Welcoming Pet Remedy to the Walkie Dogs Family

https://petremedy.co.uk

RFT 15 minutes video Transcript May 2023

How Pet Remedy works

by Dr Robert Falconer-Taylor 15 minutes video
May 2023

Pet Remedy has two dis/nct modes of ac/on that work together to support your pet’s ongoing emo/onal well-being a direct pathway and an indirect pathway.

And each of these modes of ac/on work through different pathways in the brain. Let’s take a look at each of these pathways in a bit more detail.

You’ll be familiar with the direct pathway already, because that’s how most nutrients, supplements, and medicines find their way into your body.

For example, when you take a supplement as a pill or liquid, the ac/ve ingredients are absorbed from the diges/ve tract into your bloodstream, where they’ll find their way to where they’re needed in your body.

Pet Remedy works a bit differently here because it’s formulated as an aerosol, much like an aromatherapy product.

So instead of being absorbed in the stomach, the ac/ve ingredients are absorbed from the nasal passages instead.

This direct route through the nasal passages has some dis/nct advantages over taking oral supplements such as pills or liquids.

Once Pet Remedy has entered the bloodstream, it finds its way up to the brain, where it has at least four different modes of ac/on.

First, it binds to GABA receptors in specific areas of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, the limbic system, the amygdala, the hippocampus and the thalamus.

You’ll already be familiar with some of these brain errors, such as the limbic system and the amygdala, because of their associa/on with emo/ons and stress.

The hypothalamus is also a really important area because of its involvement with the so-called hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis or HPA axis, which is responsible for the release of stress hormones during stressful situa/ons such as adrenaline and cor/sol.

The key point here is that pet remedy does not indiscriminately interact with the GABA system, which would simply lead to a state of general seda/on.

Instead, it targets these specific brain areas where it can help to modulate an animal’s emo/onal reac/ons to challenging and stressful situa/ons.

In the second direct mode of ac/on, Pet Remedy binds to dopamine receptors in the brain’s reward system, where it helps Dr Mo/va/on towards the good things in life.

Chronic stress has a profound nega/ve effect on the reward pathways, and pet remedy may help animals build emo/onal resilience as they learn to cope beQer with the ups and downs of daily life.

In the third direct mode of ac/on, Pet Remedy also binds to serotonin receptors.

Like dopamine, serotonin is a cri/cally important neurotransmiQer involved in the modula/on of emo/ons and mood state.

The brain serotonin system is incredibly complicated and neuroscien/sts are s/ll trying to unravel its mysteries.

But broadly speaking, serotonin complements dopamine tendency to drive and mo/vate behaviour by encouraging the animal to be pa/ent.

This can be best understood in the context of impulsive behaviour, where a reduc/on of serotonin is believed to be an important factor.

The ability to control one’s behaviour, to learn to think and be pa/ent is hugely important when it comes to making beQer decisions, especially in uncertain situa/ons.

In addi/on to this, PET Remedy also binds to a serotonin receptor called 5 HT 5A.

This receptor can be found in the brain circuitry that keeps the body’s circadian clock In Sync.

The body’s clock is vital for maintaining quality sleep health.

This is especially important in our 24/7 modern world, which many companion animals find themselves caught up in.

In the fourth mode of ac/on, PET Remedy supports cell metabolism.

More generally, the cells in the brain are par/cularly vulnerable to oxida/ve damage because they have to work harder than any other cell in the body.

And of course, we all know that chronic stress and that stress hormones such as cor/sol and adrenaline are damaging to cells because they produce an overabundance of free radicals.

Pet remedy may help here too, because it can work as an an/oxidant, protec/ng cells when they are stressed, vulnerable, and at risk of damage.

So to summarise Pet Remedy’s direct modes of ac/on include modula/on of GABA ac/vity and key areas of the emo/onal brain such as the limbic system, amygdala and hippocampus.

Modula/on of dopamine and its role in mo/va/on and learning in the brain’s reward system.

Modula/on of serotonin and its role in adap/ve decision making processes that facilitate self-control and help avoid impulsive behaviour.

Pet Remedy also has an/oxidant proper/es and helps protect precious brain cells from stress related oxida/ve damage.

Now let’s take a look at pet remedies indirect pathway and see how it complements and holis/cally supports the direct pathway.

At the heart of this indirect pathway is the olfactory system.

Let’s begin with a brief look at our sense of smell and why it has un/l recently been largely ignored by science compared to the other primary senses such as vision, hearing and touch.

The reason for this is simple.

While senses such as vision and hearing and touch are easy to study, our sense of smell has turned out to be mind bogglingly complicated and inaccessible.

To understand why this is true, let’s take a brief look at vision.

Pause for a moment and think about how useful and wonderful your sense of vision actually is.

We can see objects in amazing detail and also enjoy their many different colours and hues.

But below the surface, the visual system is surprisingly simple.

At its heart, there are just three different types of colour receptors called cones, red, green and blue.

Animals like cats and dogs have only two colour receptors, green and blue, so dogs can’t actually see a bright red ball we throw for them in the same way that we do.

Despite this limita/on, just three different types of colour receptors gives us humans a colour paleQe of about 1,000,000 colours that we can see.

How does this compare with our olfactory system? By contrast, we humans have a range of about 400 different types of olfactory receptor, compared to only three types of colour receptors.

Dogs have about 800 different types of olfactory receptors
To be clear, 400 or 800 is not the total number of receptors in the nasal passages.

