THE IMPACT OF EATING ON CELLULAR ECOLOGY:
 
Additional support of the "starve a fever" adage comes from the
evolutionary medicine camp.  Much recent work has been done regarding
disease ecology and the role of micronutrients in the progression of
disease.  Some of this work stems from the observation that victims of
some cancers and infections tend to have lower blood levels of specific
trace nutrients, usually (but not always) trace metals such as iron.  It
was always thought these deficiencies were due to nutrient loss while
fighting the disease, but recent studies suggest many of the nutrients
are WITHDRAWN from the blood and sequestered in various tissues AWAY
from the pathogen BY THE BODY; that is, it is a physiological response
to fight disease.
 
The withdrawal of nutrients is designed, like a fever, to weaken the
invader.  What this does is change the ecology of the body, making it
harder for biological invaders to gain a foothold, as well as starve or
weaken those invaders that have already made it in by withdrawing needed
trace nutrients.  These reduced nutrients can be LIMITING FACTORS to
invading cancer cells and bacteria, slowing or stopping their growth and
reproduction.  It is as if the body says, "I can afford to go hungry for
a few days as long as you starve or weaken and my defenses kill you."
 
Both of these responses (withdrawal of nutrients and immune response) can
be sidetracked if you start feeding sick ferrets nutritionally dense
foods at the wrong time, such as some variations of duck soup.  It boils
my blood to hear someone say to another, "Your ferret sounds like they
are low in [name a nutrient here]; you should give them some of my duck
soup -- it saved my ferret's life!" My gosh, people!  Just because you
are anemic, it doesn't mean the anemia is due to iron deficiency!  If
that anemia is due to a pathogen that requires iron to survive, adding
iron supplements to the diet may worsen the condition by feeding the
disease!  That is why you need to see a vet and ask BEFORE you start
supplementing your ferret's diet.  While the feeding of nutritionally
dense foods appears on the surface to be a good idea, it may in fact be
exactly the wrong thing to do if your desire is to maximize the ferret's
internal defense systems for combating disease, including those that
withdraw nutrients from invading pathogens.  It's like what the old
farmer said, "You can't kill weeds by watering them."
 
Finally, many of the supplements added to duck soup are dangerous, even
poisonous, and many have never been tested for their short- or long-term
effects in humans, much less ferrets.  Remember the FML discussion on
ephedra last year?  What was once touted as safe because it was untested,
is now seen as so dangerous as to be banned when more information become
known.  Each time you use untested supplements you are, in effect, doing
unsanctioned medical testing on your fuzzy.  If you don't think ferrets
should be used as lab animals, then you should think about what you are
doing when you feed them untested and unproved duck soup potions.
 
This is not to say all supplements lack value; many are very beneficial
and effective.  It is just that our knowledge of most of these
supplements and their impact on ferrets is spotty.  Complicating the
debate is a lack of easily referenced, neutral information on the
subject.  If interested, there is a great link to an impartial herbal and
alternative supplement page by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
(http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11570.cfm), where you can read UNBIASED
accounts of many alternative treatments and herbal supplements.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4406]