# Cancer prevention?



## Jamm (Mar 28, 2010)

Luck of the draw it seems. There are tons of studies about what food/spay&neuter/vaccines but from what Ive read, you can be as diligent as you want and it might not matter.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Probably not, but I did enjoy reading Pukka's Promise. This book explores some of these ideas.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Pukkas-Promise-Quest-Longer-Lived-Dogs/dp/0544102533/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453138501&sr=1-1&keywords=pukkas+promise[/ame]


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## gold4me (Mar 12, 2006)

I did everything, good food, few vaccinations, exercise, good breeder, monitored my environment, excellent supplements and I still lost to cancer. The only thing I did do that I would now change is neutering, even though my boys were neutered after 4 years old. Would that have helped??? I don't know.


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## Mel (Sep 9, 2008)

I don´t have much knowledge of fighting cancer because when Mel had surgery it was much too late to take out anything. I want to know how I couldn´t have seen this at an earlier stage to have at least a chance of fighting it. Frequent abdominal ultra sound didn´t show anything. Has anyone had a case of aggresive melanoma in the vulva? I thought melanoma came up on skin or eyes.


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## wdadswell (Dec 17, 2015)

gold4me said:


> I did everything, good food, few vaccinations, exercise, good breeder, monitored my environment, excellent supplements and I still lost to cancer. The only thing I did do that I would now change is neutering, even though my boys were neutered after 4 years old. Would that have helped??? I don't know.


Although I didn't lose mine to cancer- he ended up passing from renal failure, I think, that's all you can do, is give them the best opportunity at life, that you possibly can. This time around, after reading the UC Davis study, I'm not going to neuter.


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## Dennis Thomas DVM (Oct 9, 2015)

Medical research has been trying to answer the same question for years. The reason that we have failed to find an answer is most likely there are too many variables. This is sort of like predicting the weather. Science deals with specifics and direct cause and effect. That said, in my experience as a veterinarian, I try to work backwards. Some consistencies that I have seen and are now being recognized by the profession are that most solid cancers have an inflammatory stage before developing into the tumor. Cells go from normal to metaplastic to neoplastic (cancer). Research suggests that the metaplastic stage is inflammatory in nature.
A good example would be skin cancer in people. We are starting to see the same thing in pets. A good example is cancer of the intestines. It is now accepted that chronic inflammatory bowel disease is the precursor (metaplastic phase) for intestinal cancer. In other words, if you have a dog or cat with IBD and it progresses, it will likely develop intestinal cancer.

If this is the case, and it appears so, then we should be focuses on eliminating anything that will create inflammation within the body. This is why so much focus in humans has centered around eating food that does not promote inflammation (sugar, grains, etc). The same can be done in our pets. We should try to restrict the diet in order to eliminate inflammatory cytokines that circulate in the body 24/7. These are primarily due to feeding too much starch in the diet. Heat-processing has also been linked to inflammatory cytokines.

Obviously, other factors such as genetic potential, immune health and others are factors. Remember, genetic potential (such as allergies and cancer in Goldens) does not mean that they are going to get the disease. Research tells us that the environmental factors are the most significant factors in whether a genetically-potential disease will manifest.

My recommendations to my clients in order to prevent cancer is to feed a healthy, low starch diet, do NOT over-vaccinate as this will have a deleterious effect on the immune health, be aware of environmental influences (chemicals, cleaning agents, electric smog, etc). Emotional energy in the Golden's environment long-term will also cause stress and reduce immune function. Most Goldens are very sensitive to emotional energy and if there is stress in the environment they tend to worry and chronic worry will manifest physically in time. 

Hope some of this helps.


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