0:05

This podcast is supported by Americans for Medical

0:07

Progress and was founded and created through the Michael

0:09

D Hare Fellowship , awarded annually

0:11

to support projects that inform and educate the public

0:13

about the critical role of animal research

0:16

in furthering medical progress . The

0:18

Fellowship honors the late Dr Michael Hare

0:20

, a renowned board-certified laboratory animal

0:22

veterinarian who dedicated his career to

0:24

scientific and medical advancements and who was deeply

0:26

committed to animal welfare and advocacy

0:28

. Hey

0:33

, everyone , welcome into the February edition

0:35

of the Labrat Chat NewsBite

0:37

episodes . I know it's been a while

0:39

. It's been what , danielle , since

0:42

did we do it December 1 ? I think it's been

0:44

November .

0:44

I don't think so .

0:45

So December , january , two months off .

0:47

A little holiday break . I

0:49

think in November we promised we were going to do better

0:51

and then we didn't .

0:52

So sorry , just promises

0:55

get broken kids .

0:56

But they shouldn't .

0:58

My daughter's trying to make me promise everything

1:01

and I refuse . I

1:03

don't promise them anything ever

1:05

that I'm going to do , because you never know .

1:07

Yeah .

1:08

And they have a memory . I

1:10

don't want them to grow up and remember .

1:12

The dad broke a promise .

1:14

Right . So

1:16

anyways , we'll just call

1:18

it a little hiatus , a little holiday break

1:20

. You know tough around the holidays and

1:22

all that . Here we are , february , february

1:25

8th today , full swing

1:27

Mardi Gras season down here in Louisiana

1:29

.

1:29

Oh , very nice .

1:31

So I have to get you down here One of these years

1:33

. When is Mardi ?

1:34

Gras Like is it a day or a week

1:37

?

1:37

So I don't know the complete , like

1:39

I don't know how they figure

1:41

out what day it changes every year and

1:44

so this like next Tuesday is

1:47

Mardi Gras day the 13th .

1:48

Okay .

1:49

Okay , but sometimes it's like in March , and

1:52

so I don't know exactly how it's

1:55

all figured out . But I

1:57

guess maybe next time I'll do some research on it

1:59

for you guys . Claire knows , but

2:01

she's not here .

2:02

We should have Claire come on as a guest at some

2:04

point , then Right , we'll interview

2:06

you on the history of Mardi Gras . That's kind of fun

2:08

. We totally should Next time Tell Claire get

2:11

ready .

2:12

Okay , and there's

2:15

a ton of dog parades , so animal

2:17

related during Mardi Gras , so those are cool

2:19

, okay . So last week

2:21

, as a company like

2:24

, we're usually open Saturdays but half day

2:26

, so we closed and there's a morning

2:28

Mardi Gras parade out here in the city . That

2:31

was the first parade I've ever been in . I've

2:33

took the whole family out through stuff

2:35

. It was like a huge turnout . You wouldn't think too many people

2:37

. There's thousands of people there to

2:39

watch people march with dogs and

2:41

you throw dog treats and dogs

2:44

going wild everywhere running around eating

2:46

treats . It's a little chaotic , so

2:50

but it was fun . It was fun . But

2:52

yeah , mardi Gras , mardi

2:54

Gras my new favorite holiday

2:56

Now that we live out here , but it goes on for weeks

2:59

, like parades start in January

3:01

and they'll have parades every

3:04

weekend up until , like the

3:06

week leading up to Mardi Gras . There's

3:08

parades every day of the week , like

3:11

all day , so it's

3:14

a little crazy . It's a little crazy

3:16

, it's a little bit more like a day

3:18

out here where we live but

3:20

more like in the city yeah . Yeah

3:22

, so , cool .

3:23

Yeah .

3:24

So but that's other than that we haven't done

3:26

really anything too exciting , and I

3:28

do apologize for background barking

3:30

and noise . It's unavoidable

3:33

today , the whole family's home , I think . In the

3:35

four years which is unbelievable that

3:37

we've been doing this podcast , I

3:39

don't think I've ever recorded just

3:41

like in the house with my whole family home .

3:44

Yeah , so it'll be an adventure . Yeah

3:46

, and this is the first time I don't know if my whole family's

3:48

home , I think one of them would go get that dog and make him be quiet , because

3:50

they know what we're doing . You'd

3:53

think , but they're just laughing at you .

3:55

Right , no , I'm sure they're encouraging it .

3:58

So , then , my update is this is the first

4:00

time in four years of recording that I've recorded from

4:02

my house alone , without

4:05

people here , because

4:07

my life updates and

4:09

why I've been unable to podcast record

4:12

. I am sort

4:15

of switching from like well , I am

4:17

switching . I no longer work full time , I

4:19

now work part time from my house

4:21

.

4:21

Congratulations .

4:23

And then in May , when my kids

4:25

get out for summer break , I will no

4:27

longer be working . So this is sort of my like

4:29

slow outro to

4:32

work and I'm kind of helping

4:35

, like transition information and train

4:37

new people and all that jazz you know

4:39

, on a part time basis .

4:42

Is there a new person yet ?

4:45

There's a new interim director

4:48

person but they posted

4:50

my job . But obviously it's too soon and you know

4:52

the state takes forever to hire people

4:54

.

4:55

Yeah , they'll be hired by 2025 maybe

4:57

.

4:58

But you know , I'm like trying to like leave good

5:00

notes and paper trail and all that good

5:02

jazz . So like working from home is

5:04

like life changing , like I'm just

5:06

wearing an oversized hoodie today and it's magical

5:09

.

5:10

That is pretty nice , huh .

