It's not

just a simple answer.

And I think that a lot of, especially with the rise in social media, the rise in and all of these online kind of experts out there that aren't really experts, it's complicated the issue because just a probiotic is not enough to fix the problem.

The reality is that the gut is the center of our health, but it's also very individual from animal to animal.

There's genetic things that weigh upon that, like let's say with the Frenchies, there's also environmental issues, and the biggest issue is what they're eating.

And especially if they're eating an ultra-processed food, there's a lot of information out there that shows that ultra-processed foods in the long run really create inflammation.

They create more reactivity in the immune system, which helps to promote allergies.

What is your protocol? What's your favorite protocol?

[laughs]

And, uh, that would be, uh, reishi and turkey tail and shiitake and maitake and chaga.

And we call it Defenders because one of the main functions that people recognize, and science recognizes, that mushrooms have is they help our body to defend against immune system challenges, whether it be infection, whether it be, you know, crazy cell growth or, you know, d- different types of inflammation like, um, an autoimmune disease, things like that.

So, um, and there's a lot of good evidence, you know, hundreds of years of use for that.

So that's why it gets the name Five Defenders, and it was put together, um, by the company's founders because they chose the five mushrooms for which there's the best evidence of effectiveness, and because they're the strongest.

And we also know, and there's some studies that support this, that when you put mushrooms together, you get synergy.

And, and so it is...

Yeah, I like that

Well, since you brought up the issue of cancer, which is a concern to everybody in the industrialized world, perhaps you can share the story of our beloved Grover who brought us together in the first place.

I will, in fact.

And that's how Mark and I got together was he had reached out to a friend of his to see if he knew of any veterinarians like myself that used herbs and natural therapies to address cancer.

And bingo, there we are.

And I'm really happy that that happened.

And so Grover... had a very nasty, aggressive disease of the spleen.

It's called hemangiosarcoma.

But I also want you to talk, Rob, about the immune, cognitive, and other health benefits from these mushrooms, certainly for the pets we love and maybe even for our own species as well.