Food as medicine
Question: When is food more than just a source of nutrition? Answer: When a therapeutic diet is used to treat disease.
Pet food has come a long way. We used to feed our dogs and cats whatever was left over in our kitchens. Then, companies developed and marketed food made specifically for dogs and cats, and later for puppies and kittens. Only relatively recently have veterinarians and nutritionists realized that foods could be used to manage disease.
Arguably the first animal condition to be treated in large part through dietary modification was chronic kidney disease, and special diets still play a role in its management. Here’s how we do it.
The kidneys excrete waste products from the body. When kidney function declines, toxins start to build up within the bloodstream and adversely affect health.
So, why not feed a food that minimizes the production of these waste products in the first place? An ideal kidney diet contains moderate levels of high quality proteins — enough protein to meet the body’s needs, but not so much that the kidneys have to work overtime excreting the waste products generated by its breakdown. These diets also have other characteristics (e.g., low phosphorous and sodium levels) that help pets suffering from kidney failure feel better and live longer.
This doesn’t mean that diet alone is sufficient to treat kidney failure, although this may be the case in the disease’s early stages. As the condition progresses, however, patients typically do require fluid therapy and medications, but dietary management still plays an important role.
The newest addition to the therapeutic diet armamentarium is a food that controls hyperthyroidism in cats. Most cases of this disease are caused by a benign tumour within the thyroid gland that oversecretes thyroid hormone. Affected cats typically lose weight despite having a ravenous appetite and are at high risk for heart disease.
Up until now, veterinarians could offer three options for treating a hyperthyroid cat: a medication called methimazole that has to be given twice daily for the rest of the cat’s life, surgically removing the thyroid gland, or radioactive iodine treatment.
All of these protocols have potential benefits and risks, so veterinarians, nutritionists and other scientists start thinking about another way to approach treatment. Thyroid hormone production is dependent on an animal’s intake of iodine. What would happen if we fed hyperthyroid cats a food that contained very low levels of iodine? It turns out that within just a matter of weeks, the cats’ thyroid hormone levels drop and their symptoms dramatically improve. This is a new product so we can’t make any final judgments yet, but the study findings and initial reports appear promising.
I’ve seen the importance that diet can play in managing disease in my personal as well as professional life. My son Denver has epilepsy. He used to take nine pills a day to control his seizures, but his condition is now well-controlled with diet alone. Just one more example of the power of food.