Sleep, Dog Cancer, and Melatonin

I’ll like to go out on a limb.  Call me crazy.  Open a new window on your monitor.  But I’ve discovered something about dog cancer: 

The closer a dog’s life is to how it was in nature, the lower the probability of getting tumors.

Now, it’s true that if you read the “Meet Dr. Dressler” section on this blog, you will see that my parents were hippies, more or less, and I have been known to eat granola if we have some, and I did own a pair of Berkenstocks when I was a freshman in college.  Okay, fine.  Nonetheless, I cannot deny the truth of this statement.

Here’s an example:  Deep sleep, in total darkness, during the earth’s actual night hours, fights cancer. No, don’t laugh.  This is real.  Let me explain.

 Female nurses who stay up to work during the night shift have a very real increased risk of breast cancer.  It was found that sleep has something to do with it.

When our dogs are resting, a hormone called melatonin is released by a gland in the brain called the pineal. The deeper the sleep, the more melatonin.  It peaks at about 1:30 am, when the sleep in deepest.

Lots of us have heard of melatonin, as a supplement that can help with insomnia or jet lag.  It has been found that melatonin has many effects in the body.  Here’s the rub: melatonin is a major cancer fighter.  This little tidbit is almost totally overlooked in conventional veterinary cancer care.  Gobs of evidence that melatonin helps fight cancer, yet, nobody is talking.  

Maybe because melatonin is not patentable (difficult for big pharma to farm a cash cow when anyone can get it cheap…).

I’d like to spend some time talking about this stuff in the next couple of posts.  First, how to increase your dog’s melatonin levels without spending a dime.  Next, I’ll go into some detail about what it does in the body that has bearing on dog cancer. We are talking solid fire power folks.  Next will be doses and precautions.   Whether your dog has lymphosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, mast cell tumor, bone cancer or whatever, you’ll want to know about it. 

Stay tuned!

Best to all, 

Dr Dressler

About the Author

Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM is known as the "dog cancer vet" and is author of Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Beyond Surgery, Chemotherapy & Radiation. Visit his blog and sign up free to get the latest information about canine cancer. Go to http://DogCancerBlog.com.

 

Tagged as: Berkenstocks, Blog, Bone Cancer, Brain, Breast Cancer, Cancer Care, Cancer Fighter, Cash Cow, Deep Sleep, Dog Cancer, Dogs, Dressler, Example Women, Female Nurses, Fight Cancer, Fire Power, Freshman, Gobs, hemangiosarcoma, Hippies, Insomnia, Jet Lag, Lymphosarcoma, mast cell tumor, Melatonin, Melatonin Levels, Night Shift, Parents, Pharma, Pineal, Probability, Risk, Sleep, Sun Sets And Rises, Tidbit, Total Darkness, Truth, Tumors, Veterinary Cancer