Rather, it’s the range of different types of available receptors, each of which are sensi/ve to different types of smell.

Dogs on average have about 250 million receptors in their noses.
We humans have a frac/on of that because our nasal passages are so much smaller.

The key point here is that it’s the range of different types of receptor that gives us the ability to discriminate the difference between a near infinite number of different smells.

At the heart of the olfactory system are just two structures, the olfactory bulb and the pyriform cortex.

The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system, and its job is to start the integra/on process of all the informa/on it’s receiving from the olfactory receptors in the nasal passages.

This informa/on is then passed on to the piriform cortex, which is connected up to many other important limbic areas responsible for emo/onal processing, such as the amygdala, the nuclear accumbens, the hippocampus and the orbitofrontal cortex.

In fact, the en/re olfactory system is /ghtly linked up with the emo/onal limbic system, and this lies at the heart of pet remedies indirect pathway.

So let’s take a look at how this works.

Once Pet Remedy has entered the nasal passages and its ac/ve ingredients have bound to their specific receptors, it has at least three different modes of ac/on.

First, smell is one of the most visceral emo/onal triggers, and it has deep connec/ons into the limbic system.

Have you ever been back to places where you lived as a child and it s/ll smells the same?
The familiar smells rekindle old memories forgoQen long ago, and importantly, many of the emo/ons and feelings associated with them.

So smells are a very personal experience.

Pet Remedy u/lises these emo/onal associa/ve learning processes so that they act as safety signals wherever the product is being used.

Remember, Pet Remedy is not working in isola/on here.

It’s working synergis/cally with three of the four modes of ac/on in the direct pathway, namely GABA, dopamine and serotonin.

We looked at these earlier.

For the second mode of ac/on, the olfactory system is liQered with oxytocin receptors, which makes perfect sense because of its strong connec/ons with the emo/onal limbic system.

The reason for this is simple, the social animals like humans, dogs and horses.

Maintaining strong social connec/ons with family and friends is really important and smell is an important part of that.

Even in us humans, the constancy of pet remedies smelling the environment help facilitate this process.

Pet remedies final to indirect mode of ac/on is that it helps animals adapt to change. This is an important effect that’s happening all the /me in our brains behind the scenes.

Where did you last go on holiday? Somewhere oriental and exo/c? To the seaside? Or perhaps on a camping trip into the mountains? When it comes to their olfactory or smell profiles, all these different loca/ons are unique.

The aroma of exo/c spicy food, the waa of sand, seaweed and fish and chips, or the smell of fresh mountain air and pine trees.

Now here’s the thing.

We tend to focus on vision and hearing as our most important primary sensors.

But as I said earlier, these sensory processes are quite primi/ve.

Look at it this way, you learn how to use your eyes and ears as a baby while you’re flailing around in your cot exploring your surroundings.

And because the visual and ordinary landscape are preQy unchanging and stable over a life/me, wherever you are in the world, you only have to learn about it once.

The basic building blocks of the colours and sounds you encountered on your holidays were similar to those at home.

And everywhere else in the world for that maQer. Olfac/on or smell isn’t like this.

Being able to detect all smells and even in a given environment wherever you are is a complex process, and evolu/on has solved this problem for us by providing many hundreds of different types of olfactory receptor 400 olfactory receptors in us humans and around 800 in the average dog.

So what has all this got to do with where you go on holiday? The answer is actually quite a lot.

You may not realise it, but the combina/on of different olfactory receptor types you have at home is unique to your local environment.

In other words, not all of the 400 different receptors you have available are all being used at the same /me.

This is because your local home environment itself has a limited number of smells.

But when you go away on holiday to environment, that smells very different, your factory system reshapes itself to accommodate those new smells.

And it does this by swapping the types of receptor expressed in your nasal passengers.

So if you went on holiday to the seaside, it would take two to three weeks for this change in receptors to sort themselves out.

Then when you’ve got back home, your receptors would shia themselves back to your home environment to configura/on.

The key point here is that Pet Remedy takes advantage of this shapeshiaing behaviour of the olfactory system.

For example, when the dogs find herself in a new environment, such as the vets or kennels, this is oaen a really stressful experience.

But the presence of an aerosol or pet remedy in the newer environment can act as a familiar safety signal, giving the animal sense of constancy, familiarity and security.

And remember that this process is not working in isola/on.

It’s working synergis/cally with three of the four modes of ac/on in the direct pathway we looked at earlier, namely GABA, dopamine and serotonin.

All in all, rather than passively calming your pet remedies, mode of ac/on is more proac/ve.

The indirect pathway connects directly to the Lumix system, build social connec/ons and build safety signals in changing environment.

And this works synergis/cally alongside pet remedies direct pathway and remember that the direct pathway strategically modulates the ac/vity of other neurotransmiQer systems such as GABA, dopamine and serotonin.

These are the systems I spoke about earlier.

The net effect of this combined approach is that pet remedy naturally facilitates and reinforces learning to feel safe.

In oaen challenging environments, feeling safe helps an animal mentally slow down and become less reac/ve.

This leads to a beQer decision making, which means that an animal is making more proac/ve and appropriate choices about what to do, rather than just passively reac/ng to external events.

Pet Remedy also helps an animal get more quality sleep.

Overall, this helps the animal build emo/onal resilience, which in turn leads to the ability to cope beQer with the ups and downs of daily life and other stressful events.

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