A CHEMICAL IS SIMPLY A MOLECULE composed of two or more pure elements, involving or resulting from a reaction between two or more elements. What’s an element? Remember the periodic table from high school? That chart of squares with little letter symbols, arranged by how heavy each substance was (atomic weight), contains every element known to man. And while it likely seemed like an overwhelming task to memorize them all for chem class, there are actually only 118 elements in the known universe, meaning that absolutely everything else you encounter is a chemical of some sort. To list a few commonly known chemicals, there’s sugar (in all its forms…glucose, fructose, dextrose, sucrose…all slightly different in their molecular structure), caffeine, hydrogen peroxide, water, carbon dioxide, lycopene (that antioxidant that makes tomatoes red, which we keep hearing is super healthy for us), table salt, omega-3 fatty acids, trans-fats…the list is almost endless. Some chemicals are synthesized, some are naturally occurring, and some are both synthesized and found in nature.

You likely noticed that included in the list of chemicals are many things we consider “good,” which are necessary for survival, along with some things you may recognize as “not-so-good.” But before we’re too quick to assign them all to naughty or nice lists, lets take a closer look at each. Sugar in excess is bad, causing type-2 diabetes, contributing to dental disease and obesity. But it is also necessary for survival. If you don’t consume sugar (which is tough, considering it’s naturally occurring in fruit, many veggies, and milk products), your body will make its own from other carbohydrates you consume, because sugar is necessary in the chemical reaction that occurs inside all your cells, all the time, to produce energy. Without it, you couldn’t move, breathe, think, exist.

Caffeine is generally not healthy in any quantity, but most among us start our day with a cup or two of coffee or tea, and both of these beverages have been shown to have several health benefits (albeit its other chemicals in them that are good for us, not the caffeine itself). However, even though caffeine doesn’t contribute to our health, it’s really not that harmful to enjoy a few cups of joe. I for one thoroughly enjoy this guilty pleasure.

Hydrogen peroxide is bad in some situations – for example you shouldn’t drink a mug for breakfast, it will melt your cornea if you put it in your eye, inhaling it would obviously be a dumb thing to do – and very useful if you need to clean out a wound. Did you know that while the hydrogen peroxide you buy off the drug store shelf is chemically synthesized, this chemical is also naturally occurring? That’s right, your own body is constantly producing hydrogen peroxide. It’s the result of a metabolic breakdown reaction that occurs inside cells, and while it is harmful to the body (the liver contains an enzyme to break down hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water, so it doesn’t build up and do damage), its actually made as the body’s means of destroying an even worse molecule called superoxide (which happens when spare electrons from other reactions accidentally stick onto normal oxygen molecules, and form superoxide which is the kind of nasty substance that attacks and rips other (useful and necessary) molecules apart…but we’re getting into a bit too advanced of chemistry for this post). So there it is: hydrogen peroxide is both naturally occurring and synthesized, and is both really bad and really good, depending on where you put it and in what quantity.

Lycopene is one of those pesky naturally-occurring super healthy chemicals no one likes to talk about. Because its natural. And healthy. And also VERY MUCH a chemical. Though if you care to do extensive research or conduct your own experiments, I’m sure its possible to artificially synthesize lycopene, and that there are also probably situations where it’s really toxic. (Inhaled? Injected into your eyeball? These sound like bad ideas.)

Table salt is another one similar to hydrogen peroxide. Your body relies on sodium chloride (table salt) to maintain proper electrolyte balance and keep working. If either substance (sodium or chloride) gets too low in your body, you die. If either gets too high, you also die. So you need some, but not too much. Everyone’s heard the colloquialism “rubbing salt in a wound,” and we know that too much sodium chloride REALLY hurts if ground into open tissue or a mucous membrane. But just the right amount of sodium chloride is more comfortable than water – think of isotonic saline eye wash. While a lot of the sodium chloride we use is synthesized, it’s also one of the most abundant naturally-occurring chemicals on the earth. Sea salt is pure ol’ sodium chloride.

Getting to the fats – we all known that omega-3 fatty acids (and omega-6’s, omega-9’s, etc.) tend to be really good for us. They have a number of beneficial effects, from smoother skin and hair, to better brain function, to decreasing inflammation in arthritic joints. But again, as with all the chemicals discussed above, they can be dangerous in excess, leading to a decreased ability to form blood clots. And despite all the bad press trans fats get (deservedly, many of the ones commonly found in processed food are very unhealthy), there are also some good ones, such as conjugated linoleic acid, which is important for proper brain function. Though it feels like we’re getting a bit repetitive here, the above fats can be either synthesized or naturally occurring.

