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deficiencies were due to nutrient loss while fighting the disease, but recent studies suggest many of the nutrients are WITHDRAWN from the blood and sequestered in various tissues AWAY from the pathogen BY THE BODY; that is, it is a physiological response to fight disease.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]