Frequently Asked Questions
Colic, Herpes, Tying Up, Cushing's, Alergies, and Uveitis
COLIC:
Q.) We see an increasing amount of colic, ulcers and other acid problems lately. Why?
A.) Colic, impaction, Environmental Illness/EPM, ulcers, contracted tendons and epiphysitis all have as their underlying foundation, a calcium and magnesium deficiency.This is in turn, caused by the increased environmental toxins that store in the body as organic acids.
This causes acid chemistry all the way to the cell level. Since magnesium, in particular, is involved in at least 99% of ALL biochemical reactions in the body, this particularly, can have chain reactions all over the body in everything connected with it, including chronic fatigue in people!
But just supplementing with any old calcium and magnesium won't solve the problems here, as the chemical forms of the minerals are important too. Different chemical forms have different destinations in the body.
Also, each of these problems has other needs too, so that is why different specialty supplements for different situations are available, that take into account the cause, of the cause, of the cause behind the underlying driving forces in the environment. These problems will only increase in frequency until we finally clean up the planet. More and more epidemics of new opportunistic infections that we have never heard of before will make their debut, like EPM. Our current modes of medicine that does not address the cause, of the cause, of the cause, and instead, only focuses on the RESULT of the actions of those forces, will continue to fail us in ever higher failure rates.We see this now, with EPM and other environmental illnesses.
These are a few of the specialty products that I have developed for these problems, and can be found in the catalogue on the website. They are also unconditionally guaranteed if they don't work when used as directed.
Untie® - for all inflammatory problems, contracted tendons, epiphysitis, arthritis, sore muscles, and will delay fatigue in the muscles, to turn over lactic acid faster and extend stride. Useful as a pre race and pre show supplement for hunters, race and dressage horses particularly. Also, for tying up syndrome.
Nutrient Buffer® - Natural antacid for G.I. problems, ulcers, colic, picky eaters, horses on drugs causing ulcers like bute, Banamine or steroids
Calcium and magnesium are the body's main buffering cations to neutralize acids. What they are bonded TO makes all the difference in their potentialities. It's kind of like a good marriage vs a bad one. A really good partner brings out all the latent best in you and encourages you in certain directions. A bad partner involves you in unhealthy directions. The energies are the same essentially, but the directions are different.
Is this an understandable analogy? The reason we are seeing younger animals and people more affected now is because the world is getting more polluted with more acid chemistry every day, every hour, every minute! Those MOST susceptible to higher calcium and magnesium needs and deficiencies are those bodies that are growing. We would expect to see EPM, and all those other problems affecting more and more younger animals too.
This is now being reported, especially among TB's, who I have found to have higher needs for these cations, as well as chestnut and sorrell horses and those with a lot of white markings in any breed. Some years ago I counted 85% of all the horses that came to me with special problems for hair analysis and for whom special mixes had to be made for, were red in color, with two or more white feet and white on the face.
One standardbred trainer I worked with called this the "red, white and blue syndrome" meaning - red horse plus white feet equals blue trainer! Citrates are not easily handled by some with the worst symptoms, but Aloe juice is alkaline and will help. However, a designed product that has ratios of calcium and magnesium as well as zinc, can be targeted directly at the biochemical problems better. In this way, we can use Nature's best chemical forms, but blended in a way that will better help with these artificially man made toxins.This is why the natural products formulated by Nature don't work as well for these NEW problems as ones we can now make in the lab, using natural ingredients. It is the ratios of ingredients that matter.
The procedure used in diagnosing ulcers, itself causes ulcers! For a grazing animal like a horse, all you have to do to create an ulcer is to fast them for 12 hours. In fact, this is how they create ulcers in a university setting to study them. You can now see why it is sooo stupid to fast a horse before a race! When acid monitors were implanted in the stomachs of racing TBs, it was found that they dumped quantities of acid leaving the gate, that didn't start to be painful until the stretch when they "backed through the field".