5:11

Like I don't have to put on fancy shirts anymore

5:13

, like it's just , it's nice . And the other

5:15

really super fun thing is because I have a

5:17

little extra time on my hands while the kids are at school , I

5:20

am getting back into horse riding which

5:22

is super fun .

5:23

It's already started .

5:24

I did . Oh , I've met with a trainer yesterday

5:26

and I have a lesson scheduled for next Monday

5:28

, but there's rain in the forecast

5:31

and this barn doesn't have an indoor ring , they just have

5:33

an outdoor one . So I'm like fingers crossed , like

5:35

don't you dare rain on my parade

5:37

, quite literally .

5:38

I say go out riding on the rain . You know what would

5:40

have cost her to you .

5:41

Well , you gotta watch the footing and the mud and I don't know , we'll

5:43

see . But I'm like super

5:46

pumped and I haven't

5:48

like ridden like

5:51

regularly in 16 years

5:53

. Like I grew up riding

5:55

I was a pretty good rider , but

5:58

like I pulled all my stuff down from like storage

6:00

, Like my helmet was like dry rotted

6:02

.

6:02

I'm like okay getting a new helmet . You still had all that stuff .

6:05

I hoarded it because it's like someday I'm getting

6:07

back into horse , it's like I'm doing it . And

6:09

then I went to put , like my chaps on and I was like , oh

6:11

, my legs have changed in

6:13

size , like those

6:16

don't fit anymore . And then , like , when I

6:18

met with the trainer yesterday I kind of joked . I'm like I don't

6:20

even know what the fashion is . You

6:22

know , I used to have full chaps and nobody even

6:24

sells full chaps . She goes oh yeah , that's

6:26

so like that was 2000s , like now

6:29

it's like you know the silicone , grippy

6:31

riding pants with half chaps . And I was like , oh

6:33

, my God , my fashion is so 2000s

6:35

. Like what just ?

6:36

happened . Right , you need to up your horse fashion

6:38

.

6:39

Yeah , but at the same time I freaking

6:41

loved riding in full chaps and I'm not going to

6:43

like go do showings . Like maybe I don't care and maybe

6:45

I just find a way to get new chaps , I don't

6:47

know .

6:48

She's not going to follow the trends . You're going to do what you

6:50

want to do .

6:50

I've never been one . Yeah , I've never been one for trends

6:52

, but what I will say is , if I

6:55

have horse riding listeners out there , please

6:57

send me links to your favorite

7:00

riding pants , your favorite

7:02

riding gloves , because I got to get a new pair of gloves

7:04

. I don't know what's cool and what's in

7:06

, and so like , spam the

7:09

like lab rat , chat , social medias with your suggestions

7:11

, because I also pulled

7:14

my old paddock boots out . Have like a pair of Ariott

7:16

paddock boots from the early

7:18

2000s , probably like the 1900s

7:21

, dare I say . Yeah , so outdated , yeah

7:23

, but like they still fit and they're fine . I shined them

7:25

up , but they're paddock boots . So , like I don't know , is

7:27

Ariott still like the cool brand ? Like I need

7:30

to know these things . The horse people spam

7:32

me with your best items

7:34

so I can start picking and choosing , because I'm

7:36

about to get like back into

7:38

it .

7:39

So he sound pretty pumped .

7:41

I'm so pumped , I'm so pumped . Oh my gosh

7:43

.

7:44

You didn't get your kids into it .

7:46

Yeah , oh , griffin . Griffin

7:48

already is like like , yeah , I want to ride a horse and I'm like , well , like

7:50

I don't maybe this

7:52

. This barn is like a smaller barn and they don't really have

7:54

show horses . The trainer has horses

7:56

that are in training and the owners

7:59

allow her to use them for lessons . So

8:01

they're not really horses that you'd want to go like put

8:03

your kid on . Yet but like I think as the

8:05

sparring grows it might turn into more of that . But

8:08

it's like new construction , it's a beautiful place

8:10

, it's just kind of like up and coming , so to

8:12

speak . So Nice . Very

8:15

excited and Morgan also

8:17

wants to ride horses , but she tells me

8:19

very specifically that it has to be a tiny pony

8:22

. She doesn't want to ride a horse , it's a tiny

8:24

pony . She

8:28

wants me to get her a tiny helmet because her head is smaller

8:30

than mine . She's very specific things . She's like no

8:32

, I want a tiny helmet and a tiny horse , a

8:34

pony , a unicorn ? Yeah , probably , well , she doesn't

8:37

really know , I haven't . I

8:39

haven't really done the whole unicorn thing because I'm

8:41

just so into horses that it's like , no , you're just going to have horse

8:44

imagery and not unicorns

8:46

and Pegasuses , pegasi

8:48

, pegasuses .

8:49

Yeah , I don't know . I don't know how that . I don't know I don't know

8:51

the plural of that one .

8:52

Yeah , yeah , it's more , more , just horse

8:54

, straight horse stuff around .

8:56

Yeah , I think . I think at least one of my

8:59

kids believes unicorns are real , so it's

9:02

okay .

9:03

I mean , do we know for sure that they're not ?

9:06

Correct .

9:07

I thought Norwhals were fake for a while

9:09

, until I realized that they are real and that's

9:11

a unicorn of the sea .

9:13

So yeah , those are kind of nuts . They

9:15

actually didn't believe me . They didn't believe me that those were

9:18

real creatures .

9:19

Yeah , like those actually are real . So

9:21

who's to say that there's not an actual unicorn out there ?

9:24

I don't think they're extinct though . Is that right ? I

9:26

mean , I don't know , I don't know .

9:27

I feel like everything is .

