Cancer & The Important Role Of Diet And Lifestyle For Your Pet

• Posted on 10 May 2019
• By Dr. Jill Tack
• Posted in cancer, cancer prevention, cbd oil, diet, environmental exposure, immune system, mushrooms, nutrition, toxins, turmeric
• 0

Taking dietary and environmental precautions against cancer can help support a healthier, natural lifestyle for animals and humans alike.

Ugh! The dreaded “C” word as most people refer to it. A cancer diagnosis is never easy and oftentimes we are never mentally prepared for what the future holds. Cancer can be the end of life or it can be a health hiccup in life. To think that there are designated Cancer Awareness Months almost every month of the year alone should be a wake-up call. Unfortunately, a cancer diagnosis is a high probability with your cat or dog as the amount of cancer cases has dramatically increased since the debut of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in 1994.

What is cancer?

According to the American Cancer Society, “Cancer can start any place in the body. It starts when cells grow out of control and crowd out normal cells”. Cancer is often referred to as a mutation of cells or a lack of cell death in the cycle of cell life. Cancer is present in all of us, it's whether or not the cells get “turned on” or “turned off” by inside or outside influences. Cancer is not a disease diagnosis that happens overnight. It may take time to develop or long term continual toxic exposure before the body decides to start sending warning flags that something internally is amiss. Types of cancer may be based on genetics or breed, environmental, toxic load, or predisposition from other additional factors. The spread of cancer cells can be slow or fast based on the type of cancer present within the body.

Environmental Exposures

Unknowingly, there are environmental toxins that could be a contributing factor to your pet’s health. Some of these items may be difficult or even out of our control but we can put some contingency plans in place to reduce our pet’s exposure. For example, we all have that neighbor who doesn’t like dandelions dancing in their pristine manicured lawn care program. Therefore, they have glyphosate weed killer sprayed routinely which could end up airborne or traveling into your yard by water runoff. Typically, its frowned upon to ask your neighbor to stop his weed-killing habits as nobody likes to be known as the “nosey neighbor”. However, the days you know spraying is happening in your neighborhood, you could make sure your windows are closed, take precautions when taking your pets on their daily walk, washing off their feet if fertilizer is in question, and even purchasing a high-quality air purifying system for your home. Other environmental factors to consider that could pose health questions are water quality, air quality, electromagnetic frequency pollution, chemical cleaning supplies, synthetic air fresheners, heavy metal exposure, pesticide exposure, and cigarette smoke.

Additional causes of concern are obesity, lack of exercise, lack of nutrition, chronic inflammation, weakened immune system, out of balance hormones, viruses, and radiation exposure.

What can you do to keep your pet healthy and happy?

Like many others in the pet retail industry, I have a personal story about how cancer affected a pet of my own. When our pets become family members we strive to learn and do better when the information is provided to us. If you have read anything about my experience with my family pet, Max, who was diagnosed with cancer, it was that he was my teacher. He opened my eyes to a healthier, natural lifestyle for my future animals.

One of the simplest places to start with your pet is by providing them clean food and water. This seems like a reasonable task, however, it might take more effort than you think. Clean water is more than running your water through a basic home charcoal filter system. You may even want to consider having an in-home water test on your tap water if that is your main source of drinking water. Our city municipalities can not completely remove pharmaceuticals and chemicals from our tap water. Even well water can have toxicity issues.

If you are concerned about cancer with your pet’s food, you will want to review the ingredient panel to avoid any items on the list that could be questionable. Ingredients that should always be avoided are chemical preservatives such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, sodium nitrates, artificial food colorings, and MSG. Other items on the avoid list are vegetable oil, wheat, corn, by-products, farmed fish, and sugar. The more real, fresh food you can include in your pet’s food bowl, the better! Most customers report back that their pets love the fresh food additions.

Cancer isn’t always a death sentence. Unfortunately, because our animals speak a different language than us and also often do a terrible job at showing weakness, by the time we catch symptoms of cancer we are in a situation of symptom management. Other times, when you are tuned in with your animal and their health, owners are able to catch symptoms at early onset which allows time to re-balance the body. Cancer symptoms can be masked by everyday symptoms that may not alarm us at the onset.  Fortunately, Mother Nature has provided us with access to many natural items that can help prevent cancer, keep cancer at bay, or, at the very least, manage cancer symptoms to keep our pets comfortable until their physical journey at earth side ends.

Items to consider adding to your pets supplement or food regimen are as follows:

• Green Juju - This blend of bitter greens also helps to add alkalizing veggies to decrease the environment that cancer loves to thrive. The more oxygen you can put into the body, the better. Cancer can not survive in a high concentration of oxygen. The bison or turkey bone broth is a great way to add all natural vitamins and minerals into the body without using synthetic sources. Most often when disease is present, we are lacking in nutrients within.
• Turmeric - This bright yellow herb, also known as curcumin, has many components to help fight cancer. There are many recipes online for golden paste which is a simple way to incorporate this powerful herb into your pet's routine.
• Pet Releaf CBD Oil - CBD oil is a very powerful anti-inflammatory. It can reduce pain dramatically and I’ve even had customers tell us that it has helped to reduce tumors. Pet Releaf CBD oil can most often be used in addition with conventional pharmaceuticals.
• Organic Mushrooms - Turkey tail, shiitake, maitake, chaga reishi, and cordyceps are all specific mushroom types that have been proven to fight cancer cells, strengthen the immune system, and shrink tumors.

These are just a few options that are available to help the physical body during the time of cancer. We should never forget that the emotional state also plays a role in our cancer outcome. Recently featured on The Truth About Cancer, Eastern Medicine: A Journey Through Asia, several medical professionals in areas of Asia were interviewed and almost every cancer doctor mentioned the emotional state of the patient. Many times it seems like an odd request when our staff reminds you to go home and have fun with your cat or dog. Every one of us - human, cat, or dog - has a different story on earth. We need to find joy in each day while keeping an active mind and body to keep our optimal health. As cliche as it sounds, we should live every day to its fullest!