Keep Your Horse And Your Heart Healthy: A How To Guide

In the late-1970s, a pioneering medication was discovered in Japan which was made from a single microorganism.

Isolated at the Kitasato Intitute, Tokyo, Japan, it came from a single Japanese soil sample, and has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people worldwide. And, despite continued research since, it has only been found in Japan.

While it was originally introduced as a veterinary medication and found to kill a phenomenally wide range of internal and external parasites in livestock and companion animals, it was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the world’s most devastating and disfiguring diseases which have plagued the world’s poor throughout tropical regions for centuries. It’s now being used free-of-charge as the exclusive tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally, and has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases, with new uses for it continually being found.

Few medications can seriously lay claim to the title of ‘Wonder Drug’, and penicillin and aspirin are two that have perhaps had the greatest beneficial effect on the health and well-being of Humankind. But this medication can also be considered alongside those worthy contenders, based on its versatility, safety and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide — especially on hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people.

The medication treats parasitic infections caused by roundworms, threadworms, internal and external nematodes and arthropods, including gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, mites, lice, hornflies, numerous other parasites, and is highly effective against ticks. In 1988, it was first used to treat human cases of Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) which is a chronic filarial disease caused by infection with Onchocerca volvulus worms.

In 1987, Merck & Co. Inc. donated that medication to treat onchocerciasis in all endemic countries for as long as it was needed. That drug donation program was the first, largest, longest running and most successful of all – and proved a model for all others that have followed.

It is so amazing because not only it is extremely safe, it also has uses in agriculture, aquaculture, and for over 20 years has been a “Block-buster” medication in Animal Health with sales in excess of US $1 billion.

Today, it treats billions of livestock and pets around the world, helps boost production of food and leather products, and keeps billions of companion animals, particularly dogs and horses, healthy.

That medication is ivermectin.

When administered to dogs, it is branded as Heartgard®, and is most notably used to prevent heartworm disease. Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal infection in dogs that also affects cats, which is easy to prevent, but difficult and costly to cure. Animals, including coyotes, foxes, and other wild animals which are considered carriers of heartworm disease, are infected by mosquito bites, which in the process of taking a blood meal from an infected animal, pick up microscopic “baby worms” which develop into “infective stage” larvae over 10-14 days.

Then, when the infected mosquito bites another dog, cat, or susceptible wild animal, the infective larvae are deposited onto the surface of the animal’s skin and enter the new host through the mosquito’s bite wound. Once inside a new host, it takes approximately 6-9 months for the larvae to mature into adult heartworms. And once mature, the foot-long heartworms – which can live for 5-7 years in in dogs and up to 2 or 3 years in cats – establish residence in the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels, causing lung disease, heart failure and damage to other vital organs.

While humans can be infected with heartworm disease, the number of cases are rare. But another type of heart disease in humans is just as serious, and produces well-known, and highly documented effects.

Regarding another type of disease affecting the heart, the American Heart Association says that emotions like fear, anxiety, depression, loneliness, anger, and hope “can affect your recovery and your risk of future cardiac events, so it’s important to understand your feelings, recognize problems and get help if you need it. You may be scared because you don’t know what lies ahead, or because you feel less control over your life. Don’t be afraid to talk about your fears with a close friend or family member. When you voice your fears, you open the door to getting help and information that can make you feel better.”

“Think back to a time when you were afraid. Did you ask yourself why? You may realize that you feel fearful because you have a lot of questions without answers or you aren’t sure about what lies ahead. That could be causing you to wonder and worry. If you think the worst, you can become anxious — but your worst fears rarely happen.“

The Book of Proverbs encourages readers in part to, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (4:23, NLT)

Our thoughts, minds, hearts and actions are all intertwined. In Shakespeare’s play Henry IV, Act 4, Scene III, King Henry says to his son Prince Harry, “Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.” In other words, he says that our opinions or beliefs are often influenced by our desires and hopes.

Shakespeare is saying that the thought is born out of the wish. And our wishes originate in our heart which is “the seat of our emotions.” Another version of that saying is this: “The thought is father of the deed.” Solomon, reputed as the most wise man in the world, diagnosed the problem millennia ago when he observed that, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Jesus the Christ similarly acknowledged it when He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Our heart is a mysterious spiritual reality that allows us to experience the fullness of life. Our heart can be grieved, troubled, broken, pierced, divided, and joyful. It includes emotion, but is not limited to emotion. The heart is “the very core of life,” and it is the truest expression of who we really are.

Guarding your heart is not a matter of selfishness or irresponsibility. Consider a goalie in soccer, or hockey, which takes a actively defensive posture in front of the goal to prevent the opposing team from scoring against the goalie’s team. But guarding your heart is much more than protection, because it includes components of pursuit and provision. So in a very real way, guarding your heart is more about nourishing your soul than avoiding wrong-doing.

Guarding your heart includes minimizing things in our lives that would harm us, and choosing good paths.

Facts provide information, whereas truth produces transformation. Consider the difference between the following definitions of a kiss. A clinical definition of a kiss would be “The pressing of two mandibles together including the exchange of saliva.” In contrast, read the definition of a kiss in the song by Faith Hill entitled “This Kiss.” The song’s chorus says:

“It’s the way you love me
It’s a feeling like this
It’s centrifugal motion
It’s perpetual bliss
It’s that pivotal moment
It’s impossible
This kiss, this kiss (Unstoppable)
This kiss, this kiss

“It’s the way you love me, It’s a feeling like this, It’s centrifugal motion, It’s perpetual bliss, It’s that pivotal moment, It’s (ah) impossible, This kiss, this kiss … unstoppable, this kiss, this kiss.”

Ancient Egyptian poetry says of the kiss:
“I kiss her before everyone that they all may see my love.

“And when her lips are pressed to mine I am made drunk and need not wine.
“When we kiss, and her warm lips half open, I fly cloud-high without beer!
“What paradise gained, what fulfillment, what a heavenly turn of affairs!

“For life, compelling life, is in thy breath;
“And at that kiss, though in the tomb I lie,
 I will arise and break the bands of Death.”

Guarding your heart involves energizing your life with the transforming truth of Love.

Guarding your heart is critical to experiencing every good thing for your life.

When we Recognize the Treasure of our heart, Prioritize the Task of guarding it, Chose Good Paths, and Energize it with Truth, we place ourselves in a position to receive manifold blessings in untold numbers.