SO WHAT ABOUT THE “EVIL” CHEMICALS you ask? I’m getting there. We all hear how toxic “chemicals” are all the time. Petroleum products and air pollution, chemotherapy drugs, solvents and lubricants used in industry. Let me start by saying yes, petroleum products and the resulting air pollution formed by their use are unhealthy. I’ve yet to come across a research paper touting the benefits of gasoline flushes for any particular disease (though I have heard of horse owners using it on their beloved equid’s wounds…yikes!). The vast majority of these chemicals are synthesized artificially. We use them because they’re a cheap way to do or make a lot of things, and if there’s one thing the human race in general seems to like, its making money. Profits, baby! It’s worth remembering though, that the parent compound of pretty well all petroleum products is crude oil, which is very much naturally occurring, and also toxic. So there we have examples of both synthesized and natural toxic chemicals.

Chemotherapy drugs are also toxic to cells, that’s entirely the point of how they work. They kill the cancer cells. If they weren’t cytotoxic they wouldn’t kill cancer cells. The reason they work is because cancer cells have a really high metabolism, so they take up a LOT of the chemotherapy drug, which kills them, and normal body cells with their slower metabolism only take up a little of the chemotherapy drug, enough to make them sick but not enough to kill them. Most cancer survivors would agree that despite how terrible it felt to be sick from chemotherapy, the alternative of dying from cancer is probably worse. Here’s where I risk starting another “chemical” debate by opening up the can of worms that is the cancer “treatment” discussion. Chemotherapy is not ideal. Radiation is not ideal. Surgery, if tumour excision is complete, is about as natural and ideal as it comes, but it’s painful. Everyone hopes to find some tasty fruit or something we can eat that both makes us feel amazing and also kills cancer. The problem is that researchers have been working on curing cancer for many decades, and while treatments ARE getting safer and more effective, there isn’t yet a magic fruit smoothie to cure all our problems.

LET US VENTURE DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE of alternative cancer therapies, because at this point it seems necessary to discuss a few more “natural” chemicals that will inevitably crop up in the comments section if I don’t get them out of the way here. Vitamin C (a chemical, generally artificially synthesized for the form sold as “natural” supplements, it’s worth noting), does NOT cure cancer. There are many very well done studies trying to prove that it does. They all conclude that it does not. What it does do in the quantities “recommended” for cancer “therapy” is cause kidney stones and urinary crystals. Another one of those “very good in small quantities but not in large ones” chemicals.  (Side note: “Big Pharma” has definitely racked up its fair share of ethical scandals and morally questionable profits…the supplements industry is currently racking them both up even faster.) Anther “natural” chemotherapy that has been sold (for a high price) that was proven ineffective and definitely harmful, and definitely involved naturally-occurring chemicals, consisted of giving the patient an IV treatment of their own urine. While some cannabinoids are proven to reduce cancer treatment-related side effects such as nausea and vomiting, and to improve appetite, no clinical trials to date have shown that the cannabis chemicals can treat cancer. Claims that cannabinoids (naturally-occurring chemicals) cure cancer are anecdotal and largely unsupportable, based on scant research done in mice in labs. Side effects can include memory and attention loss. Perhaps most important, there is evidence that cannabis compounds may inhibit enzymes that patients need to metabolize other anticancer drugs, thereby increasing the toxicity of the chemotherapy and decreasing its effectiveness. This is not to say that there will never be a cannabinoid chemical used as a chemotherapy agent, research continues into use of various cannabinoids and we may discover uses for certain ones in the future. We may also discover a lot of bad long-term side effects of cannabinoid use. That’s the great thing about good research, its unbiased and brutally honest. Its important to remember that like any other chemical used to treat cancer, these naturally occurring chemicals will NOT be a blanket treatment for every type of cancer even if a particular cannabinoid is someday shown to be helpful on a particular cancer, nor are they without significant side-effects. It’s also worth noting that if cannabinoid use becomes more widespread for the treatment of certain diseases, the molecules will likely be synthesized in a lab for mass-production, because this is the best way to guarantee uniformity of the treatment, and also because it is impractical and wasteful to grow vast greenhouses of a plant just to extract one small molecule from it. Evidence shows that people who use alternative therapies in place of standard chemotherapy have a much higher death rate. There is always a small possibility that any particular cancer will go into remission with or without any form of treatment. Because it’s such a low probability, its always recommended that cancer patients seek treatment, but there’s always hope, however faint, that a body will “cure” itself – that the tumour will die on its own without intervention. The ugly truth is that whether you use naturally occurring or artificially synthesized chemicals, whether the treatment is thoroughly researched and part of the standard medical regime, or some fringe new idea, cancer remains a devastating disease with an unfortunately high mortality rate. Hopefully ongoing research can change that.

