Spice of Life: Curcumin and Dog Cancer
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: August 5th, 2019
In researching topics for expanded treatments of dog cancer, I have discovered surprises aplenty.
Because of the desire for options beyond surgery, chemo and radiation for dog cancer, I chose to look in areas that I would have ignored just a few years back.
One of the hottest topics in cancer research right now is the dietary flavonoid group. This is just a bunch of substances that are found in foods which have beneficial effects against cancer.
We all know that certain foods or dietary choices have influence on cancer development and overall health. I came accross a statistic in human medicine that stated that about one third of cancers in people could have been prevented with lifestyle choices (this was excluding the effects of cigarette smoking).
One of the biggest lifestyle choices is the inclusion of certain foods that combat the effects of environmental carcinogens, genetic tendencies, trace water pharmaceuticals, viral DNA changes, dietary carcinogens, electrical field effects, and more.
Most of these naturally occuring flavanoids have very low toxicities. One of the biggies is curcumin.
Curcumin is found in turmeric, which is the spice that is used in curries. Curcumin is exceedingly interesting for dogs with cancer. It is one of the core ingredients I use in cancer supplement programs for my patients and I have seen literal shrinkage of different dog lumps, like hemangiosarcomas of the skin, fatty tumors (lipomas) , fibrosarcomas, and plasmacytomas. I rely on it a lot.
This substance is being used as a model for tons of anticancer drugs in development right now. Here is some info. Over 40 different curcumin analogs (new drugs using curcumin as a template) are being researched at Ohio State University.
Why not just use the curcumin, instead of going through all the bother of making these new drugs? There are two main reasons.
My grandfather left me these wise words: “When you want to find the reason for something, look for the dollar.”
So of course money has something to do with it. You can’t patent a naturally occurring compound. However, if you tweak its structure to produce a synthetic analog, get the lawyers together to protect the intellectual property, patent it, you are set for years. In this way big pharma protects profits.
Secondly, curcumin has some bioavailability problems. This means that the stuff doesn’t, to a large extent, get absorbed into the blood after it is taken by mouth. However, there are ways around this.
If you want to find out more about curcumin, please read the next post!!
Best to all,
Dr Dressler
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
My 115 pound GSD was diagnosed with prostate cancer in August of 2011. I was not given much hope for him. I decided against chemotherapy, but agreed to an anti-inflammatory, Piroxicam. I also have been giving him K9 Immunity Plus from Aloha Medicinals, probiotics, q10, maritime pine bark extract, bach flower essences for prostate support, yogurt, and a home cooked diet, and raw when available (venison). I recently added selenium. Now wondering if tumeric should be added. It is more than one year since the diagnosis, and he shows no signs of the disease. Any advice? Thanks.
I received a bottle of Apocaps and have a question. It contains curcumin but I am finding info that it may be bad for dogs with hemangiosarcoma due to increasing the chances of bleeding.
I have started giving Yunnan Paiyao to help deter bleeding but not sure if giving the Apocaps with curcumin would increase the possibility of bleeding.
Also, can I not give Apocaps with Artemisinin? Seems it would only help? Are the two together a no deal?
Dear Dr Damian Dressler,
I am a distributor of supplements in Singapore and I want searching the net for curcumin use in dogs. We have a product called sanador equigesic that has bioavailability of more the 400 times compared to the standard curcumin in the market. You can find some information in my website. I thought you may be interested in the product. If you need more information please contact me.
Resending….hoping for some advice.
Hi there….any advice would be warmly received. My dog Sunny has an oral fibrosarcoma on her upper jaw. We had surgery in Jan. 2012 and vet removed mass and tried to take large margins. It is now June and it has grown back and is very aggressive. Her face is now bulging. We are doing low dose chemo (cyclo) and an anti-inflammatory. We also are giving her K-9 immunity chews (6 a day) Omega 3, probiotics, and recently introduced resveratrol at a high dose. She currently gets 700 mg a day and we are bumping that up to 1400 mg asap. Wondering your thoughts on what we are doing and also if we should start curcumin? Wondering about the dosing of it? I had researched it and hadn’t started curcumin because of its possible interference with the chemo drug she is on. We are desperate at this point and will try anything. Thank you for your time and caring.
Dear Allie
Sorry to hear about this.
I’d be thinking about Apocaps and Neoplasene under veterinary supervision.
I’d also be wondering about matrix 3 cisplatin impregnated beads.
Did you read the Guide? Diet? (btw I prefer a more pure beta glucan like the old K-9 immunity caps without chew stuff added).
I hope this gets you started
Dr D
Hi there….any advice would be warmly received. My dog Sunny has an oral fibrosarcoma on her upper jaw. We had surgery in Jan. 2012 and vet removed mass and tried to take large margins. It is now June and it has grown back and is very aggressive. Her face is now bulging. We are doing low dose chemo (cyclo) and an anti-inflammatory. We also are giving her K-9 immunity chews (6 a day) Omega 3, probiotics, and recently introduced resveratrol at a high dose. She currently gets 700 mg a day and we are bumping that up to 1400 mg asap. Wondering your thoughts on what we are doing and also if we should start curcumin? Wondering about the dosing of it? I had researched it and hadn’t started curcumin because of its possible interference with the chemo drug she is on. We are desperate at this point and will try anything. Thank you for your time and caring.
