In the time it takes you to read this sentence, your pet's amazing body will have analyzed, synthesized, restructured, and utilized thousands of nutrient molecules. It will have split proteins, burned sugars, pumped minerals, exchanged gases, and transferred electrons. Thousands of chemical reactions occur each second in the body. Just imagine the energy required to perform this biochemical magic that powers the body.
Where does the body get this energy? The foods your pet eats provide fuel for its body. The nutrients it consumes each day are it's only source of raw materials. Each chemical reaction occurs in a step-wise sequence and depends on the daily availability of raw materials. A shortage of any nutrient can shut down the "assembly lines" that are the body's biochemical pathways. The body is amazingly adaptive and can sometimes function for long periods of time even though particular biochemical "assembly lines" are closed down. Eventually, however, certain nagging symptoms can progress to become diseases that destroy the quality of life or even life itself.
The proteins, fats, and carbohydrates your pet eats are fuel for its physical engine. The vitamins and minerals are its spark plugs. Your pet needs both high quality fuel and the ability to "fire on all cylinders" in order to achieve optimal health. An automobile can run with misfiring spark plugs, but for how long and how well? How fast and efficiently can it respond to an emergency demand for more power? The stress of living in our fast-paced world demands that kind of emergency power on a daily basis. Think of other nutrients as protecting agents. Just as your car has additives and devices that protect the body, engine, and driver, nutrients serve to protect the heart, brain, and other critical organs. Just as car's gauges warn the driver of potential problems, the body has certain chemical indicators that can alert you to potential problems. Early warnings can help you make diet and lifestyle changes that may extend your pet's life and enhance its quality of life.
Modern Laboratory methods let us measure essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids to see if the body has adequate reserves to meet the demands of life and to support tissue needs for healing. We also look for the presence of specific "marker" chemicals that signal special needs or dangers. For example, methylmalonate is a vitamin B12 marker> If your pet has a vitamin B12 deficiency, methylmalonate levels rise because the vitamin B12 dependent reaction that converts methylmalonate is inhibited. In this case, vitamin B12 is needed to maintain health and proper function of the body. In addition to nutrient markers, we also measure markers that assess intestinal health, neurotransmitter activity, and detoxification demands.
No two animals are exactly alike. In addition to a unique outward appearance, the way the body functions inside is very much dependent on individual genetic and environmental influences. Each animal has special needs for dietary nutrients that maintain healthy tissues and fight the processes of disease, dgeneration, and accelerated aging. Some pets need nutrients many times higher than th "normal" dietary intake to allow for restoration of health. If they are not needed, using very high doses of nutrient supplements can cause other imbalances.
The ION ( Individual Optimum Nutrition) Profile shows special needs by measuring nutrients and nutrient marker compounds in blood and urine. The laboratory tests performed include: amino acids in blood plasma, homocysteine in blood serum, mineral analysis of red blood cells, fat-soluble vitamins in blood serum, lipid peroxides in blood serum, fatty acids in blood plasma, and organic acids in urine.
Among the vitaims tested are vitamin A, C, D, E, B complex, CoQ10, biotin, and lipoic acid. Minerals that are analyzed include calcium, magnesium, chromium, vanadium, copper, mangenese, molybdenum, potassium, selenium, and zinc. The following amino acids are tested arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, trytophan, and valine. The energy pathways of the body require key compounds- citrate, ketoglutarate and succinate, which are formed from essential amino acids. Low levels of these compunds may indicate amino acid imbalances that can affect energy pathways. The compound 5-hydroxyindoleacetate (5-HIA) is measured in urine as a marker of serotonin metabolism. When this compound is elevated, it indicates higher than normal turnover of serotonin with potential depletion of tryptophan. Low levels of 5-HIA may indicate inadequate production of serotonin. Although not as esential amino acid, carnitine helps the body use fatty acids for energy. The body makes small amounts of carnitine, but if it is not enough, fatty acids are not processed normally, and urinary excretion of the by-products adipate and suberate increases.
Fat is necessary for cell membranes, nerve coatings, hormone production, vitamin absorption, and more. Most animals get a lot of fat in their diet, but it usually is not the quality fat they should be getting. They need more "good" fats from fish, flax seed, olive, vegetable, and nut oils and less saturated oils and trans fats. The fatty acid profile shows the balance of fats and their metabolites in plasma. Enviromental toxin exposure markers are measured in plasma and urine. Benzoate, hippurate, phenylacetate, phenlyproprionate, p-hydroxybenzoate, p-hydoxyphenylacetate, indican, and tricarballylate are compounds that normally appear in urine only at low levels. With the exception of hippurate, the compounds are not normally produced in the cells of the body. However, unfriendly intestinal microorganisms can manufacture them in relatively high quantities. The compounds are then absorbed into the bllod from the intestines and eventually appear in the urine. Microbial overgrowth can lead to a wide variety of symptoms due to reactions to the toxic products produced by bacteria, parasites, or fungi. Various patterns of the compounds reported appear elevated in conditions of general intestinal microbial overgrowth.
John B. Smith, DVM ♦ "The Dog Doctor" ♦ 734-213-7447 ♦1954 S. Industrial Ann Arbor, Mi 48104