I AM NOT SAYING NATURAL CHEMICALS ARE ALL BAD. But I am definitely not saying they are all good. Or that artificially synthesized chemicals are all bad. Or that they are even different chemicals most of the time. In the majority of cases, medicine and industry have found ways to artificially synthesize naturally-occurring chemicals which we have found a large-scale use for, because it is simply impractical to think of naturally extracting everything we use. Can you imagine if your pharmacist had to pick a bunch of herbs or flowers, grind them up, extract oil or some other substance, purify it into the effective compound, and prepare tablets by hand in order to fill your prescriptions? Most folks get angry and impatient with the 20-30 minute wait they face for the ready-made version. Another main reason to synthesize a chemical that can also be found in nature is for consistency. Many pharmaceutical compounds are found in plants. But the concentration of active compound varies from plant to plant. Imagine how poorly treatment would end for someone on a very specific dose of a particular heart medication, if instead of getting a twice-daily dose of 200mg of chemical X, they were told to make a tea of 3 leaves of a certain plant containing chemical X, but 1 leaf contained 50mg and another contained 500mg. Toxic over-dose or ineffective under-dose would occur in the majority of patients, sooner rather than later. Another reason to synthesize a naturally occurring chemical, is to separate it from other chemicals in the same plant that may cause dangerous or undesirable side effects. Plants each contain hundreds, if not more, different naturally-occurring chemicals. Some, such as the chlorophylls involved in photosynthesis (how plants get energy from the sun), are pretty standard from plant to plant. Others, such as salicylic acid or digoxin, both useful for the treatment of specific conditions, are unique to a particular plant. A very useful and helpful chemical may be found in the same plant as a chemical that causes diarrhea, one that causes bitter taste, one that causes a skin rash, or maybe even one that makes the heart rate irregular. There are many pharmaceutical chemicals which were originally found in plants, which have been isolated and found to be very helpful for managing or curing diseases, and which are safer and more consistently effective if synthesized and given at a specific dose, without any extra chemicals that at best do nothing and at worst cause harmful side effects. It is also worth mentioning that we have limited agricultural land on our lovely little planet, and taking up valuable crop space with something we can make in a much-smaller-square-foot lab is irresponsible at best. Also included in the irresponsible-at-best list is pillaging the rain-forest (or any other natural habitat) for a helpful plant, or wasting more resources and emitting more greenhouse gas than necessary by growing the plants that contain the useful chemicals versus synthesizing the chemicals directly.

IN TERMS OF MEDICAL TREATMENTS, because that’s probably why you’re reading a blog post about chemicals on a vet clinic web site, its important to remember that virtually all of them are chemicals. This includes the ones that are proven to be effective and relatively safe (i.e. those routinely prescribed by veterinarians, physicians, and dentists), and those that either lack proper research and data or that have been proven either ineffective or dangerous in the past (affectionately referred to as “alternative treatments”). It is a common misconception that alternative treatments “don’t have side effects;” a VERY DANGEROUS FALSEHOOD. The truth is that everything has side effects, some less desirable than others, and the side effects from unregulated supplements are poorly advertised and often poorly researched.  A common herbal supplement used to calm animals (and children) which seems to work great (they just sit calmly, often have a nap!) works partly because one of the plants contains a chemical that slows the heart…so much so that it decreases energy and possibly interferes with brain function. Please don’t think I’m down on natural cures. Quite the opposite. If something can be fixed by dietary modification or lifestyle change, that’s the ideal solution to any problem, and absolutely has the least side effects. If it can’t, then I’d much rather prescribe something that I know a) will work (because prescribing something that I know won’t work would be wildly irresponsible) and b) will have minimal and manageable side effects, or that at the very least, the side effects are less of a concern to the well-being of the patient than not treating the condition at all. Please remember that just because you pet’s doc, or your doc, prescribes something, doesn’t mean it’s “artificial.” Many of the treatments we reach for on a daily basis are very “natural” (whatever that means…it becomes less clear as I write this post), such as glucosamine/chondroitin supplements as a first-line therapy for arthritis (these ARE chemicals and they ARE artificially synthesized, just FYI). (Another side note: you can get either naturally occurring or artificially synthesized glucosamine…the production of the natural form is currently decimating the world’s shellfish populations.) We also commonly use probiotics, electrolyte supplements, specific amino acids, and many things “derived from plants” in our practice, which would completely get the stamp of approval from the “au naturel” crowd. I would also suspect based on what I know of chemistry that most of these are synthesized in a lab. They definitely all contain chemicals. The majority of our other “big pharma” “artificial” “chemical” treatments were also derived from plants in their early days of research. Many came from studies done on traditional herbal treatments. Some are the same chemical found in plants, others are a synthesized closely-related chemical that was found to be either a little safer, a little more effective, or both. Just because we make it “artificially” in a lab doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in nature, we haven’t tested the vast majority of plants on our planet, and for ethical/ecological reasons, likely shouldn’t. If we aren’t aware it exists in nature, there’s a good chance we just didn’t look hard enough.

