It must always be remembered that laminitis is the separation and/or stretching of the laminae tissue connecting the coffin bone to the inner hoof wall and that this laminae event is a consequence of an underlying disease process and not the disease itself.

Laminitis/ “Diabetes” Article Series

The most significant advancement in my research on laminitis since the publication of this series in the Natural Horse Magazine, deals with a “progression curve” over time.

In this series of articles, I suggested that the underlying disease process was similar to type 2 diabetes in humans. The essential construct of this proposition is correct, as are the theoretical concepts presented, yet as my research has continued so have the advancements to my understanding of this disease and its consequences. I have found that the metabolic disease, underlying laminitis, follows a predictable course that can be tracked with the correct blood chemistry and mathematical models.

The metabolic disease process progresses in the following manner: “glucose tolerance” to “glucose intolerance” with associated hyperinsulinemia (high blood insulin concentration), to increasing hyperinsulinemia leading to pancreatic beta-cell “exhaustion” and then to hyperglycemia (high blood glucose concentration) with decreasing insulin levels: defined as diabetes. This time course is accurately represented by a mathematical expression described by an additive linear and exponential function/curve where the exponential “rise” describes the entrance into diabetes.

The majority of horses living within this metabolic disease process are hyperinsulinemic rather than hyperglycemic.
The relative risk of a laminitic episode is determined by “where” a horse’s blood chemistry places them within the time course progression curve. I have found that a horse’s relative laminitic event risk can be “reasonably” predicted by the blood chemistry parameters that I have been exploring and that a greater predictive value can be introduced by calculating known human mathematical models for “insulin sensitivity” and “ beta-cell responsiveness”.

This information is scheduled to be published in a forthcoming article in the Journal of The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association upon completion of the full statistical analyses.

Joseph Thomas, Ph.D. © 2008. All Rights Reserved.