Summary
Click Here to view a series of 21 scientific studies on this substance.
Click Here to view a series of web pages where DMG was offered for sale, or comments offered.
ERGOGENIC NUTRITION
By William E. Jones, DVM
We all hope that the average trainer today believes in the concept that his/her horses should compete on the basis of their own natural talent, without any stimulation from illegal substances. This is a wise point of view for several reasons, not the least of which is that most illegal substances do not actually improve the horse's performance, when the horse is in top condition.
A major aspect of keeping a horse in top condition is feeding and nutrition, and there is more to good racehorse nutrition than hay, oats, and water. Racehorses on a vigorous schedule need more energy than can be safely provided with hay and oats. As oats, or a grain concentrate (sweet feed), is increased enough to provide the energy needed by the racehorse, the danger of carbohydrate overload increases. This is commonly known as founder, and can lead to laminitis and/or colic. During the past decade, most trainers have been feeding a "high fat" concentrate to provide that extra energy needed by the hard working horse. The horse gets energy from the metabolism (burning) of carbohydrates (glycogen) and fat (fatty acids).
Although fat is not a natural part of traditional horse feed, it is a normal food substance and should not, by any means be considered an illegal substance. Most horses will not consume a diet with too much fat in it- it is not very palatable for them. Normally a "high fat" concentrate has about 15-20% fat (usually vegetable fat), which when fed 50:50 with hay, on a weight basis, results in a total fat content in the diet of 7-10%.
In addition to supplementing the diet with fat there are nutritional factors known as ergogenic aids which can increase or improve the production of energy when it is needed during racing. These nutritional factors are normal substances found in feed which act much like vitamins in normal metabolism. In fact, some substances classified as ergogenic aids are also classified as vitamins.
To understand how ergogenic aids work you need to know something of how energy is produced in the body and how this energy is used to produce muscular activity. To understand this, it is necessary to know something about biochemistry. To explain in a nutshell, dozens of chemical reactions occur within the cells to produce energy which is stored in a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). All energy comes from the chemical bonds which hold atoms into molecules. Glycogen and fatty acids (stored nutrients from digestion of feed) are molecules which contain energy within the chemical bonds holding the atoms into a cohesive molecule. Various enzymes within the cells interact with glycogen and fatty acids to break the molecules apart and transfer the released energy into ATP, where it is kept until it is transferred to molecules of the muscle fibers where it is used to cause contraction of muscles. This process is commonly referred to as metabolism.
The difference between anaerobic metabolism and aerobic metabolism is that oxygen is needed in the aerobic process, while the anaerobic process produces energy without oxygen. The muscular activity produced during a race comes from both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Some people have thought that the Quarter Horse uses mostly anaerobic metabolism for the energy of a race, but recent studies in equine exercise physiology have shown that most energy used in even a short race comes from aerobic metabolism. During the first eight furlongs it may be 50% anaerobic energy and 50% aerobic energy.
The splitting of glycogen molecules to obtain energy results in the by-product lactic acid. Oxygen combines with lactic acid to produce carbon dioxide which is eliminated during respiration. During intense activity, however, there is not enough oxygen to neutralize all the lactic acid and it builds up in the muscles interfering with their function. Heat build up during intense exercise also interferes with maximum muscle function.
Many substances interact in this whole process to make it work more efficiently. The ergogenic aids act in some aspect of this metabolic process of converting fuel to muscular energy. One researcher described ergongenic aids as substances that function in one of four ways. They may act as a supplementary fuel source for energy production. They may affect the flux of fuels through the energy pathways. They may delay or minimize the effects of end-product accumulation such as heat or lactic acid. They can affect the nervous system by affecting coordination, recruitment of muscle fibers, etc.
All ergogenic aids were first used by human athletes before they were tried on racehorses. Most of them have not been scientifically proven to actually affect performance in humans, much less in the horse. However, any suggestion that there may be improvement causes many people to try the substances. Some of the ergogenic aids used on horses are octocosanol, dimethyl glycine, carnitine, branched-chain amino acids, tryptophan, creatine, bee pollen, and various antioxidants.
You may have tried one or all of these ergogenic aids at one time or another. Most of them are hard to obtain in enough quantity for horses at a price which justifies experimentation. Using these feed additives is really experimenting, because there is no research to show that any of them really increase performance. Most of them have a logical theoretic basis as to how they might have a positive effect in energy metabolism, but that is about as far as it goes.
Intense exercise and other stress on the horse's body produces so-called "free radicals," which damage tissue. Various substances, including some vitamins are antioxidants, or substances which neutralize these free radicals. This keeps the tissues of the body in healthy form for performance at its best. Some of the antioxidants are vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Coenzyme Q10.
When ergogenic substances can be obtained economically and can be conveniently added to feed, they may be worth trying. For example, octacosanol is an ingredient of wheat germ oil and acts like a vitamin might. Over 23 years of experimentation on humans, and animal tests, some scientists have concluded that octacosanol improves stamina, strength, and reaction time. Without direct studies of what affects are produced in the horse, however, it is still experimentation.
Recently there were reports that creatine supplementation might help to delay fatigue in horses during racing, as it seemed to do in humans. Many horsemen in England paid dearly for creatine and fed it to their racehorses. Last year a research project in England studied whether feeding creatine actually resulted in increased plasma creatine and increased creatine in the muscle, where it was supposed to be working. The researchers could not find an increase in the horse's system after being fed creatine. They concluded that the horse could not digest creatine intact. Creatine was either not absorbed from the horse's gut, or it was broken down into some other product during absorption or metabolism, according to the researchers. Surprisingly, horsemen continue to feed creatine, despite this research.
Equine research is not always profoundly conclusive, and this may be why horsemen often disregard it. Equine research is underfunded. Usually too few horses are used in the experiment. Sometimes the experiments are not well designed to prove what was intended. It is difficult to measure performance improvement of less than 10% in typical equine research. Since most improvement from ergogenic aids would be much less than this, it seems probable that proof of efficacy will never be possible for most of these substances.
So the use of various ergogenic substances continues among trainers without proof of efficacy from research. Take for example the use of dimethyl glycine (DMG). This substance is one of the many products which is used in energy metabolism within the cells. It is reported by some to delay muscle fatigue. It seems to counteract the effects of lactic acid in the muscles, reducing the muscle pain which results from intense exercise. Studies of these effects in horses have been limited and only a few horses were used in the various experiments. Results of one study contradict the results of another. Some horsemen continue to use DMG, however, because it is easy to personally feel the difference when they take the substance themselves before strenuous exercise. For example, if a person who is out of shape takes DMG before doing a hard days work, the muscle soreness the next day seems to be greatly reduced compared to that when no DMG has been taken.
So what is the bottom line? Are ergogenic aids worth the trouble and expense. No one can say for sure. If you use them, you are experimenting. It will be difficult to determine the effects if you initially try more than one type of egogenic substance. How can you tell which one is helping? If you are going to experiment, use one exclusively until you determine it is ineffective or is helpful. Then you can begin to use a second ergogenic aid and can evaluate its effectiveness. Each horse may be different as far as its reaction of these substances; in other words, it may help one horse but not another.
It is a real problem to know what to do about these substances. As far as anyone knows they are not harmful. If you have the money and the time to locate a source, you may want to give them a try. On the other hand, it all may be a waste of time and money.
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