Nice article on fear mongering and pseudoscience sales tactics

Published by yet another feed supplement company whose CEO is a certified nutritionist.....
 
yet written by Dr Kellon a vet who has plenty of peer reviewed science to back up her claims unlike either equifeast or equidgel who used the deaths of riders to promote their products.
 
I have her book on supplements and nutreceuticals which is an interesting read.

Not every commercial company is out to deceive and some of the companies are started by people who tried things on their own horses that have worked well and gone from there.

However I do agree there is a lot of clever marketing out there to try to get us to buy stuff that we and our horses don't need.

I do agree that promoting a product on the back of deaths is totally inappropriate and insensitive. I would not buy from such a company on principle and I expect that they may lose sales because of it. Implying the deaths were caused by too much magnesium without knowing the diet and level of magnesium present in the horse is unscientific and dangerous.
 
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Unfortunately this is yet another gaping wide analysis of how the equestrian market is left vulnerable by a large gap in knowledge - one so wide you have even professionals preying on the ignorant mass of consumers willing to buy anything that will miraculously transform dobbin into pegasus.
 
I think there is also an issue of misleading data. Take the link to the company talking about too much magnesium in the diet.

Without analysing hay and grass which are the main sources of food for most horse the company will not be able to know exactly what levels of magnesium is on the diet. The data is based on what individual horses owners are telling them they feed. The only way as far as I am aware to analysis magnesium levels in horses is via blood test. So for the data to be correct that 7000 horses had too much magnesium in their diet and then after taking their supplements their magnesium levels reduced resulting in improved behaviour to be scientifically valid would have required blood tests before and after supplementation to show magnesium levels had dropped.

Their supplements are based on calcium and in people magnesium and calcium levels seems to be linked. So if a horse has too much mag then it may well have high levels of calcium too. Adding a supplement which is based on calcium when it already has enough calcium in the diet can lead to calcium overdoses.

A lot of these companies will have scientists working for them who must surely understand the basics of scientific data and research. It is fine to say we have happy customers who have used this product on x number of horses and have said the have noticed improvements, {if of course it is true} but not fine to say that this is scientific proof the product works in the way it is described as working.

Many companies will have based their products on human research as there is more money and academics working on humans than horses. When I buy supplements I try and do a bit of research first on what has been done with people first.
 
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Sorry just want to add I doubt any of these products have large enough amounts of any active ingredients to cause a serious a serious calcium overdoses if used as directed in the same way as mag calmers probably won't cause a serious mag overdoses. I don't want to be fear mongering myself.

SO1 said:
I think there is also an issue of misleading data. Take the link to the company talking about too much magnesium in the diet.

Without analysing hay and grass which are the main sources of food for most horse the company will not be able to know exactly what levels of magnesium is on the diet. The data is based on what individual horses owners are telling them they feed. The only way as far as I am aware to analysis magnesium levels in horses is via blood test. So for the data to be correct that 7000 horses had too much magnesium in their diet and then after taking their supplements their magnesium levels reduced resulting in improved behaviour to be scientifically valid would have required blood tests before and after supplementation to show magnesium levels had dropped.

Their supplements are based on calcium and in people magnesium and calcium levels seems to be linked. So if a horse has too much mag then it may well have high levels of calcium too. Adding a supplement which is based on calcium when it already has enough calcium in the diet can lead to calcium overdoses.

A lot of these companies will have scientists working for them who must surely understand the basics of scientific data and research. It is fine to say we have happy customers who have used this product on x number of horses and have said the have noticed improvements, {if of course it is true} but not fine to say that this is scientific proof the product works in the way it is described as working.

Many companies will have based their products on human research as there is more money and academics working on humans than horses. When I buy supplements I try and do a bit of research first on what has been done with people first.
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tallyho! said:
Unfortunately this is yet another gaping wide analysis of how the equestrian market is left vulnerable by a large gap in knowledge - one so wide you have even professionals preying on the ignorant mass of consumers willing to buy anything that will miraculously transform dobbin into pegasus.
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The Magic Supplement - no one wants to hear that they actually need to train their horse.

My other favourite is the Cure All usually touted on the "Natural" sites: like Tumeric! Cures everything don't you know from arthritis to cancer. Apple cider vinegar and garlic are a couple of others that have done the rounds, but now seem to be out of fashion.
 
NZJenny said:
The Magic Supplement - no one wants to hear that they actually need to train their horse.

My other favourite is the Cure All usually touted on the "Natural" sites: like Tumeric! Cures everything don't you know from arthritis to cancer. Apple cider vinegar and garlic are a couple of others that have done the rounds, but now seem to be out of fashion.
Click to expand...

You are so correct in your observations.
 
Garlic is evil stuff :p.

Let's put it this way Dr Kellon has actually done her own research on the supplementation of magnesium in horses (specifically for EMS) Mr Equifeast has done none of his own research on magnesium or calcium supplementation and has cherry picked the ancient research that he thinks backs up the product he has a sole licence to sell.
 
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