Category: Hormones

Turmeric pellets reduce coat, sweating of horse with Cushing’s disease

Posted on: February 15, 2021

Kurt's hair is dry in 6-degree weather on Feb. 7, 2021

Kurt’s hair is dry in 6-degree weather on Feb. 7, 2021.

Post reviewed on Nov. 26, 2022

Turmeric pellets may be a relatively cheap and easy-to-use treatment if your horse is dealing with Cushing’s disease and related symptoms, such as sweating.

I cannot say turmeric pellets improve laminitis issues in the hoof.

But turmeric pellets have reduced my gelding’s sweating during the winter, including when the temperature drops to zero, and made him much more comfortable, improving his quality of life dramatically.

Turmeric, an herb belonging to the ginger family, is the major source of curcumin, a polyphenol (micronutrient) that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, according to many studies.

However, a major problem with curcumin is its poor bioavailability.

I initially started trying to give my horses turmeric in powdered form in December 2014, because of its chelation activity. It removes iron from the cells of the body and lowers ferritin levels, according to many sources, including the Hemochromatosis Help website. If my horses indeed suffer from iron overload, as I’ve suspected for years, the turmeric should help.

Adding turmeric powder lasted only a few weeks each time I tried it because the horses wound up colicking. I assumed that the turmeric, along with the horses’ on and off again use of bute, was making ulcers flare up.

During the three winters prior to the 2019-2020 winter, Kurt, my last horse and a longtime sufferer of laminitis, developed a huge, curly coat and sweated all winter, even when the temperature dropped below zero. He didn’t mind his wet coat icing over like everything else in sub-freezing temperatures, but I panicked through every deep cold snap.

In the fall of 2019, I noticed that SmartPak was selling turmeric in pellet form. I have no affiliation with SmartPak and receive no compensation or discount for saying the brand name.

Kurt started on the supplement Oct. 31, 2019. Two months later, it was obvious the turmeric was having a positive effect on his coat. Sweating was greatly reduced on warm days and nonexistent on cold days.

That is still true.

Here are photos of Kurt’s excessive coat in December 2016 and January 2019 and then his much lighter coat in December 2019, two months after he began the turmeric pellets, and in February 2020.

And here are pre- and post-turmeric-pellet photos of Kurt’s wet coat icing over on Dec. 10, 2018, a day with a morning low of 14 degrees, about the time when the photo was taken, and his coat completely dry in 6-degree weather on Feb. 7, 2021.

I give the turmeric pellets to Kurt separately after he eats his forage balancer. He likes the pellets more than his forage balancer and treats them like dessert. The dose is one scoop a day of 10,000 mg of turmeric. At least one study has used a higher amount.

I’ve tasted it and it tastes like someone dumped a spice rack in my mouth, but it’s not bad.

I don’t know why Kurt can ingest the pellet with no issues, while the powdered turmeric always led to a bouts of colic. Some studies suggest turmeric actually improves ulcers.

A study presented at the 2020 AAEP meeting by Michael St. Blanc, DVM, from Louisiana State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, indicated that turmeric and devil’s claw fed together as a supplement to horses with pre-existing equine gastric ulcers did not worsen the ulcers, according to a report on thehorse.com. In fact all study horses — those fed the supplement and the control horses — saw their ulcers improve, likely due to the change in management of the horses once they were enrolled in the study, St. Blanc said. The turmeric dose in that study was 12,000 mg.

Cushing’s syndrome in horses is unique, according to VetFolio, in that it involves hyperplasia (an increase in the number of cells) in part of the pituitary gland rather than tumors in a different part of the gland — which occurs in humans.

Either condition can result in excessive production of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

The excess ACTH causes the adrenal glands to make too much cortisol, which can lead to immune suppression and insulin resistance.

The website vetspecialists.com, a joint venture of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS), says equine Cushing’s disease, or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), is the most common endocrine disorder in horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. PPID most often affects older horses (teenage or older) but has been observed in some younger than 10 years of age.

Affected horses are prone to chronic infections such as sinusitis, dental disease, and sole abscesses.

The website lists these signs and symptom, and my gelding Kurt had them all (expect the abnormal heat cycles in mares):

1. Failure to shed hair fully each spring.
2. Long, wavy/curly hair.
3. Chronic infections.
4. Repeated laminitis episodes sometimes with associated hoof abscesses.
5. Excess or inappropriate sweating.
6. Increased water intake and urination.
7. Lethargy.
8. Loss of muscle mass, typically noticed over the back and hind quarters, as well as the “pot-bellied” appearance.
9. Infertility or abnormal heat cycles in mares.

