Rodney Habib: Why Don’t Dogs Live Forever? at TEDxNSCCWaterfront (Transcript)

Now as awesome as dogs are, sadly, they’re flawed, according to science. You see, dogs here are not living that long, not as long as they should, and they’re dying very young. And we ask the questions why, these animals are living in some pretty scary statistics. And we have to start looking around the world at these statistics.

We know that in the last 5 years in the United Kingdom, diabetes is up 900% when it comes to the dog. In North America, the obesity epidemic is up 60% as animals are plagued with obesity, and that statistics continues to climb.

And the worst one, the most staggering statistic of all, the one that is decimating our pets all over the planet is cancer. One in two dogs today is diagnosed with cancer. In fact, research are showing that of any animal on the planet, the dog has the highest rate of cancer. And this has left the scientists scratching their heads. What’s happening?

So, what you’re seeing now is the largest canine study to ever be conducted: 3,000 dogs, 25 million dollars to figure out why the dogs are broken. And it’s being conducted on Golden Retrievers.

So we have to ask the question, “What is going on?” Now according to Dr Lappin who’s involved in the study, he said that when he graduated from Vet School in the 70s, dogs used to live to be 17. Sadly today, they’re only living to be 11. And the Golden Retriever itself is only living to be nine or ten.

So what is it? What are these factors that are plaguing us with cancer? Well, I tell you, when the Broad Institute conducted an extensive study with cancer, they found mind-blowing information that leave human [head his] jaw on the ground when this research came on. It showed that although 10% of cancer is genetic, 90% are the results of lifestyle and environmental factors, the things that are around us.

And so if we want to dig deeper into that 90%, let’s remove the 10% for a second; you can’t change your dog’s genes if you went and adopted your dog from a shelter.

So what’s in that 90%? Well, if you were to fire it into like a cancer pie, and we were to remove slices, what is research telling us? What’s causing all this cancer? Stress, obesity, infection, sedentary lifestyle or lack of exercise, and toxins and pollution. But it leaves us with this giant piece to the puzzle, that big piece right there, and what is it you’re seeing? It’s diet.

And according to science, this is the most important piece that we’re not focusing on. In fact, after multiple studies, 30% to 40% of all cancers can be prevented by simply implementing dietary changes. 40% of cancer can be prevented by food.

In 2013, my dog Sammie was diagnosed with cancer. And so I knew I needed to do everything I could in my power to figure out how and why this happened. I burned through routers, Ethernet cords, researching, day in and day out, trying to figure out how was I going to stop this disease from progressing in her body.

And when research pointed to me that 40% of cancer was in the diet, I knew that’s where I had to start. So I set out on a worldwide journey, traveling around the world looking for answers. And today, I’m going to share with you my journey.

But before I do, there is a very important word that we all need to understand. And that word is called nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics is the new science between the correlation of diet and how it affects our DNA. For example, let’s say you are handed a whole bunch of lousy genes: your parents, their parents, and parents; cancer in that whole family. You have the ability to keep those genes off by putting good functional foods in your body.

But then you’re going to start putting things in your body that aren’t so good. You have the ability to spark those genes on. And you’re creating disease. And I knew that there was going to be a correlation between nutrigenomics and my dog. And so my journey started.

And as a blogger today, I go to information to the World Wide Web, a digital community’s largest interactive database where all the information in the world is there. And for me, it seemed pretty evident where I was going to go. I went to where one of the oldest dogs in the world was eating. Logically, these dogs were bulletproofing themselves from cancer, so what were they doing? So I started to travel, and I started to research.

And I found dogs on all different parts of the continent that were living in their teens and in their twenties, until a viral post that literally broke the Internet. And it was discovered that the oldest dog in the world was discovered in Australia.

Meet Brian McLaren, a dairy farmer, a beautiful man with a simple life and a beautiful dog. And he had no idea that his 30-year Kelpie, 30-year old dog, was going to be a World Record holder for the oldest dog in the world. So this is where I had to start; I needed to talk to this man. “My Gosh, Brian, tell me, what were you feeding your pet?”

now he told me that there were a couple of factors here when he was feeding Maggie. For instance, he wasn’t feeding her a lot; calorie restriction. He said some days the dog wouldn’t eat. She was self-fasting. And then exercise came into the equation. I told him here in North America, people like to go outside after work and walk the dog around the block for 20 minutes, or they’ve got that wonderful giant fence in the yard, they just let the dog run in the yard.

