MentorAdvantage

As an animal lover I'm sorry for both of you as a two month prognosis is heart breaking. Have you ever thought about using natural alternatives to assist your dog? I know from personal experience that a small number of "alternative friendly" vets use "natural supplements" intended for humans on animals. I also know most vets will only recommend products that have been APVMA approved due to liability risks. A similar situation exists with human health care products. Doctors only prescribe products approved by the TGA leaving it up to naturopaths to inform us of alternative supplements choices. I'm the manufacturer of a natural supplement used by Australia's alternative health care professionals for over 17yrs. Over time I've gained a bit of knowledge from naturopaths as to how they assist people with chronic skin disorders, arthritis and cancers. Here's a couple of bits of information that I've picked up from discussions with naturopaths which I'm sure doctors don't always tell people with cancer. This information maybe of benefit to animals with cancer but it's up to you to do your own research and ask your vet. 1. Tumours require the formation/growth of a blood vessel network to feed themselves, this process is called "angiogenesis". There are few natural products which inhibit the formation of new blood vessel networks, this starves the tumours of vital nutrients and makes it difficult for them to grow. This is known as antiangiogenesis. Antiangiogenic products are validated by what is known as a CAM assay or chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay. Antiangigeogenic supplements can be mixed with in with food or drink. 2. Cancer cells are acidic and love to live in an acidic environment. Cancer cells hate to live in an alkaline environment. Cancer cells become dormant at approx ph7.5 and cancer cells find it hard to survive at ph8.5. From "The Textbook of Small Animal Medicine" (Edited by John Dunn) it states that normal dog urine has a pH of 5.5 - 7.5. A ph of 5.5 is acidic whilst a ph of 7.5 is alkaline. A simple urine or saliva test using ph test strips (range ph5 to ph8) from a chemist is all that is required to monitor ph. It's easy for humans to adjust the ph of their body using alkalising agents mixed in with food or drink. If you keep your ph in an alkaline state it makes it very difficult for cancer cells to grow. There's a lot of information which I could share but you have enough to get you started. Feel free to ask questions. Disclaimer: Remember I'm not a vet, so before you give your dog anything, find an "alternative friendly" vet and check with them first.

When I see posts where people are asking is there anything else that they can try for arthritis I say ... probably. I've just returned from California where I attended the Natural Products West Expo where manufacturers from all over the world display their latest products to the health and nutrition industry. I'd love to tell you that I saw the ultimate silver bullet cure for all aliments but it wasn't there and probably will never be. I did spend some time with Dr Theo the author of the best selling book The Arthritis Cure discussing his next book revision and new arthritis nutraceuticals that are becoming available. Here's some inside info for you ... to be honest there are but a handful of proven products for arthritis which are backed with scientific research data. For every proven product there are hundreds of "snake oil" ones with no scientific research. The problem with marketing the proven nutraceuticals into the retail sector is that you have to keep on reinventing it .... you know "new and improved", "now with added ????". As with any mainstream product you the consumer are targeted with (and respond to) these marketing catch phrases like flies to fly paper ... do they even make fly paper anymore? Think about it ... when you're standing in a retail store confronted by all the different brands and labels I bet you go for one which catches your eye with "technological breakthrough" on the label etc. There is one market sector where marketing isn't taken into consideration as it's results driven. Can you guess where it is? .... it's the nations network of naturopaths and similar health care professionals. They know which products work and they don't have to worry about fancy labels as there is a certain amount of trust established between you and your health care professional. Now again some are better than others so it's still up to you to ask questions and do your own research as within every industry there are always charlatans. Here's where it gets interesting .... when you find something works for you and then you come across someone or indeed a dog, cat or horse with the same complaint you naturally think I wonder if will work for them. Being adventurous we give it to our animals and as animals don't know about the placebo effect they either have a response or not. Thus it's easy to see that when they do have a positive response why there are so many products that make the transition from human use to animal use. Some with APVMA evaluation and others without. Cartrophen, produced by Biopharma Australia and registered with the APVMA, is a product which has made the transition from human use to animal use for the treatment of Osteoarthritis in adult dogs. For humans Cartrophen is know as Pentosan polysulfate (sold under the name Elmiron by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, inc.) it's the only oral medication approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of interstitial cystitis, also known as painful bladder syndrome. So from painful bladder syndrome in humans to arthritis in dogs ... but it's been approved by the APVMA so go figure :-) So when I see posts where people are asking is there anything else that they can try for arthritis I say ... probably... as there are a lot of good human products which are being used (without APVMA approval) on animals. Disclaimer - Whilst I have over 15yrs of joint and cartilage knowledge as a nutriceutical manufacturer and supplier to the naturopath industry I'm not a human or animal health care practitioner so before you embark on using, or giving, any unapproved treatment please check the science very carefully and seek advise from a suitably qualified professional.