There are some treatments worth noting that AREN’T chemicals. Instead, they’re elements; pure substances that are made of only one type of atom. (Wishing you’d paid more attention in chem class yet?) Colloidal silver is a popular one. It’s actually very useful in the right situation: used topically on infected wounds. Silver is a potent antimicrobial. We’ve used commercially available bandages impregnated with colloidal silver on infected wounds in our practice. If you can’t find an antibiotic that works due to antibiotic resistant bacteria, it could be just the thing you’re looking for. It may not work forever unfortunately, as bacteria have been found that have developed resistance to other heavy metals, such as copper and cadmium, so it’s probably just a matter of time until we have silver-resistant staph aureus infections. Like chemicals, elements are also good in some situations, bad in others. Silver is a great example of that. Please, please don’t drink it. Or put it in your eyes, or up your nose, or in your veins, or use it for a colonic. It’s a heavy metal. A few drops a day in your water isn’t enough to kill any type of infection, but it is enough to permanently and irreversibly damage your kidneys (or our pet’s kidneys), and cause other potentially-fatal effects of heavy metal toxicity. There it is: natural, not a chemical, sometimes really useful. It can also kill you. Especially if you are a werewolf and it’s in a hyperbolic shape dosed to you at high velocity.

NOT INCLUDED ON THE LIST OF “CHEMICALS”… a surprising amount of really toxic things, which by their definition are pure elements and therefore naturally occurring, and definitely NOT chemicals: arsenic, lead, uranium, cadmium, plutonium. Google “periodic table” and then google each element in turn, you’ll see what I mean. Even the good ones, which we MUST have to survive, such as oxygen, which we can only go a couple minutes without, are toxic if you put enough of it in the wrong place. Moral of the story? Virtually everything’s a chemical, and virtually everything can kill you. Virtually everything that isn’t a chemical can kill you also. So use things with caution, in the correct dose, by the correct route. If it’s for your skin, don’t eat it or put it in your eye. If it looks like a plant, it’s not necessarily safe, and more is not better. If it works on you, it doesn’t mean it will work on your dog, or your neighbour. It could actually do a lot of harm. If you thought it worked on you, it could be it got better on its own and you just happened to make a herb tea (a solution of sooooo many chemicals) or douse yourself with oils (more chemicals) at the same time. You could just as likely have done a nude dance under the full moon at the same time your body was set to cure the ailment on its own, and come to the conclusion that nude dancing was a cure. So eat healthy chemicals in modest proportions, try to breathe air that has “good” chemicals and elements rather than too many “bad” ones, drink 8 glasses of the chemical di-hydrogen monoxide daily (that’s water to you non chem-nerd folks), get enough sleep that your body can regulate all its chemicals properly (which it can for the most part, if you’re good to it), and if you think you’re sick, or that your pet is sick, please please please, consult a thoroughly trained, licensed professional to find out what the problem is before you start throwing chemicals at it. Because as you’ve learned by now, herbs, oils and all other supplements are also chemicals, they can also cause fatal side effects and interfere with important normal functions of the body, and while they (or their purified pharmaceutical version) may end up being an appropriate treatment, simply throwing a bunch of chemicals at an unknown issue is never a good idea. If you’re wondering if a particular alternative treatment is a good option (and I use the word alternative rather than natural very intentionally, if you still don’t know why, read the blog post again!), ask your veterinarian or doctor. Speaking personally, I would much rather you tell me what you’re thinking of giving when you get home (despite what I recommend), because maybe I’ll tell you its helpful, but I may also let you know that it could do a lot of harm. It may interfere fatally with something I’ve prescribed. If you’re going to permanently damage Fido’s kidneys, or worse (or your own), wouldn’t it be nice if someone let you know? If you’re concerned about side effects of something that’s prescribed, please ask, no professional will ever think you’re being paranoid or unreasonable, they’ll appreciate that you’re trying to become more informed.

SO RAISE A GLASS (of some type of chemicals) to chemicals! You’ve deserved it if you’re still with me more than 3500 words in. Though pretty well all of them could kill us one way or another, we also wouldn’t exist without them. We’re walking bags of chemicals, who need to consume more chemicals to survive. Chemicals are the compounds that let us feel love, joy, and sorrow. They help form our memories and our emotions. They make flowers grow and bloom. They surround us, and without them, life would not be possible.

– Dr. Lynn Smart-Ridgway