Specialized dietary supplements

19 Specialized dietary supplements





Introduction


The main component of any horse’s diet should be forage, but forage frequently will not provide all the macro- and micronutrients required, even for maintenance. Forage alone may not provide sufficient energy for exercising animals, as well as pregnant/lactating mares and growing animals all of whom also tend to have increased macro- and micronutrient demands. In many situations, therefore, additional feeds or nutrients need to be added (or supplemented) to the core forage foundation. In other situations, targeted supplementation is employed to address a particular clinical issue or performance goal. When referring to diet supplementation, its definition therefore can change depending on the particular aim of the supplementation. Within this book when the additional nutrients and energy are being provided by proprietary feeds or cereal grains we have either referred to them by a generic term (complementary feeds or concentrates) or by the feed format (sweet feed, pelleted feed, compound feeds, etc.). In contrast, the term “specialized supplements” will be taken to refer to those ingredients or products that are not being added with the primary intention of providing increased energy intake or providing the recommended levels of micro or macronutrients but are being added with the specific goal of trying to improve performance, prevent a problem from occurring, and to combat or manage a problem after it arises.


There are various definitions in the published literature for a “dietary supplement”. In a recent review for the National Research Council’s (NRC 2009) Safety of Dietary Supplements for Horses, Dogs and Cats. The Committee on Examining the Safety of Dietary Supplements for Horses, Dogs and Cats defined an animal dietary supplement as:




Another definition from The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a dietary supplement as:




The lack of a unified definition for supplement creates confusion. In the European Union, for example, there is no legal definition of a supplement and all such products or ingredients must be labeled as complementary feedstuffs, even though in practice owners and feeders clearly differentiate between traditional complementary feeds as described above and supplements.


The term “nutraceutical” also is commonly used to refer to specialized supplements. The word nutraceutical comes from the words “nutra” meaning nutrient and “ceutical” or “pharmaceutical” meaning a medical drug. Nutraceuticals have been defined as




by the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (1991). Under such a description nutraceuticals could include nutrients (e.g., vitamin E), derivatives of nutrients (e.g., glucosamine), or herbs. Herbal medicine, also called “phytomedicine”, is the use of therapeutic plants, plant parts or plant derived substances to aid in fighting against infections, diseases or enhancing overall health. However, in many countries, feed products with claims related to the prevention or treatment of disease are not legally allowed to be sold (exceptions include defined dietetic feeds).


The remainder of this chapter will focus on the mechanism of action and potential application of some “specialized supplements” used in horse diets.



Nutrients with established requirements (but fed in amounts far greater than minimal requirements, as defined by the NRC 2007)


Antioxidants including many vitamins (e.g., vitamins E and C), minerals (e.g., selenium), enzymes (e.g., superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase) and nutrient derivatives (e.g. glutathione, lipoic acid) are often included as various mixes or cocktails within specialized supplements. The aim is to counter the negative effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals (see Figs 19.1 and 19.2 for an illustration of antioxidant action). Oxidative stress occurs when the antioxidant defense system in the body is overwhelmed with ROS (McBride & Kraemer 1999). ROS are primarily generated within the mitochondrial electron transport chain. An increase in ROS may occur due to a) increased exposure to oxidants from the environment, b) an imbalance in antioxidants, or c) increased production within the body from an increase in oxygen metabolism during exercise (Clarkson & Thompson 2000). Antioxidants are most effective when acting in combination with each other as some have the ability to recycle antioxidant radicals that are formed during the scavenging of ROS. For example, vitamin E forms a tocopherol radical that is inactive until glutathione or ascorbate reacts with the radical and returns it back to its active form. For detailed discussion on the mode of action of these antioxidants please refer to the relevant chapters in this book dealing with each nutrient.