9:29

Just want to be nice to have like a producer that's like sitting in

9:31

listening to us and they could look these things

9:33

up for us and like beam into our ears factual

9:36

information and let us know . But we don't have that so

9:38

no . We'll

9:41

just look it up later . We're still looking at us now that

9:43

they're indeed like there's . Maybe they're like overwhelming

9:45

populations somewhere . Let

9:49

me step up out of I don't even know where they live . Like

9:53

are they live like in the Arctic .

9:54

I think they're cold weather . I think they look for

9:57

the like I see stuff . I

9:59

mean I'm pretty sure they're in the baby

10:02

beluga book that that

10:04

is all like Arctic , and I'm basing that you

10:06

know that's has to be a fact because it's a children's

10:08

book .

10:09

So right , there would be nothing wrong .

10:11

Yeah .

10:13

Okay .

10:14

All right Science Should we talk about

10:17

?

10:17

science . We should All

10:19

right . So my

10:21

two articles I'm going to talk about are

10:24

the first one's going to be about ants . And

10:28

actually , you know it's one of them . It's not going

10:30

to be the first one , but it's going to be about ants and how they can

10:32

. They can treat each other's wounds

10:34

and how we might be able to use

10:36

that information for ourselves one day

10:39

. And then the other one is about

10:41

mice and hopefully

10:43

providing some insight into better

10:45

allergy treatments for

10:48

humans .

10:48

Okay , I

10:52

have like I think this is going to be like

10:54

the best article

10:57

of our episode .

10:58

You have to stay in Excel , huh Okay .

11:00

Yeah , no , this is big . I'm actually surprised

11:02

you didn't find this article Pig

11:04

liver transplants to humans

11:06

potentially potentially Because

11:09

we've talked about hearts and maybe kidneys , but

11:11

now we're looking at livers . And then I also

11:13

found a study on with

11:16

mice involving . Well

11:18

, like it's about breast milk and everyone knows that breast

11:20

milk is beneficial , blah , blah blah . But it's like a new

11:23

mechanism in breast

11:25

milk that they hadn't really figured

11:27

out yet . So it's just kind of another cool piece

11:30

of that . You know mythical

11:32

science if you believe

11:34

in that . So Super .

11:37

All right , you want me to go first ?

11:39

Sure , I kind of want to know about

11:41

the ants . I know you said it might not be the first one , but I kind

11:43

of want to know .

11:45

I mean , I can always start with the ants .

11:47

Okay , do it .

11:49

Actually All right , starting

11:51

off with the ant story . So these

11:53

ants I don't know how to say

11:55

this type of ant Matabelle

12:00

M-A-T-A-B-E-L-E .

12:02

Matabelle Okay , ants Okay .

12:04

And there's a dog voraciously

12:06

, viciously , trying to break

12:08

in to this playroom to get to me where I'm at

12:11

.

12:11

Nice , I'm crying now , yeah .

12:13

Yeah , the

12:15

dog's not crying , that's

12:18

probably a kid . They're in

12:20

the sub-Saharan Africa and so

12:22

these Matabelle ants , metabelle

12:24

ants I don't know how you say it , I'm going to keep saying

12:26

it wrong they

12:29

can actually . They find out , they can identify and

12:32

then treat infected

12:35

wounds with antibiotics that they

12:37

actually produce themselves after

12:40

they get into these battles . So

12:43

, like I said , they live in the sub-Saharan Africa

12:45

, they live in these huge

12:47

colonies and they

12:49

only eat termites . And

12:52

so there's tons of termites out there , you've seen , like those giant

12:54

termite mounds and stuff . So

12:56

that's the only thing they eat . So they have to move their

12:59

big colonies to go find these termite

13:01

mounds and then they go and

13:04

attack . So as they start approaching the termite

13:06

troops also , like

13:08

you know , they try to defend their mouth . So

13:11

then it's like this huge war

13:13

of these ants versus termites

13:15

out there fighting each other . Oh

13:18

God , the ants typically

13:20

win , it sounds like , but afterwards

13:22

many of the ants

13:24

this is what it says many of the ants lose

13:26

legs or wings

13:29

or other parts of their body

13:32

in the battle , and they will

13:34

, I guess , after they eat

13:36

the termites and stuff , then they will take

13:39

their fallen ant

13:41

buddies back

13:43

to their nest . So they're to

13:45

their colony and they actually

13:47

will start licking the

13:50

wounds for several minutes and they didn't know why

13:52

they did it . I mean , obviously you assume that they're trying

13:54

to heal it . They just always said that they thought they're

13:57

like removing dirt to try to clean it . But

13:59

I guess they have these

14:01

little glands on their

14:03

backs , these meta-pleural

14:05

glands they're called and

14:08

that secretes a substance which

14:10

contains more than 50 different

14:13

antimicrobial and wound healing properties

14:15

. So they actually went in and they took

14:17

some of these ants and they extracted these

14:19

glands and looked at the chemical makeup

14:21

and saw that's made up of all these things . So as

14:23

they're licking their wounds , they're

14:26

taking the secretions from this gland

14:28

and off of their bodies and applying it

14:31

to the ants and it helps

14:33

them heal . And they found that they actually took

14:36

. The researchers

14:38

took some of the injured ants away from

14:40

the colony so that they couldn't be treated

14:43

by their fellow ant mates , and

14:45

90% of those ants died within 36 hours

14:47

, whereas the ones that they just left with the colony

14:50

only 22% of those ones

14:52

died . So clearly

14:54

the ants that's like mind boggling . Yeah

14:56

, they have life-saving antibiotics , so as they

14:59

lick the wounds , they

15:01

actually are healing them . So

15:03

I guess we're going to try to figure out more about this

15:05

chemical makeup

15:08

of the gland and maybe we could possibly

15:10

use it in treating all these antibiotic-resistant

15:13

wounds that we have , because wound healing

15:15

is a big issue and all that other stuff out there . So

15:18

just one more area to look into

15:20

and one more tool maybe

15:22

to help battle some of the antibiotic resistance

15:24

that's going on out there and

15:27

we use AI to make a photo of

15:30

a

15:32

field of ants with swords

15:34

and shields rolling up on

15:36

a termite mound and the termites have

15:39

tanks and helmets on and they're like

15:41

get back inside .

