Educational Material - Competitive Horses, Digestion, Suggestions

Insight , Competitive Horses 

Top competing human athletes, equine performance athletes need the exact same upkeep and dietary needs to preserve, enhance and safe guard their careers.

In the wild a horse will roam up to 20 miles a day. During their roaming and picking, they will eat a wide variety of plants, berries, bushes, roots and even bee hives if accessible.

Why do they instinctively search out and eat these natural foods?

They are full of anti-oxidants, minerals, and vitamins that support the horse’s body completely.

Does a horse, living in a box stall or paddock, competing or ridden daily have access to these nutrients? Likely not. Many of our great horses are fed synthetic versions of these foods, or the properties of them in extracts. As with most things in nature, the original is best. Often synthesized versions require the body to work harder, processing them through the gut, urinary system and other organs of the body.

Buffering the digestive system of the equine athlete is imperative to the health of the rest of the body. When fed anti oxidant , natural foods and having the gut healthy the competitive horse can get and use the nutrition it needs. Heavy work, stress, injury, living in a captive and unnatural environment all can cause oxidation stress and free radical damage. Equine athletes when not fed the right, clean, healthy foods can lose their edge, become stressed and weakened. Inflammation in the tissues, organs and muscles contributes to loss of nutrients and downgrade of muscle and bone health. An acid body from stress, poor digestive health creates health problems. Tying Up, Breathing, Bleeding, Broken Bones, Loss of Muscle to name just a few.

Many of the drugs that are still legal to use add to the problem by causing toxicity, mineral loss or flu like symptoms. Not to say we should never use drugs, but if we do we need to be very familiar with the side effects. When we are we can then counter act them with, being on them less, finding a holistic alternative, (herbs, ozone, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, cranial sacral, Pain Point Release, minerals, diet, clean water, etc) listen to the horse by observing their stance, attitude, performance and body soreness . Consulting with your holistic and allopathic Vets. Here are some of the side effects of regumate and gastro guard.

https://www.paulickreport.com/horse-care-category/fda-warns-against-potential-human-health-risks-from-altrenogest-products-like-regumate/

About half way through the article it states, body soreness, flu like symptoms etc. It has been my observation that mares and fillies don’t feel well while they are on regumate, in many cases. In the case where a mare or filly does not feel well on the drug, herbs, acupuncture, less refined diet can very often be the answer, or work in conjunction to lessen the side effects of the drug.

Both of these drugs, especially omeprezole are hard on the liver. In humans it depletes the bones terribly. Though below it says not, only in horses. I don’t agree. The data below, directly from the manufacturer of Omeprezole says it does cause or contribute to symptoms of bone loss and fracture.

Omeprazole Paulick Report

The long-term consequences of chronic PPI use include the potential increased risk of hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, Clostridium difficile infections, and pneumonia.Dec 18, 2013

The ability of PPIs to alter bone mass an/or cause osteoporosis is also unclear. In animal studies the PPI omeprazole reduced bone density [68,69]. In contrast, some human studies report no effect of PPIs to cause alterations in bone turnover and/or bone density as well as no effect at causing osteoporosis Hepatic impairment:

What Are Side Effects Associated with Using Omeprazole ?

Common side effects of omeprazole include:

• headache
• abdominal pain
• diarrhea
• nausea
• vomiting
• gas (flatulence)
• dizziness
• upper respiratory infection
• acid reflux
• constipation
• rash
• cough

Less common side effects of Omeprazole include:

• bone fracture (osteoporosis related)
• deficiency of granulocytes in the blood
• loss of appetite
• gastric polyps
• hip fracture
• hair loss
• chronic inflammation of the stomach
• destruction of skeletal muscle
• taste changes
• abnormal dreams

Rare side effects of Omeprazole include:

• liver damage
• inflammation within the kidneys
• pancreatitis
• dermatologic disorder, potentially life threatening (toxic epidermal necrolysis)

Post marketing side effects of Omeprazole reported include:

• bone fracture

This document does not contain all possible side effects and other side effects may occur. Check with your medical professional for additional information about side effects. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA.

What Other Drugs Interact with Omeprazole ?

If your doctor has directed you to use this prescription medication, your doctor or pharmacist may already be aware of any possible drug interactions, health risks and side effects, and may be monitoring you for them. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of this drug or any medicine before checking with your doctor, health care provider or pharmacist first.

Severe Interactions of omeprazole include:

• erlotinib
• nelfinavir
• rilpivirine

Omeprazole has serious interactions with at least 22 different drugs.

