Modern Animal Health Research Recognizes Links Between Nutrition and Disease

"You are that which you eat," and so the saying goes. And in the same way your diet influences your health, what your animals eat also influences their illness risk.Morris Animal Foundation's (MAF) founder, Dr. Mark Morris Sr., regarded the bond between health and nutrition in the early 1940s, well before diet and nutrition were everyday subjects. Actually, he was one of many first vets to make use of diet to regulate disease. His invention led to nearly 100 Foundation-funded studies-so far-that have increased the nutritional health and decreased infection risk for animals, horses and wildlife.One of Dr. Morris's first patients was Buddy, who was among the first guide sbobet in america. Buddy suffered from kidney failure, and his owner, Morris Frank, then a national ambassador for the Seeing Eye, wanted Dr. Morris's assistance. Dr. Morris created a special diet for Buddy that dramatically improved the dog's health, and soon he and his wife, Louise, were canning the foodstuff in their kitchen. When they couldn't keep up with escalating demand, they partnered with the Hill Packing Company to produce what later became the first Hill's Prescription Diet.Dr. Morris applied the royalties from that diet to generate MAF, and the first two reports MAF backed in 1950 looked at nutrition in cats and dogs. After that, thousands of scientific animal research studies-funded by MAF and others-have proven what Dr. Morris assumed way too long ago: nutrition and disease are inextricably linked."The function of health and nutrition has infiltrated the media-hardly each day goes by without a statement on the latest research about how exactly nutrition causes or prevents disease in people," states Dr. Kathryn Michel, one of only 54 members of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. "As people be more knowledgeable about the significance of an excellent diet for themselves, they transfer that understanding to their animals."Dr. Michel notices that inadequate vitamins in a pet's diet could cause severe health problems, such as orthopedic and neurological dilemmas. She adds that veterinarians see cardiomyopathy in cats that's related to deficiency of the amino acid taurine in addition to in dogs that don't have the right levels of essential amino acids that don't get the correct levels of essential amino acids along with in cats that's linked to lack of the amino acid taurine. MAF has backed a number of reports which have looked at the position of proteins in keeping great health.On the flip side, too much food could hurt. Sadly, an estimated 30 to 40 percent of animals are over weight, and 25 percent are considered obese, according to the American Animal Hospital Association. These extra pounds cause a number of extra health issues.Dr. Joe Bartges, professor of medicine and diet at the University of Tennessee and former chair of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board, states obesity is directly or indirectly connected to respiratory problems, diabetes, arthritis, ligament tears, hypertension, urinary rocks, operative and anesthetic risks, heat intolerance and even cancer.Perhaps most critical, extra weight reduces lives. Link between a 14-year review, revealed recently in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, revealed that Labrador retrievers provided 25 percent less than their siblings lived about 15 percent longer, and age where they needed medical treatment for arthritis or another chronic condition was delayed by 2 to 3 years. This study revealed, for the very first time, that a good few unwanted weight have harmful health effects. The good thing is that proper nutrition could combat disease.A current Purdue University study revealed that Scottish terriers given greens, such as for instance child peas, at the very least 3 x per week had a 70 per cent lower potential for developing bladder cancer. An MAF-funded research earlier this decade showed that a high-protein diet may help cats with diabetes lose weight and minimize or eliminate their importance of insulin. Different studies MAF has financed related dietary factors to diseases in lots of species or established the optimal quantities of certain nutrients.For instance, Dr. Bartges is presently using Foundation money to gauge whether a diet supplemented with potassium citrate may prevent the growth of an unpleasant kind of urinary stone whose frequency is on the rise. Another review at the University of Minnesota is looking at whether cats with additional concentrations of purine metabolites are far more prone to develop urate stones. The information might help to create more effective therapies."There is absolutely no question that health is directly afflicted with diet, but we still have a huge amount to learn," Dr. Michel says.That is just why MAF will keep funding research that gives veterinarians and owners the information they need to make great dietary decisions for his or her pets-and helps wildlife lead longer, healthiest lives.