There seems to be ample evidence in human studies that turmeric can help alleviate the cell activity behind Cushing’s disease. I am not finding a study in horses that examined curcumin’s effect on the pituitary gland or Cushing’s symptoms.

Authors of a German study in humans and rodents said their research “demonstrated for the first time that curcumin has anti-tumorigenic actions on rodent and human pituitary tumor cells in vitro and in vivo.” The research was published in 2009.

Given all the money I’ve thrown at laminitis supplements so far, the price of the turmeric pellets seemed more than reasonable.

I will keep Kurt on the turmeric pellets for the rest of his life, assuming they are available.

Are phthalates in hoses a problem for laminitic horses?

Posted on: May 6, 2012

Garden hose

Garden hose.

The “Los Angeles Times” released a report May 4, 2012, titled, “Garden hoses often contain phthalates and lead, study says.”

It includes a lot of information worth discussing in the horse world because many people give their horses water through garden hoses that sit out in the sun, which apparently leads to more phthalates contaminating the water.

I was interested in whether phthalates, which mimic estrogen in the body, could alter the endocrine system of a horse enough to lead to laminitis. Like many of my theories, this one cannot be proved, at least not by me from my farm.

And there may not be one thing leading to laminitis. There may be many things that push a horse over the edge into having elevated insulin and developing laminitis — from getting just a little too much iron though trace mineral blocks to developing elevated estrogen through water ingestion of phthalates to taking in too much sugar and starch by eating grass or hay designed to fatten cows quickly.

The “Times” article on garden hoses says the nonprofit environmental research group HealthyStuff.org in Ann Arbor, Mich., found that the lead and phthalates in water hoses exceeded allowable levels set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the lead in brass fittings for garden hoses exceeded standards for brass fittings in residential water fixtures as set by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The study tested other gardening products, as well, but Jeff Gearhart, research director for HealthyStuff.org, said garden hoses were the one that raised the most concern. Tests indicated that phthalates and bisphenol A migrated out of the hose and into water sitting inside.

“I was surprised at the levels of chemicals and some of the chemicals we found,” Gearhart told the “Times.” “But I was even more surprised that there’s a lot of better choices in the marketplace.”

Gearhart recommended that consumers buy lead-free garden hoses, which he said are often white with a blue stripe and found at marine and RV stores.

For people who use hoses with lead and phthalates, Gearhart suggested letting the hoses run before using them and storing them in the shade to prevent the sun from heating the hose and releasing plastic chemicals into the water.

There are groups of scientists who dispute whether phthalates are a cause for concern at all. Animal studies using phthalates apparently have not cleared up the controversy.

However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a posting on its website from Dr. John Bucher, associate director of the National Toxicology Program, which summarizes his group’s investigation to the topic in 2008. The report describes bisphenol A, or BPA, the phthalate in garden hoses, as a high-production industrial chemical used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics and epoxy linings of tin cans.

Bucher says BPA “has been known since 1938 to mimic estrogen when given in large amounts to experimental animals. More recently, it has also been studied for its ability at very much lower doses to affect hormonal processes involved in development, when an animal is exposed as a fetus or during infancy.”

He says a CDC study from 2003 to 2004 found detectable levels of BPA in 93 percent of 2,517 urine samples from people 6 years and older in the United States.

He went on to say: “We express ‘some concern’ that current estimated exposures of BPA to fetuses, infants, and children could cause neural and behavioral effects, effects on the prostate and mammary gland, and an earlier age at which females attain puberty. We express “negligible concern” or “minimal concern” that current exposures to BPA could cause adverse health effects in other segments of the population.”

I did a previous post on young girls developing earlier if you want to read more on that topic.

Bucher said there are a number of uncertainties in the scientific information on BPA. The literature from experimental animal studies is large but conflicting, and human studies are insufficient.

So, where does this leave horse owners?

A lead-free hose won’t solve the phthalate problem.

My water well is so far from my shed that I can’t get water from one place to another without a hose unless I want to invest a lot of money in piping. Actually, if I had the money, I’d do it.

I have always noticed that the water had a bad taste to it in summer that wasn’t there in the winter, and new hoses have a bad taste, as well. So, the “Times” article more confirms my suspicions than surprises me. The hose is tainting the water. And the water is more tainted in the summer, when horses drink more water.

