There are two types of dietary fats: facilitative and functional. Facilitative fats are saturated fats. They are found in relatively large amounts in the diets of cats and dogs, and aren't considered to be detrimental to a pet's health except in the case of obese animals fed diets high in both fat and calories.
Functional fats are usually, but not always, essential fatty acids (EFAs). These fats are called essential because they are a vital part of your pet's diet, but he can't produce them on his own. EFAs are known more commonly as omega-6 fats and omega-3 fats. Your pet needs a balance of both for good health, but it's the omega-3s that are proving to be incredibly beneficial in treating a wide variety of health conditions.
Omega-3 fatty acids include alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and eicosapentaneoic acid (EPA).
Omega-3s play a role in your pet's overall health in many ways, among them:
• Alleviating the harmful effects of allergies and other conditions
• Slowing the growth of common yeast infections
• Aiding proper development of the retina and visual cortex
• Regulating blood-clotting activity
• Slowing the development and spread of certain pet cancers
Along with these benefits, multiple clinical studies show that omega-3s are helpful for five clinical conditions in particular: cardiovascular disorders, cognitive function and neurological health, inflammatory skin disease, kidney disease, and osteoarthritis.
Cardiovascular Disorders
In a 1998 study of dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), omega-3 supplementation reduced production of inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1 and prostaglandin-E2), and it also reduced muscle loss compared with a placebo. The decreased production of inflammatory cytokines is also thought to improve appetites in animals with heart failure.
In a retrospective study of 108 dogs with DCM or chronic valvular disease, results showed improved survival rates with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. In addition to improved heart function (including reduced heart rate and blood pressure), omega-3 supplementation also reduced inflammation and improved the dogs' appetite and maintenance of lean body mass.
Cognitive Function & Neurological Health
A study published in 2012 suggests that feeding weaned puppies foods high in DHA improves several aspects of their development. The researchers found that diets rich in DHA and other nutrients known to support neurocognitive development improved cognitive, memory, psychomotor, immunologic, and retinal functions in growing dogs.
The puppies fed diets containing the highest levels of DHA showed significantly better results in reversal learning tasks, visual contrast discrimination, and early psychomotor performance than puppies eating low to moderate amounts of DHA.
Inflammatory Skin Disorders
In 1994, a study of 16 dogs given omega-3 fatty acids that included high levels of EPA showed improvement in itchiness, self-trauma, coat character, and hair loss compared with administration of ALA alone. The dogs in the study had symptoms of unexplained itchy skin, inflamed skin due to allergies and/or flea allergy.
Fast-forward 20 years to 2014, to a study out of Munich, Germany that evaluated a spot-on formulation of essential fatty acids and essential oils on 48 dogs with canine atopic dermatitis.
The results of the study showed that individual improvements in lesion and itchiness scores were significantly higher for dogs that received the EFAs and essential oils vs. the control group, and more of those dogs also showed a 50 percent or greater improvement in itchiness.
Kidney Disease
In a study of dogs with experimentally induced chronic kidney disease, researchers demonstrated that supplementation with omega-6 fatty acids accelerates the decline of kidney function, while omega-3s do the opposite.
A retrospective study of 146 cats with chronic kidney disease showed a survival time of 16 months for those on a diet supplemented with EPA, compared with 7 months for the control group. The cats receiving the highest amounts of dietary EPA had the longest survival times.
Osteoarthritis
A study from the Netherlands published in 2012 suggests that cats with naturally occurring osteoarthritis (OA) show symptom improvement when their diets are supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids.
Sixteen arthritic cats were involved in a 10-week study in which some received a fish oil supplement containing both EPA and DHA, while others received a corn oil supplement with no EPA or DHA. According to their owners, the cats receiving fish oil had less stiffness, higher activity levels, more stair climbing, higher jumping ability, and more interaction with family members than the cats who received corn oil.
A Canadian study published around the same time indicates that omega-3s are equally beneficial for dogs with naturally occurring OA. The dogs were fed a diet containing high levels of omega-3 fatty acids from fish, and showed significant improvement in locomotor disability and performance of daily activities.
In another study, cats with degenerative joint disease (DJD) fed a diet high in EPA and DHA, plus green-lipped mussel extract and glucosamine chondroitin sulfate, showed improved measurements of mobility.
Dr. Karen Becker is a proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian. You can visit her site at: MercolaHealthyPets.com
Her goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.
By reading Dr. Becker's information, you'll learn how to make impactful, consistent lifestyle choices to improve your pet's quality of life.
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