By Franco Cavaleri
Prevent Joint Disease in Your Dog
Help keep your pet active
Much like your own state of physical and mental health is a function of many influences, your pet's health hinges on multiple factors. Diet, activity level, breeding and genetics, and emotional state all play significant roles in health.
When we say, "Health is a choice", it really is. Every choice you make dictates the wellness of your animal companions, from your decision on a breed that suits your lifestyle to the daily food and nutritional supplements you give them.
Of course some cases of disease are purely genetic, but even most of those can be mitigated with proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle – preventive measures. A large dog like a Great Dane, for example, will be more vulnerable to hip and joint degeneration than a Chihuahua might be. In addition, within the breed, the lineage might also have vulnerability which is revealed in the animal’s parents and litter mates. In such cases, ensuring that the animal’s diet supplies sufficient glucosamine, chondroitin, vitamin D, calcium, magnesium and copper can reduce the risk of joint problems. The addition of phytonutrients and antioxidants to the diet will also help protect tissues and preserve healthy anti-inflammatory regulation throughout the animal’s life.
Nutrition, a factor you dictate, will play a huge role in disease prevention and management. Research is showing that antioxidants play important roles in genetic activity. Oxidation (which antioxidants protect against) can cause genes that keep tissue healthy and prevent disease to become ineffective. One example is the chondrocyte, the cell responsible for producing collagen in the cartilage tissue of the joint. Oxidation can contribute to this cell’s inefficiency, impairing its ability to use the body’s natural glucosamine building blocks to heal tissue. As a result the cell’s ability to restore collagen and cartilage as they degenerate from daily wear and tear declines. Glucosamine supplements will not be used effectively by the chondrocyte cell that is impaired by oxidation (when cells interacting with unstable oxygen molecules are negatively affected). Some animals may be more vulnerable to this oxidation than others and, therefore, have predisposition to arthritis and other joint problems.
Oxidation and antioxidants play paramount roles in genetic activity and disease. Just like your pets, humans have built-in genetic potential for disease. You also have a code which is designed to maintain health and vigor. The way these genes are expressed or interpreted depends on your chemistry. Sound complicated? It isn’t really. The foods you eat, the antioxidants you supplement with, the lifestyle you engage in, the toxins you allow into your body, and the stress you are influenced by all manipulate this chemistry in your body’s cells.
Today you are exposed to more environmental pollution and oxidation than ever before. In order to allow your cells, and those of your pet, to function according to natural design, you have to stave off this oxidation by ensuring that you get enough antioxidants. Fortunately your cells and those of your companion have the capacity to manufacture endogenous antioxidants, but these internally produced antioxidants are not enough to meet the unnaturally elevated environmental assault. In addition, as you and your companion animal age, this internal antioxidant production declines, so oral supplementation of antioxidants becomes even more valuable.
The right type and quantity of the extracts of boswellia serrata and grapeseed, vitamin C, chondroitin, glucosamine and MSM can help maintain the chondrocyte cells in your pets. They protect these cells from the detrimental effects of uncontrolled oxidation while supplying them with the building blocks for collagen, so it can repair and restore joint health.
Waiting for the symptoms of disease to surface in your pet is not the right thing to do. Applying these joint-specific strategies proactively ensures that these specialized repair cells are maintaining cartilage on a daily basis so as not to fall behind in the process. Prevention is the best cure.
Franco Cavaleri
Franco Cavaleri, a graduate of UBC, majored in nutritional science and biochemistry. He has won numerous bodybuilding championships including the 1992 IFBB North American Body Building Championship. His postgraduate research efforts continue today, directed toward the latest nutraceutical science related to insulin efficiency, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory response, cognition, and ageless performance. He is also a regular speaker. His effort in science, research, and development has lead to several awards from the Canadian health industry.
Franco is the president and research director of Biologic Nutritional Research, Inc. He is also on the scientific advisory boards of NuLife/NHF Vitamins, the Canadian Sports Nutrition Association, a division of the Canadian Health Food Association, and the Fargo Group, makers of FarMore fresh canine food.