Is this enough to change a horse’s estrogen level to a level that effects the horse’s insulin level? We know estrogen can effect insulin levels.

I find no studies on hose water and horses on Google Scholar. There are so many unanswered questions that it’s maddening for those of us who need answers now to save our laminitic horses. Where are we going to get these answers?

Is there a link between mares coming into season and laminitis?

Posted on: April 14, 2012

I’ve had a few interesting conversations by email and phone with a fellow owner of laminitic horses. This horse owner noticed that her mare’s laminitis bouts seem tied to the horse coming in season. The mare does better in winter when she goes out of season for an extended period of time. In fact, the mare often does better when environmental conditions are favorable for the mare to do worse, which is what made this owner look beyond the usual list of so-called “laminitis triggers” since that list wasn’t serving her well.

Estrogen rises in a mare during the preparation of the egg and drops if the egg is not fertilized and the uterine lining is shed.

A possible link between laminitis and rising estrogen makes sense since we know the most prevalent form of laminitis today is the insulin resistance form, and estrogen is a major player in insulin resistance.

I wasn’t looking for this link when my mares foundered. If I noticed a link between Angel’s cycles and her laminitis when she had her first bout in 2004, I didn’t write it down.

I did notice as a general rule that Angel came in season far more than most normal mares, and Goldie, her mother, also had that tendency. Goldie foundered before Angel. Those two mares had my worst cases.

Both mares stopped cycling after several bad bouts of laminitis. It was as if their body knew to shut down that process completely.

When I wrote my original article on laminitis and estrogen, the research on whether more mares developed laminitis was mixed. One study that reviewed a broad range of previous laminitis studies said the results were inconclusive.

If you look at this logically, here’s what we know in both the human and horse world on estrogen as it might relate to laminitis:

1) Young woman are reaching puberty earlier, and many researchers say that is due to things such as the estrogen mimics in plastics and other materials that are prevalent in a child’s world today. It only makes sense that some of these same plastics are in a young horse’s world, as well.

2) Dr. Mehmet Oz defined the link between fat, estrogen and insulin resistance in humans this way: Estrogen causes the body to make more insulin, and more insulin creates belly fat. Increased fat cells make estrogen.

Many horses that develop insulin resistance and laminitis get the cresty neck that scientists call “regional adiposity,” along with fat deposits over their tail and in their sheath area. Maybe for horses, their estrogen-related “belly fat” isn’t in their belly? Maybe it is in these three areas. We certainly know that horses are much fatter today than 100 years ago. Veterinarians refer to this as an epidemic. Are we feeding horses more? I am not feeding my horses more than my parents fed their Connemara herd 30 years ago; in fact, I’m feeding far less. I know this, because I often fed for my parents. I gave their horses several bales of hay at a meal rather than counting out flakes as I do now. And I fed grain — the kind of grain full of oats — by the coffee can rather than by the half cup, as I do now. My parents’ herd was made up of relatives of my herd. My parents had maybe 10 Connemaras at any one time on 14 acres. I had six on 8 acres — that seems fairly even. None of my parents’ Connemaras ever foundered. All of mine did. None of my parents’ horses were obese or had a cresty neck. All of mine are obese and have the neck.

There has to be something else going on in these horses now. Elevated estrogen caused by something environmental seems logical.

3) I continue to look at excess iron’s role in my horses’ cases. I threw out my horses’ trace mineral blocks over the winter because I discovered the blocks were 20 percent iron.

In looking for studies on iron and estrogen, I took a close look at a study published in 2001 by the Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research in Texas that looked at iron’s role in estrogen-induced cancer. Remember, scientists now believe that laminitis makes the hoof wall proliferate in an out-of-control manner similar to cancer. The Texas study said that elevated dietary intake of iron raised the incidence of cancer in rats and hamsters and that adding estrogen increased iron accumulation in hamsters. The study suggested that, since other studies have shown that elevated body iron storage increases the risk of several cancers in humans, interfering with iron accumulation in tissues might offer an option for cancer prevention. I wonder if anyone has tried that in laminitic horses?

Could estrogen exposure play a role in laminitis?

Posted on: March 31, 2012

Two stories caught my attention in the last few days: an article about how young girls are now developing much earlier than what was previously considered normal and a report that autism cases have risen dramatically.

