkit that is more effective.” 

Dr. Siegel’s passion for helping pet owners access better veterinarian care for their beloved pets comes not only from her background as a veterinarian but also from personal experience.

When her youngest daughter was 10 years old, she and her showhorse, Lilyla Crew reigned nearly undefeated at the local, regional and national levels. “They weren’t just horse and rider, they were best friends.”

Lilly was a U.S. and Canadian National champion in three divisions until one event where something went very wrong. Lily got spooked and reared into the air. By some miracle, what could have crushed her daughter instead only wounded her pride. The horse pushed herself in the opposite direction of her daughter, hitting the ground nearby with a deafening sound. 

Equine veterinarians told Dr. Siegel to retire the horse to a pasture or put her down. That recommendation triggered a turning point for Dr. Siegel’s career, when the words, “there’s nothing more we can do” became unacceptable. 

She instead sought integrative solutions for Lilly. Five months later the amazing horse and rider duo went on to win the United States Reserve National Championship, the most prestigious youth show in the United States. 

This experience motivated Dr. Siegel to find a way to never have to say to a pet parent, “I am sorry. There is nothing more that I can do for you.”

An integrative approach to pet care

As a veterinarian, Dr. Siegel follows the traditional veterinary approach of all of her colleagues. But her personal experience as a “fur baby parent” and her years caring for beloved pets that patients consider family members have led her to approach veterinary care in a more holistic way as well. 

In addition to the full blood work that a traditional veterinarian will perform on pets, Dr. Siegel will also check for the following:

• Cancer markers
• Inflammatory markers
• Vitamin D, B12 and magnesium levels
• Heavy metals

Some of the tests she and her team recommend include the following:

• Thermography
• Live blood analysis to evaluate structured water in the body
• Bio energetic testing 

Whether a pet exhibits health problems or not, Dr. Siegel says her pet health toolkit always starts with appropriate food, clean structured water and essential nutrients.

Essential steps to help pets live longer, healthier lives

For every pet, whether healthy or not, Dr. Siegel recommends six steps to living a healthy, long life. This begins by stopping whatever causes pets’ problems in the first place and starting the care that will help pets live longer, healthier lives. 

Following are the steps Dr. Siegel recommends for a pet’s healthy, long life:

1. Stop polluting the body
2. Supply the essential nutrients that the body needs to do its job
3. Heal the leaky gut
4. Detoxify the organs of elimination
5. Support the mitochondria 
6. Clear trapped emotions

Here’s what that looks like in more detail.

Pollution: Improve your pet’s food, water and environment

1. Key to stop polluting your pet’s body is to stop buying fast, cheap and convenient products, says Dr. Siegel. Not only is this healthier for pets, but it could also encourage pet food manufacturers to respond by offering healthier products in order to cater to consumer demands.
2. Improve your pet’s water source. Studies have shown that tap water today has more than 60,000 toxic chemicals in it, many of which are carcinogens that are not filtered out by a refrigerator filter or by county municipalities.

Dr. Siegel instead recommends investing in a water system that is highly filtering. This means it removes heavy metals, insecticides, pesticides, fluoride and glyphosate. You then need a system that will remineralize the water with vital minerals like calcium, iron, copper and more. Look for a system that does either electrolysis to split the water molecule or one where the water reacts with magnesium. Any water system for yourself or for your pet should have proven scientific testing and certification.

Essential Nutrients: Provide the right supplements

Traditionally, humans and pets should get all the nutrients they need naturally from food. However, today’s farming practices mean that soil is typically depleted, even when food is organic. This makes providing supplemental essential nutrients imperative, according to Dr. Siegel.

Heal the gut: Look beyond the symptoms

When a pet does show signs of a health issue, Dr. Siegel offers the following advice: “Don’t stop with looking at the symptom. All disease starts with either a deficiency of an essential nutrient that the body needs to do its job, or there’s an overload of toxicity that inhibits the body from operating and functioning properly. And in most cases, it’s a combination.”

Both a deficiency of an essential nutrient or an overload of an environmental toxin can lead to leaky gut in pets, according to Dr. Siegel. Like in humans, this is a circuitous cycle. Leaky gut leads to inflammation and inflammation leads to leaky gut. 

What this means is that the barrier that keeps things from passing into a pet or human body becomes compromised. Toxins that enter the gut go right into the bloodstream and then are carried to the liver.

It’s then the liver’s job to mount the inflammatory response to get rid of these invaders. The problem, says Dr. Siegel, is that “in today’s modern society the invaders never stop coming in so the liver never stops producing the inflammation.” 

To heal this, pets need fermented foods that will restore their microbiome.

Detoxification is critical 

Dr. Siegel sees many pets that need detoxification, especially in the organs of elimination: the kidney, colon and lungs. She says, “I see so many animals where organs of elimination are just bogged down, and they’re not able to do their job.”

In Dr. Siegel’s opinion, the liver and the lymphatics are the most important organs of elimination because they have to do the heavy lifting to detoxify. She and her team recommend focusing on those two organs the most.

Support the mitochondria

There are many different ways to support the mitochondria so that pets will have more energy and better communication throughout the body. This includes: 

• Ozone 
• Pulse electromagnetic resonance
• Hyperbaric oxygen
• Infrared therapy
• Sound and light frequencies
• Nutraceuticals
• Coffee enemas (consult the holistic veterinarian before you do this at home first) on your pets. 
• Hormetic stressors

Clear trapped emotions

Dr. Siegel works with pet owners and their pets to help them “clear trapped emotions because diseases are a result of “dis-ease.”  Dr. Siegel says this happens as a result of “trapped emotions.” 

Some of the integrative pet treatments Dr. Siegel and her team perform include the following:

• Photobiomodulation, which is a light therapy
• Ozone therapy, which is the process of administering ozone gas into your body to treat a disease or wound
• Lymphatic therapy
• Acupuncture
• Pulse electromagnetic frequencies with pica tesla-ranged frequencies. 
• Sound frequency
• Therapeutic lasers
• Chiropractic molecular hydrogen
• Light therapy
• Salt booth
• Hyperbaric oxygen
• Photoactivators
• Platelet-rich plasma
• Prolotherapy
• Infrared full spectrum saunas
• Herbs
• Oils
• Homotoxicology

Finally, Dr. Siegel recommends taking everything in stride. “You have to have trust and faith that everything happens for your highest and best good. There’s also no coincidence that you have a fur member in your family right now, with whatever challenge they may be having at this time in your life. Everything has significant meaning.”

Dr. Marlene Siegel is best known for integrating holistic treatment options with traditional veterinary medicine. Since 1987, she has relentlessly pursued the cause of disease in animals and formulated treatment regimens that save lives. She is founder of EvoLove Raw – a proprietary raw pet food for dogs and cats. Dr. Siegel continues to treat pets at her practice in Lutz, Florida and is also a frequent speaker and lecturer across the country.