Equine

Equine Performance Equine Nutrition - Articles

Secretariat Wins The 1973 Belmont Stakes

Pre Race Equine Performance - Overall Equine Performance

To dilate blood-vessels the number 1 choices are AMP-Injection and injectable L-Arginine. An advantage using L-Arginine is that it can help the horse by preventing muscle loss and to restore lost muscle. In the muscle, it works as a building block for *creatine. The horses body needs creatine to build and maintain healthy, strong muscles. In the arteries, it increases nitric oxide (NO). NO helps keep the endothelial cells healthy. Without NO, the blood-vessels become constricted and less flexible. In one study, vessel dilation increased from 2.2% to 8.8% with an L-Arginine supplement. Another study found that taking orally L-Arginine helped arteries dilate better for people with high blood pressure. It is a very interesting compound. When the horses blood-vessels dilates the transport of essential nutritional compounds as well as lactic acid clearance improves.

Ruffian's Maiden Win

*Creatine and its relationship to L-Arginine

Creatine is nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to muscle and nerve cells. Creatine was identified in 1832 when Michel Eugène Chevreul discovered it as a component of skeletal muscle, which he later named creatine after the Greek word for flesh, Kreas.

Dr. James R. Smith of the testing lab in Houston, Texas said that creatine is not only the best choice in sports supplements, but he also said that it has no lethal side-affects. He also stated that creatine is highly popular and is recomended by many doctors for athletes. They all claim that creatine is the best choice when using a sports supplement. Creatine is very popular with high school and junior high students all around the nation. Doctors claim that we should be thankful that kids choose to use creatine over supplements that can seriously harm them like steroids. Creatine by way of conversion to and from phosphocreatine is present and functions in all vertebrates, as well as some invertebrates, in conjunction with the enzyme creatine kinase. A similar system based on arginine/phosphoarginine operates in many invertebrates via the action of Arginine Kinase. The presence of this energy buffer system keeps the ATP/ADP ratio high at subcellular places where ATP is needed, which ensures that the free energy of ATP remains high and minimizes the loss of adenosine nucleotides, which would cause cellular dysfunction. Such high-energy phosphate buffers in the form of phosphocreatine or phosphoarginine are known as phosphagens. In addition, due to the presence of subcompartmentalized Creatine Kinase Isoforms at specific sites of the cell, the phosphocreatine/creatine kinase system also acts as an intracellular energy transport system from those places where ATP is generated (mitochondria and glycolysis) to those places where energy is needed and used, e.g., at the myofibrils for muscle contraction, at the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) for calcium pumping, and at the sites of many more biological processes that depend on ATP.

Biosynthesis

In the human body, approximately half of the daily creatine is biosynthesized mainly in the vertebrates by the use of parts from three different amino acids - arginine, glycine, and methionine. The rest is taken in by alimentary sources mainly from fresh fish and meat. Ninety-five percent of creatine is later stored in the skeletal muscles, with the rest in the brain, heart, testes, inner ear, hair cells, and other organs and cells.

Why Is Nitric Oxide So Important For My Horse?
Nitric oxide is a chemical produced in the body that keeps blood vessels dilated, increasing blood flow. Nitric oxide also has a wide variety of other effects, including killing bacteria and viruses and promoting the bodies own healing of wounds and ulcers.

Stress, aging, injuries, intense exercise, and fighting disease-causing organisms can all deplete the body of nitric oxide. A human or animal that has insufficient levels of nitric oxide will be unable to perform to the best of its abilities. Depletion of nitric oxide may be involved in a variety of health problems including laminitis (founder) in horses, gastric ulcers and infertility. Just as a chain breaks at its weakest link, insufficient production of nitric oxide can affect the performance of all humans and animals and surface in different ailments.