My dog now eating natto for acute Lymphoma Cancer

Thought I would share this with you as many of you have pet dogs.

My dog “Tim”, a Jack Russell X Corgi was diagnosed with terminal acute Lymphoma last September and given 1 to 3 months to live. He was too old for chemo so was put on low dose Cortisone every second day for inflammation and to make him comfortable.

As I am a diligent natto eater I remembered that the Japanese regularly give natto to their pets so after some research I found this in the Open Veterinary Journal:

“Enhancement of natural killer cell activity by oral administration of a fermented soybean product (natto) to dogs”

“The cytotoxic effect of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells on canine tumor cells were greatly enhanced in the natto-treated group, but not in the untreated group.”

[www.openveterinaryjournal.com]

The dogs in the above research were given 10g of natto a day for 2 weeks. “Tim” has now been on 15g of natto every day since beginning of October last year. The tumors under his jaw has reduced to half the size and the tumor at the base of his tail has disappeared. He is now presently running around like a 2 yr old full of beans with no sign of sickness or distress.

I told my vet all about this and she was very surprised Tim was still alive. She is now enthusiastically researching natto and dogs.

You become very attached to your dogs so I hope this might help some of you in the same situation.

Dean

Very interesting. Thanks for the post, and give Tim a good scratch for me! Having dealt with cancer in our dogs more than a few times, I'll keep an eye on this topic.

Wow - my dog was diagnosed last Friday, Did you base your natto dosing on weight?

Thanks for sharing this, Dean. I'm happy for you and Tim both.

I note that the study says that they used freeze-dried natto powder. Is that what you've been using? I'm interested because it raises for me the question of the extent to which the probiotic and other values of natto are present in the frozen natto food imported from Japan.

As I've mentioned before, for a good while I was using the made-in-the-USA, unfrozen, organic Megumi natto from northern California, which was available in a Japanese grocery here in San Diego. Alas, they've gone out of business, so I've been using the frozen, imported kind.

Do you have any more thoughts on this question since the earlier discussion on this forum?

All best! Lance

Thanks for sharing Dean!!!
Reminds me of a co-worker whose elderly dog had untreatable cancer, the vet recommended euthanasia. I mentioned Graviola (Soursop) as a potentially helpful supplement. She gave a dose to the dog which made the dog vomit. So she reduced the dosage to a level the dog tolerated. After 3/4 months she said that the cancer practically (visually and by palpating) disappeared and the dog was lively (for an old dog) again.

Lance and Pam,
I have been giving Tim the frozen natto, 15g or a heaped teaspoon full every morning. This is approx. a third of a 50g frozen pack of natto. The dogs in the research paper were all small dogs like Tim and were given 10g natto. If you have a bigger dog I suppose you would give more but as there is no research it is up to you to decide.

Lance, you are lucky to access the fresh unfrozen, organic Megumi natto. Fresh is best. As I live in a regional area in Australia I have to rely on the frozen natto. I considered making fresh natto myself but too much mucking around.

As far as fresh, frozen and dried natto go I believe it is the actual spores of the Bascillus Subtilis bacteria that does the magic in the digestive tract so I don't think there is too much difference. But if you can source it go for fresh.
Dean