15:43

Can we make that photo happen ?

15:46

I mean , I don't know how to do that , but if

15:49

somebody out there knows how , that would be great .

15:51

Yeah , because that's all I was picturing .

15:52

I know you can make awesome AI art now . But

15:54

I know with chat , gpt

15:57

or whatever number it's on

15:59

now , I think you have to pay

16:01

to get artwork . The free stuff

16:03

just gives you the text .

16:05

Did you see the post I put on our

16:07

Instagram and Facebook with the ? Ai

16:09

conversion of my chickens ?

16:11

Yes , Because I

16:13

laughed out loud to myself yeah

16:16

, how does you ? Is that an app

16:18

that you use to do that ?

16:19

It's an app yeah , I

16:21

don't remember what it's called Wonder maybe but

16:24

you take a picture of your dog and you upload it and it turns

16:26

your dog into a cute little Pixar-looking dog . I

16:28

think it can only handle one animal

16:31

or two people and clearly can't

16:33

handle a group of feathery things . Because

16:36

I was just out dropping some sunflower

16:38

seeds for my birds , I took a cute picture

16:40

and I was like ooh , let's see what AI does with this

16:42

one and what it gave me

16:44

.

16:45

That's hilarious If you're listening and you haven't

16:47

seen it yet the bears are pretty hilarious , the

16:49

bears .

16:50

There's a girl out there riding the back of a chicken

16:52

. Go look

16:54

at our social media to

16:57

see the series of photos of the original

16:59

chicken photo . And then there was one

17:01

where they turned into red-nosed pigs

17:03

and one of them had a necklace on . I

17:05

don't understand that .

17:06

And then I mean , they're cool photos , they're

17:09

hilarious , which is how they get them .

17:10

And then there's one with the bears

17:13

who are shocked to see a small girl

17:15

in the . It makes no sense

17:17

. So I love AI . I hate

17:19

AI because it confuses me , but I also love it

17:21

.

17:23

It's really nice for work , sometimes Like

17:25

if I do a surgery I'll go

17:27

into the AI and just say

17:30

write a surgical report for the surgery , and

17:32

it is textbook .

17:34

Really .

17:35

Yeah .

17:35

Nice .

17:36

I mean , I think it just scours the literature

17:38

and textbooks out there and it writes exactly

17:41

. I mean , obviously you have to go in and edit things

17:43

. Yeah , that's how I got a lot

17:45

of my templates originally , because I just had to

17:47

do that and then I went and changed and edited things

17:49

to how they should be . But

17:51

it's a little crazy . Nice . What the

17:53

thing is that they can save so much

17:55

time but still needs

17:58

some oversight . You

18:00

got to review it , but anyways , yeah , all

18:03

right .

18:03

Well , I want to . Yeah , so that's about ants

18:05

. Yeah , that was much cooler than I

18:08

thought it was going to be .

18:09

Good .

18:10

So I'm going to just start big with my awesome

18:13

article and people will probably get bored after this because

18:15

now we will have given our two best articles . But

18:17

first ever pig liver

18:20

, not a transplant . So

18:22

this started out there was , unfortunately , a patient that

18:24

was brain dead . They knew that they were going to be taking the

18:26

patient off life support and

18:28

University of Pennsylvania was able to do

18:32

this experiment before that happened and they

18:34

kind of they

18:37

used the box that they hold livers

18:39

in before a transplant

18:42

. So it's like a environmental chamber that keeps

18:44

the liver happy between patients . If

18:46

you had a human liver to a human liver . So they had

18:48

this genetically modified pig liver in

18:51

there and they have a cool picture of it with all the tubes

18:53

and things hooked up to it . And

18:55

they hooked it up to the patient

18:57

and were able to keep the

19:00

pig liver alive . The pig liver

19:03

successfully filtered blood

19:05

and everything else that livers do back

19:07

to the patient for 72 hours . The

19:09

article doesn't say if maybe 72

19:11

hours was just the max that the hospital

19:14

allowed . It doesn't say if it started to fail after

19:16

72 hours . I'm thinking it might have just been a 72

19:18

hour endpoint to the experiment and

19:22

the pig liver I think

19:24

it came from a pig with 69 modifications

19:27

. I read a different article last night than

19:29

the one I found this morning and I think the one I found last night

19:31

mentioned it was 69 genetic modifications

19:33

. But the implications

19:36

of this would be , you know , there's like 10,000

19:38

people on the liver transplant list

19:40

and you've got people in acute liver

19:42

failure . And if you can have even

19:45

a temporary pig liver that can

19:47

filter and do the job of a liver for

19:49

72 hours or longer

19:51

, or maybe you , you know , get

19:53

a new liver every week or something from a different

19:55

pig but if you can keep those people alive longer

19:57

to get them on a transplant plant list or

20:00

allow their liver to heal

20:02

in I don't know how long it

20:04

takes livers to heal , but , like , maybe there's a way to kind of give

20:06

your own liver arrest , use one of these livers and

20:09

, you know , help people stay alive

20:11

longer . So this is super exciting

20:14

. Another kind of article about , you know , the

20:16

future of genetically modified pig

20:19

organ transplants .

