Jack Grogan, Senior Nutritionist
Uckele Health & Nutrition
The horse's skin is a highly organized, complex system of nerves, muscles, connective tissue, and highly specialized cells and tissues. It is designed to harmonize the horse's metabolism with both the internal and external environment. The horse's skin is the largest, heaviest organ in equine anatomy and includes the hair, hooves, specialized sweat glands and oil-producing glands. A large number of specialized sensory nerve cells function within the skin to allow the body to respond to touch, pain, pressure, and temperature changes of heat and cold.
The skin can reflect the health of the internal organs, as well as the nutritional status of the horse. Disorders of the skin, such as skin eruptions, hives, dry, flaking skin and fungal infections can indicate exposure to offending substances and provide insight into the internal balance of the horse's body chemistry and its ability to resist infection and/or inflammation.
Essential to the horse's survival, the horse's skin serves as the primary protection from the environment as the barrier against harmful bacteria, preventing chemicals from entering the body, and in reducing the possibility of injuries to underlying tissues. In addition, the skin helps regulate body temperature, helps manufacture vital biochemicals such as vitamin D, possesses extraordinary sensory sensitivities, and plays an important role in immune functions. The skin is also involved in controlling fluid balance, stabilizing blood pressure and giving flexible support to the horse's body.
Unfortunately, inflammations of the skin are a relatively common occurrence in horses that can be stubborn to assess and successfully resolve. In many respects, the essential fatty acids are the most important nutrient group for skin and coat health. Poor quality fats or a diet too low in fat can have a very detrimental effect on skin health.
Dry flaking skin and a dull coat can be the first sign of a fatty acid imbalance or deficiency. The essential fatty acids linoleic acid and gamma linolenic acid can be
supplied by good quality, unrefined vegetable fat or oil products. These fatty acids can go rancid easily, however, and require antioxidant protection in the form of vitamin E. Damaged, oxidized, or rancid essential fatty acids will increase the imbalance and further stress the skin and other body tissues. The essential fatty acids, if stabilized by vitamin E, can also aid in controlling skin inflammation caused by an allergic response. These fatty acids have structural roles in cell walls and have a major role in reducing inflammation not only in the skin, but in most other tissues as well.
Since the skin can reflect internal body imbalances, it is important to consider other nutritional, biological and dietary phytochemical components that may have a positive role in helping to resolve skin inflammations or infections and improve skin health.
The health of the digestive tract is one of the essential components of normal immune function. The immune system plays a central part in the generation of inflammation and its ability to destroy pathogens. If gut bacteria is out of balance or disrupted, inflammatory pathways can be directly influenced, affecting the skin. The "good" gut bacteria - probiotics - also are an important detoxification agent that can reduce or eliminate many of the toxic substances in the gut that can increase the inflammatory process.
High strength digestive enzymes can function as localized gut anti-inflammatories as well as exert a systemic anti-inflammatory benefit. These enzymes, used primarily as digestive aids to ensure digestion and assimilation of nutrients in feeds and supplements, are now also being recognized for these positive anti-inflammatory effects.
Immune regulation especially in the case of infections or allergies is a key aspect in a balanced inflammatory response. A normal, healthy, balanced inflammatory immune system response can control infections and reduce the potential for allergic inflammatory responses in the skin.
Certain plant polysaccharides can have a powerful balancing effect on immune function and its role in generating skin inflammation. These plant compounds can improve immune cell communication patterns in such a way that the tendency to over-produce pro-inflammatory molecules is reduced and the subsequent inflammation reduced with it.
Potential skin irritation and the inflammatory process can also be activated by diets that are high in sugar and/or too easily digested feeds by causing an over-release of the hormone insulin. Above and beyond insulin's ability to transport sugar and amino acids from the blood into the cell, an over-abundance of insulin can trigger the immune system to increase its manufacture of pro-inflammatory chemicals.
Vitamins, and especially mineral deficiencies and/or imbalances, play a major part in the regulation of inflammatory responses that can affect the skin health directly. Low or imbalanced levels of zinc, copper, iron, selenium, and manganese can allow a skin infection to take hold or increase the inflammatory response to an allergic reaction. Optimal mineral balance can be considered a cornerstone for a solid nutritional foundation for optimal skin health and for the management of the inflammatory mechanisms.
A relatively new class of natural compounds, the phytonutrients, has shown tremendous value in controlling skin inflammation and promoting optimal health. They are not essential nutrients by definition, but are naturally occurring in any number of plants. Substances like grape seed extract, citrus bioflavonoids, quercitin, boswellia, curcumin, ginger, pineapple extracts, and ginkgo are among a few of the literally thousands of new products demonstrating value in controlling inflammation and its negative effect on skin health.
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