Are Nutritional Supplements Beneficial?

I am not surprised that nutritional supplements are now a "thing" for cats and dogs. I am surprised that it is close to a billion-dollar industry, according to some sources. To many pet owners, it makes a lot of sense to make sure your companion is getting optimum nutrition.

The question is: what is optimum?

The ancestral diet of cats is nearly 100% carnivore. Wild cats do eat small amounts of various grasses and catnip. They also consume tiny amounts of carbohydrates that are present in the intestines and stomachs of their prey, but that is about it. Raw meat and organs have every nutrient a carnivore needs to be healthy. The problem is that most modern companion cats are not able to eat an evolved ancestral diet. If you are like most pet owners (me included), you try to find the best food in your budget. Unfortunately, dry heated-treated kibble is not the most perfect diet you can provide, even if it is rated "nutritionally complete". It works. It is affordable. It has some downsides. Read more about food and longevity in this interesting RejuveCat blog post.

Perhaps adding a multi-nutrient supplement could help. That is the claim of the supplement manufacturers. In the RejuveCat "family" we have tried the Life Extension "Cat Mix". It is a powder with many ingredients such as B vitamins, vitamin C, E, A, taurine, L-Arginine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, probiotics, and even sage, rosemary, and thyme extracts. Here is another popular brand and here is a video explaining the possible benefits of yet a different product.

Purina FortiFlora Cat Probiotic Powder Supplement, Pro Plan Veterinary Supplements Probiotic Cat Supplement – 30 ct. box

Purina Fortiflora

Buy on Amazon

Based upon the promotional material surrounding cat supplements, you would be led to believe that these are the greatest "thing" ever for your pet. However, there is a lot to analyze and unpack before being able to draw a definite conclusion.

First of all, the basic essential nutrition that is required for your cat's health is already present in most food - even some of the most value-priced heat-treated dry kibble. If you look at the label of most dry food brands you will see various vitamins and nutrients such as taurine. The manufacturers are already adding a "nutrient mix" to the food. There are additional and possibly beneficial supplements in the nutrient powders mentioned earlier, but when it comes to the essentials, you might just be doubling up on the amount, and more is not always better.

Secondly, generic "multivitamin" supplementation has proven harmful in human studies. Hard to believe, I know. Even some very popular vitamins like vitamin C have not always proven beneficial when taken in larger-than-needed doses. Here is a very long discussion detailing the studies that have shown increased mortality in humans who supplement with extra vitamins. There is a lot to consider (study design, quality of the supplements, etc.) that I will not review here, but suffice it to say, the most dedicated life extension enthusiasts do not take large doses of multivitamin-type supplements. With almost any nutrient, medication, and therapeutic, there is a dose-response curve. There is a beneficial amount. Going too far over or too far under the beneficial amount can do more harm than good.

As mentioned in a previous article, lifespan studies in cats are hard to come by. RejuveCat is aiming for therapies that will help cats live a much longer and healthy life, not just things that will help your pet be in good shape throughout an average lifespan (although that is a great outcome as well). Many of the ingredients within pet foods and supplements have been studied and are proven to provide health benefits, however, this does not mean that these ingredients and supplements will help your pet live longer. Aging is complex and conducting lifespan experiments in pets is very expensive. Therefore, it is not yet known whether adding supplements to your cat's diet will extend its lifespan. It would seem to make common sense that these products would help extend life, but if you investigate lifespan studies in many other species, you will find a lot of dead-ends. Things that work to extend life in lower organisms rarely translate to workable solutions in mammals or humans. Remember that several studies in humans demonstrated increased mortality when supplementing certain vitamins.

Wholistic Pet Organics Feline Complete: Cat Multivitamins for Total Body Health - Cat Supplement with Vitamins, Minerals, Prebiotics, Probiotics, Antioxidants and More - 8 Oz

Wholistic Pet Organics LLC

Buy on Amazon

Consider also that many nutrients that are contained within the latest cat supplement powders have been proven beneficial in isolation. They have probably not been proven beneficial in combination. Conducting a study with just one nutrient is expensive enough, testing two, or three, or four, or more combinations of nutrients in random controlled trials would take a long time and exorbitant amounts of money. Enough is known about most of the ingredients, that mixing large numbers in combination is not likely to be harmful, but various combinations have not been rigorously proven beneficial in most cases.

Antioxidants. It is unfortunate that most people still believe that all-anti-oxidants-all-the-time is a good thing. This is a side-effect of years of marketing which was based upon early research into vitamins and other anti-oxidant molecules. A more sophisticated and realistic view has emerged in recent years. The typical metabolism within mammals produces varying amounts of pro-oxidant and anti-oxidant molecules. You can think of them as being in relative balance. Too much of either and your body and metabolism gets out of balance and being chronically "out of balance" is not good. Constantly over-supplementing with anti-oxidants (which includes many vitamins) will produce an imbalance. Perhaps this is why several "vitamin" studies in humans (referenced earlier) revealed increased mortality with increased supplementation.

Pablo lived to 18 years of age in good health without nutritional supplements.

Something else to think about is that many supplements are studied in animals that were not the animals for which the product is now marketed. Most laboratory studies on supplements are conducted in mice. Most research in larger animals is conducted with dogs and cattle. According to a professor of veterinary science that RejuveCat has consulted with, many cat products have not been fully tested in cats but rather tested in dogs and then marketed to cats afterward. A positive research result in dogs does not necessarily mean it will work in cats to the same degree.

The takeaway from this long discussion is that research is difficult (and expensive). That is why there are not many "blockbuster" medicines or rejuvenation treatments available for your pets. RejuveCat is up to the challenge and will wade through the arduous process to bring effective therapeutics to market. Good nutrition will take your cat a long way, but if you want to double or triple your cat’s lifespan, it will take a lot more. Up until the point that life extending therapeutics become available, the RejuveCat family will continue to try various cat supplements and special food blends, in moderation, as much as the budget allows. There is enough data on most of the supplement ingredients to consider them mostly safe for consumption and beneficial for health. Just remember, more is not better in most cases , and overdoing it could even be harmful.

Have you tried any of the new pet supplements? Do you think they worked? Leave a comment below.