Hair Mineral Analysis: Insight into Inflammatory Patterns Including Arthritis and Respiratory Issues in Horses.

The use of hair mineral analysis (HMA) to gain insight into mineral status and the metabolic states associated with them is well established scientifically and is gaining widespread acceptance among owners and trainers.

HMA reports when properly interpreted give an enormous amount of very useful information regarding nutritional and metabolic balances, mineral excesses, deficiencies, the presence of toxic minerals, and the inter-relationships between them that can contribute to a state of optimal health or the increasing risk of developing health problems.

HMA is extremely accurate in allowing us to gain insight into the metabolic trends and patterns that signify increased risks of distress that at some point may manifest into an actual disease state. By itself cannot show or predict any disease state.

One of the most important pieces of information that an HMA can show is the amount of “inflammatory stress” that the horses’ body is experiencing. When most people think of inflammation, immediately and rightfully the –its’s come to mind.

Arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis, and gastritis are a few of the most common inflammatory manifestations. However, inflammatory patterns are not limited to these –its’s only.

In the last twelve years, we have analyzed several thousand equine HMA’s. In many respects, the most important piece of information gathered from the HMA’s is the number of ways and the degree of inflammatory stress that the horses’ body is attempting to manage.

Inflammatory stress and the subsequent symptoms associated with it can be shown in any number of ways. Since each horse is genetically unique, the actual symptoms associated with inflammatory stress can be very different from one horse to another, even if the horses have common genetics – such as blood relatives, and/or common environments.

It is possible to have several horses with the same or similar inflammatory stresses on an HMA and show a completely different “set of problems or conditions” or no problems at all in each of the individual horses. This is dependent on the genetic strengths and weaknesses of the individual horse.

Every horse will have inherent strong and weak points. Wherever the genetic weaknesses are, this is the most likely area that inflammatory symptoms will occur. For example, a horse with hives is manifesting an inflammatory pattern associated with the skin. Breathing distress is an inflammatory pattern manifesting symptomatically in the respiratory system.

A horse with joint problems is showing an inflammatory stress pattern that is affecting the joint, and so on. One of the greatest concerns horse owners have is an allergic reaction. This is a great example of the “individualized symptoms” concept of inflammatory stress. Allergies are notorious for showing themselves in any number of different ways.

Hives and respiratory issues are at the top of the list in terms of the types of symptoms that inflammatory stresses can generate. We now know that the “allergic” reactions can affect almost any tissue in the body and that this occurrence is a direct result of an inflammatory stress that has not been controlled within the horses’ body.

Keep in mind that inflammation in and of it self is not all negative. The horses’ body utilizes specific forms of inflammation to destroy viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Forms of inflammation are absolutely essential for normal immune function, but in a very tightly controlled manner that allows the body to maintain optimal function and disease resistance.

Inflammation is also a crucial component of wound healing. Inflammatory compounds aid in tissue repair after injury and also aid in the normal moment to moment, day to day tissue repair that replaces older, worn out cells with new normal, healthy functioning cells.

When these normal inflammatory processes are not kept under these tight controls, the balance that maintains good health is disrupted and the amount of inflammatory compounds inappropriately increases. At this point, you have the beginnings of excessive inflammatory stress and potentially the symptoms and problems as a result of this excessive inflammation.

The HMA’s contribution in determining this excessive inflammatory stress is shown clearly in any number of ways. Interpretation of the HMA results gives an effective method to identify the stresses in the horse’s metabolism.

The presence of any toxic minerals automatically increases the amount of excessive inflammation.

Every toxic mineral will uniquely affect certain aspects of the body and the metabolism. Aluminum and arsenic are the two most common environmental toxins that have been found in the equine HMA’s.

Aluminum is by far the most common toxin that is found in horses. Aluminum exposure can occur from airborne aluminum, certain feed processing techniques, and the effect of acid rain on soil that increases aluminum’s uptake into pasture.

Aluminum affects calcium metabolism, bone mineral reserves, and will imbalance the metabolism in the direction of the dominant imbalances. For example, if the basic metabolism is imbalanced on the slow side, aluminum toxicity will slow the metabolism to a greater degree; if the metabolism is imbalanced on the fast side, aluminum will increase the degree of imbalance by increasing the metabolism.

The result of this is an automatic increase in the inflammatory stress from the presence of aluminum directly and as a result of compounding the metabolic imbalances.

The toxic mineral arsenic can also generate major inflammatory stresses. Arsenic can also occur in airborne exposures, usually from pesticide and herbicide residues even if the source of those chemicals is several hundred miles away. Well-water contamination is a very common source of arsenic exposure. In some states, up to 70% of the wells are estimated to be contaminated with arsenic.

Arsenic affects the gastrointestinal tract, immune function, hormonal balance, and can mimic or cause gastritis and ulcer symptoms. Recently, as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendations, the acceptable level of arsenic in hair samples was reduced by a factor of five.

The levels of nutrient minerals can also indicate increases in inflammatory stress. Nutrient minerals that are either too high or too low can directly reflect inflammatory trends. Minerals such as selenium that allow the horse’s body to effectively control inflammatory stress are often excessively high or low during periods of increasing inflammatory stress.

Selenium blood tests can be normal and the levels of selenium in the tissue can actually be low. This is not inconsistent. Normal selenium blood tests indicate only that the circulating selenium levels are normal. This does not necessarily indicate that the levels of selenium in the tissues of the body are normal.

By the time a blood selenium level is low, the tissue levels of selenium most often have been low for some time. Selenium is well known as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. Interestingly, selenium is also involved in allowing the horse’s body to detoxify excess arsenic. Selenium can reduce the inflammatory stress that is associated with arsenic toxicity and/or arsenic exposures.

There are many other indications of inflammatory stress that an HMA can easily show. Major imbalances between the minerals, stress response and recovery, blood sugar control, insulin patterns and immune defense patterns, are just a few of the many indicators of inflammatory stress in the HMA.

Incorporating HMA with proper interpretation can be a storehouse of inflammation that indicates the inflammatory stresses and gives insight into which nutritional interventions are the most important to rebalance the metabolism, reduce toxic minerals, and ultimately stabilize the inflammatory stress patterns to reduce or eliminate the dangerous and damaging effects of excessive inflammatory stress.

By Mr. Grogan

Mr. Grogan graduated from the University of Toledo. He has studied extensively in the fields of biology, biochemistry and nutrition. He has been a consultant in the human and equine nutrition industry for nearly 30 years. He has completed hair mineral analysis for over 10,000 horses. He is currently a consultant for www.equus-rx.com and www.equusresearchlab.com .