To scope a horse, it has to fast 12 hours, have the stomach pumped, then filled with saline, then pumped dry again before the scope can be passed. All this is done under general anasthesia - costly too, as well as traumatic. When I first began developing products for ulcers, I offered free treatment to owners who would have before and after scoping to show the value of the product. NOBODY wanted to put their horse through the scoping the second time around! It was so traumatic to them. And, only the upper gastric could be evaluated, and many problems occur in the lower gastric areas like the duodenum leading to the small intestine, that cannot be accessed with a scope anyway.
Since we have collected a good array of symptoms and signs of excessive acid chemistry now, most owners and trainers opt to just treat the animal anyway. This is why I worked so hard to develop a natural product that only worked when excess acid was present. It does not work when it is not needed, so as to avoid the acid rebound effect that common antacids cause. It is now entering the human market too. For this, carbonates and oxides are the best chemical forms, as they need acid to become soluble. They stay in the gut better and are not very well absorbed.
To reach the deeper tissues of the body, proteinates work best, as they are already bound by carrier proteins and small peptides. Again, different chemical forms are for different syndromes and different destinations in the body. We don't go to an eye doctor for a foot problem!
Q.) My horse fits the profile of many of your colic symptoms, but I don't think I can afford the products you recommend. She has already had colic surgery and is showing signs again. Any suggestions?
A.) The question is, can you afford NOT to address the problem? How much was your colic surgery? And how much for constant vet bills, with the risk of losing the horse? Treating the biochemistry of any animal as large as a horse is never "cheap", however, some costs are"cheaper" than others! We keep costs as low as possible by no using fillers, binders preservatives etc, and only using the very best and most bioavailable ingredients. We also offer a money back guarantee if anyone is not happy with the results, even if they use the whole thing up! With everyone looking for fast results that mimic the fast results of drugs, this is difficult and more expensive to accomplish without the toxicity of drugs, but we do it!
So no one really has anything to lose. If it saves your horse from the worst, AND gives her a new lease on life in performance and overall health, to keep on saving you future vet bills, how much of a price can you really put on that? It all comes out in the wash eventually. You can't buy a Cadillac for the price of a Chevy.
Quality ingredients always cost more. I really wish it were possible for me to be able to give it away to everyone, for the sake of the horse! The fact that the bulk of our clients are veterinarians who use our products IN PLACE OF DRUGS and for a much cheaper price, should say something. Have you ever checked the price of Gastrogard? So have the vets!
Q.) I am using probiotics supplements to prevent colic. I give a double dose of these every day, but my horse is still showing signs of being colicy off and on. Should I give thyroid, as you have mentioned thyroid often as an underlying cause of ulcers and colic?
A.) Many times the answers I give regarding "thyroid" are improperly interpreted to mean the thyroid gland ITSELF, as a physiological basis of "the cause of the cause, of the cause etc" for many physiological symtomology, when in fact, it has to do with thyroid PATHWAYS in the body, often involving other pathways and other factors too. Simply giving thyroid hormone to many of these cases does little or nogood, until the other factors and pathways are facilitated.
I know this is confusing to the laymen, and often to medical professionals too. Because of this, people sometimes get the INCORRECT impression that I recommend giving thyroid to EVERY case, and this is just NOT so. But the thyroid pathways having to do with uptake of cations are most often the cause of obstructions and fermentations by overgrowth of fermentative bacteria resulting in colic. The cause of the cause, of the cause, so to speak.
Correction of the pathway, OR as is most often the case in Western medicine, treating the "symptoms", interceding with pH normalizing buffers, for which the Nutrient Buffer was created, then restores a habitat conducive to the growth and life of "probiotics" favorable to the health of the intestine..Most people don't realize that if the pH is not correct for the habitation of the favorable bacteria to live, innoculation even on a daily basis with probiotic products will not do much good if they can't live there successfully.This is likened to trying to plant a garden in improperly prepared soil, where the growing conditions are harsh and nutrients are poor. Like trying to start a garden of plants in a desert. You have to create and manage an oasis first, then things take off from there. The desert was created in the first place from a natural disaster of sorts, and there has to be managed restoration first for Nature to be restored there. I hope this is a bit clearer.