And he laughed at me. And he said, “Me and my dog, on average, get nine kilometers of exercise a day. She follows me around when I’m driving around the tractor”.

And so, when it came to her diet, please share with me. He told me, “Every day I share with her a giant glass of raw fed grassmilk, it comes straight from the cow. And then at night, sometimes, she sneaks around after the cattle birth, and she starts eating cattle placenta. “It’s not going to be bottled.”

But then, he also told me that he was adding some unconventional things into her bowl that he believes increased her longevity. So I had to know!

But before I share that, I knew I needed more data. And what you’re seeing here is the longest observational study to date: a 30-year study that shows the correlation between diet, cancer, and longevity, held on almost 7,000 animals. And heading the study was a Norwegian researcher named Thomas Sandberg.

So I got in contact with Thomas. And this beautiful man was willing to share 16 years already into the project of his data that I’m going to share with you today. And so what you’re looking at is a researchers’ graph, terribly cluttered, very hard to figure out. So I added a little bit of modification, and we can zoom into it.

Now when you are looking here at the green region, all those 8.5, these are specific breeds, and this one primarily is a Great Dane. Great Danes only live to be about eight and a half on average; Great Danes eating an average dog food diet.

Now the blue section is the extension of life when there was a diet modification. The blue section is almost doubling the animal’s life when the pet owner changed the diet for the dog. Holy smokes!

“You tell me right now what that is, Thomas.”

And Thomas said, “You know what? What’s even more important is that we’re seeing a lower incidence of cancer in these animals. But because the diet’s varied, and you want a specific diet for cancer, Rod, I suggest you to go to The Epigenix Foundation”. The who?

The Epigenix Foundation is a world leading foundation that is funding studies in the research between cancer, diet, lifestyle, longevity, all the things that I was just talking you about. And they were funding a project called “Ketopets”.

So I was skeptical, I got on a plane and I flew to America; I had to see this. They showed me that this sanctuary that they have, this ground breaking sanctuary is full of the world’s leading metabolic doctors for dogs. They were bringing in rescued animals, homeless dogs, from different shelters around America that had terminal cancer; stage 4, not a long time to live. And they want to give them a second chance.

With America’s only PET/CT scanner, meaning they can follow the cancer from day one to the end of their protocol, which was a 120-day protocol, coupled with an unconventional metabolic diet, “Ketopets” found the ability to slow down, to halt, or to reverse cancer.

I said reverse cancer? What you are looking at here — I haven’t shared the diet with you yet — what you are looking at here, is a standard bowl of dog food. This is what almost every single dog in the world is eating. But the three examples I just gave you, the oldest dog in the world, the dogs in the longevity project, and “Ketopets” who are reversing cancer, their bowls kind of look like this.

And what you’re looking at is a full bowl of unprocessed fresh food. Doesn’t seem so mind-blowing. Logically, we know, as humans if something is good, you’re going to feel great. But in the dog food world, it’s unconventional. It’s unresearched.

And just how awesome is this? My dog Sammie, today, is fighting cancer. I mean, she’s beating it. She’s as healthy as she’s ever been since I’ve made this dietary change. And some people may say, “I don’t know; that was very confusing, I wouldn’t be able to do all that”. So I saved this study for last.

What you’re looking at here is a Purdue’s study. In 2005, Purdue University wanted to know, “All right, if we add a little bit of fresh food to a bowl of processed food, how much effect could this really have?” So, three times a week, they took some green leafy vegetables and added it to a bowl of processed food. And the results that came back were jaw-dropping. How did it affect cancer? 90% decrease in the risk of cancer by just adding some green leafy vegetables to a bowl of processed food.

Today, we bring these animals into our homes, we domesticate them, we bring them into our communities. We tell them, “We want you to be able to understand our language. We want you to be able to behave the way we tell you to behave. We want you to adapt to our lifestyle, we get out or we sit at home”. But more importantly, we don’t give them a choice when it comes to their diets.

We pick what we deem is nutritious, and we put it into their bowl. We say to them, “You have two choices. Either you eat what’s in that bowl, or you’re not eating”.

Today, with the way the cancer epidemic is going, in you guys, and in our beautiful pets, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. There has never been more of an important time than right now to research exactly what you guys are putting into your pet’s bowls.

Oh, and by the way, when an 85-year old plumber, from Austin, Texas, Jake Perry, this brilliant man was asked, “Jake, how on earth did you set the Guinness World Record not once but twice, with the oldest living cats in the world, a 34- and a 38-year old cat?” His response? “I just added some fresh food to the diet.”

Thank you guys.

 

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