Cancer

Why It Matters:

Your dog's gastrointestinal tract needs to be healthy to absorb critical nutrients. When the gut lining is damaged or "leaky," even bioavailable nutrients can't be properly absorbed. This means your dog could be eating a nutrient-rich diet or taking supplements, yet still be deficient in the very nutrients their body needs to prevent cancer, such as vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids.

What You Can Do:

• Start testing your dog’s gut microbiome as early as one year old to establish a baseline. Without knowing what's missing or overgrown, you can't effectively restore gut health.
• Understand that diet change alone isn't enough. If your dog's gut is 70% E. coli, simply switching foods won't work because the body is designed to want what it's been eating. You must first introduce beneficial bacteria, then use nutrition and supplements.
• Work with a veterinarian: Customize protocols around your dog's specific microbiome results rather than using cookie-cutter approaches that may supply bacteria your dog doesn't need or fuel overgrown species.

Why It Matters:

Every tissue in your dog's body has a vitamin D receptor: white blood cells, bone marrow, organs, skin, brain, and nervous system. Vitamin D acts as a hormone and signaling molecule that regulates inflammation, oxidative stress, and disease prevention. Yet most dogs are deficient. Dogs with vitamin D levels below 40 ng/mL have nearly 4 times the cancer risk compared to dogs with higher levels. Studies show dogs with lymphoma, mast cell tumors, hemangiosarcoma, and other cancers consistently have deficient vitamin D levels. Unlike humans who can synthesize vitamin D from sunlight, dogs lack the enzyme to convert sunlight into usable vitamin D. They must get it exclusively from food. 

What You Can Do:

• Test your dog's vitamin D levels. VDI Lab provides specific dosing recommendations based on results.
• Never supplement blindly. Vitamin D is fat-soluble and can be toxic if overdosed. Always work with a veterinarian to determine the correct dose for your individual dog.
• Target optimal levels of 100-120 ng/mL. At 100 ng/mL, inflammation markers drop significantly, and the relative risk of cancer becomes protective rather than elevated.
• Understand that food alone may not be enough, even if you're feeding a high-quality diet. 
• Retest regularly because your dog’s vitamin D needs change based on health status, age, and medical conditions. 

Why It Matters:

Fatty acids make up your dog's cell membranes, the outer layer that controls what gets in (hormones, nutrients, signaling molecules) and what gets out (toxins, metabolites, waste products). For cells to function optimally, they need healthy membranes. Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory and protective, but most commercial pet foods are loaded with omega-6 fatty acids from palatability enhancers and low-quality animal fats sprayed on food. Too many omega-6s drive down omega-3 levels, creating an inflammatory imbalance. 

What You Can Do:

• Test your dog's omega-3 index through OmegaQuant rather than assuming their diet provides enough. Most dogs are deficient even when eating high-quality food.
• Don't rely on food labels. Many pet foods list omega-3s but don't provide therapeutic amounts, and the fatty acids oxidize when exposed to air every time you open the bag.
• Understand ALA vs EPA/DHA. Plant-based omega-3s (ALA) from sources like flaxseed or canola oil do not provide the same benefits as marine-based EPA and DHA from fish oil. Only EPA and DHA have strong research supporting cancer prevention.
• Supplement separately from meals with a high-quality fish oil to ensure your dog reaches optimal levels. The omega-3s need to be added fresh, not mixed into processed food where they degrade.
• Retest periodically to ensure supplementation is achieving target levels, as individual dogs absorb and utilize omega-3s differently.

Why It Matters:

Research shows that dogs sync with their owner's cortisol levels over time. Chronic stress in households has been linked to tumor growth in studies. Not short-term stress, but long-term, ongoing stress that creates a constantly elevated cortisol environment. Stress also negatively affects the microbiome, which then impacts everything else in the body. When families are worried, anxious, and stressed during a chronic illness journey, that emotional state can be reflected in your dog’s health as well. 

What You Can Do: 

• Check in with yourself and prioritize activities your dog loves

Why It Matters:

Dogs evolved eating intermittently, not grazing from a bowl all day. Giving your dog’s digestive system regular breaks triggers autophagy, the process where cells “clean up” and eliminate damaged or precancerous cells. When your dog’s body isn’t constantly processing food, it allows the immune system to work optimally. Two studies with Labrador Retrievers showed that reducing food intake by 25% (while maintaining proper nutrition) extended lifespan, delayed chronic disease, and reduced oxidative stress, which can cause injury to tissues. 