Q.) You commented once about a horse with a droopy lip, chronic choking and his frequent bouts of colic. Please explain the connection.
A.) This is a classic symptom of hypothyroidism, which most probably underlies his colic problem and many other symptoms. The thyroid is responsible for the uptake and metabolism of calcium and magnesium, necessary for acid balance.
The thyroid begins its development at the base of the tongue and then, at about 7 months or so development as a fetus, begins to migrate down the throat to where we know it to reside. But it maintains its connections to the lower jaw and throat structures throughout life.When the thyroid becomes weakened from any number of factors, certain signs and symptoms involving these areas are seen. The lower jaw slips foreward, lower lip may droop, there may be excessive drooling, sinuses close and clog up, hearing is affected, and children with this problem are the classic candidates for ear drainage tubes, speech defects, hearing defects and learning disabilities.
Now, horses have very large sinuses, so they do not usually show the sinus problems, however, the other signs I use frequently to evaluate underlying thyroid problems in many of the Environmental Illness/EPM horses that come into my rehab centers and to seminars.
You might check his temperature for about five days, first thing in the morning, using only a regular thermomitor, (digitals tend to run high), and this will also give us another clue. There is also a more comprehensive list of symptoms that we can use to diagnose, as the current blood tests are not reliable. They are known to miss 60 to 65% of clinical cases, calling them "normal". See the other articles on thyroid on this site.
Q.) Are Warmbloods more prone to colic than other breeds?
A.) I don't see any trend toward any breed in the sales of Nutrient Buffer, which is commonly used by veterinarians for colic as well as ulcers. The only strongly common threads I see are stress, work load, nutrition and season of the year, with the dark of the year most common. Drug therapy also has a lot to do with it, steroid and especially Environmental Illness/EPM drugs, areas of heavy environmental contamination, areas of naturally occuring contamination like coal deposit areas, nitrate contamination in the water from fertilizers etc., areas of heavy industrialization, color of horse with chestnuts, sorrels and those with a lot of white markings. We track the areas and sales every year to target our advertising. The East coast is highest, the west coast is moderate, the Great Lakes Basin is high, Appalachian mountains is high, Mississippi Valley is high, but the western plains states are very low.
Q.) What is gas colic?
A.) Gas colic results from fermentative bacterial overgrowth, and they like acid conditions in the lower intestine. Again an acid problem.
HERPES:
Q.) Can an Environmental Illness/EPM horse carry herpes, too? How does equine herpes affect horses?
A.) Absolutely, Environmental Illness/EPM and Herpes often travel together, and each overlay a different, but similar set of symptoms. EPM most often affects and can be acupuncturally diagnosed on the right side of the body, while Herpes is most often manifested on the left side. Both can cause neurological syndromes very similar and difficult to differentiate, since Environmental Illness/EPM can manifest a wide and varied set of symptoms, depending upon where, actually, the organisms decide to set up house. Herpes, on the other hand, follow along the nerve ganglia themselves. Environmental Illness/EPM is a "piece of cake" to treat in the early stages, while "Herpes is forever", as the saying goes. But not for long. I have clinical trials going now for a natural product to attack the Herpes in the body.
Q.) Does adding lysine in a powder form to the feed help with this?
A.) For now, acupunctural treatment coupled with our Nutrient Buffer® and our EPS FormulaTM do wonders for the combination disease horse. Since this program incorporates a higher protein grain mix, properly balanced in all the amino acids, there is no need to add extra lysine. This program was developed from a human program that included people afflicted with Herpes, with no help from even a whole bottle of lysine per day! Lysine is necessary for the immune system, and was added because so many people were feeding an overall protein deficient diet, that was low in lysine too. This grain mix has as much lysine naturally, and in proper balance with other amino acids, that you would get feeding a cheaper low protein grain and adding the extra lysine, at a much reduced cost too!
