Cinnamon for EMS/Laminitics?

[Mince Pie]

I order my magnesium and Pro Balance from Progressive Earth on eBay, on looking at their shop I came across this:

Cinnamon may help Horses with Equine Metabolic Syndrome / horses prone to laminitis

and aid weight loss along side a restricted diet.
It is believed it may help in the lowering of blood sugar levels,improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity
Methylhydroxy chalcone polymer (MHCP), a compound in cinnamon, makes cells more responsive to insulin by
activating the enzyme that cause insulin to bind to cells and by inhibiting the enzyme that blocks this process.
The research has been carried out on humans showed that cinnamon significantly reduced blood sugar levels in
people with type-2 diabetes
The trial involved 60 people with type-2 diabetes, given either cinnamon or a placebo.
After 40 days those on cinnamon showed reduced fasting levels of serum glucose by as much as 29% (Khan et al 2003).

Cinnamon is used in herbal wormers and believed to be a powerful antioxidant

and was wondering if anyone else had come across this and whether anyone uses it for this reason? What were the results?

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Ive been using it along with monks pepper, tumeric and glucosamine/chondroitin on my oldie for his joints and to help stave off cushings/horomone changes, not noticed any change in his behaviour but hes like a spring chicken joints wise

 

[Mince Pie]

I'm mainly interested as I have an unshod fatso who refuses to lose weight! His weight is perfect at the moment and I really don't want it creeping up (OK shooting up!) again when the grass really comes through If it really is as good as ProEarth (and I do trust them) say then it may work alongside his summer diet to keep his weight down

 

[Highlands]

Yes heard of from a well known expert and apparently it works!

 

[unbalanced]

I was advised against it. Can't remember why but it was in strong enough terms that I threw the rest of my bag away. I will get in touch with the person who told me to stop and try to find out the reason.
Go with magnesium diet and exercise.

 

[Mince Pie]

That's interesting Unbalanced, there seems to be really mixed reviews on the subject. He's already on magnesium and he gets pro balance for his feet, he has soaked hay and soaked grass nuts to carry his supplements in but not much else. It doesn't seem to matter how much exercise he gets - he's still fat! This is him hunting fit...

 

[BlackVelvet]

Hello,
I used it with my old EMS lami horse who was very overweight. As he was semi retired and only a happy hacker i never thought he would loose the weight, tried him on cimmamon and the weight fell off him. Plus we played around with the amounts we fed when thr grass came through to help with his grass sensitivity. For the cost of it ( from pro earth) i cant recommend it enough!

 

[Dab]

Yes i also use cinnamon with my EMS shetland. Tried it 2 years ago over the summer and it really helped him. He didnt need it last year but i have just started him on it again after a bit of a lami attack - which i think has been triggered by his vaccinations

 

[amandap]

Taken from Dr Kellon's 'emergency diet sheet. http://ecirhorse.org/index.php/ddt-overview/ddt-diet

"Cinnamon is no longer routinely recommended. While it can improve insulin
sensitivity in other species, weʼre not seeing an obvious improvement in insulin
sensitivity indices in horses.
‣ If “fed” glucose is lower than 85 (i.e. non-fasting - while eating hay or 4
hours after a concentrate meal) on blood test or using a glucometer, do
not feed cinnamon."

If he isn't losing weight you may need to look at grass intake if he gets any. Weigh hay dry and drop to 1.5% body weight using small holed nets perhaps doubled or a trickle net to eek it out.

 

[Mince Pie]

I'll be honest Amanda I can't reduce his feed anymore! He has the equivalent of 2 small sections of hay (soaked) during the summer as he is in during the day and 3 1/2 over the winter when he is in at night, he gets a small, single handful of chaff split between 2 meals along with a very sloppy scoop of grass nuts (equivalent to 1 dry weight stubbs scoop every 10 days) just to carry his MagOx and Pro Balance. Our grazing is quite poor and at the moment I am happy with his weight. We are planning a yard move at the end of this month where he will again be in during the day in the summer with soaked hay and out on a lami paddock, his feed will be reduced according to how well he does on the grazing.
I am loathe to use a muzzle as he was incredibly headshy and still has issues with his head and face being touched.

 

[amandap]

I got the wrong end of the stick, I thought he was over weight but obviously imagined that.

If you do weigh the hay he will probably get more. lol

 

[Mince Pie]

LOL no at the moment he is a good weight as we have just come out of winter, however no matter what I do it always goes up in summer hence the idea of using cinnamon
I use big bale hay so he gets a medium sized haynet in the summer and 2 in the winter, hay is always soaked for a minimum of half an hour as not only is he a fatso but he has COPD as well (hence the really sloppy feed)...

This is him recently:

ETA: in the other photo would you say he is overweight? I think he is but others (not the "cobs should be fat" types) disagree.

 

[amandap]

I think my brain is befuddled with cold remedies.

I do think he looked a bit over weight in the other photo and I agree about cobs too.