Vitamin E








Vitamin C








Substances with no known nutritional requirement



Carnitine




Data on efficacy


Studies in horses have not confirmed that carnitine availability is rate–limiting during exercise. Horse skeletal muscle contains high levels of L–carnitine. Foster and Harris (1992) reported muscle carnitine concentrations between 18.5 and 26.9 mmol/kg dry muscle, with highest values observed in trained horses. Although L–carnitine is poorly absorbed, supplementation with 10–60 g/day did increase plasma but not muscle concentrations (Foster et al 1988, Harris et al 1995). Similar levels of supplementation (10 g/day) to 2–year–old trotters for 5 weeks of training and 15 weeks of detraining, however, were reported to increase the carnitine concentration in the gluteal muscle by 50%. The exercise–induced decrease in muscle glycogen and increase in blood lactate tended to be lower in the L–carnitine–supplemented horses (Harmeyer et al 2001). Other studies have also reported an apparently beneficial effect of feeding L–carnitine on the blood lactate response to exercise (Zeyner & Harmeyer 1999) but this finding has not been consistent. For example, feeding 9 and 12 g/day L–carnitine to young thoroughbred horses had no effect on post–exercise lactic acid and ammonia concentrations, nor CK/AST activities, although a faster return to basal values of lactic acid was reported (Falaschini & Trombetta 2001).


L–carnitine supplementation of young Standardbred horses (10 g/day) during conditioning was reported to increase the proportion of type IIA fibers in middle gluteal muscle (Rivero et al 2002) suggesting possible metabolic advantages. In a later study, however, no affect on training induced changes in heart rate or lactate during exercise or recovery were seen following 10 weeks of L–carnitine supplementation (10 g L–carnitine) in two year olds (Niemeyer et al 2005).


More recent work in humans has suggested that although carnitine supplementation may not affect performance per se, it might modulate markers of metabolic stress and mitigate muscle soreness (Spiering et al 2007) according to the authors by attenuating the “hypoxic chain of events leading to muscle damage after exercise”. This has not been explored to the author’s knowledge in horses.






Creatine




Data on efficacy


Creatine is an amino acid derivative (methylguanidine–acetic acid) that occurs naturally in carnivorous diets. Horses, however, are likely reliant on synthesis from arginine, L-methionine and glycine. Creatine appears to be poorly absorbed from the intestinal tract in horses. A twofold increase in plasma concentration but no change in muscle content was observed when horses were fed 50 mg creatine/kg BW per day (Sewell & Harris 1995), a dose that results in a marked increase in muscle creatine content in man. Schuback et al (2000) also reported no change in muscle creatine content following creatine supplementation (100–120 mg/kg BW creatine monohydrate per day for 14 days), and observed no effect on performance parameters or muscle metabolic responses to exercise. A more recent study found no ultrasound changes in cross-sectional area and the thickness of the layer of fat of the longissimus dorsi muscle when 75 g of creatine monohydrate (about three-times that of the previous study by Sewel & Harris, 1995) was fed to Arabian horses for 90 days during aerobic training (Angelis et al 2007). Overall, there currently is no evidence to support the use of creatine as an ergogenic aid in horses.






Lipoic acid




Data on efficacy


Khanna et al (1999) compared rested and exercised rats supplemented with or without LA. The LA supplemented rats, both rested and exercised, had a higher glutathione (GSH) concentration, and a lower lipid peroxidation level measured by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) as compared to non–supplemented rats. Aged rats supplemented with LA had a higher mitochondrial membrane potential, ambulatory activity, GSH and ascorbate concentration; furthermore, the malondialdehyde concentration was five times higher in the non–supplemented rats (Hagen et al 1999).


In trained Arabian horses, supplementation with either lipoic acid or vitamin E mitigated measures of white blood cell apoptosis during a simulated endurance exercise test (Williams et al 2004a; Fig. 19.3); although it should be noted that this was not a crossover study. Lipoic acid supplemented horses also had increased whole blood total GSH concentrations when compared to the control group (Williams et al 2004a) and increased plasma levels of ascorbic acid and α–tocopherol. Both the vitamin E and lipoic acid supplemented groups had about 40% more total GSH, 30% more α–tocopherol, and 15% more ascorbic acid than the control group. This illustrates the collaborative nature of the recycling and scavenging of antioxidant radicals as such increases were found using either vitamin E or lipoic acid.







