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Show Page B6 — THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Thursday, May 9, 1996 Veterinarian’s practice proves he has goneto the dogs Editor's note: Some souls find other ways, St. Francis lid, and many called him a wacko, too. This veterinarian’s saintly love is plain, but his al techniques make his agues cringe and ients stand and wag their uils. Quack er miracle work By NANCY SHULINS AP Special Correspondent SOUTHSALEM, N.Y. — Like most people who end up at Smith Ridge Veterinary Center, actress Louise Lasser arrived desperate, with an aching heart and a dying The tumor she'd had removed from the mouth of her 16oI Yorkshire Terrier, Pushky Ay baby! My husband!” — had come back. Short o radiation, which d, conventional medlittle. Her only hope now was a miracle Dr. Martin Goldstein, whose name Lasser had pried out of Pushky’s reluctant oncologist, practices alternative veterinary nedicine in a cramped, shabby building an hour’s drive north of Manhattan “Oh my God,” Lasser thought “It's a shack.” As_ clinics go, Smith Ridge doesn’t inspire much confidence. But no one comes here for the ambience This is where you go if your Rottweiler suffers explosive diar hea and drops 50 pounds practially overnight. like Whiskey Pinus did recently, or your Lhaso ipso develops a spinal cord tumor, ike Lucky Swedenburg, whofell fown one day and nevergot up. This is where you goif your vet commends putting your | l-yearid paralyzed poodle-and-something to sleep. Instead, like Donna Anderson, you scoop him up in your arms and youget the hell out of Here “If he had been in pain, 1 would have to,” she says “But he wasn't Back home with Snoopy in her p. “TL cried my brains out.” Then she picked up the phone ind called Marty Goldstein. They come from all over, xpecting a New Age healer. tnstead, they get “Dr. Marty,” a With the client busy reading, borscht-belt comicin boat shoes, a 49-year-old fast talker in a dogpatterned shirt cua turns to the tying —- on the table, and fs him one under the chin. Lasser was still sizing him up when Pushky stood on his hind legs, placed his paws on Dr. Marty’s shoulders, and began fervently licking his face “Twas so surprised, I can’t teil you,” says Lasser, sounding remarkablylike her old TV character, Mary Hartman. “He never shook, and Pushky’s a shaker. He was scared of everything in his life. But somehow, he knew this man was going to help him.” That was 16 months ago, and Pushky is still going strong, his cancerin remission aftera series of injections and supplements to strengthen his immune system, a treatment Goldstein's critics contend has no scientific validity whatsoever. Another of Dr. Marty’s miracles, says the staff, who preside with compassion and humorover a waiting room that sometimes resembles an animal version of Lourdes. Nocat goes unpetted, no dog unloved, not even the reeking retriever whose muzzle has swollen grotesquely, like a football. As with animals treated conventionally, some of Goldstein's patients — like the retriever — don’t makeit. But some do. Goldstein estimates it's about 50-50, not counting the most hopeless cases. Making it. in this case, means surviving at least six months, although some live for years. Pictures of the animalsthe staff call Marty's miracles cover the walls at Smith Ridge. There's Whiskey the Rottweiler at 63 pounds, the embodimentof misery with every vertebra visible through the dull fur; Jupiter the cat, blinded by a brain tumor, his eyes milky and opaque: Blake theterrier, his fur gone and his skin blackened by allergies to grass, fleas and rugs. All were saved by alternative treatments after conventional medicine failed, Goldstein says: Whiskey by vitamins, organ concentrates and a diet of boiled vegetables and meats; Jupiter by injections of immune components; Blake by nutritional supplements and homeopathicremedies. OTe owneris horrified: What's doing? Is he crazy? PE ty aoe. it's too late. The tail’s started to twitch. Dr. Marty goes into his shtick, talking silly, rubbing the muzzle, giving the dog a few noogies on the head. The tail-wagging intensifies: thump, Thump, THUMP!It’s been ages since anyone did this; since the diagnosis, it's been all doom and gloom. The dog grins; the owner does, too. The hopelessness starts to fade. Goldstein's tone turns tiumphant: “Look at that spirit! We have a lot to work with here!” Next, he hauls out the scrapbooks, brimming with hopeless cases he managed to turn around, like Lucky Swedenburg, who pow wears a diaper but who otherwise Dr. Marty a 12year-old poodie, Snoppy, as eee‘boone Anderson assists him at Smith Ridge Veterini Center in South Salem, N.Y. Goldstein, who ices alternaThe “after pictures show Whiskey at 130 pounds, a showstopper who recently thwarted a robbery at his owner's computer store and starred in a commercial for blue jeans; Jupiter, his vision restored and his eyes sparkling with feline curiosity; Blake, lyi seductively on the same rug that once madehisfurfall out, sporting a new coat of downy whitefluff. Impressive as theyare. before- and-after pictures hold no sway with scientists. Dr. Franklin Loew, dean of the College ofVeterinary Medicine at Cornell University Goldstein’s alma mater, likens his documentation to that of “the Hair Club for Men.” “I don’t doubt the enthusiastic reports I get one bit,” says Loew. “But I don’t know how many animals