Star Lyte EQ: Electrolytes and Beyond

Electrolytes are mineral salts that are essential for nerve and muscle function as well as movement of food and water through the gut and the filtering of wastes through the kidney and liver. Sodium, chloride, and potassium are the principal electrolytes for horses, humans and other mammals. When horses sweat, these mineral salts are lost from the body. Without these salts the electrical function of muscles is impaired, energy levels are reduced, lactic acid can accumulate resulting in poor exercise recovery, and slow intestinal activity can lead to gastro intestinal disruption or colic. Every cell in the body is dependent on the presence of sodium. Think of a cell like a small ocean containing salty water; inside the cells is potassium. Sodium and potassium need to be in a constant, dynamic balance so that the cells can exchange incoming energy with outgoing energy.

Star Lyte EQ

Table Salt:
Commonly used in horse feeds and equine supplements, table salt (sodium chloride) is made from either brine or mined from halite rock. The processing of table salt requires an anti caking agent, primarily a synthetic form of sodium aluminosilicate called amorphous sodium aluminosilicate. The FDA classifies this anti caking agent as GRAS (generally regarded as safe). The processing of brine for table salt requires scorching the salt at high heat (1200 degrees) to remove moisture. All the trace minerals and other minerals including magnesium and calcium are removed. Bleaching agents are also added. Table salt is thus denatured, as the other naturally occurring minerals in the halite or the brine have been removed through processing. Table salt contains Sodium Chloride, no macro minerals, no trace minerals.

Celtic Sea Salt:
Sea water is a natural source of electrolytes: sodium, chloride, and potassium, plus calcium, magnesium and 84 trace minerals. Specifically the Celtic sea salts are sun dried from salt water marshes in the tradition of salt preservation that goes back to the middle ages. This method preserves not only sodium and chloride but all the other mineral salts and trace minerals within the sea water.

Himalayan Salt:
This salt is found in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains from deposits formed over 250 million years ago from ancient sea beds. It is extracted by hand, as use of dynamite, explosive devices, and mechanical devices are prohibited to preserve the structure of the salt and mineral crystals. The salt is hand-selected, hand-crushed, hand-washed, and sun dried. Like Celtic sun-dried sea salt, Himalayan salt provides sodium, chloride, potassium as well as calcium, magnesium, and 84 trace minerals.

Celtic Sea Salt and Himalayan Salt provide the naturally-occurring complex of electrolyte salts and their companions the trace minerals (also known as the micro minerals). Table salt is isolated and refined with non of the co-factors found in sea water or ancient sea beds.

Sea salt

Trace Minerals:
These minerals also known as Micro Minerals are essential for the absorption and utilization of nutrients. They aid enzymes and hormones. Cellular energy production requires many trace minerals including iron, copper, and zinc.

Chromium, Selenium, Boron, Strontium, Copper, Manganese, Zinc, and Iron are among the 84 trace minerals identified in sea water or old sea beds.

Due to conventional farming methods, our soils are depleted and not replenished with the trace minerals.

Common Electrolytes for Horses:
Most equine electrolyte formulas provide sodium chloride(table salt) and potassium chloride. Some provide additional magnesium oxide/sulfate, copper and zinc proteinates, and calcium. Several formulas contain dextrose, artificial flavors and or colorings.

Some also offer probiotics as part of their formulations. There is a formula that contains the food coloring: FD&C Yellow 6 Aluminum Lake. This pigment is synthetically produced from coal tar or petroleum. This food coloring is often tested on laboratory animals due to it’s carcinogenic properties.

Benefits of Celtic Sea Salt and Himalayan Salt:

• Minerals in sea water and ancient sea beds are measurable in parts per million. There are no “mega doses” of minerals in ocean water. Minerals work in conjunction with each other. To contribute and maintain health, minerals must exist in relative balance in the fluids, cells, organs, and tissues of the body. Taking high doses of a single mineral without maintaining the balance of the other minerals and trace minerals can lead to imbalances resulting in disease rather than the absence of disease.
• Because minerals in sea salt and ancient sea beds are in parts per million, the risk of over-supplementing particularly with potassium is greatly reduced.
• Provide the trace minerals that are mostly absent from our soils and perform key biological roles including cellular energy and the utilization of nutrients.

