Original post: September 14, 2010
Genetic Potential with Nutrient-Gene Interactions
Imagine eating dry boxed cereal for every meal of your day. It’s not possible to live a full life free of disease eating processed foods as a staple. Yet most of us have readily accepted dry and canned processed food to sustain our animal companions without a second thought. Just like we cannot rely on boxed breakfast cereal to sustain good health in the human members of the family, processed dog and cat food will not maintain our companion’s health at full potential. If best-in-show is your target, great genetics won’t cut it amid limited nutrition either. The latest research is showing irrefutably that nutrients interact intimately with genes to turn the coded health programs on and off. This interaction is more complicated than mere building blocks and metabolic cofactors. These specific nutrients literally modify the activity of the gene so that limited nutrition results in limited genetic potential.
A nutritional foundation helps preserve health and beauty Many of us seek out the secret strategy, ingredient or nutritional element which will ensure that our competitor will shine like a champion in the ring. However, there are few occasions or few genetic profiles which set the stage so that mediocre nutrition can extract the full potential of your precious animal. Less than optimal nutrition will produce less than maximum genetic potential every time and I’m not referring to just macronutrients like protein and fats. Most of us know very well that a good quality food will support better quality of health but even those higher end foods are processed to result in nutrient damage.
Processed foods are commonly fortified to compensate for the nutrient damage and limitation caused by the excessive preparation but this fortification cannot survive long periods in a bag or can. Those foods which may be freeze dried or fresh frozen must still survive the test of time while stored in a warehouse and displayed on the well lit shelf. Time, light, heat and oxygen all contribute to degradation of nutrient value. Many months can go by from the day of manufacturing before your food purchase makes it to your home. Oxidation or degradation of the live nutrients eventually takes a significant toll.
Consequently a nutrient may be listed on the ingredient label of a food container but its bioavailability or accessibility by your champion’s digestive process is limited. Ultimately gene efficiency is then proportionally limited to this nutrient insufficiency. Raw foods can provide more bioavailable nutrition such as better quality protein and biologically active fats but it cannot supply the gene-specific nutraceuticals in concentrations high enough to produce formidable metabolic restorations such as those you’ll read about in a moment. Raising nutrient density of the meal using biologically active supplements which are added to each meal reduces the risk of disease by ensuring that all needs are met and excessive oxidation is quenched.
Raising antioxidant status of the body to meet today’s high oxidative toxicity Our environment is more toxic than it ever was and we never know when we will come in contact with poisons. Some of these toxic chemicals are household tools we use daily and are exposed to in small doses but with great frequency. In fact, we often never know when we have been tainted by poisons which impair healthy immune and general cell function. The development of disease from such poisoning can occur down the road with little apparent link to chemical contact months or years before. It’s even more difficult to identify such intoxications in our family pets.
Our garden can be a source of toxicity for our furry friends and if your own backyard is not a risk, ask yourself about your neighbors’. It can transmit fertilizer chemicals, weed killers, and insecticides into your yard by way of wind and water.
Organophosphates and organochlorines are commonly applied insecticides which are now linked to neurological disease, cancer, and endocrine irregularities. These deadly disorders are becoming common in our companion animal’s lives. These same toxic contaminants are infusing our own bodies to cause similar health problems. In the competitive athlete or show animal these intrusions can simply interfere with the maximum potential of the competitor before ever showing up as illness.
The natural solution
The best cure for disease is prevention and the best way to ensure maximum life and competitive potential is to create protective shields against this toxic assault. This is easily accomplished by adding scientifically designed nutritional programs which support metabolism and the complex organ systems; immune accuracy and detoxification capacity of the body. Correctly proportioned and balanced nutritional supplements deliver all the essential and conditionally essential building blocks for the body to restore and even regenerate degenerated tissue, including brain cells. The body has tremendous capacity to maintain health and preserve youth naturally if given an unlimited supply of all the essential tools in their biologically active state. Food alone cannot deliver this nutrient density especially in a day and age where we and our companion animals are assaulted daily by poisons and artificial chemicals. This is especially the case if the food we offer them is processed. The natural solution is to raise nutrient and antioxidant density of the food to higher than average levels to meet this abnormally higher level of toxin exposure.
Specialized nutrient programs can work as powerful as drugs to restore health and prevent disease. Once the body is empowered with this foundation nutrition, health and maximum performance are easy to produce and maintain. This foundation can be applied using a biologically active fatty acid supplementation and another supplement program which supplies vitamins, minerals and phytoantioxidants in their biologically appropriate states. This foundation can be taken one step further to treat and prevent specific ailments. Adding a condition-specific nutraceutical system to this foundation nutrition can prevent the onset of illnesses your breed may be predisposed to. This proven research is a powerful tool for the treatment and the optimization of performance. In fact, specialized nutrients which target specific genes can be applied to improve muscle tone and strength to produce powerful results that are noticeable in just one week.
