The Enzyme Elastin Plays A Role In Joint Movement

Elastin is a protein in connective tissue that is elastic and allows many tissues in the body to resume their shape after stretching or contracting. Elastin helps skin to return to its original position when it is poked or pinched. Elastin is also an important load-bearing tissue in the bodies of vertebrates-from Wikipedia.  The presence of elastin is reduced with age and this leads to the onset of joint pain and poor joint flexibility.  One way to remedy this problem is to increase the trace mineral level, particularly copper, zinc and manganese.  These lead to more effective production of elastin and allows the flexibility to return and the pain to ebb without medications.  This is a natural way to treat not only the symptom but also the heart of the problem.

Supplementing with chelated trace minerals is the most effective way to change the nutritional profile and increase mineral metabolism.  Minerals can easily be tied up in the body of dogs because of their total intake of nutrients.  For instance, having a water source that is high in iron can cause an antagonistic relationship between iron and copper and your pet can become deficient to a sub-clinical degree.  That is to say that there are no visible symptoms but the problem persists

To be assured that mineral supplementation is effective, the minerals need to be chelated, that is raw minerals bonded to amino acids at the molecular level.  This insures effective absorption because of particle size and using the more basic forms of mineral molecules instead of a mineral compound(like copper versus copper sulfate)

Always check out ingredients and look for listings like “copper amino acid chelate” or “zinc amino acid chelate” and don’t accept ingredients like “copper oxide” or “copper sulfate” as acceptable forms of supplementation.

By using basic mineral nutrition instead of medications like glucosomine(an extract of shell fish which can carry its on reactions) you are creating a healthier environment within the dog and”building a better dog” not just medicating a symptom.