Enzymes

Mother Nature put a lot of enzymes into the food that we – and our dogs – would be eating if we ate food from nature anymore. For more on this, please read Michael Pollan, if you haven't already. The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food are on my favorite books list for their clear, often humorous, and sometimes shocking exploration of where our twenty-first century food comes from.

Enzymes are proteins that help chemical reactions within cells to proceed efficiently, in other words, the enzymes help the cells do their work. And since our bodies are made of cells, we need enzymes so that all our parts – livers and guts, hearts and lungs, brains and nerves, muscles and skin and hair – can work appropriately.

Cancer cells have been shown to have a sticky, protective coating, making it difficult for the body's immune cells to enter and do their job of deconstructing the malfunctioning cell and cleaning up its debris. Enzymes – especially proteolytic enzymes – help to break through this coating, weakening it and exposing the cell to the actions of the immune system.

Raw foods are full of enzymes which help the food to be digested easily, hence the raw veggies and meat that I provide for Nicholai (and the other two dogs) every day. In addition to the raw food replete with nature's compliment of nutrients, I give Nicholai a multi-enzyme supplement several times per day, separate from meals. The purpose of this is to allow his body the fullest use of these enzymes in assisting his immune cells in their effort to clean up aberrant and dysfunctional cells – which the cancer cells are, by definition.

Facing Nicholai's cancer, I wish I had more solid research to back me up in these natural treatments. But for now, the big money is focused on pharmaceutical (and far more profitable) approaches to finding treatments for cancer. Personally, I have to wonder if there might be a slight lack of motivation to find any real cures. As long as cancer is around, there is a boatload of money to be made in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.