My furry friends help my fibro; paleo people, pup pulp treats

Nika, left, and Misha, right, my furry pals, plus Bailey, the cat, not shown

My furry pals help my fibro. As an animal lover, I get health benefits every day from my trio of pets, Nika and Misha, the snow dogs, and Bailey, the cat.

Living the fibro life can be difficult but a pet that loves you unconditionally can help make you feel better. In fact, scientific studies have shown that pets can improve your health. Of course, if you don't like pets, it's not going to help.

How do my fur buds help me? My fur kids love to be petted. In just a few minutes, stroking their fur helps lower my blood levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, which contributes to fatigue. What better way to fight the fatigue of fibromyalgia!

Play is something else my pets adore. Turns out playing with them help me too by releasing endorphins, the feel-good hormone, that stays around long afterwards.

Dogs like exercise more than anything (well, except for food). Guess who takes them for walks. They feel better and so do I after taking them on a walk. They are better than any "app" on your phone reminding you to do exercise.

Those of us with fibro sometimes feel all alone in our battle with the disease. It can be easy to get depressed but pooches or cats can help with that too. Animals provide therapy for those suffering from depression with their calm, loving manner. And they make great listeners too!

Misha gets a paleo people, pup treat

I guess you can tell I am a super fan of my pets. They are a big factor in my healing. So, my fibro protocol would look like this "Amp up your SHINE with Pets." SHINE, of course, is a protocol developed by fibro doctor Jacob Teitelbaum in his book, From Fatigued to Fantastic.

The "N" in SHINE stands for nutritional support which those of us with fibro need a lot. One thing that helps me is juicing because I can absorb the nutrients more easily from juice than whole fruits and veggies. But I do end up with a lot of pulp from the juicing process.

My pooches are the beneficiaries of all this pulp. They love it topped with a smidge of kefir. But this week I decided to transform the pulp into something else the pups would like---Paleo people, pup pulp treats.  Yes, these treats are good for people and pups!

Pulp treats ready for snacking

Here's what you need:

1/2 cup ground pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds
3/4 cup powdered freeze-dried chicken or almond flour
1 1/2 cup pulp from juicing (avoid using pulp with onions, garlic, grapes as these are not good for dogs)
1 egg
1/4 cup coconut oil

The dough flattened to 1/4 inch.

Here's what you do:

Grind your seeds into a coarse powder. I found the powdered chicken in the bottom of a can of freeze-dried chicken. You can sub almond flour. Blend all the ingredients in your food processor.

Use a pizza cutter to score the dough into pieces. Looks like I cut 24 pieces.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the dough on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper with a drizzle of olive oil. Flatten the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness with your hands. It works best if you keep your hands wet during the flattening process. Then, score the dough into pieces with a pizza cutter or knife.

Bake the treats for 15-20 minutes. Then, spread out the pieces and return them to the oven for another 15-20 minutes. Continue baking the treats until they are crispy.

Nika gets ready to inhale a treat.

Your pets are in for a real treat once your paleo people, pup pulp goodies are cooled.

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