20:21

It seems like the world of pig

20:23

organ transplant plants

20:25

is just growing rapidly .

20:27

It's crazy . Yeah , it

20:29

seems the most feasible because it's

20:31

not like a permanent . Like gosh , you know , if you

20:33

have a heart transplant , like you got one shot with that

20:35

thing , like you know what I mean . It's

20:38

in your body , you had this surgery , but this is

20:40

like it's external to your body , it's just kind of operating

20:42

as a liver , because they've never made a machine

20:44

Like , yeah , for kidneys they have a dialysis

20:47

machine , but they don't have like a liver dialysis

20:50

machine . So this could

20:52

be a huge benefit

20:54

. And again , it's outside your body

20:56

. So if , like , the pig liver

20:58

fails , you

21:00

know you can maybe get another one , or like

21:02

it just seems like you have a more wiggle

21:05

room for things that could go wrong .

21:06

Right , or maybe you could switch back to your

21:08

own liver for a little bit , for a little bit Like yeah

21:11

, it's not like you know , if you have a pig heart in your chest

21:13

and it gives way , then you're done . So

21:15

yeah , and depending on what's going on

21:18

, like you said , could possibly regenerate

21:20

itself and heal itself a little bit in the meantime

21:22

. And yeah . And who knows , maybe eventually

21:24

go back to just your own liver after a certain

21:26

amount of time .

21:27

So super cool . I was pretty pumped

21:30

when I found this one , pretty pumped like a

21:32

liver pump , sorry .

21:36

That's lame .

21:37

I know I was joking , that was good . Edit that

21:39

out . No , just kidding .

21:43

We don't edit anything out .

21:45

I know you get what we say yeah

21:47

.

21:50

So I guess now it's into two . Exciting articles

21:52

are out the way . If

21:54

you want to go ahead and just turn the episode off , feel free . We

21:58

got two more though , all right , okay

22:01

. So my next one's about

22:03

a mouse study that

22:05

hints at a new way to counter allergies

22:08

. So I

22:10

always liked the way that , like journalists

22:13

and these writers start articles so

22:15

I could always kind of like read the beginning , like

22:17

they're so creative , but they're not really

22:19

. But it just starts with allergic to peanuts

22:21

, to cats , to pollen

22:23

, and that's how it starts . Nice

22:26

, okay , like just extra

22:28

words that we don't need . Like that's not drawn me into

22:30

the article .

22:32

Let me list some allergens that are common .

22:34

Yeah , have you had your kids allergy tested

22:36

for anything ? Just sidetracked ?

22:39

I have not but I do think that

22:41

Morgan might have , like she has like

22:43

a tentative asthma diagnosis now because

22:45

she has had a cough since August and we finally

22:47

found some like inhaler

22:49

meds that are working , but

22:52

I almost feel like it's like a allergen

22:54

that's . I don't know , we haven't yet , but it might

22:56

be in our future .

22:58

Yeah , yeah , I've

23:00

had that for a long time and see , she

23:04

put on some steroids and it finally went away

23:06

.

23:07

Yeah . Morgan's had five days of steroids

23:09

which helped it for five days , but then it

23:11

came back after the steroids . Yeah .

23:13

Yeah , anyways

23:16

, only because it's talking about allergic to peanuts , to cats

23:18

, to pollen . Well , I have allergy tests with

23:20

any of our kids . They all seem fine . But have

23:24

you heard of people ? Why are cockroaches

23:26

on the allergy panel for humans ? I

23:28

feel like it , think about it

23:30

though . Right . People are allergic . I

23:33

feel like Terminex has to sponsor that in

23:35

the profile . Yeah , make sure cockroaches

23:37

are on there .

23:40

No , but if you live in Louisiana , don't

23:42

you open your door and have I don't know ? I remember

23:44

one time we went down to my father-in-law's . He

23:47

had a condo down in Florida and

23:49

we opened the door and they

23:52

weren't cockroaches , but they were the what's the

23:54

Florida one , palmetto bugs . Am I making that up ? There

23:56

was four of them .

23:57

Yeah , they look like cockroaches .

23:59

Yeah , they do , and they just ran into

24:01

the apartment from the door frame because they were just chilling

24:03

in the door frame . I ran

24:05

in with my flip-flop and I just took my

24:07

flip-flop off and I started whacking them and my

24:10

husband he was my boyfriend at the time . He was looking at

24:12

me . He was like what just happened ? I'm like you got to get these

24:14

things . And he's like no , I know . He's like I'm impressed

24:16

. I was like okay .

24:18

But I mean if they're in your house yeah

24:21

, I mean , they get in . Yeah , but how

24:24

allergic are you to them

24:26

and the fact that they're just like even in your house

24:28

? You're going to have some sort of allergic reaction

24:30

.

24:30

Well , is it to them or is it to their like

24:33

urine and poop , like I feel , like that's

24:35

what would cause the allergic yeah

24:37

.

24:38

So but that's an exterminator company had

24:40

definitely sponsored that to be on there . And

24:42

then when he comes back and then they're like okay , well , now you

24:45

got to get an exterminator out there and make sure there's

24:47

no pesticides or make sure there's no cockroaches

24:49

. It's just re-diculose allergy

24:51

. Sorry , if you have it .

24:53

Yeah right , it's not first , it's insulted

24:55

. It's not personal , it's insulted all of our listeners

24:58

.

