Cancer on the Rise

I've been mostly AWOL from posting this week, my apologies to you who read regularly. I've been reading and thinking a lot – about food and food sources, about cancer and nutrition, about who gets cancer and who doesn't, about Nicholai and his wellbeing and longevity. I'm waiting to hear the news on a biopsy for someone I care deeply about, and awareness of how big this disease is and how much it still threatens us after decades of research is with me every day.

To be very clear, in spite of our race for a cure, cancer is on the rise. In North America, since the 1950's there has been a 55% increase in the incidence of human cancers when the statistics have been adjusted for the fact that people live longer. In addition, pediatric cancers have risen 40% since 1975. That one certainly can't be explained away to longer life spans. Other increases are: male colon cancer – 60% increase, overall breast cancer – 60% increase, brain cancer in adults – 80% increase, prostate cancer – 100% increase, testicular cancer – 100% increase, estrogen-positive breast cancer – 135% increase, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma – 200% increase, testicular cancer in men aged 28 -35 – 300% increase. In 1950, one in twenty women had breast cancer, now it's one in eight.

Our dogs are not faring one bit better. According to the National Canine Cancer Foundation, cancer is the #1 leading cause of death in dogs in North America. One in three of all dogs will get cancer and half of those will die from it. Between 60 and 75% of all Golden Retrievers contract the disease. Dogs contract two times more leukemia than humans, four times more mammary cancer (and that's saying something considering the human statistics), eight times more bone cancer, and thirty-five times more skin cancer – and skin cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in humans, with 3.5 million cases diagnosed annually in the United States.

What is happening?

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Cancer Act, appropriating public funds for research to find a cure for cancer. Popularly known as the War on Cancer, the act has produced no cures and the incidence continues to skyrocket. Dedicated doctors and scientists attempt to find solutions to the problem while we have yet to adequately investigate the cause. Yet, all around us are examples of people and dogs who beat the odds, stories and small studies shedding light on carcinogens, examples of how diet and environment have an undeniable role in both the development of this disease, and survival.

Over the next couple of weeks, I intend to write posts on topics of cancer, nutrition, and the environment, including the history of commercial dog food, our imbalanced modern diets, factory farming and the degradation of our food sources, micronutrients, and why the majority of doctors don't address diet and nutrition for either humans or animals.

Stay with me, it gets interesting.

Oh, yeah. It's April and he's still with me :).