Shirley wrote:
>Another thing that always cuts me to the quick is when folk write that
>they started to give their ferrets Bob C's Chicken Gravy when it got
>insulinoma.  Now it wont go back to kibble any more.  Would you go
>back to a diet that was probably the cause of the disease in the first
>place????
 
This is important, Shirley: the concept that carbohydrates in the diet
are even *a* cause or *a contributing cause* for insulinoma has NOT been
proven.  It is a hypothesis, in fact it is based upon a group of about a
half dozen hypotheses in a chain.  Even in humans where more testing has
occurred a lot of that is hypothetical, but in humans two recent studies
(one huge and one very large) have knocked a lot of that thinking on its
tush.  Remember, that these hypotheses among the species, including the
one for ferret insulinoma begin with hypotheses and partial studies
involving diabetes (not insulinoma).  I think that I posted about the
huge study (the one with many thousands of older women) so check past
posts, or look here:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG16475
about the Women's Health Initiative of the National Institutes of Health
which recently released diabetes and diet findings from a huge study on
human women, about 49,000 ranging from ages 50 to 79 over a space of 8
years.  The more recent study was specifically on glycemic index and
was headed by Dr. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, a diabetes researcher at the
University of South Carolina in Columbia with the study, published in
the current British Journal of Nutrition, showing that there was no
association between high-GI eating habits and elevated blood sugar among
813 adults who were followed over 5 years.
> The findings, Mayer-Davis said, reinforce the notion that GI is
> "simply not a good index of how food impacts blood sugar."
 
Each is well worth looking up, even though we are talking very different
species, because we are talking about the same core hypotheses.  Check
them out.
 
Here is the most recent write-up work on the insulinoma hypothesis
for ferrets by the concept's originator:
 
Dr Mark Finkler, JEMM&S, volume 2.2, Dec 2004
Although he does tend to believe it he is very fair, very professional,
and has a real researcher's attitude because he makes a strong point of
letting people know how and why the various components are hypothetical.
He also points out that the chain of hypotheses begins with diabetes work
in cats, not insulinoma in ferrets.
 
Personally, with some much new information being found about the pancreas
(two new examples include functions of melatonin, and the presence of
estradiol receptors) I think that it is well past time that people
EMPHASIZE what is hypothetical and what is not in relation to insulinoma
because the fact of the matter is that the actual causes are NOT known.
They are hypothesized, but they are hypothesized from a concept which is
turning out to be more full of holes than had been expected.  That is not
to say that there might not still be data there; there may be, but it
could be different from what was anticipated.  Might it still turn out
that carbohydrates in the diet play a part?  Sure.  Might that not turn
out to be the case?  Also, sure.  That is the very nature of hypotheses.
 
Is there one heck of a lot still that is unknown about the pancreas?
You can bet your booties on that one.
 
The things that I always keep coming back to from my early years with
ferrets is that insulinoma was virtually unknown a couple of decades ago
and longer -- very, very rare -- and that included the people then who
fed kibble as well as the people then who fed prey and milk sops, even in
areas with "exotics" vets.  Personally, I suspect that something changed.
Was it the heavy breeding of so many fancies, especially those with
neural crest genetics, in the U.S.?  Perhaps.  Certainly, the kit
oncogene has been connected in other species with increased malignancy
rates, if that is one of the more common neural crest variants in ferrets
(and it might be.
See: http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=YG3069 ,
which is from a classical genetics professor and statistician, and see
some posts in Ferret-Genetics:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Genetics/ ,
some of which are also from professional geneticists, both molecular and
classical).  Certainly, husbandry has changed, and even what is in homes
has changed since the earlier years.  There is a #$^&-load of variables
unaccounted for.
 
So, until there is actual, well challenged, rigorous testing it is really
important to separate the choice to believe in a hypothesis until there
is more data, from what is actually known.  That is only most fair.
 
We are all talking nothing more than hypotheses when it comes to
discussing possible causes of insulinoma in ferrets, and THAT is the
only thing which is actually KNOWN.  Beyond that, we all each just trying
our own bests with incomplete data, and that is all that anyone can do.
Because the data are so incredibly fragmentary choices will vary, and
there is nothing wrong with that.  Heck, that is why the topic is so
worth discussion in the first place.  Right?
 
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List co-moderator
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives fan
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
replacing
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress advisor
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5187]