-
Insulin Dysregulation
Hello Doc, my horse was recently diagnosed positively for IR. He had been on the soybean meal but pretty much went off and switched to mainly forage with some vitamin/mineral pellets. My vet wants me to put him on Purina WellSolve LS grain, yikes, metformin and a product called Insulin-wise.( which looks like amino acids and resveratrol). I had been soaking his hay but obviously not for enough of the feedings. I’m not sure about this plan of care for him. Exercise is difficult as we live in MI and unfortunately I have some health issues definitely limiting my riding. From my understanding even though a lifelong risk, diet, weight loss and regular exercise can keep things in check.
-
2 Replies
-
I agree that adding any grains with starch (even “low starch”) will negatively affect the release of insulin. Reducing sugar and starch intake is critical for improving insulin sensitivity.
Soaking hay for an hour will help remove most of the free sugars. Reduce by the total amount of hay will decrease the starch. Limiting eating hay to a 12 hour window will also allow the cells to increase insulin sensitivity (the OPPOSITE of insulin resistance) as well as clean up the damage within the cells caused from burning sugar.
Once insulin is reduced and becomes more effective, the excess body fat will become mobilized to feed the muscle cells. If you can increase exercise than this will also help. However it is most important to decrease the amount of sugar / starch and limit the total intake of starch and feed it within a 12 hour window.
I had a podcast about IR and talked about InsulinWise with resveretrol. This has been shown to reduce IR in humans and in this case, horses as well. But again, reducing the intake of sugar is best.
Let us know how you do with this protocol. But I would not advocate adding any “low starch” feed as it will be inflammatory as well as adding unnecessary starch and sugar.
-
Thanks much. I told my vet I wouldn’t put him on Purina’s Low Starch grain per her suggestion to work up to 3 lbs per day. He had been on no grain!
I’m so glad I took your nutrition class in the past. My problem has been too much hay and minimal exercise for him because of my health. He looked better than last year but he just didn’t seem to get rid of some fat around his tail head so I asked to get him tested. Glad I did.
Log in to reply.