The old way of adding the extra lysine to a low protein grain, unbalances the ratios of the amino acids, and this ratio can inhibit the thyroid, already compromised in many afflicted horses. High lysine diets are known for this, and is considered a "benefit" in fattening pigs, cows etc. Hence, it is associated with "growth", even if the wrong kind of growth.
Amino acids need to be balanced just like minerals, in Nature. Too much of one causes a deficiency of another, biochemically. Therefore, it is better to skip the lysine and feed a properly balanced higher protein grain in the first place - and much cheaper too!
Q.) I heard that you are working with lyme disease and herpes in both people and horses.
A.) The latest research has associated yet another infectious disease with autoimmune disease and this is Lyme. Other diseases are now being reported to affect and initiate autoimmune response as well.
Autoimmune thyroiditis is THE MAJOR FACTOR in all ALLERGIES, including HEAVES as well as ASTHMA in people. Using only the natural thyroid extract in very low doses and gradually increasing with certain nutritional protocols has been clinically demonstrated to reduce autoimmune antibody titres, and resolve such autoimmune diseases as MS, LUPUS, HASHIMOTO'S DISEASE AND FIBROMYALGIA, ASTHMA, ALLERGY, and ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS. I would like to include Lyme, and am beginning clinical trials for this. Using this protocol has eliminated the need for allergy shots in most cases, too.
The protocol is the same for animals and people. This is the protocol I am now using for the autoimmune response of Lyme as well. We are looking for more diagnostic acupuncture points, as current lab testing is not conclusive.
Please look at the information on the thyroid under Human Health on the website and see if any of those symptoms apply to your horse. Thyroid always seems to be involved in most all cases, as it regulates the speed of biochemical reactions at the cell level in EVERY cell in the body. It also takes the biggest hit in environmental contamination.
Many people are not aware that the Earth has suffered its greatest environmental insult of modern times back in 1998, when India and Pakistan had their little border war. Together, they fired off 11 atomic test bombs, EACH of which gave off over 1 MILLION TIMES the radioactive iodine of Chernoble!!
AND, as El Nino was in effect at that time, bringing southern air north, WE here in the US get hit HARD!! Radioactive iodine is what they use in a hospital setting to treat HYPERthyroid, and 1 dose is effective enough to permanently kill off the overactive thyroid to the point that the patient now has to take thyroid replacement for the rest of the life! Thyroid is now the no.2 prescription IN THE WORLD, and climbing. Between May 99 until November 99, the entire veterinary community was cut off from the natural thyroid because the human supply was in jeopardy.
In the last year, we are seeing more and more strange immune diseases, gland swellings. allergies, anger, anxiety, ADD/ ADHD, flu like syndromes, and acid related problems like ulcers, inflammatory diseases like arthritis etc. as a result. This is why we are trying to develop a bigger database for diagnosis, and broaden our successful treatment techniques to include these new "diseases" and disease syndromes.
Please let me know what you find.Your info is valuable to us. If your horse has been clinically diagnosed with Lyme, and you would like to participate in the clinical trials, please send your records with a release so we can use them, and I will provide the supplement program at no charge for a clinical trial.
Steroid therapy is NOT included and NOT an option, as corticosteroids only INCREASE autoimmune disease response!
TYING UP & UNTIE:
Q.) My horse recently began tying up, do you have any suggestions for helping her?
A.) Tying up is often associated with thyroid problems, and in people is equivalent to fibromyalgia chronically. There are several articles here, dealing with thyroid, including symproms that you may be able to relate to your horse. It would help for you to read them as well as the article"Environmental Illness From Bird's Eye View". This describes what environmental chemicals do in the body, particularly to the thyroid, which takes the biggest hit!
The Vita Royal Feed Program, combined with UNTIE® and Nutrient Buffer® as top dress supplements, is most useful for your horse. If these alone do not control the problem, them I would suggest you add thyroid supplementation according to the recommendations for Environmental Illness horses. This usually succeeds even when other program fail. If this does not work, I suggest doing a hair analysis, as some other imbalance might be detected.
