Just talked to Purina

Vinia,  you can manipulate statistics and trials to favor your points.  Yeah food may be a small factor, what about the environment you are in?  Genectics too?  Too many factors to be considered..its not just one thing that is the cure all preventitive..if so it would put drug companies and Dr's out of business.
I have known people who smoked all their lives practically and had great lungs and no cancer...smoking probably makes you more susceptable..but doesn't mean you WILL get cancer because you do.  Their are people who never smoked who got lung cancer.  We can only try to take care of ourselves so we lessen the chances but in the end thats all we can do.  If food was the issue and the only issue it could easily be fixed but it is not.

ORIGINAL: recclest

As far as diet goes, according to the American Cancer Society, there IS a link between cancer and what you eat:

This is a correlative study. Correlations really don't prove anything because there are way too many uncontroled variables.

If buying your dog premium dog food makes you feel nice and safe, as though you're insuring that your dog will have a long healthy life, that's fine. It's a nice little security blanket to hang on to. We all love our pets, but there is NO correlation between the amount of money you spend on it's food, and the affection in your heart.

Show me a non-biased,independent clinical trial, with a diverse and stable, random sampling of subjects that proves one food to be statistically significantly better than another and we'll talk. Everything else is just personal experience.

They do all kinds of research on trhe different ingredients that are used in tehse foods, good and bad. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize putting toxins in the food your dog eats is not very bright. 

[linkhttp://www.wisepet.com/pet%20food%20ingredients.htm]http://www.wisepet.com/pet%20food%20ingredients.htm[/link]

The shots and heartworm are supposed to be preventitives.  I guess which is worse...the vaccine or the disease?  Which is worse heartworm or the preventitive? 

 
Please understand,,,I am NOT suggesting that we don't use what is necessary. I am not "making a statement" although I do believe what I believe.  BUT my point is, we talk so much about which food will cause our pets disease,,which will keep them healthy and which has chemicals, and preservatives and ingredients to harm, and which does not...but yet we are giving them chemicals and toxins on a regular schedule. It just seems to me we can't blame food for anything, whether it is poven or not, as long as we are pumping our pets full of other toxins.

They do all kinds of research on trhe different ingredients that are used in tehse foods, good and bad. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize putting toxins in the food your dog eats is not very bright

 
I guess I am missing what all these toxins are??  All I see are links with peoples opinions and products that they are trying to sell, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see when someone is trying to market a product at the expense of another.

Thors last vaccines were at 15 months, other than the required rabies.  Thor's titers were PERFECT 2 plus years later.  The vet wants to pull titers every TWO years on my dogs...and when I take them in for the hw blood draw, I just have extra blood drawn to be tested for titers.
 
So it isn't a safety thing to give all these vaccines...for example, the jumbo puppy shots....lepto is pretty uncommon, corona virus CAN'T happen unless the pup first contracts PARVO....and if the pup is vaccinated for parvo that's unlikely, so why stick all those chemicals in their little systems?
 
What is the new recommendation Dyan?  Two years or three for vaccines?  I always forget since I titer.

Glenda what does the titer test show and about how much does it cost to get it done?

Understand that I am of Scots heritage, so cheap.  It cost me LESS than $2 per dog to vaccinate...I tell you this so you will understand how critically important this is to me.  The titers measure the level of antibodies in the blood to whatever you ask that they be tested for...in my case, parvo and distemper.  And because I had titers pulled at the same time that they were drawing blood for the hw test, I paid $50 per dog.  I also had the standard blood panals done as a comparison/baseline on the younger dogs and paid a bit more for that.......

What is the new recommendation Dyan?  Two years or three for vaccines? 

 
I believe every 3 years is what they are recommending at the veterinarian schools now, Glenda.  Many people now think that even that is unnecessary AFTER the intial puppy shots and boosters.
Of course the rabies vaccine is another story since our laws are so that they must get vaccinated against the disease every 3 years.

I believe 100% that vaccines, etc cause a lot of problems.   Heck, I saw it with my own eyes when we almost lost kaycee aftet her 2ed set of vax.  No problems with the puppy nor lst year year, than wham, out of nowhere the 2ed set at age 2 1/2 almost killed her.  It is thought it was actually the lepto part that caused the reaction.  I learned a few things that day.  no lepto has ever been reported down in this area.  My vet has only seen one case of Lyme's disease.  So why re my dogs being vaccinated agaist this things that are almost non existant here?  Also I learned to never get "the works" at once.  After that Rabies was done different time from the annuals--and kayCee never gets annuals per my vet's decisions.  He says he sees more reactions to rabies than any other vax.
 
I watched a true movie the other day about a woman who had been getting sick off and on for years but nothing could be found wrong.  Well, it turns out her husband (John Ritter played him and was hard to imagine him as the bad guy) had been giving her doses of a poison all those years and by the time it was fianlly detected, it was to late, it had already gone to he kidneys, liver, etc and she did end up dying late on from it.   I think the same could apply to the vax, etc we give our dogs.  If they re at a normal level and you pump more into them year after year, it seems to me it could build up dangerously, over dosing them in  sense.
 
I would avoid the heart worm meds if i could, no way here on the Texas coast, it has to be done year round.  We wen the heart worm treatment with our adopted Honey and i never want to do that again.
 
The world is so much more polluted now.  When i was a kid and we were out hunting, we often drank from the little streams, the little shallow ones with  mostly rocky bottoms.  We would walk along a ways and make sure there was no ded animals, etc and drink.  We never got sick.  Right after we moved from Austin, it was published not to eat fish from Town lake--which was part of the Colorado River--because the fish were polluted.   We had fished that lake many a time.
 
