Spirulina is one of the richest beta-carotene ingredients, with ten mixed carotenoids. Including orange carotenes, alpha, beta, gamma, and yellow xanthophylls, these powerful antioxidants work synergistically in different sites in your pet's body.
As their first line of defense, your pet depends on their diet to provide antioxidants to help protect them from the negative effects of free radicals caused by stress and pollution.
Your pet's body is designed to absorb nutrients from fresh, living foods very efficiently.
However, much as the situation for us humans, your pet's food doesn't always contain the nutrients they need. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) provides the basic vitamins and minerals to sustain life, but certainly not optimal levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients proven to improve well-being, reduce disease and contributes to the normal function of the immune system and quality of life. Surviving (meeting minimal nutrient requirements) is very different than thriving (providing abundant naturally sourced antioxidants, essential fatty acids and phytonutrients in optimal quantities).
The best of diets – even a raw, species-specific diet – can come from soils that are depleted or from lower quality food sources. Sometimes the food simply loses many of its nutrients through processing and storage.
And most commercially available pet foods, even if they’re “fortified” to meet AAFCO standards, contain synthetic, lab-concocted vitamins and minerals which don’t provide optimum nutrition.
Young or old, your pet needs protection from free radicals, which can hasten aging.
Right from the start, your puppy or kitten needs lots of high-quality protein to support the explosive growth that takes place during their first year of life.
Free radicals form in your pet's body when oxygen combines with complex metabolic molecules.
These highly unstable molecules travel around your pet's body looking to steal an electron from a stable molecule to stabilize them.
When they successfully snatch an electron, they, in turn, create new unstable molecules, or more “free radicals” with uneven numbers of electrons.
This process is called "oxidation," and once it begins, it can produce a chain reaction that generates more and more free radicals.
The Dangers of Oxidation
Oxidation in the human, feline or canine body is not much different than what happens to a piece of metal when it rusts. As it reacts with oxygen, the metal rusts – or “oxidizes” – and it slowly disintegrates.
In just a few short years, that piece of metal is gone.
Just like that piece of metal, attacking free radicals can cause damage, potentially leading to less-than-optimal conditions in your pet as well as premature aging.
And the oxidative stress resulting from free radical damage can affect your pet's immune system, too. In addition, free radicals can weaken and damage cellular DNA.
As you know, DNA is the “blueprint” of your pet’s cells – that amazing material that directs all cellular activities, including the precise timetable of when cells should divide.
If DNA becomes damaged, cells no longer function optimally. Scientists believe that DNA damage is a major component of the aging process and possibly affects normal cell division and growth.
The Added "Extra" to Support Your Pet's Good Health
Let's consider that piece of metal again.
What if, instead, you painted it? Now you've done a good job of preventing the metal from reacting to the oxygen in the air and oxidizing.
It doesn't rust and it doesn't disintegrate.
Antioxidants are like the “paint” when it comes to helping to protect your pet's body from free radicals.
These powerful nutrients neutralize oxidizing free radicals, rendering them harmless. Antioxidants reduce oxidative stress in your pet's body and protects their cells' delicate DNA. At the same time, cell, tissue, and organ health is supported.
Antioxidants are also important for the health of your pet's eyes. Especially in certain breeds of dogs with more protruding eyes, it is important to help them maintain good eye health as they age.
A healthy diet complete with foods rich in natural antioxidants are important for helping to maintain your pet's eye health and vision.
For valuable support of good eye health, you want to look for antioxidants that can cross your pet's blood brain and blood retina barriers to reach and nourish delicate eye tissues.
Astaxanthin is considered by many to be “King” of the carotenoids
A potent class of fat-soluble antioxidants. So potent, in fact, astaxanthin's antioxidant capacity is up to…
- 550 times more powerful than vitamin E
- 65 times more powerful than vitamin C
- 54 times more powerful than beta-carotene
- 5 times more powerful than lutein
Astaxanthin shows very strong free radical scavenging ability and helps protect cells, organs and tissues from oxidative damage. It’s also far more effective than other carotenoids at “singlet oxygen quenching” – a certain type of oxidation.
What also makes astaxanthin especially impressive – and important for your pet in particular – is its ability to cross the blood-brain and blood-retina barriers to support brain and eye health. Very few antioxidants can do that.
An Algae-Derived Supplement at Its Finest
With naturally sourced supplements, you don’t get isolated, lab-manufactured vitamins and minerals like those commonly found in commercial diets and supplements. Rather, you receive them as nature intended – as part of the entire plant substance.