24:59

But anyways , all right , so anyways . So

25:01

there's no . So when you have allergies

25:04

you

25:06

have these mast cells . That when , in

25:08

response to an allergen , the mast cells dump all

25:10

of those histamines into the body and then that

25:12

those histamines incite

25:16

that a massive inflammatory response where you

25:18

get itchy eyes or sneezing or even anaphylactic

25:20

shock possibly , and so there's

25:23

, you know , like , in response

25:25

to anaphylactic , you get like your EpiPens and

25:27

in response to the itchy eyes

25:29

and runny noses , you got pitidary on all that stuff

25:31

. So everything that we have is kind of

25:35

like a way to treat the symptoms . But

25:37

these people out of

25:40

I'll find it in a minute

25:42

, doesn't actually say out of Northwestern

25:44

University , they're

25:47

using nanoparticles to actually

25:49

go in and deactivate the

25:51

mast cells and so mast cells are

25:54

important for other processes

25:58

in the body , like blood flow and fighting off

26:00

parasites and things like that . So we can't

26:02

just shut them all down . But I guess

26:04

these nanoparticles have

26:07

a way to disable specific

26:10

, just allergy related mast cells

26:12

through a different like

26:14

, through a whole different like two step process

26:17

. So they coat the

26:20

nanoparticles with an antibody and

26:23

then they carry like an allergens specific

26:25

to that person's allergy , so like peanuts or something

26:27

. So to treat peanut allergy . It would contain

26:30

a peanut protein and

26:32

then the antibodies on

26:34

the nanoparticle engage with the receptors , like

26:37

on the mast cells , and they inhibit that specific

26:39

mast cells response to the allergy and

26:42

then those . So rather than

26:44

shutting down all the mast cells in the body , it

26:47

becomes very specific . The

26:49

nice thing about this approach is you don't have to actually

26:51

kill or eliminate those mast cells , and

26:55

if the nanoparticle were to like

26:57

attach to the wrong cell type , it just wouldn't

26:59

like . Nothing would happen , and

27:01

so it has a good like . There's a wide safety profile

27:04

to it as well . I'm sure

27:06

there's some other concerns and other safety issues and

27:08

all that too , but they

27:10

showed when they did this in

27:12

mice . The therapy was so

27:15

they had mice and obviously they can develop mice

27:17

models for anything . So they had mice

27:19

that developed an allergy and

27:22

then they treated them with these nanoparticles

27:24

and it was 100% successful in preventing

27:26

all allergic responses

27:29

. So , none of them developed

27:31

any of their allergies to the allergy

27:33

when they exposed it to it .

27:34

Can that work for , like , let's not even translate

27:36

that . I mean , let's translate it to humans , but can we also translate

27:39

it to , like , our dogs ? Because Nala has allergies

27:41

? My goodness , she has allergies .

27:44

Yeah , I don't know that would be awesome . Yeah

27:47

, that would be sweet , huh , I

27:49

mean all we do , I mean half

27:52

of , especially down here in Louisiana , like

27:54

half of my half

27:56

of my client to bring it in there their

27:59

pets for allergy related issues out

28:01

here , and they're just year round , you know .

28:03

Yeah .

28:04

So , then , treating the symptoms would be nice

28:06

to just be able to give them something that can

28:09

prevent it all together .

28:10

Yeah , that's awesome . Nala's allergic to

28:12

dust mites , storage mites and

28:15

chicken , so that's .

28:17

Chicken huh yeah .

28:18

Chickens are common ?

28:19

Yeah , chicken and beef are common , but

28:22

did you say storage mites ?

28:24

Yeah , Dust mites , storage

28:26

mites , dust mites and storage mites what's the ?

28:27

difference between a dust mite and a storage mite .

28:29

I don't know if there's a big difference , because they were on the same line

28:31

. They just had a slash between them , so maybe

28:33

they're just like called one of these different

28:35

. I don't know . But I mean , you can't

28:38

escape dust mites and storage mites

28:40

. What the vet explained to us , this

28:42

was gosh 10 years ago . Storage

28:44

mites are in dry kibble , because dry kibble

28:47

is stored , even if it's vacuum packed

28:49

, even if it's yeah , you

28:51

can't avoid it . You can't avoid it , which

28:54

is why we originally switched her

28:57

to raw food . Both of our dogs are on raw food just because it's

28:59

easier now . But as soon as we switched , her

29:01

skin cleared up , and it's just because the dust

29:04

mites in the dry kibble were no longer a problem

29:06

.

29:06

So storage mites , yeah , I don't know .

29:08

Storage mites , dust mites . That's what the

29:11

printout said of her allergy testing .

29:14

Awesome .

29:15

Yeah .

29:16

Yeah , I know I actually use your dogs a lot

29:18

at work . It's like an example

29:20

for some people that just need

29:23

you know cause we talk about

29:25

food trials

29:27

and eliminating like a lot of times it's food

29:29

allergies and stuff or it could be like

29:31

you said dust mites and things like that . You

29:34

know we're always telling vet school so much how awful

29:36

raw diets are , but I'm like , listen

29:38

, I've been friends been doing it for like 10 years and we've

29:40

never had a problem .

29:41

I remember when you started vet school

29:43

I like threatened your life and I'm like don't you become

29:46

a brainwashed vet into thinking

29:48

that this is a bad thing . It's just that people

29:50

do it bad and then it's bad . But if you do

29:52

it right .

29:53

It's amazing , yeah , yeah

29:57

, and vet schools are so adamantly opposed

29:59

to it . I did have our nutritionist . She was pretty good

30:01

. She was pretty open about it , but you

30:03

know the giant the nutritionist

30:05

average in your tech . Yeah .

30:08

Well , that's who my vet . My vet was like oh , there's a

30:10

really good nutritionist out at VT that

30:12

can help you balance

30:14

your diet , and I'm like it's already balanced , cause

30:16

we've been doing this for a while ?

