Introducing BioStar’s Circuvate EQ: Whole Food Circulation Supplement

BioStar introduces Circuvate EQ, a brand-new circulation supplement in February, 2017, specifically designed for the equine circulatory system — the system responsible for sending blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.  When blood flow is reduced, the body’s ability to heal and repair is diminished.  Increased blood flow is a significant benefit that allows the vascular highways to deliver oxygen and nutrients more efficiently.  Increased circulation can help reduce inflammation, and reduce oxidative stress.

Benefits of increased blood flow encouraged by a circulation supplement

• improved oxygenation of the tissues
• more efficient removal of toxins and metabolic waste
• enhanced healing process
• reduced inflammation and oxidative stress

The role of nitric oxide
Nitric oxide is a key signaling molecule in the body, and a powerful vasodilator (a substance that widens blood vessels).  The endothelium, which is the inner lining of blood vessels, uses nitric oxide to signal the surrounding smooth muscles to relax, resulting in increased blood flow.  The amino acid arginine is a substrate for nitric oxide production.  Specific foods such as pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, oranges, and nutritional yeast provide high amounts of arginine for nitric oxide production.

Recent research: Indian gooseberry and circulation
One of the widely used in plants in Ayurvedic medicis amla, also known as Indian gooseberry.  It has been used with animals and humans for thousands of year.  Eight recently published studies on a specific, patented extract from Indian gooseberry called Capros have demonstrated this plant’s remarkable ability to increase nitric oxide production by 54%, and increase the super antioxidant glutathione by 50%.   Glutathione is known as the “mother of all antioxidants.”  It supports the regulation of cell growth and division, protects DNA from oxidative stress, helps with amino acid transport in and out of the cell, and supports the humoral immune function.

Indian Gooseberry

Vascular dysfunction in metabolic horses
Research has also shown that Capros reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers and improves endothelial function.  This is important because a study published September 29, 2016 (“Vascular Dysfunction in Horses with Endocrinopathic Laminitis”) showed that endothelial dysfunction associated with hormonal conditions such as metabolic syndrome or Cushing’s disease affects the laminar vessels and facial skin arteries of the horse.  By improving endothelial function by relaxation via nitric oxide, there is increased blood flow and circulation. Providing the precursor amino acid arginine via a whole-food circulation supplement is a great first step to improving endothelial function in this way.

Performance horses
When horses exercise, nitric oxide is released, which increases blood flow to muscles and organs, to the heart, and to the lungs.  Nitric oxide is a short-lived molecule, so the longer it circulates the greater the benefit to the cells, heart, lungs, nervous system and muscles.

Providing horses with a circulation supplement containing foods and plants that increase nitric oxide can improve daily training and performance results by reducing muscle fatigue, removing lactic acid, increasing oxygenation of muscles, and delivering more nutrients to the cells.  Because nitric oxide plays an important role in healing via increased circulation, repair of muscles and connective tissues can be enhanced.

The Indian gooseberry extract Capros increases glutathione, a critical antioxidant important in the production of ATP.  Lower amounts of glutathione in the cells can slow down ATP production, resulting in fatigue.  Furthermore, the recovery phase of training requires glutathione to mop up free radicals — highly reactive molecules that can create inflammation unless regulated by potent antioxidants such as glutathione.

Healing
Nitric oxide can modulate the release of various inflammatory mediators (leukocytes, macrophages, mast cells, endothelial cells and platelets).  In relaxing the blood vessels, more nutrients are delivered to the area of the body that needs them.  This is especially important for ligament and tendon injuries, muscle and joint injuries, and support for these tissues.

Hoof and heart
The heart is the key organ of the circulatory system.  As the heart beats, blood is sent throughout the body.  Muscle movement in the feet is also responsible for pumping blood up and back to the heart.  Inflammation in the foot will therefore reduce the amount of circulation returning to the rest of the body and the heart.

Nitric oxide helps re-circulate by relaxing the smooth muscles, allowing for more blood flow.  This is especially important to maintain healthy feet, and to help with foot issues such as navicular syndrome, bursa inflammation, bruising and laminitis.

Coming in February
After testing the Indian gooseberry extract Capros last year on a variety of horses, including performance horses, metabolic horses, horses on layup for ligament strains, older horses who get stiff and achy, and horses needing to grow more hoof, it was time to make it available to all horses.

BioStar’s Circuvate EQ: the first equine circulation supplement to use the patented Indian gooseberry extract Capros.   This extract has been approved by the FDA as “GRAS” (Generally Regarded as Safe) due in part to Indian gooseberry’s long history of use in animals and humans.  Capros has been intensively researched for efficacy including seven published studies and four additional studies pending publication.

Capros is derived from freshly harvested Indian gooseberry fruits, which are washed in purified water.  Maximum yield of the bioactives is ensured by the selection of specific chemotypes of the plant and harvesting the fruit at the proper age.  No pesticides or solvents are used in the growing or extraction process.

BioStar’s Circuvate combines the arginine-rich foods for nitric oxide production: pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, organic freeze-dried orange powder with additional vasodilation from organic ginger, and the powerful Indian gooseberry extract Capros.

What about BioStar’s Furnace supplement for circulation?
I consider Circuvate to be Furnace 2.0.  It’s the next generation of circulatory support.  It’s stronger than Furnace because of the inclusion of Capros.  However, unlike Furnace, Circuvate is not in bar form—it’s a powder.

We tested several of our horses for foot growth, putting them on Circuvate for two months, and then maintaining them on Furnace. Circuvate passed our palatability tests with flying colors, and the improvement in many of the test horses was beyond expectations.

In conclusion
As a circulation supplement, BioStar’s Circuvate  provides circulatory support on a level not seen before in an equine supplement.  And it’s completely free of additives, petroleum extracts, flavorings, preservatives, and sweeteners.

Look for Circuvate EQ on our website on February 1, 2017.

Circulation supplement-related studies  and sources:

1. Effects of Phyllanthus emblica extract on endothelial dysfunction andbiomarkers of oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes: arandomized, double-blind, controlled study. Pingali Usharani, Nishat Fatima, et al; Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy 2013: 6 1-10

2. Pilot study evaluating the use of Emblica officnalis standardized fruit extract in cardio respiratory improvement and antioxidant status. Tuhin Kanti Bisweas, Shrabana Chakrabarti, et al; Journal of Herbal Medicine, 4 (2014) 188-194.

3. Study of pharmacodynamics interaction of Phyllanthus emblica extract with clopidogrel and ecosprin in patients with type II diabetes mellitus; Nishat Fatima, Usharani Pingali, et al. Phytomedicine. J.phymed.2013.10.024

4. Supplementation of a standardized extract from Phyllanthus emblica improves cardio risk factors and platelet aggregation in overweight/class-1 Obese adults; Savita Khanna, Amitava Das, et al; J Med Food 18 (4) 2015, 415-420.

5. Evaluation of Phyllanthus emblica extract on cold pressor induced cardiovascular changes in healthy human subjects. Nishat Fatima, Usharani Pingali, et al; Pharmacognosy Research/ Jan-March 2014/Vol 6/Issue 1.

6. A comparative study to evaluate the effect of highly standardized aqueous extracts of Phyllanthus emblica with type II diabetes mellitus. P. Usharani, P.V. Kishan, et al. IJPSR, 2014; Vol 5 (7): 2687-2697

7. Beneficial Effect of Phyllanthus emblica fruit extract on cigarette smoke induced impaired antioxidant status in rats. Aminul Islam, Biswajit Auddy, et al. Pharmacologyonline 2: 255-264 (2008)