Just like humans, dogs can suffer cognitive decline, depression, and dementia in their old age. For owners of senior dogs, watching your friend’s mental faculties, energy, and mood start to fade away can be one of the hardest parts of their golden years, and among the most detrimental to their quality of life.
Fortunately, there are outstanding tools within the natural pharmacopeia that can mitigate cognitive decline – extending healthspan and enhancing quality of life. If your dog is beginning to slow down, showing signs of lethargy, confusion, or less engagement with life than they used to, then this article is especially for you.
Adult and Senior dogs benefit from different approaches to supporting a healthy brain and mood, and we’ll discuss both of these today.
Cognitive and Mood Support for Adult Dogs
Supporting brain function in healthy adult dogs is best accomplished through preventative functional ingredients that support the underlying structural health of the brain.
The Cognition and Mood component of our Adult Formula accomplishes this through a robust combination of ingredients not found in any other dog supplement:
- Ginko Biloba helps increase circulation in the brain. Without optimal bloodflow, other interventions will be handicapped in efficacy.
- Lion’s Mane Mushroom in its superior fruiting body form increases Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), and stimulates dendrite growth, protecting the brain and supporting its maintenance and repair processes.
- Magtein® Magnesium L-Threonate is a novel form of magnesium developed by MIT scientists (including one Nobel Laureate) and licensed under patent for our formula. It uniquely increases magnesium levels in cerebrospinal fluid, and among other mechanisms activates NDMA receptors, which leads to increased synaptic density and improved memory.
- Blueberry Extract is abundant in the antioxidant polyphenol anthocyanin, which helps safeguard your dog’s brain cells from oxidative stress and inflammation.
- L-Theanine confers neuroprotective benefits while supporting a positive and calm mood.
- Active forms of Vitamin B-6 and B-12 are involved in dozens of critical processes in the nervous system and brain, and are precursors to the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and GABA .
Collectively, these ingredients produce an entourage effect, working together to extend your dog’s cognitive runway, and helping to delay the onset of cognitive decline.
Cognitive Support for Senior Dogs
For Senior Dogs already showing signs of cognitive decline, our Senior Formula combines higher amounts of the same ingredients in our Adult Formula (above) to support the structural health of the brain, with two additional ingredients designed to increase the availability of neurotransmitters involved in cognition and mood.
- Alpha-GPC supports cognitive function in animals. Its mechanisms involve increasing the synthesis and release of acetylcholine in the brain, a neurotransmitter crucial for memory, motivation, arousal, and attention.
- Green Oat Straw Extract (Avena Sativa) is a mild, selective MAO-B inhibitor that helps increase the amount of circulating dopamine in your dog’s brain – the neurotransmitter most involved with motivation and reward. This herb has also traditionally been revered as a nervous system tonic, containing nutrients that enhance blood flow to the brain and help boost canine cognition.
Our product exists to enhance and extend your dog’s quality of life, and we believe a healthy and happy mind is the foundation of this mission. This is why we made cognition and mood support a key focus of our product, and our heaviest area of investment.
When we began formulating Arterra, we were shocked to find that very few dog supplements on the market even attempt to support cognitive function in dogs. While our 63-ingredient formula supports the entire body, its eight ingredients focused on cognition and mood are represent the most advanced cognitive support formula on the market today.
