Possible diet to hopefully stave off cancers?

[rottmommie]

I have been advised by one Doc to continue to smoke, and I know a pregnant woman who was told by a doctor to just simply cut back on smoking when pregnant, instead of quitting.
I still doubt the majority of the medical field. I was advised to continue smoking due to crohns disease. Not the smartest advice I have ever heard.

You do know what they call a Dr that graduates at the bottom of his class dont you?

[spidey]

rottmommie: I should have qualified my statement - pregnant women are often advised to just cut down rather than quit, same with anyone who has a stress-sensitive illness like Crohn's. Quitting smoking is so stressful that the stress hormones released by your body are sometimes more harmful for people in certain situations than the cigarettes. This isn't an example of anything other than doctors perhaps not explaining to you why they didn't advise you to quit completely. It's perfectly sound medical advice and something any competent doctor might have done. Yes, there are stupid and bad doctors, but to write off the whole profession because you didn't understand the (perfectly good) advice they gave you, or because of a few bad ones, is extreme and illogical.

[rottmommie]

dear spide
I have certainly been in the medical profession myself for over 26 years.....
and still have no faith in it..... I KNOW the lame excuses for continuing to smoke....and with the crohns I quit, didnt die and with nutritional support I also discontinued the meds I was to continue for the remainder of my life......
tell me now how good prednisolone is for me.
And now shall I wonder why we have registered dieticians?
Anyhow lets be absolutely sure about my original point, whether it be a human, or a dog.....]
dont feed crap.
crap in=crap out.....pretty simple. You are what u eat is n ot just an old wives tale.

[ptremaine]

Originally posted by spidey
There is no evidence that diet influences the immune system beyond basic nutritional needs being a requirement for normal body function. And cancer is not thought to be a disease in which the immune system plays much of a role (as I said earlier, cancerous cells are not noticeably different, from your immune system's point of view, from normal cells, and an overactive immune system is just as dangerous as an underactive one). And I'm sorry, but it's more than a little implausible that there's some kind of medical conspiracy to keep people ill. There will always be work for doctors to do, regardless of how much people try and stay healthy, they don't need to dissuade people from healthy living, nor are they inclined to. I've never heard a doctor say "you need to eat more McDonald's and surely you can increase your smoking to three packs a day if you really try".

Good god, yes!

Here's the Cancer 101 primer: Cancer is a bodily process whereby cells multiple and divide and don't die according to the correct DNA messaging they're supposed to be getting. DNA gets damaged, as I posted earlier, from a) environmental causes, b) genetic inheritance, c) viruses and bacteria, d) radiation and lastly, unknown causes in addition to the top four, but NOT diet primarily. Cancer cells are nothing more than cells that do not die normally. They begin to multiply, they form tumors, they crowd out healthy tissues, they migrate to other parts of the body [unless it's a primary brain tumor, then they stay put and kill your brain only], eventually, the miscoded cells have taken over the organism [you] and you die. End of story.

You can feed yourself and your Rottie a healthful diet that is well balanced for YOUR particular nutritional needs. You can not smoke, drink or sit on your a$$ all day on the Internet and instead get plenty of healthy exercise. And guess what? You can still drop dead of breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, heck, you can even get lung cancer and die having never smoked a ciggy in your life. Your immune system is NOT going to be "strong" or "weak" depending upon your diet primarily. The immune system you get is the one you were born with - period. All the junk science and anecdotal claims notwithstanding, you can swallow all the soy products, blah blah blah you want and give it to the dogs too, and voila! You still have a winning ticket in the Death Lotto.

Here's what having cancer has taught me: doctors do not lie to me. They're not glossing over the chances I have, they're not giving me false hope, they're not telling me to eat or not eat a special diet - they're just giving me the facts that they know TODAY and being forthright. There's no doctor whom I've met to date, and I've gone to the best brain doctors in this Mid-Atlantic region, who want to keep my alive or see me dead so they can pocket some extra cash. That's a revolting and insulting claim. In fact, my primary doctor, Jon Weingart, MD of Johns Hopkins, is one of the most compassionate, caring and intellectual men I've ever met. You can see the way he wants to keep me alive as long as he can so I can have a LIFE, not so he can pocket a few bucks for seeing me [by the way, he gets precisely $30.00 a visit from me and another $112.00 from my insurer - for a whopping total of $142.00 - you think the guy is getting rich seeing patients for 45 minutes at that rate?!].

Look - rather than agonize over whether or not your dogs are going to die of cancer [it's very likely], ENJOY THE TIME YOU HAVE NOW!! I can't stress this enough. Stop giving yoruselves ulcers over whether or not a dog needs to consume raw or processed kibbles, whether or not a capsule of cod liver oil is better than one of flax seed. For pete's sake, what'll kill us all quicker than can be is the stress of worrying!

:)

Lighten up and LIVE. Enjoy your pooches, have great times, take lots of pictures, talk to your loved ones about the dog, hugs and kisses to the dogs and give yourselves one too.

Happy Thanksgiving, to all the knuckleheads who worry too much about their dogs [me too!]

Payton

:D

[TrishB]

Originally posted by rottmommie
Anyhow lets be absolutely sure about my original point, whether it be a human, or a dog.....] dont feed crap. crap in=crap out.....pretty simple. You are what u eat is n ot just an old wives tale.

Sure - but I think you're missing Spidey's point. Diet is not a silver bullet for cancer. There are so many other things that are MUCH larger contributors to cancers - concentrating on diet will have little to no impact. Short of feeding your dog toxic waste, diet isn't a huge factor for cancer (It is for other things for sure! Just not cancer, which is the point of this entire thread).

Cancer is the overgrowth of cells. The reason your immune system doesn't attack them is because it doesn't recognize them as bad. So building up the immune system is not an issue with fighting cancer. A good immune system is imperative when you're under treatment for cancer because the treatments can lower your immune system to open you up to other problems. But it in itself has nothing to do with the actual cancer. Get my point?

So while a good immune system and therefore a supportive diet is important during the treatment of cancer - it is not in the prevention of cancer. Your energies would be better spent researching bloodlines and observing the environment of your dog.

That is what I gleaned from Spidey's post(s). ;)

[Major]

It seems all has been said. If someone has something NEW to add I'll reopen the thread.