Anytime I see what appears to be evidence of environmental factors wreaking havoc on the body, I feel compelled to open the story, because I am convinced environmental factors led to my horses becoming insulin resistant and laminitic. Note that estrogen comes up over and over in the first article. Estrogen causes the body to make more insulin, and more insulin creates belly fat. Increased fat cells make estrogen. Thus, excess estrogen creates a never-ending cycle of insulin-resistance. As far as horses go, research published in 2007 showed that elevated insulin causes laminitis in horses, and a study published in 2011 suggests how that elevated insulin causes laminitis. These two breakthroughs have made horse owners focus on trying to fix laminitis through dietary changes as well as trim techniques.

The story on the girls developing early says animal studies show that exposure to some environmental chemicals can cause bodies to mature early. Of particular concern are endocrine-disrupters, such as estrogen mimics.

The story says one particular concern is the effect of simultaneous exposure to many estrogen-mimics, including the compound bisphenol A, or BPA, used in everything from plastic bottles and metal cans to cash register receipts. The story says more than a million pounds of BPA are released into the environment each year.

Parents of girls developing early are being told this development is the new normal. Is that an acceptable explanation? Would that not be a little like saying laminitis is the new normal for horses?

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released numbers on March 29, 2012, that say about 1 in 88 children in the United States has autism, and the prevalence of the condition has risen nearly 80 percent over the past decade.

The report said the cause of autism remains unknown. I did a quick search for BPA and autism. No shortage of articles there. Looks like autism groups have been suspicious of BPA for years.

I have never given a second thought to what type of plastic or coating was used in feed bags, buckets or other plastic materials around the farm. When I’ve looked at environmental factors, I was looking at things in the water, ground and fencing material.

It would seem plausible that some estrogen mimic was causing horses to have high levels of estrogen, leading to development of insulin resistance and laminitis. That certainly would coincide with anecdotal reports that more mares get laminitis than geldings, given that mares start out with more estrogen. I thought testing for elevated iron on my farm was going to be hard.

Are geldings less likely to develop laminitis, insulin resistance?

Posted on: January 16, 2012

In my research on the history of laminitis, it was hard to overlook the recommendation in the fifth century by writer Publius Vegetius Renatus that a horse with hoof problems related to overfeeding barley — presumably laminitis — should be castrated.

Scientific research appears inconclusive on gender’s role in laminitis.

A study published in The Cornell Veterinarian journal in 1975 looked at a series of equine laminitis cases examined at the University of Missouri’s vet hospital from 1965 through 1971 and reported there were significantly fewer geldings among the affected horses.

A comprehensive review of studies published in November 2011 in The Veterinary Journal says study results were inconsistent in a number of categories. The review looked at published material from 1910 to 2010 and said there was good evidence of a link between chronic laminitis and increasing age. But, it said there were inconsistent results for many other risk factors including gender, breed and body weight.

Laminitis Help’s own unscientific survey online found the opposite to be true. Survey respondents reported the gender of their laminitis horses as follows:

Stallion: 6
Mare: 81
Gelding: 89.

I included that question in the survey because my veterinarian on my early cases, a laminitis specialist, said it seemed as if fewer geldings developed the disease. When I relayed that to my farrier, he said all his laminitic cases were female.

My horses participated in three studies total, the last two in 2007 and 2008, during which their blood was tested regularly, and the two geldings were closest to normal on insulin levels. Kurt was always in the normal range with the exception of one reading. The boys lived and ate in the same conditions as the girls. Whatever on this farm caused the consistent development of laminitis did eventually catch up with them. They both had elevated insulin in June 2011. But, it took much longer to get there.

I had been going through studies online for about a week looking for clues on geldings and laminitis, but a topic on “The Dr. Oz Show” on Jan. 13, 2011, moved me to draw a likely conclusion:

Insulin-resistant cases of laminitis may affect geldings less.

And since the insulin-resistant form of laminitis is the predominant form today, thanks to our horses getting fatter and fatter, perhaps geldings are developing it less.

Gender probably doesn’t play much of a role in grain overload or grass cases that change the microflora of the hindgut, leading to enzymatic changes in the feet. Nor does it probably play a big role in cases caused by standing on one foot too long to take the weight off the opposite foot.

But, once you get into insulin resistance, estrogen is a major player.

In the human world, women appear more likely to develop insulin resistance, according to medical experts. Some physicians suggest that all women are at risk, including Dr. Yehuda Handelsman, medical director of the Metabolic Institute of America.