didn’t respond.” Dr. Martin DeAngelis,a veteri- narysurgeonin Ardsley, N.Y., who sometimesrefers cancerpatients to Goldstein, considers him a pioneer who “truly believes in what he’s doing, who loves the people and the animals, and who has bettered the profession by expanding our ‘AP Photo helped cure Snoopy of an tive it rable spinaal cord tumor over a seven month |, involving eight daily injections, one every ce hours. view of what healing is about.” But he acknowledgesthat’s not the prevailing view. “Many vets think he’s a quack, a wacko, they give him no respe ys DeAngelis. “A lot truly hate him and talk about him and would doinjury to him professionally if they could.” Goldstein is well aware ofthis. “I don’t blame anyone for anything that comes against me,” he says. “This is a path | chose to take.” Besides, it was much worse a decade ago, when he addressed the tegional veterinary society and part ofhis audience walked out. For years, DeAngelis and others have tried to persuade Goldstein to documenthis work. By failing to do so, they say, he’s consigning himself to the outer fringes of a profession he’s risked his reputation to change. “It’s my goal in life to get my cases documented,” says Goldstein, who dreams of building a research center and teaching. But pile data. Instead, he takes pictures. He also surrounds himself with great quotations, comforting thoughts on nonconformity to be shared with his clients: “Great minds have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” — Einstein. And, “Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood” — Emerson. Those are for newcomers. Veterans get more hard-core stuff. “If we could launder the word “cancer, “hangit out in the sun to dry “and bring it in bleached white and beautiful, “T promise you there would be less cancer at the moment, he says, he’s too busy trying to save lives to com- seemsto be fine. Eventually,client and patient go home loaded with jars and syringes to begin the task notof fighting the cancer, but of supporting the immune system so the body can fight on its own. The centerpiece of Goldstein's cancer-fighting program, ImmuneAugmentative Therapy, consists of naturally isolated immune components from healthy patients injected under the skin of sick ones to enhance their immune systems. The formulavaries based on tumor type and on periodic analyses of patients’ blood. IAT is based on the human cancer work ofthe late Dr. Lawrence Burton, who moved to the Bahamas in 1977, having failed to convince the Food and Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute and others. He did, however, convince Goldstein's brother, Robert, also a veterinarian, who founded Smith Ridge in 1982. Marty joined him twoyearslater and took over when Robert left to develop a health food for pets. He now owns a health food store for animals and publishes a national new sietter for pet owners. The original Smith Ridge was squeezed into a tiny space leased from a kennel. “My exam room (See DOGS, Page B7) *— Pat Rodegast. Seek help whenfeeling depressed emouons. Womenusually vent more and this enables themtorelieve some of the stresses that can cause physical ailments. Be aware that everyonegets the blues on occasion. This is just a part oflife. However, the description of what you are experiencing concerns me. Answer these questions: Have you been feeling this way for six months or longer? Have you beenisolating yourself experience the same thing? I from others? Do you have frenever hear men complaining quent crying spells? Is there a about any of "he above. —Con- Joss of interest in pleasurable activities? cerned in Coconut Creek, Fla. If the answeris yes to these Dear Concerned: Althoughit ts not common to hear men com- questions, I suggest you see a therapist. You seem to have an tics showthat mendie ea idea as to what is causing these to their inability to express these discomforts in your life; there- Dear June:Lately, I've been feeling down in the dumps for various reasons. Sometimes because of my personal life and sometimes because of my career ow lack thereof. IT lose my appetite. | have anxiety attacks. | have insomnia and overall fear. | know a few women who have experienced the same problem. My question is do men fore, you are at an advantage. You can go to work on making a change for the better. 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Problem solvingis the kind of thinking a child does when he sees relationships between things of groups of things, when he experiments and makes conclusiQns about cause and effect, and whenhe estimates or guesses what might happen and tries it or when he decides to pretend or construct something, gets what he needs, and OES it Problem solvi Kinds of “hands on whinking skills. If this is what you want him to practice, take advantage of or create learning opportunities in your home. your yard and the neighborhood Remember that your son is practicing many thinking skills as heplays with art materials, pretend props. blocks, and other toys that require himtoinvent, create, and construct. Use real things in the house and foods in the kitchen to help him Practice sorting, matching, comparing. weighing, measuring, and counting Ask him “whatif..."" questions that make him think and imagine, NOTjust questions that have only One answer Have him plant andcare for a garden and build a birdhouse. 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