Feature: A Hair’s Breadth

HTMA is a nutritional diagnostic and monitoring tool used to assess the health of both horses and dogs. RIGHT: We all want our horse’s to have a long and happy life (Images courtesy InterClinical Laboratories).

FEATURE

A hair’s breadth

What is HTMA and how can it improve equine health and wellbeing? DR SUSAN PEDEN, an experienced vet, shares some fascinating insights.

Tasmanian vet Dr Susan Peden believes that horse owners and trainers need to think more broadly about assessing the nutritional status of their animals. Dr Peden arrived at this conclusion after undertaking a study on the benefits of Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) as a nutritional diagnostic and monitoring tool, and is so convinced of its value as an aid in improving animal health and wellness that she would like to see vets incorporate HTMA as part of their standard veterinary practice.

HTMA is a non-invasive test that detects an excess or deficiency of nutrient minerals, as well as exposure to toxic metals. But why not simply rely on a blood test? “Unlike blood, where nutrient levels can change daily, hair provides a solid record of trace element levels,” Dr Peden explains. “Once the growing hair reaches the outer surface of the skin the outer layer of the hair hardens. Nutrient levels and toxic metals accumulated during the previous three months are locked into the three to five centimetres of hair closest to the skin, a little like the layers of sediment in rock formations.”

Balanced mineral levels are important for animal health, but a wide range of various emotional and physical stressors can deplete the body of essential nutrients – and unfortunately, mineral deficiencies, as well as excesses, can lead to ill health and disease. “Exposure to heavy metals can also upset optimal mineral balances. Environmental toxins build up over time and may disrupt normal function – showing up as a range of physical ailments and behavioural issues. Horses can be exposed to a variety of sources of contamination in their everyday environments,” Dr Peden says. “Feeds, water, food containers, building materials such as CCA treated wood and lead based paints, pesticides, and land that has been contaminated by industrial pollutants can all expose our animals to heavy metals, as well as high levels of nutritional elements.”

If you’re now thinking that your horse could benefit from a HTMA report, be aware that not all such services in Australia are created equal. “As a gold standard in trace element pathology, a HTMA report should include clinical data on 32 nutrients and toxic minerals, and 27 significant mineral ratios, accompanied by a comprehensive interpretation of the results. The report should also include a detailed nutritional health discussion of the test results, as well as comments on mineral balances, ratios, endocrine and performance indexes, areas of concern and their possible contributing factors,” Dr Peden says.

And when it comes to taking a hair sample, there’s a specific process you should follow. Ensure the hair is untreated and has been washed thoroughly, rinsed completely and dried. Cut the hair close to the skin, in a few small portions from several sections of the mane near the wither, until you have collected around one loose tablespoon of hair. Submit only the three centimetres of hair that were closest to the skin, and to reduce contamination, use clean, stainless steel scissors. Then simply place the hair in the envelope provided by the laboratory and pop it into the mail. It will usually take around 15 days before your report is ready.

To gain the most benefit from the analysis, it’s important to

discuss the results with your vet, in particular an integrative vet.

A repeat test is recommended around three to six months after treatment begins to re-assess your horse’s mineral status and ensure that any imbalances are improving. Plus, a once-yearly analysis is a great way to effectively monitor your horse’s health going forward.

Dr Peden was first introduced to the concept of HTMA in 2015. “I encountered hair testing during a lecture at the Integrative Vets Australia conference in that year. However, it took a very challenging case in 2017, in which specialist vets from Australia and New Zealand had been unable to provide an answer, before I turned to hair testing. The test revealed toxic mineral exposure as an underlying cause of the pathology,” she explains.

In her life as an equine vet Dr Peden had encountered many horses with musculoskeletal pain who were unresponsive to veterinary medication and body work. Now very curious about HTMA and its potential, she conducted an exploratory practicebased case study of 25 horses with pain and bony abnormalities to determine the relevance of HTMA in assessing animal health.

The study, which ran from 2017 to 2019, was designed to answer several questions: Could targeted nutrition improve chronic musculoskeletal pain? Could hair testing and supplementation improve behavioural issues? Could early nutritional diagnoses by hair testing prevent hormone-related diseases such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Equine Cushings Disease?

The horses reviewed by Dr Peden exhibited a range of behavioural and health symptoms, including poor

race performance, bony lumps, boils, bullying, lameness, limb swelling and pain, pica, unpredictable behaviour, skin lesions, and allergies.

As the HTMA results came in, a startling pattern was revealed. “Of the 25 equine patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, 100 per cent showed depleted minerals, and 12 showed excess mineral levels. 22 horses had mineral ratios indicating imbalanced hormonal function, and 16 showed exposure to toxic heavy metals such as aluminium, arsenic, mercury, lead and beryllium. Sadly, eight horses showed no detectable lithium, which is required to transport serotonin to the brain and around the body to help promote calm behaviour and regulate mood. Interestingly, two of these horses were named ‘Spooky’,” Dr Peden says.

