This blog has been created to share our story with SARDS, Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome. My beloved dog Shasta is an Alaskan Malamute/German Shepherd mix and she is only 5 1/2 yrs old. This blog discusses our journey from the time of her diagnoses and through the trial and tribulations of treatment. Don't worry...it has a happy ending so please read further.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Shasta's Diagnosis and Protocol
8/20/13 - Shasta's EI-1 lab results came back today. Dr. P's prediction was correct. Shasta's cortisol is deficient, her total estrogen was high and her IgA was low. Actual test results will be in an upcoming post. Dr. P. is the expert on these labs results and the endocrine balance protocol. He has collaborated with other experts in the medical field and studies in medical journals have shown that Adrenal Exhaustion is real in humans and animals.
Dr. P's explanation of Shasta's lab results:
"Shasta does have my syndrome and her imbalances not as severe as most dogs that have SARDS so beginning treatment as soon as possible may help Shasta have some eyesight returned. Shasta is producing a defective cortisol from her middle layer adrenal cortex, that cannot fund the negative feedback to her pituitary gland. When this occurs, her pituitary gland keeps producing its hormone referred to as ACTH which causes direct feedback from the inner layer adrenal cortex which in turn produces elevated amounts of adrenal estrogen and that is why Shasta's estrogen level is at 35.13.
Her elevated adrenal estrogen causes the following problems: It causes the immune system to stop all protection of the body while also causing the immune cells to lose recognition of self-tissue and cause allergies, autoimmunity (SARDS) and cancer. NOTE: the loss of sight is the least of these patients problems if sent home only thinking that the patient will be blind.
The elevated estrogen binds the receptor sites of her thyroid hormone which are also deficient. The elevated estrogen also causes the B lymphocyte to depress its production of protective antibody and when the mucous membrane antibody referred to as IgA is below 58, oral steroids including many oral supplements will not be properly absorbed.
The suggested protocol:
T4 supplement twice daily beginning immediately
Since her IgA is at 57, she will probably only need one intramuscular injection of a combination steroid consisting of Vetalog or Kenalog mixed with Depomedrol. !0 days after injection Shasta would begin oral Medrol once daily.
I spoke with my vet and she suggested consulting with the internist about the results of the labs. I didn't want to waste anymore time because she already explained to me what she believed without considering Plechner's research. My vet was not comfortable enough with what she had read and was not convinced in Plechner's theory and therefore was not willing to treat Shasta with his protocol. I do not blame her as I spent hours on end researching this stuff since the day Shasta went blind and to be fair a general practitioner is helping hundreds of dogs a week with other illnesses (her office is open 7 days per week btw) and admits that she is not an expert on this and that is why she has put her faith in the experts she has worked with for many years. So... I figured I'll fight this battle later... moving onward.
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This is part of what is maddening. The conventional system has no treatment but prefers to let the dogs go blind and not try to save any of their vision, leave the dogs with imbalanced hormones and not stop a dangerous auto-immune process rather than listen to a man who worked on over 100,000 animals in his career, saved many from auto-immune diseases, as well as other diseases, and treated about 100 SARDs dogs from all over the world,many of them successfully. The lab tests make the problem evident. It is there in black and white on the lab tests for all to see. But they insist on not listening and letting the dogs go blind, instead of trying his treatment protocol.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Dr. Plechner was correct in his theory that the estrogen was the cause. Yet I know the power of his treatment protocol from many years of personal experience with it in animals with a range of diseases.
Dr. Plechner's theoretical mistake was that he saw the animal was sick when estrogen was in excess, and well when it was not in excess. So he blamed the excess estrogen. But he forgot that the estrogen is high when cortisol and thyroid hormones were lacking in the system, and he gave those two hormone, both of them in most dogs. So what really was happening was an imbalance of three hormones, not one--a deficiency of cortisol and thyroid, and an excess of estrogen. Thyroid and cortisol are vital for both the metabolism of oxygen and for lowering inflammation and free radical stress. They are essential to creating oxygen homeostasis which is vital not only to the proper function of the immune system but to the entire oxygen based biochemistry of the body. Yes, estrogen in excess is known to be inflammatory, but the excess estrogen alone is not the cause, and this was a real mistake in Plechner's theory about why what he did worked. What matters most is that his protocol worked. But the Plechner Synddrome is much more far reaching and important than just excess estrogen, and the excess estrogen alone cannot be identified as the cause of SARDs. Dr.Plechner was a genius clinician,but did not understand the bigger picture as it goes down into molecular base of the biochemistry about why his treatment protocol works so brilliantly. At its base, It ends up being all about oxygen and free radical stress. The game is electron electron who has got the electron. Electrons from the oxygen molecule fuel the body by furnishing the energy to create ATP. But there is no free lunch and they create free radical stress, which if it is not quenched damages DNA and cells, and mitochondria and everything else. Thyroid hormone and cortisol are two vital regulators of the oxygen homeostasis--the balance of the oxygen system. They are both critical to the immune system, When thyroid and cortisol are insufficient, nothing can work normally in the body. Dr.Plechner grabbed control of the central regulating mechanism of the oxygen metabolism system. That is how he so elegantly and swiftly was able to balance the systems of the animals he worked on. He provided the proper commands with the hormones, and with diet he provided the necessary raw materials, the minerals for the enzymatic systems necessary for metabolism, as well as hypoallergenic digestive enzymes (when needed) to make the raw materials enter the system. Dr. Plechner gets the prize for the vet who did the most with the simplest of means. A true genius clinician. And even better, one with a heart.