Insulin Resistance and Iron Overload

How can you reduce iron overload in horses that already are insulin resistant and have foundered?
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Q. Thank you for your article on the research connecting insulin resistance (IR) and iron overload. Do you know of any research on how to reduce iron overload in horses that already are insulin resistant and have foundered? Is there an equine equivalent of chelation (a process that binds a mineral to an amino acid) therapy to flush out toxins or heavy metals?

Jeanne Bradbury, via e-mail


A. Great question. First, while we did find a correlation between insulin resistance and serum ferritin, the point of our study was to see if the reason iron was accumulating in black rhinos is possibly because they were insulin resistant. This is as opposed to finding out if they were insulin resistant because they were accumulating iron. There is a big difference between the two. Most captive rhinos are overweight (similar to horses) and likely do not receive adequate exercise (again, similar to horses).

My first suggestion, rather than to concentrate on the iron in the diet, is to get rid of the factors that made the horse insulin resistant (such as being overweight and not receiving adequate exercise). By correcting those issues, iron in the diet is likely a non-issue

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Written by:

Brian Nielsen, PhD, MS, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, is an animal science professor at Michigan State University, where he teaches senior level courses in equine exercise physiology and advanced horse management. His research interests include equine exercise physiology, young horse development, and nutrition.

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