Beyond Electrolytes:
Performance horses are athletes and as such have needs beyond electrolyte supplementation. Like human athletes, performance horses have greater immune stress as a result of training and competing than a pleasure horse. Daily training increases oxidation as the body breaks down tissues, and vital components like muscle glycogen are taxed. Toxins increase as a result of exercise stress. It is during rest that the body can re-balance and re-calibrate; it is during rest that the body can replenish it’s supply of nutrients and antioxidants.

Coconut Milk Powder:
Provides the medium chain triglycerides which provide energy. These triglycerides are not stored as fat. It provides vitamin C and vitamin E and selenium which are potent antioxidant compounds. One of the unique qualities of coconut milk is Lauric Acid which the body converts to Monolauren, one of the immune factors found in breast milk. Lauric Acid has demonstrated anti-viral, anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties. Since equine athletes have greater stress on their immune systems, it is important to support immune health. Coconut milk powder supplies calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and manganese, and the B-vitamins: B-1, B-3, B-5, B-6, and folate.

Organic Wheat Grass Powder:
Like all green plants, wheat grass is high in chlorophyll. Chlorophyll’s molecular structure is almost identical to hemoglobin, which is why it is called “the blood of plants”. Chlorophyll plays an important role in carrying Oxygen to the cells. What distance runners and tri-athletes call oxygen uptake. Studies show that when athletes increase their oxygen uptake their endurance, recovery time improves. This is one reason wheat grass is so beneficial for performance horses. By increasing oxygen uptake, muscles can recover more quickly. Wheat grass provides the antioxidant beta carotene which chlorophyll converts to Vitamin A. Vitamin A is an important nutrient because of it’s role in the synthesis of protein, the process of muscle growth. Vitamin A is also involved in the production of Glycogen, which function as the secondary long-term energy storage in tissues.

Whole Almond Powder:
Acts as a potent antioxidant that protects the cells’ membranes. This is important to performance horses since many of the metabolic processes that take place in the body, including growth of muscle cells and recuperation of muscle cells are dependent upon healthy cell membranes. Vitamin E helps reduce the free radical molecules which are natural byproducts of cellular respiration. The more the horse works and trains, the greater the amount of free radicals are released. When free radicals accumulate it can lead to cellular changes and cellular destruction, and slow or degenerate cellular repair and growth. The skin of the almonds is a potent source of the bioflavonoids. Twenty different bioflavonoids and polyphenols have been identified in almond skins, among which are the catechins that are found in green tea. A 2001 study published in Carcinogenesis {22 (8): 1189-1193} highlighted that catechins reduce free radical damage done to DNA.

Organic Freeze-Dried Blueberries: Loaded with anthocyanidins, blueberries neutralize free radical damage to the collagen matrix of cell and tissues. The anthocyanidins help to support a stable collagen matrix. Blueberries are considered one of the top antioxidant foods, based on the ORAC value (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). Blueberries also contain potent bioflavonoids; particularly resveritrol and quercitin. Resveritrol has demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects in several animal studies including decreased arachidonic acid release and COX-2 inhibition. Quercitin has been shown to provide anti-inflammatory activity by preventing the formation of some inflammatory mediators. It also inhibits histamine release by stabilizing basophils and mast cells. Blueberries are a very important food for horses with allergies.

Siica Clay: Azomite Trace Minerals:
This unique mineral deposit in Utah, formed by an erupted volcano and old inland sea created a mineral formation of silica clay. Clays have a long tradition among indigenous people around the world as poultices, and taken internally with food for intestinal issues. During the first World War, german doctors used clay to counter food poisoning, dysentery, diarrhea and wound infections. During World War II, Russian and French soldiers took mandatory rations of clay to avoid wide spread diarrhea. Silica clay has a negative electrical attraction for positively-charged particles; because it is an absorbent clay, it will absorb positively charged ions and impurities. This includes attracting heavy metal and toxic cations and neutralizing pathogens and toxins which are positively charged. It provides 70 trace minerals. It’s pH is 8.0 making it a very alkaline substance for the body.

Freeze Dried Organic Mangoes:
This is an alkaline forming fruit to the body which helps to maintain a healthy pH balance of 7.4. It provides magnesium, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium and Vitamin A in the form of Beta Carotene. Beta Carotene is a potent antioxidant. Helps to reserve critical electrolytes. Popular among human athletes because of it’s replenishing nutrients.