Omeprazole has moderate interactions with at least 75 different drugs.

Omeprazole has minor interactions with at least 52 different drugs.

This document does not contain all possible interactions. Therefore, before using this product, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all the products you use. Keep a list of all your medications with you, and share the list with your doctor and pharmacist. Check with your doctor if you have health questions or concerns.

What Are Warnings and Precautions for Omeprazole?

Warnings

This medication contains omeprazole. Do not take Prilosec or Prilosec OTC if you are allergic to omeprazole or any ingredients contained in this drug.

Keep out of reach of children. In case of overdose, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately.

Contraindications

Hypersensitivity to this drug or other PPIs.

Effects of Drug Abuse

None.

Short-term Effects

• See "What Are Side Effects Associated with Using Omeprazole?"

Long-term Effects

• Increased risk for osteoporosis-related fractures of the hip, wrist, or spine with prolonged use (over 1 year) with high-dose therapy.
• Magnesium deficiency in the blood may occur with prolonged use (over 1 year); adverse effects may result and include muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, and seizures; in 25% of cases reviewed, magnesium supplementation alone did not improve low serum magnesium levels and the PPIs to be discontinued.
• Daily long-term use (more than 3 years) may lead to malabsorption or a deficiency of cyanocobalamin.
• See "What Are Side Effects Associated with Using Omeprazole?"

Cautions

• PPIs are possibly associated with increased incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea; consider the diagnosis for patients taking this drug who have diarrhea that does not improve.
• May require dosage reduction with liver disease.
• Cutaneous lupus erythematosus and systemic lupus erythematosus reported with PPIs; avoid using for longer than medically indicated; discontinue if signs or symptoms consistent with either condition are observed and refer patient to specialist.
• Shown to cause gastric carcinoid tumors in rats with increased doses, but risk in humans unconfirmed.
• Published observational studies suggest that proton pump inhibitors therapy may be associated with an increased risk for osteoporosis-related fractures of the hip, wrist, or spine, particularly with prolonged (over 1 year), high-dose therapy.
• Magnesium deficiency in the blood may occur with prolonged use (over 1 year); adverse effects may result and include muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, and seizures; in 25% of cases reviewed, magnesium supplementation alone did not improve low serum magnesium levels and the proton pump inhibitors had to be discontinued.
• Decreased gastric acidity increases serum chromogranin A levels and may cause false-positive diagnostic results for neuroendocrine tumors; temporarily discontinue proton pump inhibitors before assessing serum chromogranin A levels.
• Inhibits hepatic isoenzyme CYP2C19 and may alter metabolism of drugs that are CYP2C19 substrates.
• PPIs may decrease the efficacy of clopidogrel by reducing the formation of the active metabolite.
• Daily long-term use (more than 3 years) may lead to malabsorption or a deficiency of cyanocobalamin.
• Acute interstitial nephritis has been observed in patients taking PPIs.
• Relief of symptoms does not eliminate the possibility of a gastric malignancy.
• Therapy increases risk of Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other infections.
• May elevate and/or prolong serum concentrations of methotrexate and/or its metabolite when administered together with proton pump inhibitors, possibly leading to toxicity; consider a temporary withdrawal of PPIs therapy with high dose methotrexate administration.

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I have told my clients for many years, if you have a garden chop up and add fresh herbs, fruits, berries and vegetables. Berries especially, given before and after performance enhance and protect the bodies ability to combat the free radical damage and oxidation stress that occurs with heavy exertion.

The next article will be about training our young horses to respond to the jockey with more cues. Discipline versus domination. This will continue to help the horse through its training and safety while competing.

Loryhl Davis has spent over 40 years researching Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress Impact in horses. For the past ten years I have been a student of Loryhls and have learned  valuable information, together we continue to research and seek solutions for the horse. As owners, breeders and trainers we want to what is best for the horse, so we rely on medication treatments, when in reality we need to seek prevention. This requires the understanding what occurs to our equine athletes when they exercise and compete. What can be done to prevent injuries?
It begins with what are we feeding our horses? How much is processed, synthetic and what percent of additives?
An equine athlete requires a clean diet to perform on race day and recover, the cells need to be healthy to do their job and not be forced to battle many other invaders and breakdown in the end.
You will learn from this study, as it clearly lays out the most important aspect of prevention.

The first thing to do, once you have read this study is to look at every ingredient in your horses consumes on a daily basis, including supplements.

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