While awaiting the return of the next series of Ad Libitum posts from
one of my reviewers (he had a death in the family), I'll take a moment
to answer a few questions the ad libitum series has generated.
 
Q: "Can you tell me that dietary restriction will make my ferret
    healthier?"
 
A: Sure, right after I predict the lottery.
 
When Barry Bonds was stepping up to the plate during the last World
Series, could ANYONE predict if he would hit a home run or strike out?
Of course not; the best you could do was to statistically predict a
CHANCE of hitting a home run.  That is all you are doing when you predict
health problems, such as those caused by ad libitum overnutrition.  It is
ALSO the reason ancedotal evidence is so misleading.
 
Suppose I feed my ferret nothing but crappy food, and it lives to the
ripe age of 14 years subsisting on walnuts, dog food and stale donuts.
Someone else feeds their ferret wholesome rabbits, and it lives to be
8 years old.  Neither example has much value in relation to the effects
of such diets on the overall ferret population.  In studies of disease,
ageing, longevity, diet, and the like, results are projected to
POPULATIONS, with the likelihood of any one outcome occuring figured as a
statistical probability.  If the population is large enough, then someone
usually wins the lottery and lives to 14 years, REGARDLESS of diet.  And
some manage to lose the lottery, even after doing everything right, and
die at 8 years.
 
I know this intimately.  I suffer from a genetic autoimmunity disease
that produces extremely painful symptoms similar to a severe case of
Lupus.  It caught me unaware; being adopted I had little knowledge of
my parental genetic contributions.  Triggered by an injury, the disease
manifested itself during my early 40s, and since then I have had at
least two major medical proceedures per year.  Needless to say, it has
disrupted my social, academic, and family life.  BUT, the real problem
is I may have passed it on to my children, and we won't know until they
reach their 40s.  There is a STATISTICAL chance that they will suffer
the hell I have been subjected to, albeit a small one.  But pointing to
either one of them and saying, "You're next" or "You're safe" is
impossible.
 
I cannot tell you that following health-promoting dietary practices will
cause your ferrets to live longer.  All I can say is that in the ferret
population as a whole, restricting the caloric intake by 20-30% should
translate as an extra 6 months to a year of life, or more.  And THAT is
better than the probability that Bonds will hit another 70+ home runs
next year.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 3975]