Hello, 3 weeks ago we took our 4 year old male Rottweiler into the vet thinking he may have fractured a leg bone, torn a muscle, something because he was limping for almost 2 weeks. He showed no signs of pain when I moved the leg, applied pressure in all different locations from toes to high upper hip and no response of pain. The vet did and exam and came to the conclusion that our Capone tore his ACL in his right hind leg. We where given a 3 week supply of anti inflammatory’s and he was doing well on them, the last week I was giving him only 1 po qd to see if it was healing and his was limping worse. I started back up on bid and the limping was a little better. Today I brought him back to have the x ray done and blood work done to be able to have the surgery and the vet mentioned that the leg is much harder then before and the x ray showed a large mass on the x ray and the vet said that he had Osteosarcoma and had 8 weeks or so to live. Now, he shows no other signs of spreading (ex hard breathing, no appitie, sleepy ect), his only symptom is a weak rt hind leg. I was reading that there are many types of this kind of cancer and that bone bx, blood work, chest x rays ect would need to be done to show what type of Osteosarcoma it is and poss tx if any. I worked for a Dermatologist for many years and have seen very severe cancers. None of the patients we had in the last 4 years of my working there had passed away after being dx with Melanoma stage 4. I know that if you can catch it before it spreads, you have a high chance of survival. I also know a lot about Tumeric, we had given it to many patients with severe psoriasis and seen amazing results. In our research on Tumeric, we noticed many articals stating the amazing results with certain cancers, ex: help breast cancer from spreading, showed pancratic cancers clear up completely. I only know about it in use of humans and when I was told of my beloved dogs diagnosis (after a few hours of tears) I thought of tumeric and thought it may help. My question to you is, do you know of Tumeric showing progress in a dog dx with Osteosarcoma? Again, I do not know of the type of Osteosarcoma Capone has but maybe it will help. I am taking him for a second opinion tomorrow, maybe the vet I take him to tomorrow knows of something like tumeric or another herb that shows good results. Any thing you can offer us, we greatly appreciate it! Thank you!
Dear Carey,
please do not be fooled. Giving your dog turmeric is like using a squirt gun on a forest fire.
Please read these posts:
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/signs-of-dog-cancer-and-decompensation/
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog//my-dog-has-osteosarcoma-should-i-allow-amputation/
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/dog-cancer-what-is-micrometastasis-and-why-do-we-care/
Please get your copy of the Guide and get busy dealing with this cancer. I am not sure you have been given all of the treatment options at your disposal as 8 weeks is just one piece of data (median survival if NOTHING was done). How about surgery, chemo, diet, apoptogens, immune stimulants, anti metastatics and brain chemistry modification? Much better!
Please talk to someone in your area that can give you the whole scoop (oncologist or vet familiar with the different treatment options)
Best
Dr D
My dog was bitten last year by a brown widow recluse spider. The affected area was treated, healed but left a black lump. However, last week it started bothering him and we ended up in the vets with a very swollen leg and wound weeping blood. After 2 large antibiotic injections, constant cleaning and some TLC, the leg finally went down but vet still unsure what it is or what is causing it. Have been told if swells up again we may have to put him down!! There is a large lump around the black lump and this is new, it is not painful now and has a little puncture wound that has still not healed in the last 10day! I have used a bread poultice, which did draw out some stuff but no not much and nothing came out second time round. Am wondering if I can put turmeric paste directly on the wound and would this help heal it? So don’t want to have him put down!
I have a 12 year old female wolf hybrid who has developed a large tumor under her arm pit and smaller ones on her belly. I just read about tumeric and need to get an aproximate dosage for her. I have 500 mg capsules. Any information is greatly appreciated.
Thank,
Dear Mike
Turmeric is not a cure for cancer. It can be used as a supplemental aide to help dogs with cancer. The right way to deal with this issue is to find out what your dog has, just as you would if you had a large tumor under your arm pit. This way, with a diagnosis, you can best tailor the treatment to do the best thing for your dog. The doses used in dogs are scaled from people and you can use (under veterinary supervision of course) up to 3 caps twice daily.
I would be using a superior supplement like apocaps however, which contains the curcumin along with other apoptogens, also under veterinary supervision and guidance.
I hope this helps
Dr D
[…] the Buzz About Turmeric? Narda G. Robinson, DO, DVM, MS, FAAMA, Colorado State University Spice of Life, Curcumin and Dog Cancer, Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM More on Curcumin and Dog Cancer, Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM Tripawds Amazon Blog: Apocaps Therapy […]
I bought ten pounds of turmeric and keep it in the freeze. Hope this is ok, as I did this two years ago and it still tastes fresh. I give an amount that they will eat easily, perhaps 600 mg to my four dogs with their meal once a day. They are a shar pei (dad) and pit bull (mom) and a brother and sister shar pit. We get lots of exercise, as I have a scwinn 1000 watt scooter and harness them with leashes to the front every day several miles into the desert at night. Don’t use the batteries except in ruts. The scooter is charged by a wind mill on a pole alongside a pine tree. We trim the pines, and make tea out of the needles in the direction of a new trail. The tea I use to dampen the dry dog food with a can added, or sometimes I make lentils and rice with vegetables. I am not going to tell you about the occasional jack rabbit.
I take the turmeric in an oo capsule with the smaller end of the cap I fill with bromelain three times a day. I drink the tea separate from my chow, however 🙂
On the scooter, we are a ‘fource’ to be reckoned with. I always carry a pocket stun gun on the trail, but have never been attacked by a stray off leash dog. They seem to respect our odd running habits.