A Study of the Effect of HealthyMouthTM Canine Anti-Plaque Water Additive with Mobility Support on the Mobility Levels of Dogs with Impaired Mobility

This study investigated the effectiveness of a water additive in improving the mobility levels of a sample of dogs with moderately impaired mobility. The water additive contained Boswellia Serrata (Boswellic Acid) and Turmeric (source of Curcumin) as its primary bioactive ingredients. A sample of 40 mobility-impaired dogs were stratified by gender and randomly assigned to control and treatment groups. A double blind protocol was used whereby neither the owner dispensing the drinking water nor the clinicians rating the dogs were aware of whether a dog was in the control or treatment group. The control group received a placebo which looked and tasted the same as the treatment water. All dogs were rated on nine aspects of mobility on an 11-zone visual analog scale on day 0 and on day 56. The control and treatment groups were compared on their difference scores for the nine items and their overall mean using ANCOVA, controlling for day 0 levels. The results indicated that the positive change in mobility for the treatment group was significantly greater than that for the control group (p < .0001) on all nine items and on overall mobility. This degree of significance was essentially unchanged when corrections were made for violations of normality and variance homogeneity assumptions. The average percentage improvement on the nine mobility items for the treatment group was 43.56% compared to -.23% for the control group. On the overall mobility score, the mean percentage change for the treatment group was 34.76% compared to -.91% for the control group. Arthritis or some form of lameness or gait problems affects one in every five adult dogs in the U.S. These problems as a group constitute one of the most common sources of chronic pain in dogs that veterinarians treat. The search for effective pharmaceutical treatments of these conditions has produced some success. The most commonly used drugs, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) are effective in producing palliative effects , but can have side effects ranging from vomiting, loss of appetite, depression, lethargy, and diarrhea to gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers, perforations, kidney damage, and liver problems. These potential side effects have motivated a continuing interest in the possibility of identifying nonpharmaceutical, natural substances that may have positive therapeutic effects. One such natural substance that has been reported to have positive therapeutic effects in humans is Boswellia serrata. Also called Indian frankincense, this substance has been part of traditional Indian medicine for thousands of years. It is derived from the resin of the Boswellia tree, a native Indian plant. It has several biologically active components, including Boswellic acid. Boswellic acid inhibits the activity of an enzyme called 5-lipoxygenase, which produces inflammatory molecules in the body's tissues. It also suppresses the activity of immune cells that have a role in initiating inflammation. In a recent clinical trial of Boswellia serrata extract published in the journal "Arthritis Research and Therapy" (Sengupta, Alluri, Satish, Mishra, Golakoti, Sarma, Dey, and Raychaudhuri, 2008), human subjects who consumed an enriched form of the extract (viz., 5-Loxin) experienced a significant improvement in their arthritis symptoms compared to those who took a placebo. In another study, Sengupta, Alluri, Satish, Mishra, Golakoti, Sarma, Dey, and Raychaudhuri (2008) reported significant reduction in pain and improvement in physical function among osteoarthritis patients at both low (100 mg/day) and moderate (250 mg/day) dosage levels of Boswellia serrata extract, with no detectable side effects. Finally, a study on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee showed that Boswellia extract decreased pain and swelling and increased range of motion and endurance (Kimmatkar, Thawani, Hingorani, and Khiyani, 2003). Several animal studies of the anti-arthritic properties of Boswellia serrata extract have also been reported. The extract exhibited significant anti-arthritic efficacy in Sprague-Dawley rats. For example, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause a disruption of glycosaminoglycan synthesis, accelerating articular damage in arthritic conditions. An in vivo animal study examined Boswellia extract and ketoprofen for effects on glycosaminoglycan metabolism. Boswellia significantly reduced the degradation of glycosaminoglycans compared to controls, whereas, ketoprofen caused a decrease in total tissue glycosaminoglycan content (Reddy, Chandrakasan, and Dhar, 1989). The broad spectrum safety of Boswellia serrata extract was tested using a battery of human safety studies conducted according to OECD guidelines and it was found to be safe (Krishnaraju, Sundararaju, Vamsikrishna, Suryachandra, Machiraju, Sengupta, and Trimurtulu, 2010). The safety of the extract in animals was supported by a study of acute and dose dependent subchronic safety in rats by Lalithakumari, Krishnaraju, Sengupta, Subbaraju, and Chatterjee (2006), which demonstrated that Boswellia serrata extract is safe even at dose levels 2,000 to 3,000 times higher than the human equivalence dose. In addition, Boswellia serrata extract was found to be non-genotoxic per the standard AMES bacterial reverse mutation assay, the chromosomal aberration test in Chinese hamster cells, and the mouse peripheral blood micronucleus assay (Chang, J.T., 2007a, 2007b; Indrani, 2006; Trimurtulu, Sen, Krishnaraju, and