Cancer

It all starts with a single cell.  One cell with the ability to produce endless of copies of itself as well as endless proteins and hormones.  This cell loses its ability to self-regulate: that is, it loses its ability to undergo programmed cell death ("apoptosis").  This cell also loses its ability to be eliminated by the body--it becomes immune to the repeated attempts by the body to tell it to self-destruct.  It becomes immune to signals from the body to stop growing.  It develops the ability to signal nearby blood vessels to grow into its new-formed colony, supplying it with an endless amount of oxygen and other essential nutrients.  

Sounds like a great plot for a horror movie, does it not?

This renegade cell can come about in any number of ways and the way most living beings avoid the transformation relies on genetics.  That is, one inherits the ability to stop these cells before they start from their parents.  Assaults to our cells come in many forms and occur thousands of times a day.  Living from day to day is like playing a game of russian roulette--your body could undergo one insult one day and that one insult could be the one that becomes cancer.  Conversely, your body could undergo thousands of insults per day and you may never develop cancer.  Again, this all depends on the tiny DNA cellular repair mechanisms and their efficacy, which you inherited from your parents.  This is why cancer can be traced through families--if your mother or father had cancer, the chances are higher that you inherited a less-than-optimal DNA cellular repair mechanism and thus will develop cancer.

Cancer does not come about due to the multiplication of a mutated cell.   Cancer comes about because the body lacks the correct repair mechanism to fix a problem in a cell that occurs during the exact right spot in the DNA and in the exact right time in the cell replication cycle.  Every day, hour after hour, our bodies are manufacturing the proteins and hormones needed to function.  If a mutation occurs in a section of DNA that codes for a hormone, for example, that hormone is made with an incorrect ingredient.  No big deal, it is just eliminated.  After all, what's one hormone molecule when compared with the amounts needed to elicit a metabolic response, right?

The sad thing is this: Most of our cancer patients are the best of the best.  They are fed the best foods, they are on the best exercise schedules, they drink the best water and have some of the best owners.  And yet, because they are breeds in which defunct cellular repair mechanisms are passed down generation after generation, they still continue to develop cancer.  Most of my patients are fed organic raw food diets, are exercised multiple times a day, have hundreds of hours of training and obedience under their belts, and have the kind of owners lonely dogs in shelters can only dream of.  There is no reason we should be seeing the rates of cancer in these dogs other than genetics.  Mind you, we do see a select population.  We see only dogs that owners opt to treat, and since we are a tertiary referral hospital, we see only owners that have the finances to do so.  However, there are a few dog breeds that are grossly over-represented. 

I can't describe how gut-wrenching and horrific it is to break the news to owners who have always done the right thing for their pets.  Their pets are taken care of, their pets are adored, their pets are a part of the family.  We have to break terrible news to owners of old, loyal family dogs that have been there experiencing life right alongside their owners.  We have to break the news to owners of young puppies with entire doggy lives ahead of them.  And every single one doesn't deserve the diagnosis.  For every single one of them I want to pound the table and scream, "It's not fair! Why THIS dog? Why THIS cat? Why couldn't it be a vicious dog?  Why couldn't it be a nasty cat?" 

And unfortunately, the answer is that life isn't about being fair.  Life is about living and experiencing and enjoying and savoring and appreciating and being in the moment.  There's no use in dreading the inevitable, and so one should take extreme measures to live life to its absolute fullest.  

Go out and do what makes you happiest, and give your doggy friend or horsey friend or kitty friend a pat on the head and appreciate them for what they bring to your life.