Personal Pet Care

The skin, muscles, nerves, and joints of pets are like our own in many ways. In other words, pets can suffer many of the same problems that we do. As in humans, the basic cause behind degenerating joints, pain, allergies, and itching is inflammation. This fact points to the notion that addressing inflammation is the most crucial benefit of good pet care.

Pet physiology does differ in some ways from our own. For example, most pets have the nutritional advantage of being able to synthesize vitamin C on their own, usually in large quantities. (Guinea pigs are an exception. They are unable to synthesize vitamin C.) This means that pets have a built-in antioxidant system based on the chemistry of their innate vitamin C production. It also means that pets already make one of the crucial ingredients (I.e., vitamin C) for collagen synthesis, which is so important for building and maintaining healthy skin and connective tissue.

What this also means is that additional vitamins, plus a variety of dietary antioxidants, can have a much greater positive influence on pet health. This is one of the underlying reasons why pet supplements play such an important role in maintaining a lifetime of vitality for our pets.

Pet Supplement Ingredients

It is just as important for you to check ingredients labels for pet supplements as it is to do so for your own. It may be even more important, since pets are powerless to do this for themselves. Keep two things in mind when reading labels on pet nutritional supplements. First, look for what is not included in the formula.

In this regard, the best products have no harmful additives. Common additives to avoid include wheat or other cereal grains, food dyes, salt, yeast, sugar in its various forms, and fillers such as maltodextrin. By the way, even pet birds do much better on real seeds instead of wheat, rye, barley, or other cereal grains.

Second, take a look at the herbs that provide antioxidants in a formula. It should be no surprise that a list of such herbs includes many of the same ones that benefit your own health. Indeed, the label on a good pet supplement will look every bit as valuable as a comparable supplement for people.

A quick glance at a partial list of the most valuable herbs containing powerful antioxidants for pets can include astragalus, ginseng, goji berry, and angelica, among the best possible ingredients. These are the same herbs that you will find in your own supplements.

In addition to offering a diversity of powerful antioxidants, herbs such as astragalus and ginseng also provide unique phytochemicals that are well-known for boosting the immune system. Pets are susceptible to infections by viruses and bacteria that are often unique to them. They can benefit from immune-boosting herbs as much as you do.

When in doubt about choosing the best nutrition for your pet, just follow the simple guideline of treating your pet as well as you treat yourself.

Once you get the hang of reading labels, you will find that a Google search for top products will get you to the line of pet care supplements by EnlightaPet that are available online at NaturalSkinRX.com. All products are formulated to be all-natural, human-quality supplements. A good place to start is the Vitality Formula, which is a broad-application herbal mixture for use on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, birds and other animals.


By Dr. Dennis Clark, Ph.D