The strengths of Spirulina:
- Contains one of the highest concentrations of nutrients in any plant, grain or herb
- Composed of over 60 percent of complete and easily digestible vegetable protein
- An abundant source of the hard-to-find essential fatty acid GLA
- Contains up to 16 percent of its weight of phycocyanin, a bilirubin precursor that supports normal immune function
Deep within spirulina’s dark green color lies a rainbow of natural pigments: Green from chlorophyll, blue from phycocyanin and orange from carotenoids… all collecting the sun's energy to support healthy, normal growth.
Spirulina is one of the richest beta-carotene plants, with 10 mixed carotenoids, including orange carotenes, alpha, beta, gamma and yellow xanthophylls. These potent antioxidants work together to support health throughout your pet’s body.
When you consider all of spirulina’s attributes, it's easy to see that it contains one of the most powerful combinations of nutrients ever discovered in any grain, herb or plant.
SpiruGreen – a unique spirulina and astaxanthin complex
With Dr Mercola's SpiruGreen, your pet receives two of nature's most nutrient dense dietary supplements to support a healthy lifestyle.
There's no shortage of individual astaxanthin and spirulina products out in the marketplace. Some good, some not so.
Not until now did has there been a product that contains both in one exceptionally high quality tablet. And from a manufacturer can be fully trusted.
The manufacturer selected for this amazing product is a leading manufacturer of high-quality plant-based nutritional products and ingredients.
To make Dr Mercola's SpiruGreen, they combine their Zanthin® brand Astaxanthin technology with organic Spirulina from India to ensure a high-quality product.
Along with using an allergy-free facility for manufacturing this product, there's science and superior world-class manufacturing practices behind it, too.
The Astaxanthin in SpiruGreen Is NOT Your Everyday Astaxanthin… Not Even Close
Astaxanthin is truly one of the most powerful antioxidants ever discovered, as you can see from the ORAC table below. As an antioxidant, it has been shown to be up to 550 times more powerful than vitamin E, 10 times more potent than beta-carotene and 5 times more potent than lutein.
What this high level of antioxidant activity means for your pet is an optimal ability to address oxidative stress.
Unlike synthetic astaxanthin, commonly found in feed formulas and many supplements, the Zanthin® brand of astaxanthin complex found in Dr Mercola's SpiruGreen delivers a high-quality extract with scientifically-supported activity.
What's different about this form of astaxanthin?
The Zanthin® brand of natural astaxanthin, like most natural astaxanthin, is manufactured from the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. With this microalgae, once the tough cell wall is cracked open it is highly unstable and must be extracted immediately. The difference is that Dr Mercola's manufacturer uses a proprietary extraction process that yields a stabilised and standardised 7% oleoresin containing:
- 85-90% natural astaxanthin
- 2% lutein
- 2% carotene
- 6% other carotenoids
Dr Mercola's manufacturer uses a proprietary DeepExtract™ supercritical CO2 process to extract the astaxanthin rather than toxic chemicals (like many others do). It's far more natural and much safer, too, for your pet and the environment.
And they use a special O2B™ Peroxidation Blocker stabilization technology to help ensure long-term stability and antioxidant activity of the pigments.
Far, Far Away, in the Southern Tropical Region of India…
Outside the bustling cities, in a remote area of India, you'll find the manufacturing home of the organic spirulina that goes into Dr Mercola's SpiruGreen for pets. Manufactured away from polluting industry and farms, this spirulina is cultivated…
- With no animal products or wastes
- With only natural herbal fertilizers
- With pure, artesian groundwater
- Without nitrates or manure
- Without synthetic minerals
- Without pesticides and herbicides
As a further plus, the manufacturing practices and usage of pure vegetarian organic nutrients help ensure that the heavy metals in this spirulina are the lowest possible.
In fact, this organic spirulina is verified under the U.S. Pharmacopeia ingredient verification program and is also GRAS (“Generally Regarded as Safe”).
It is certified by four major organic standards organizations – USDA NOP, Naturland (Germany), ECOCERT (France) and OCIA-IFOAM (USA).
To meet these exacting standards, no trace minerals – such as iron – are added in the spirulina cultivation process. The practice of boosting the mineral content by adding mineral salts is common with non-organic spirulina.
Quality control includes HACCP (Food Safety Standards), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems) and ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) certified by Bureau VERITAS.