This gene-specific nutrition we’re talking about is composed of highly specialized vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which have direct modulation influences on gene activity. It’s not about basic protein quality. Is your champion competing at maximum potential? You’ll never know until you experience the results that these strategies can deliver. Food alone, fortified or not, cannot deliver maximum biologically active nutrition. Food alone will not extract your champion’s potential. A higher than average genetic potential requires a greater than typical nutritional intake. This includes an elite level of nutrition to support a lustrous flowing coat and supple resilient skin. Good muscle tone, bone structure and conformation are also representative of health but to establish states that are above average and ‘best-in-show’ caliber, the nutrition must also be of that same level.
Nutrients work as part of complex biochemical systems. If one nutrient is increased the other nutritional partners of the system must be proportionally increased to ensure integrity of the whole. Super-loading the right fats in the diet, for example, will produce results limited to the availability of metabolic cofactors such as vitamins E, A, C and even some flavonoids which are needed to process these fats correctly in the cells. Vanadyl sulfate, for example, is now known to activate genes involved in restoring insulin efficiency to literally reverse diabetic states and rejuvenate insulin function so that biological age is improved. This restoration provides the body with the potential to better control inflammation as well but vanadium cannot accomplish this genetic reactivation on its own requiring nutritional reducing agents such as n-acetylcysteine or alpha lipoic acid to maintain its active form. If the cofactor synergy for fatty acid supplementation has not been considered in the past, the full conditioning potential of essential or conditionally essential fats on skin and coat health has not yet been experienced by your contestant.
In addition, the age preservation activity of a complete vanadium system may conserve the competitive edge of your animal for longer as they age. The winning formula depends on these elite nutritional systems. Optimal nutrition sets the foundation for maximum mental, emotional and physical health.
An animal that has established optimal nutritional status throughout the variety of these essentials walks with vigor, confidence and exuberance. Optimal health is noticeable in more than just coat, muscle tone and bone development. It’s a deep-seated attitude that produces an energy which extends beyond the body. Nutritional wellness is the foundation of mental and physical health; it’s the conduit for positive energy. The genetic profiles in you, me and your competitive canine evolved to depend on these specific nutrients to modify their activity.
To the competitive athlete these strategies are critical for long term health and performance. This newfound nutritional technology promotes fast recovery from event to event and maintains optimal fitness year after year. The stress and rigors of competition can age the mind and body prematurely. This stress literally generates more free radicals. Anti-aging protocols ultimately encompass this nutritional density strategy to improve antioxidant status in the body and help preserve tissues and biological systems. Keep in mind that this stress of competition assaults your champion from two levels. Your stress and competition anxiety is projected to accompany their own turmoil and these two sources peck away at their antioxidant stores and health.
Add this oxidation to that which environmental and food-borne toxicity can impose and the compounding effect results in premature aging. This underlying stress also interferes with gastrointestinal efficiency to impede nutrient assimilation and compound the potential for the development of subclinical nutrient deficiency. Increasing nutritional density of the diet with these supplemental sources helps overcome gastrointestinal insufficiencies if they develop. An animal will not distinctly show the results of mild or subclinical nutrient deficiencies other than the expression of their genetic potential at subpar levels. That spring in their step may diminish; their coat may lose some appeal; and their attitude my slip slightly to project subtle signs that are significant enough to make a huge difference for the final outcome in the ring.
That unknown factor – the championship attitude – is all about wellbeing. Nutritional limitation allows a proportional decline of that wellbeing factor and a loss in championship aura. It doesn’t take much to lose ground in the ring when everyone looks like a potential champion. Heightened nutrient density is the source of that sharpened championship energy.
Prevention is the most Powerful Cure; Nutrition the key gene activator. As opposed to looking for each nutrient to be force fed to your animal pill by pill, look for supplements that deliver the wide array of essential fats, vitamins, minerals – all in the biologically appropriate balance and in a palatable powder or liquid form. Find programs which are designed based on the latest nutragenomic (nutrient-gene) research. Keep in mind that tablets are not the best way to deliver nourishment to your companion animal. The canine and feline gastrointestinal tract is much shorter than our own with nourishment traveling much faster than in us. The binders used in tablet and wafer supplements interfere with absorption potential in this shorter gastrointestinal tract. Powdered or liquid supplementation is a better fit.
Additionally, look for essential fatty acid blends that are specially designed for ca nine and feline use. Their essential fatty acid requirements differ immensely from our own. Daily supplementation with vitamin, minerals, essential fats and other omega-3 marine fats is sure to produce an immediate improvement in coat luster, emotional health and energy in your loyal companion but the long-term result will be better quality of life in their latter years with reduced veterinary costs.
When these nutrients are supplied without limitation and in forms which are easy to utilize, these animals can tolerate adversity and resist illness with greater ease. If disease does infiltrate or trauma comes about, recovery will be more expeditious if nutritional status is optimal. Your companion’s health is in your hands; it’s up to you to take a proactive role. And if your champion is equipped with the best genetic profile possible, it must be accompanied by an equally calibrated nutritional program. It would be a shame to allow your champion to enter the ring short of their true potential and a greater shame to limit their inbuilt ability to live life with zest and vigor right into their senior years. To extract the best result in life, nutrition must be paramount. Play to win, feed to be triumphant!
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