What You Can Do:

• Speak with your veterinarian before making any changes to your dog’s feeding schedule. 
• Create an 8-hour eating window for your dog rather than leaving food out all day or spreading meals across 12+ hours.
• Adjust for individual needs. These approaches aren’t suitable for all dogs, particularly puppies, seniors, or those with certain medical conditions.

Why It Matters:

Exercise matters for more than just weight control. While maintaining a lean body condition prevents obesity, which is a known risk factor for all chronic diseases including cancer, exercise also activates downstream cellular cleanup and self-protection mechanisms. It supports immune system function and autophagy, the process where your dog's body eliminates damaged cells. Exercise is the only way to get oxygen to the cellular level where it's needed for optimal functioning.

What You Can Do:

• Provide daily exercise appropriate for your dog's age, breed, and physical condition. Movement needs to happen consistently, not just on weekends.
• Where you exercise matters. Walking or running in forests and natural environments provides additional benefits through grounding and exposure to beneficial compounds in soil and trees.
• Assess your dog's body condition regularly by feeling their ribs, checking for a visible waist, and monitoring for abdominal fat. Obesity is preventable and directly linked to cancer risk.
• Monitor weight throughout your dog's life, making dietary and exercise adjustments as their metabolism and activity needs change with age.
• Remember that exercise alone won't overcome overfeeding. Weight management requires both appropriate caloric intake and consistent physical activity.

Why It Matters:

Testing often reveals unexpected levels of toxins that your dog's body is not efficiently eliminating. Environmental toxins create chronic inflammation and damage detoxification pathways, making it harder for your dog's body to eliminate cancer cells. Common toxins include heavy metals, glyphosate, and mycotoxins. Heavy metals are environmental contaminants that can accumulate in food, water, and the environment. Glyphosate, such as Roundup weed control, is the most commonly used herbicide in the world. Mycotoxins are toxic substances produced by certain types of mold and fungi. 

What You Can Do:

• Test for heavy metals, glyphosate, and mycotoxins. VDI Lab offers multiple of these test kits.
• Check your water source. Tap water often contains carcinogens and environmental contaminants. Consider water filtration systems that remove chlorine, heavy metals, and other toxins.
• Avoid seafood-based diets long-term or rotate proteins regularly to prevent mercury accumulation. Mercury toxicity is common and often linked to seafood-based diets or fish oil that hasn't been properly screened.
• Minimize lawn chemical exposure. Glyphosate disrupts the ability for your dog’s body to eliminate toxins.
• Ask the pet food brand you’re feeding if they test for mycotoxins. They’re often responsible for pet food recalls, particularly in kibble-based foods.

Why It Matters:

Chronic inflammation is considered one of the primary drivers of cancer development. By monitoring inflammation levels regularly, you can identify problems before they progress to cancer and take steps to address underlying causes.

What You Can Do:

• Many of the inflammation markers, such as c-reactive protein (CPR) and haptoglobin, are measured in a blood sample drawn by your veterinarian.

Why It Matters:

By the time cancer is detectable through conventional diagnostics, such as physical exams or imaging, there are already 1 billion cancer cells present. For a tumor to be seen on an X-ray, MRI, or CT scan, it must weigh about 1 gram or be 1 cubic centimeter in size. While these diagnostic tools are essential, they don’t catch cancer until it’s already in its later stages—when the tumor has grown large enough to be visible and detectable. That’s why early detection tests are key to early intervention. These newer screening tests may detect early signs of cancer long before physical symptoms show up, giving you and your vet the opportunity to act quickly and make informed decisions.

What You Can Do: 

• Oncotect - An at-home urine test kit that detects cancer cells for the 4 most common cancers in your dog’s urine.
• Nu.Q® - A blood test available through most major veterinary labs that detects DNA from certain cancers. Most sensitive for lymphoma and hemangiosarcoma. A positive result warrants further investigation, but a negative result doesn't rule out cancer.
• VDI Neoplasia Index: Measures C-reactive protein (inflammation) and TK1 levels (cell division rate). Best used as a tracking tool over time rather than a one-time screening. Establishing baseline levels in healthy young dogs allows you to monitor changes that may signal developing cancer.