How Climate Change affects energy levels –
a solution.
According to Dr Julian Schroeder the University of California, San Diego, in December's issue 12 of Nature Cell
Biology, carbon dioxide levels in the air are 40% greater than in pre-industrial times. So they are nearly double
what they were200 years ago.
Meantime oxygen levels are falling. It has recently been calculated that the air breathed by horses in their long
evolutionary history contained approximately 50% oxygen. 200 years ago (at the start of the industrial
revolution) the air was composed of 38% oxygen and 1% carbon dioxide.
The oxygen level measured by Swiss scientists in 1945 was 22% and subsequent measurements all show a
steady decline. Oxygen levels in our major cities can be lower than 10% which is in large part due to our
profligate use of fossil fuels in transportation, heating and power generation.
The experiments in biological time assessment pioneered by Pierre Le Comte du Nouy during the First World
War, established the central relationship between oxygen and metabolic processes in mammals, and this link
has been confirmed by thousands of studies since then.
The oxygen levels in the blood streams of all mammals reflect the ambient atmospheric levels. This means that
dissolved oxygen levels in horses’ blood are considerably lower than they used to be! Horses are extremely
sensitive to changes in their blood gas levels, as are all mammals, and their performance relies on a good
supply of oxygen to their cells and particularly their muscle cells.
When a horse exerts itself its muscles suffer from a build up of lactic acid. This inhibits their uptake of oxygen
and the muscle becomes tired as a result. Consequently the horse’s performance falls off. As the lower oxygen
levels in the blood reservoir are rapidly depleted, the horse’s performance falls below its peak ability. Its
energy flags!
The thoroughbred racehorses today are the end product of hundreds of years of careful selective breeding and
are trained by the best. Yet even the cleverest Breeders and the most experienced trainers can't put back what
a changing environment is taking out. The result is a fine breed of horses in danger of a reduction in stamina
through anoxia - oxygen deprivation.
Most horses today arrive at the course or track in a motor driven horsebox which often has to contend with
quite heavy traffic, particularly at the race course. Well attended race meetings attract hundreds of people in
cars and this concentration of oxygen hungry vehicles, which belch out huge quantities of carbon dioxide,
nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide and etc, can cause a localised sag in the available oxygen density. Try jogging
alongside heavy traffic and you soon see what I mean.
Because the oxygen and a CO2 levels in a horse’s blood are bound to reflect the local atmospheric levels,
drawn in to the horse’s lungs as it breathes, then this oxygen sag can reduce a horse’s potential even before
race begins. Thus oxygen levels can and do have a powerful yet hidden affect on a horse’s overall top speed,
endurance and stamina.
This is a problem that is going to get a lot worse as pollution levels continue to rise and climate change traps
yet more CO2 into the atmosphere.
There is however a solution which is to lower the resting levels of CO2 in the horse’s blood prior to exercise.
Red blood cells absorb carbon dioxide which is released from the body cells as the final stage in cellular
respiration. Red blood cells are attracted to CO2 about 200 times more than they are attracted to oxygen. So
they are very effective cleaning up agents. They deliver the C02 to horse’s lungs where it is breathed out and
air breathed in.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide also get into the horse’s system via the food they eat.
The blood circulates around the stomach where it picks up food, absorbed through the stomach and intestinal
walls. Food, which is grown in our oxygen depleted environment, contains higher levels of CO2 absorbed
during growth. This CO2 is absorbed with the range of complex sugars and so forth which form the digested
food supply and so passes into the horse's system. This increases the CO2 levels in the horse’s bloodstream
reservoir, compounding the problem of lower oxygen levels.
This situation can be rectified by the addition of a specially activated form of charcoal to the horse’s diet.
Charcoal adsorbs carbon dioxide and is readily consumed by mammals since it has no taste and is part of their
natural diet in the wild. Wild mustangs readily graze over burnt out pasture as do many ungulates.
Charcoal can adsorb several hundred times its own weight in CO2 (and the United States Pharmacopeia has set
an internal surface area of 1000 square metres per gram as standard for activated charcoal. This is rated as
Category 1 ‘safe and effective’ by the US Food & Drug Administration).
Taken into the horses stomach with its usual food supply, charcoal will remove most of the excess CO2 and
pass it out of the system. This prevents it from further contaminating the horse’s blood supply. The effect of
this is to allow the oxygen in the food, free passage into the bloodstream increasing the supply of oxygen in the
horses system. This helps the horse to achieve a higher level of muscle performance, for longer.
The charcoal specially developed for this purpose is an allotrope of the fullerene molecule C60 and is produced
by a process unique to the company Fine Fettle Feed. This particular charcoal is chemically inert and works
simply by binding CO2 and range of toxins into its structure. Basically it acts to filter the nasties out of the
content of the horse’s stomach, sweetening its digestion and respiration thus adding to its energy levels.
This charcoal product is so safe to use that its even used as the basis for a preparation that, taken orally, filters
drugs from the systems of human addicts who overdose. It also used in liver and kidney dialysis.
Charcoal as a substance has a long history of over 4000 years of use by mankind as an antidote to poison and a
digestive aid.
It can now help to improve your horse’s health and performance!