Along with highlighting mineral deficiencies and excesses, sometimes the most telling results uncovered by good HTMA laboratories are mineral ratios. In simple terms, these compare the levels of one mineral in relation to another. When one mineral is deficient or excessive, it can affect a number of other minerals, which in turn impact others. For example, a deficiency of vitamin C can allow copper to build up and become toxic, which can then result in deficiencies in iron, selenium or potassium and subsequently cause health issues.

On the flip side, excess vitamin C can cause a copper deficiency, which may lead to the potentially harmful retention of iron. Dr Peden explains: “Sometimes these relationships are positive, or synergistic, but often they are negative, or antagonistic. A good HTMA report will highlight significant mineral ratios, and it’s really important to understand these interrelationships, or ratios, of

nutritional minerals and address them.”

These complex nutritional interrelationships can explain why animals respond in different ways to nutritional therapy, and why a one-size-fits-all approach to diet and supplementation is not helpful. Dr Peden believes targeted, individualised nutritional therapy is the best approach. “You may feel you are doing the best thing for your horse by offering them what you think are quality balanced feeds and mineral supplements, but the study revealed that you may do more harm than good if you don’t know what the animal’s base nutritional levels are,” she says. “We cannot just rely on standard pre-mixed nutritionally fortified food preparations and supplements to guarantee our animals’ health and wellbeing.”

For example, many horses are given salt supplements to prevent impaction colic in cold weather, but these supplements may reduce lithium levels, which can then affect their mood. Or, if drinking water and soil contains contaminants, the presence of these toxins in their body can impact the effectiveness of the supplemental minerals in their feed.

The simple intervention of hair testing, combined with an individual nutritional plan was reported as successful by the owners of 20 of the 25 horses in Dr Peden’s study. Two of the horses were autopsied confirming the HTMA findings.

Dr Peden recommends the increased uptake of HTMA as a diagnostic and monitoring tool for nutritional interventions. She believes that along with radiographs and blood tests, hair mineral testing would add value to pre-purchase veterinary examinations, and cites a number of published cases in which HTMA was either successfully used as a screening tool, or had made a positive contribution to diagnosis.

Regularly using HTMA to benefit her own patients, Dr Peden suggests that horse owners should routinely request Sections of the mane near the wither can reveal valuable information regarding your horse’s nutritional profile and possible exposure to toxic heavy metals (Image courtesy InterClinical Laboratories). LEFT: A sample first two pages of InterClinical Laboratories comprehensive HTMA report.

hair testing. “It’s such a useful tool in assessing how well your horse is absorbing their current diet, as well as monitoring any stress they may be experiencing. HTMA also identifies imbalances that may predispose your animal to chronic disease, and identifies exposure to toxic minerals before any problems can occur,” she says.

Dr Susan Peden, BVSC (Hons), Dip. Vet. Clin. Studies MANZCVS, graduated from the University of Queensland in 1982 with first class honours.

For more information on HTMA visit interclinical.com.au or call 02 9693 2888.

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The patent protected product, consists of whole dried green bananas, including the skin, the pulp, the stem and the flower ends, and horse owners across the country are expressing disbelief about the positive results they are seeing.

WHY GREEN BANANAS AND WHY B-COMPLETE™?

Green bananas have long been the subject of intrigue, from use in the Sydney Olympics, to consumption in space, but with correct dosages of B-Complete™ the true benefits become obvious.

EQUINE GUT HEALTH -The health benefits that derive from supplementary feeding of dried green bananas are broad and include:

Green bananas have been shown to have antiulcerogenic properties, an area widely accepted as needing a solution in the equine industry, other than expensive medications.

The insoluble fibre act as prebiotics to favour the nourishment of microflora in the gut (particularly the hindgut) to stabilise the microbiome.

This stability in the gut promotes immune competence allowing horses to counter bacterial, fungal, viral, or parasitic challenges whilst also improving digestion, feed utilisation and temperament. Other reported benefits include: Antimicrobial, Hypoglycemics, and Anti-lithiatic (prevent kidney stones).

GENERAL WELL-BEING Active compounds like dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin all act to calm the animal and promote a sense of well-being, helping to make the animal more relaxed and easier to manage.

ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY Green banana is recognised as antioxidant rich, with a wide spectrum of antioxidant compounds (phenolics, carotenoids, ascorbic acid or Vitamin C, tocopherols or Vitamin E, dopamine, flavonoids, norepinephrine) which are primarily located in the peel. All improve gut health.

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