“The Dr. Oz Show” talked about the link between fat, estrogen and insulin resistance. Estrogen causes the body to make more insulin, and more insulin creates belly fat. Increased fat cells make estrogen. Thus, women have a never-ending insulin-resistance cycle.

The Women to Women website, run by women physicians, says insulin resistance — also called syndrome X — is so pervasive today that the clinic evaluates almost every patient to determine the individual’s level of risk. The practice says most women are surprised to learn they either already have insulin resistance or early symptoms.

Note that men also have estrogen, which contributes to healthy functioning of the body and hormonal balance. They just have less of it, but that estrogen rises in time because testosterone is converted to estrogen as they age.

Life Extension, a nonprofit focused on anti-aging and optimal health, looked at endocrine factors in insulin resistance for both genders:

— As men age, they convert testosterone into estradiol, a form of estrogen. Their levels of estrogen and insulin increase, resulting in belly fat. Studies suggest that fat cells, particularly abdominal fat cells, convert testosterone to estradiol, and the more belly fat a man develops, the more testosterone is turned into estradiol. Thus, they have their own problematic cycle.

Perhaps geldings are less affected by rising insulin levels because they have less testosterone to convert to estrogen. If only I could find the study on that.

— In women, estrogen inhibits lipid (fat) oxidation for women when they reach puberty and, again, if they become pregnant, to store fat for functions related to child-bearing. This increases fat storage with no dietary changes. As “The Dr. Oz Show” pointed out, increased fat elevates estrogen, leading to elevated insulin and more fat.

— When women reach menopause, their progesterone and estrogen levels drop, with progesterone dropping at a faster rate, leading to an imbalance and “estrogen dominance,” again contributing to fat accumulation.

— In men and women, everyone over 35 sees lower levels of dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA , a steroid hormone whose drop may lead to weight gain.

— Beyond any medical conditions, aging causes cells to be more resistant to insulin. As cells refuse to accept insulin, insulin rises, resulting in more fat.

Lowering insulin resistance

Life Extension, which admittedly does sell products as part of its mission, says fiber can slow carbohydrate absorption. Particularly, taking in fiber before meals can reduce rapid absorption of simple carbohydrates and control blood sugar. It recommends a Canadian proprietary blend called PGX, or PolyGlycopleX, made of the purified soluble dietary fibers of glucomannan, xanthan and alginate plus mulberry concentrate.

I mention this brand because it’s the brand a medical expert recommended on this same “Dr. Oz Show,” and Oz admitted his wife uses it.

The expert was noted physician and author Mark Hyman, whose book and PBS special “The Blood Sugar Solution” (release date of March 2012) addresses insulin resistance and obesity.

Hyman said food more than drugs is the medicine of choice to treat diseases such as diabetes.

He says inflammation is the real enemy, because it comes first in the downward spiral, but inflammation can be turned around with diet.

Inflammation occurs when the body’s white blood cells try to fight off foreign substances. Sometimes, the body reacts when there is no real enemy. Chemicals in the white blood cells are released in the blood and tissue, leading to increased blood flow, possible redness and elevated temperature. The chemicals can cause damage to tissue.

Inflammation is usually temporary but, with an autoimmune cases, the body attacks its own cells and tissues and gets caught in a loop of chronic inflammation. Inflammation leads to insulin resistance.

Chris Kresser, practitioner of integrative medicine, says the modern lifestyle is to blame for inflammation and lists five specific causes. Horse owners familiar with laminitis triggers will see some familiar names:

• Dietary toxins (primarily refined wheat, fructose and industrial seed oils);
• Environmental toxins (chemicals like Bisphenol A, pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, and heavy metals);
• Micronutrient deficiencies (especially magnesium and vitamin D);
• Chronic stress (emotional, psychological, physiological);
• Altered gut microbiota (caused by antibiotic use, poor diet, formula-feeding during infancy);
• Sedentary lifestyle

Hyman, the medical expert on “The Dr. Oz Show,” listed causes of inflammation as sugar and white flour and reactions to food such as gluten (wheat) and dairy; he says corn and processed soy also can be triggers.

Hyman says the supplement PGX is a super fiber from konjac root and seaweed that absorbs hundreds of times its weight in water and prevents spikes in insulin.

If PGX is such a miracle cure for insulin-related problems, I wonder if there’s a PGX for horses or if anyone has given PGX itself to horses?