Probiotics



Potential rationale for use


Probiotics were first defined as, “substances secreted by one organism that stimulates the growth of another” (Lilley & Stillwell, 1965). Later, the US Office of Regulatory Affairs of the FDA and AAFCO defined probiotics as “a source of live, naturally occurring microorganisms” (Yoon & Stern 1995) and which are now called “direct–fed microbials” (DFM). In the EU within the category “zootechnical additives”, the following functional group is included “ ‘gut flora stabilizers’: microorganisms or other chemically defined substances, which, when fed to animals, have a positive effect on the gut flora.” This would include probiotic bacteria as well as yeasts. Their use is directed at maintaining, enhancing or re-establishing “beneficial” bacteria and other microflora within the gastrointestinal tract. However, there has been no evidence to prove that providing probiotics to animals with healthy thriving GI flora will have any beneficial effect.



Data on efficacy


Studies have investigated if bacteria will survive transit through a horse’s GI system and shown that orally provided Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria will survive transit through a foal’s GI system and colonize the hindgut when fed at extremely high doses (Weese et al 2003). This group also showed that provision of Lactobacillus pentosus, a strain of bacteria isolated from the equine intestine, actually increases the severity of foal diarrhea, which raises concerns over the choice of bacteria in probiotics and/or the quality control of the probiotic used (Weese & Rousseau 2005). However, another study showed that providing five strains of Lactobacillus, also isolated from the equine intestine, did decrease the incidence of foal diarrhea (Yuyama et al 2004).


Yeast cultures have also been evaluated for their probiotic properties. Specifically after feeding horses Saccharomyces cerevisiae, viable yeast cells were found in the large intestine (Medina et al 2002), which indicates that yeast can survive transit through the GI track. It is theorized that yeast supplementation will increase the pH of the GI track and help improve fiber digestion (e.g., Morgan et al 2007, Jouany et al 2009). However, not all studies show a significant beneficial effect (Hall et al 1990) and it is hard to make a recommendation for its use in aiding fiber digestion in horses provided typical forage based rations. Although the use of Saccharomyces boulardi has been reported to significantly reduce the duration and severity of acute enterocolitis in one study in hospitalized horses (Desrochers et al 2005), much more work is needed to evaluate the potential for live yeast supplementation to help in cases of colic, laminitis and diarrhea.







Complex materials that contain a mixture of putative active ingredients


This group includes herbal supplements that contain active ingredients that are purported to affect the immune system among other various properties (antioxidant, anti–inflammatory, sedative, etc.). Some of these herbs can be classified as adaptogens, immunostimulants or both. Adaptogens increase resistance to stressors, physical, chemical or biological, whereas immunostimulants activate the nonspecific or innate defense mechanisms against viral, bacterial or cellular infections. Most of the studies to date in laboratory animals, humans and other species have determined that the immunologic effect of herbal supplements does not enhance normal immune response but may have beneficial effects if the immune system is compromised (Schulz et al 1998). A more recent reference suggests that very little scientific evidence is available for efficacy of herbal products use in humans, and only four of the top ten herbs in the United States have evidence based on randomized controlled trials (Bent & Ko 2004). Table 19-1 summarizes the active component, action, drug interactions, and equine research present for the major herbs described below.




Bee pollen



Potential rationale for use


Bee pollen and propolis are similar resinous substances collected from various plant sources by honeybees. Propolis contains polyphenols and flavonoids, as well as several specific antioxidant compounds including beta-carotene, caffeic acid and kaempferol (Ahn et al 2004, Gomez-Caravaca et al 2006, Christov et al 2006). Reported biological properties include antioxidant, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti–inflammatory, and immunoregulatory actions (Liebelt & Calcagnetti 1999). Propolis with strong antioxidant activity was also found to have high total polyphenol content (Ahn et al 2004). Antimicrobial effects have been observed against Gram-positive bacteria and yeasts (Uzel et al 2005). Anti-inflammatory effects of propolis may involve nitric oxide inhibition (Tan–No et al 2006).


Jun 8, 2016 | Posted by in EQUINE MEDICINE | Comments Off on Specialized dietary supplements

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