Q.) I have heard that magnesium is important for tying up, especially in fillies.
A.) Magnesium does indeed play a huge role in this problem, but further upward in the cycle to that is thyroid, which does the regulation of all cations, including magnesium.
In May of 1998, India and Pakistan had a border war and they traded threats by blowing off a total of 11 nuclear weapons as "testing", underground. However, the world Health Organization has estimated that the total contamination of radioactive Iodine to the world was 11 MILLION times that of Chernoble! This is what they use in the hospital to treat HYPERthyroidism! This has sent the world into a thyroid compromise as most living things were already compromised by the environmetal toxins that target the thyroid anyway. As last I heard, thyroid was the No 2 prescription in the world and CLIMBING! I have found it to be a major factor in the cases like this that I work with too, and a lot with tying up and all acid cases. This does NOT mean that I recommend that ALL horses should be put on thyroid medicine. The size of the gland can vary from individual to individual of over 500%, so the same exposure to one does not have the same effect as another.
What I have found successful for these cases, is the grain recipe that I have formulated as a base mix for all of the programs, coupled with Nutrient Buffer® and Untie®. If this does not help, then a hair analysis and custom blend a supplement can be done. If this is still not enough help, add thyroid su[pplementation at the the very safe protocol that is used for severe cases: autoimmunes disease - which, by the way is prevalent in the worst tie up cases. It is no surprise that the fillies are more susceptible, the hormone problems they face of low thyroid and autoimmune thyroiditis (not diagnosable in horses by blood tests) include low progesterone, higher/unbalanced estrogens, sometimes low testosterone, are all well known results of thyroid problems. The Untie® and Nutrient Buffer® address these.
Q.) Do the other products on the market that claim to increase the oxygen carrying capacity work similarly to your Untie®?
A.) Increasing the oxygen carrying caracity of the blood is not the only necessity for increasing performance. There is no magic bullet, and Untie® has been much "copied" but never "duplicated", if you know what I mean!
Endurance horses use Untie® successfully too for the same reasons, as it provides a multifaceted approach to performance from many different biochemical pathways that all work together.
Q.) How does Untie® aid dressage horses as I hear they rarely reach aerobic capacity?
A.) For dressage horses, it helps with free radical production of anaerobic metabolism that causes stiff muscles. They come out more freely and warm up quickly, so more time is left for actual training. They have more energy left too for difficult movements, and more can be accomplished in a training session. Some trainers have boasted to me that with five scoops of Untie® every day, they can take a horse from training level to Grand Prix in six months. I don't recommend this though! I really don't think this is a proper training schedule.
My Lipizzan stallion was badly beaten at age two and so severely injured that he wasn't able to be ridden for six years. With five scoops of Untie® daily, he is now in training and doing better than he has ever done even before he was injured. This would not have been possible without it.
Q.) Why is Untie® used mostly with standardbreds, does it work better with trotters and pacers?
A.) Old claimers with injuries are greatly benefited by Untie®. I used to have standardbreds, that is why I referred to them in previous answers.Untie® has put more new lifetime marks on old lame claimers than I can recall in the few years I was in the racing business. One was 11 years old, and I took him off Lasix too! He retired sound at 14 and went on to become a hunter jumper! This was when the product was developed, way back in the early 80's.
Today's thoroughbred industry does not tend to spend as much money on daily health and maintenance of a horse as standardbred owners and trainers do. It's a different industry. Many standardbred trainers have a vested interest in their horses and this is not so true in with thoroughbreds. So these standardardbred owners/trainers sit behind them every day with more "hands on" than thoroughbred trainers who seldom have a real hands on, so to speak. They usually don't ride them or cool them out or groom them to see how they are doing personally after training or racing, like the standardbred people do. I believe that this is why standardbreds are continually getting faster compared with the thoroughbreds who really aren't as much improved over the years.