30:18

Yeah , cause I talked to her about it

30:20

but after one of our classes and

30:22

she was I mean obviously like took

30:26

it as like a last resort kind of thing . But she's like you

30:28

gotta do it , you gotta do it and just do it right .

30:30

Yeah , no , don't get me wrong . There's nothing more convenient

30:32

than like kibble , especially when you have kids

30:35

, because , like for us , like we need to make

30:37

sure that the kids don't go touching

30:39

the raw meat that's in the garage where we feed the dogs

30:41

, like it's a whole process to make sure we're

30:44

handling the food safely , and blah

30:46

, blah , blah .

30:46

But like and you're not just giving them like

30:48

raw ground meat , like you give them everything .

30:51

Oh yeah , it's

30:53

a whole whole fiesta . We could probably have a whole

30:55

episode on this . Yeah

30:57

.

31:00

And so I'm always supportive of it

31:02

. If anybody ever wants to do it , Just try to give them

31:04

the information to make sure they do

31:06

it right .

31:07

Yeah , I mean like you said , though for us it

31:09

was kind of a last effort because we did try

31:12

all the different kibbles . We tried steroids

31:14

and I know that they say dogs don't get roid rage

31:16

, but my goodness , nala had roid rage on

31:18

this .

31:18

Yes , they do .

31:20

And we were like that's like , she's a puppy , we're

31:22

not dealing with roid rage for the rest of her life . So

31:25

as soon as we switched it , it worked its way out , so

31:27

that was good .

31:28

Yeah , I mean they get . They have a whole

31:30

host of side effects , you know , you get liver

31:32

issues , they get fat pudgy

31:34

they drink a lot , they pee all the time . They pee all over

31:36

your house , you know so

31:38

, but

31:41

yeah , we could spend a

31:43

whole day talking about it . All

31:45

right , the dog has officially broken

31:47

into the playroom .

31:48

Okay , Now that the door is open .

31:50

the kids are gonna start flooding in , All right , well , I'll finish up

31:52

.

31:52

I'll finish up my last article quick . Okay , so

31:54

out of Johns Hopkins they did

31:57

a study on new protective benefits

31:59

of breast milk . Obviously

32:01

this is mouse breast milk . But what they

32:03

did and I they don't ever go into the

32:05

mech , the mechanisms of how they did it but

32:08

they had mice that they

32:10

could like turn off the

32:12

gene that makes these

32:14

complement proteins . So

32:17

they compared that group with mice that

32:19

were just normal doing their thing , and

32:22

the mice , the mouse pups

32:24

that had the mom who had

32:26

the complement proteins turned off . They

32:28

were more susceptible to bacterial infections

32:31

in their gut in early life

32:33

, whereas the I'm gonna use quotes the

32:35

normal breastfeeding mom , her

32:37

pups were kind of immune to this

32:39

and they found that it's actually not related

32:42

to so complement

32:44

proteins . I'm jumping all over the place with this because I'm trying to rush

32:46

because you said your kids are gonna come in , sorry .

32:48

Take your sweet time yeah .

32:51

So everyone , all the science , knew that complement

32:54

proteins existed in breast milk , but

32:56

they thought they worked in conjunction with antibodies

32:58

. But this study kind of showed

33:00

that they work independent

33:03

of antibodies and do their own thing and

33:07

they also , like

33:09

your blood , has complement proteins as

33:11

well for just fighting other infections in your

33:13

body . But this is a specific complement

33:16

protein in breast milk

33:18

that works on its own

33:20

, doesn't need any of the other help out

33:23

there to

33:25

kind of offer protection for

33:27

the mouse pups or , hopefully , human

33:29

pup I almost said

33:31

human pup , human baby , human

33:34

pups yeah , human pups

33:36

, the gut microbiome

33:39

and the gut flora . So

33:41

it's just an interesting new understanding

33:44

of how breast milk works because , like I said

33:46

, it's sort of a mythical thing that everyone

33:48

knows is air quotes good for

33:50

you , but there's just so many

33:52

different ways it works and how it works and

33:54

I'm just always interested in reading about

33:57

that sort of thing .

33:58

So yeah , it's

34:00

always nice . It's always nice to know

34:02

I know we had a freezer for

34:05

a while there . I mean I was not a little

34:07

kid .

34:07

Yeah .

34:08

Like well , I guess we're prepared for Armageddon . Just

34:11

in case you know , I know .

34:14

And this is gross , sorry everyone , but

34:16

like , yeah to say like we had a freezer full too and I

34:18

like mason jars of it and I

34:20

was like why am I hoarding all of this , like I

34:22

don't know ?

34:23

Hey , you never know .

34:25

I think we can get rid of it now .

34:28

Yeah , I mean it's . It does so

34:30

many . There's so many like healing properties in it , Like

34:32

I'm out of it , Like

34:35

Claire's mom would always tell her like use it on , like rashes

34:38

and diaper rash and all that stuff too , and it

34:40

would work magically . Yep , you

34:42

have to like heal everything .

34:43

So , yeah , I was intrigued to see this

34:45

headline , just cause it's a an

34:47

interest of mine and I was curious what they had found

34:50

out .

34:50

So yeah Well , if

34:53

PETA got their way , we would stop

34:55

using cow milk

34:58

for ice cream and we would start

35:00

using human breast milk to make ice cream .