When we lived in Akron, ohio when it was The Tire Capitol of the World", it stank so bad sometimes that we had to shut our windows from time to time in the summer, depsite not have AC.  When i would take the winter or summer clothes out of trunks in the closet, they had to be washed because of black stuff on them.  When I hung out the diapers on my plastic coated line i had to wipe it first or get black on the conrners of the diapers.    Of course it wasn't this bad all the time, of often enough.  To me breathing air like that 24/7/52  is far more dangerous than eating food (dog food includied)  a couple of times a day.  Oh, ever go to Cleveland in a white car and leave with it pink/  We did every time we went there back then.

ORIGINAL: Firestorm

Vinia,  you can manipulate statistics and trials to favor your points.  Yeah food may be a small factor, what about the environment you are in?  Genectics too?  Too many factors to be considered..its not just one thing that is the cure all preventitive..if so it would put drug companies and Dr's out of business.
I have known people who smoked all their lives practically and had great lungs and no cancer...smoking probably makes you more susceptable..but doesn't mean you WILL get cancer because you do.  Their are people who never smoked who got lung cancer.  We can only try to take care of ourselves so we lessen the chances but in the end thats all we can do.  If food was the issue and the only issue it could easily be fixed but it is not.

 
First of all, if they have not had some sort of body scan you have no idea if they have great lungs--unless you have x-ray vision.
 
Secondly, they are not just HER points, they are the points of medical professionals, as in people who do this for a living.  Even the tobacco companies acknowledge that smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer for heaven's sake- [linkhttp://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/health_issues/cigarette_smoking_and_disease.asp]http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/health_issues/cigarette_smoking_and_disease.asp[/link]
 
I have no idea why people have such trouble acknowledging that what they put into their bodys makes a  big difference, good or bad.  Do other things play a role?  Of course.  However, you cannot alter your DNA, most people will not move to areas with better air, so diet and exercise are really the simplest things you can do to improve your chances.

My dad was a 2 pack a day smoker.  At 58 he underwent a  simple surgical procudre and had a massive storke during the surgery--it was anesthitic related.  he spent 2 weeks in ICU only able to move his eyes, couldn't swallow, but could breath in his own.  he developed Pnemonaia and i don't know what all other complitcations and he went into a coma and we were told he had no more than 12 hours at most.  he lived another 48 hours.  The docs said his heart and lungs wre just to strong to give up even tho othe organs did.  We were taken totally by surprise at that since he was such a heavy smoker.  I do think it is very rare for a person to have been a smoker for 50 yers, two packs a day the last 20, to have lungs as strong and clear as what they said Daddy's were.  I believe without a doubt that cigarettes cause cancer, heart attacks and lung disease.  But i also know that some can smoke for a ton of yers and not have a problem.  I do think genetics, enviroment, etc, plays a part in all.

They had xrays within 6months to a year in which they passed on.  Anyways it is a contributing factor...not all those who get lung cancer smoke.  That is what my point was.  Obviously smoking is not healthy, but neither is our air or water supplies now. 
The health community is constantly saying this food is bad or that food.  Everyone remember when they said that eggs were bad and now they are not.
How many of you eat margarine?  [linkhttp://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html]http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html[/link]
All we can do is limit the garbage we put in and keep at a minium there is no perfect diet and as always we have run off the topic again.

ORIGINAL: Firestorm

They had xrays within 6months to a year in which they passed on.  Anyways it is a contributing factor...not all those who get lung cancer smoke.  That is what my point was.  Obviously smoking is not healthy, but neither is our air or water supplies now. 
The health community is constantly saying this food is bad or that food.  Everyone remember when they said that eggs were bad and now they are not.
How many of you eat margarine?  Did you know that it was made to fatten up turkeys and when the turkeys started dying they stopped using it.  Then they decided to market it to the public.  Margarine is one molecule off from being plastic.  Oh yummy plastic to eat.
But yet they still sell it and people still cook with it and eat it on foods.
[linkhttp://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html]http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html[/link]

The health field, like any scienctific field, IS always changing.  Does that mean we should just ignore it?  I don't believe so.
 
ETA--I don't eat margarine....

Gee, i didn't know that about oleo!  I do remember the eggs are not good for you campaign, and then suddenly i am seeing ads that eggs are good for your--guess my old grandma knew what she was talkinga bout when she said she had eaten two eggs fried in butter (real butter, frist home churned with their cows milk, and in later years from store) for 96 years and they hadn't killed her.  I also remember when yogurt ws bad for you, and i seem to remember at one time there was a deal about orange juice, but i can't remember exactly what tha was.
 
this crossing from animals to humans, and humans to animals sees to be a common thing.  My druggest looked up rimadyl for me and said it use to be a human drug under a different name, so many were developing liver problems/dying that it is not longer used in humans, got  name change and is now given to animls--who develope liver problems/die.

 Oh, ever go to Cleveland in a white car and leave with it pink/  We did every time we went there back then.

 
Not sure what the pink is that you are referring to Sandra...I do know that to ride downtown when the Steel Mills were going it always looked like it was dark. 
Worse then that is my son worked at Ford by the foundry and it totally RUINED the finish on his car, sure makes you wonder with it did to your insides!
Incidentally Sandra, I quit smoking years ago for almost the same reasons as you,,,except not for my  dog,,but my kids and me in general. I had white painted woodwork and realized that the yellow crap I had to wash off or paint over, was probably lining my lungs!   Scary stuff!