Considering that TBs only average 9 races per year and harness horses average 40, and go out and warm up several miles an hour or so even before the racing, these horses condition much more. More is expected of them, having to race at a gait not intended by Nature for speed, and pounding harder with much more concussion too, on much harder track surfaces.
When I do clinical trials to develop new products and protocols, I always choose the group that has the worst of the worst in symptomology, in both humans and horses, and the most stress to deal with keeping them in that state. If I can get something to work here in statistically significant numbers, it will work for the masses too.
ALLERGIES
Q.) My horse is having allergic reactions and hives to glucosamine products. What can I do?
A.) The glucosamine product probably containes sulfates and these are very acidic, maybe pushing the acidity levels over the edge to create hives. For this reason, I get a lot of horses to have good success in pain relief and inflammatory control with the Untie® too, for arthritis and such, that could not handle the sulfates in glucosamine mixes. It comes with a money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose if it doesn't help!
Q.) Do all glucosamine products contain sulfates? Are they listed on the labels?
A.) Remember when we talked about chemical forms, and how nothing in nature exists alone or "pure" or independant of itself, except for some special gasses that we call "noble"?
What the substances are bonded to makes up the "chemical form", and this chemical form of a total substance determines its biochemical characteristics in the body.
This is also true for glucosamine. The most commonly available chemical form is sulfate, being bonded to a sulfate molecule. If the body is already carying a heavy acid burden, then this chemical form can cause reactions.
The other, less commonly found form is a hydrochloride form and it too is acidifying, but not in the same way.
17 years ago, I saw "the writing on the wall". I began formulating a line of products that would address the increasing acidity, to help restore the faulty biochemistry produced. One product in particular was formulated to replace the common drug anti inflammatories like bute and other NSAIDs and even steroids, without causing ulcers. This product is called "Untie®". but it is not just for tying up cases. We use it effectively for founder, contracted tendons, epiphysitis, arthritis, environmental illness, autoimmune thyroiditis, and as a helper in our Environmental Illness/EPM, Herpes and Lyme program. It also makes a great pre-race or pre event supplement as it helps to allow the muscles to extend and remain extended for longer, effectively lengthening the stride. It is very helpful for sore backs and cold backs, too, as these are often autoimmune in origin. For more info, please see Untie® in our product catalog.
UVEITIS
Q.) Can you give any insight on Chronic Recurrent Uveitis, sometimes called Equine Recurrent Uveitis?
A.) I have had several horse clients in the past and have several human clients now dealing with it. One human client, an engineer for GM, has found a doctor here that has found a connection between low back problems and CRU in people. Very interesting in that he has several lower vertabrae severely out of alignment in his lower back. He started seeking chiropractic adjustments to try to align them, they are SEVERELY out and sticking out of his back to the side. With each adjustment, the CRU flares up, and he gets it under control using the human equivalent to our Environmental Illness/EPM program. But I was most interested in the back connection.
I began to querie those autoimmune horse cases I have to see if they had ever had a history of CRU and got five of them who did. They are all using the Environmental Illness/EPM program( which is, by the way, addressing the environmental toxin exposure and not just for EPM), and they also are using a chiropracter and/or doing carrot stretches. They got help for the CRU with the program and especially when the chiropracters found low back problems! There are also another seven horses that were diagnosed with Environmental Illness/EPM, placed on extended drug therapy, with no effect, placed on our Vita Royal program with no effect (but had negative response all along on the acupoints, which I found curiously unusual). All but one have been put down and autopsied.
Result: no Environmental Illness/EPM lesions, however there was a bony deposit inside, and some had outside the spinal column in the area just behind the area back of the saddle, in the lower back. The last horse is still alive and the owners are still trying things, but myelogram did show something in the same area too. Ankylosing spondylitis, is the back diagnosis for his case. There may be a connection to chronic stimulation of the adrenals, to produce glucocorticoids, the stress hormones that fuel all autoimmune diseases.
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