35:02

You should have seen the eye roll when you said PETA , we

35:04

would stop torturing those cows

35:06

for their milk . Well

35:09

, so I was like I was the

35:11

other day . I was walking in from cleaning out my chicken coop

35:13

and I was thinking about like oh , our garden for

35:15

the spring and like what do we want to plant and everything . And

35:18

I kind of was like , okay , so like millions of years

35:20

ago , like who was the first

35:22

person that tried cow

35:24

milk ? And that was

35:26

where I went in while I was wandering through my

35:28

backyard , like who realized , hey

35:31

, maybe I can have milk from another

35:33

animal , let me go get that

35:35

wild cow out there and see if it'll

35:37

. Let me . Like how did that start ? Cause obviously

35:39

they didn't just have domesticated dairy cows

35:41

millions of years ago , not millions , what

35:43

are we talking ? Tens of thousands of years

35:45

ago . When did people ?

35:46

start drinking milk , maybe billions , you

35:48

know ?

35:49

Yeah .

35:50

All the I mean , there could have been advanced human civilization

35:53

long before we , long before

35:55

us , for all we know .

35:56

Did people like domesticate cows for meat

35:58

and then they're like , hey , maybe

36:00

we can also and like find a nice cow and like

36:02

try , like , how did that evolve ? How did

36:05

humans start drinking cow milk ?

36:08

I don't know .

36:10

And you know .

36:11

you'll know who I'm talking about Butter and cheese

36:13

and everything , and maybe it's just like well yeah

36:16

let's drink some of this . You'll

36:19

know who .

36:19

I'm talking about , but you know that we used to have the co-worker who

36:21

said camel milk was the best .

36:23

So yeah , there

36:26

is some research out there that camel milk

36:28

is pretty great . So

36:30

we're actually and I guess donkey

36:33

milk is the most similar to humans . Why

36:36

anybody would ever want to drink donkey milk , I don't

36:38

know .

36:39

But why is that any different from drinking cow milk ?

36:43

I mean you're right , but I love milk

36:45

. Don't get me wrong , I don't drink , I

36:49

would probably try . I've never

36:51

tried camel milk , but

36:54

why not ? You know , I mean if we're , but why ? Not

36:56

, you know . I mean , if we're .

36:58

If we're drinking cow milk , you might as well throw in a donkey

37:00

and a camel too .

37:03

Yeah , but people that are so adamant about

37:05

we shouldn't be drinking cow's milk . It just

37:07

drives me . I love

37:09

nuts . They're like we're the only

37:11

species that drinks

37:13

milk from another animal , but we're also the only species

37:16

. That drives cars

37:18

and yes , I've talked about this

37:20

before , so .

37:21

Develops science , research , and then yep

37:23

, they still want to eat ice cream and butter and cheese .

37:24

I'm like , well , it's all coming from

37:26

, there's dairy and all of it .

37:29

No , they make almond milk and

37:31

coconut milk ice cream now .

37:34

Yeah Well , your almond milk is killing the environment

37:36

, okay .

37:36

Yep , no , I know about that . I think I talked about

37:39

that one time right With the bees . The almond

37:41

industry is taking out the bees .

37:43

Yeah , there's no . There's like there's

37:46

nothing around almonds . There's no bees

37:48

, birds , insects , animals

37:51

, nothing .

37:52

Yeah , well , okay .

37:55

So let's just get super weird . No wait , I'm going

37:57

to add one more thing . It's super weird and personal

37:59

. Everybody stopped listening by this point . We can say whatever we

38:01

want .

38:01

This is all relevant because we're talking about allergies

38:04

, we're talking about breastfeeding and we're talking about almonds here

38:06

. So both of my kids

38:08

I breastfed them . Now

38:10

we're getting weird but they were allergic to

38:12

me drinking dairy and having dairy

38:14

so I had to totally

38:16

cut dairy out of my diet

38:18

, have almond milk . That's

38:21

how I found the dairy-free cheese that actually melted

38:23

correctly on a pizza and stuff . So

38:25

it really does come full circle . And then they outgrew

38:27

it and now they can have dairy . So I

38:29

mean , maybe there is some

38:32

genetic thing that says humans shouldn't have other

38:35

animals dairy , but

38:37

I don't know . They outgrew it , so it's fine . But , that

38:39

does kind of come full circle with everything we just talked

38:41

about on this episode .

38:42

Yeah , yeah , I mean I've never had we

38:45

all were big milk drinkers gallons

38:48

and gallons a week in this

38:50

house . We're just . I mean we need to

38:52

get a cow in the backyard .

38:54

Or a donkey or a camel . Yeah , why

38:56

don't you ?

38:57

Get them all , yeah

39:00

, but wait until I tie it all together there at the end .

39:02

Yeah , and make people feel a little awkward talking

39:04

about what I .

39:06

That's how you end an episode , right

39:08

there , so all right . Well

39:11

, hopefully we will . I'm not making

39:13

any promises , but hopefully we'll do

39:15

our best to be back next

39:17

month with another news bite and hopefully

39:19

sounds like maybe some other things on the works

39:21

, and get some interviews Start rolling

39:23

again .

39:24

Yeah , Get the momentum going , especially now that

39:26

I have a little bit more time because I'm kind of doing

39:28

the part time thing . So hopefully it'll

39:30

be good .

39:31

Yeah , so put it all on you . If we do an interview

39:33

episode next month , it's all because of

39:36

you .

39:36

I wouldn't say next month . It's also because of you . That's

39:38

probably too fast , but we're going to try .

39:40

Yeah , all right . Well

39:42

, thanks for listening everybody , and we'll check you out

39:44

, or we'll . What was I going to say ?

39:46

Check you out . Check you out .

39:47

I was going to say check you out , but that's not . Yeah , we'll

39:49

check in with everybody next month on

39:51

another episode of the Live Brat Chat . Thanks

39:56

for listening

40:01

.