If you google 'carrageenan' you will find many sites warning about the negative effects of carrageenan in human & pet food! It's even in household products like air fresheners & cosmetics. There are scientific studies that carrageenan induces inflammation. It's given to lab rats to induce inflammation, to test anti-inflammatory joint pills! (look @ 22.) Carrageenan also causes digestive upset & is linked to cancer! Check your pet food ingredients, study it, google every ingredient if you have to...know what's in your pet food. If there's
Carrageenan Just Don’t Do It!
This site lists all the studies & experiments done on & w/Carrageenan:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc
1.
Exposure to common food additive carrageenan leads to reduced sulfatase activity and increase in sulfated glycosaminoglycans in human epithelial cells The common food additive, carrageenan, is consumed in the average diet in sufficient quantities to have biological effects. In contrast to the glycoside digoxin, which is generally prescribed in doses of 0.25 mg daily, average daily ingestion of carrageenan in the typical diet is estimated to be 250 mg/day [1,2]. Individuals who consume several carrageenan-containing foods may ingest several grams of carrageenan per day [3,4]. Carrageenan is found in a wide range of processed foods, including ice cream, whipped cream, infant formula, deli meats, sour cream, puddings, soymilk, yogurt, and dietary supplements. Carrageenan is also used in pharmaceuticals as an excipient, and in room air fresheners, cosmetics, and pet foods, due to its ability to improve the texture and solubility of ingredients. The Joint Expert Committee (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the WHO) on Food Additives has recommended that carrageenan be excluded from infant formula and that current intake of carrageenan in the diet be re-evaluated [5].
Last sentence from#4. Discussion
The implications for human disease may be profound, since carrageenan is consumed in significant quantity in the human diet.
22.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010571/
(I'm not sure why this link is not working, please copy & paste, or it's #22 on the 2nd page.)
Anti-inflammatory synergy of MEN16132, a kinin B2 receptor antagonist, and dexamethasone in carrageenan-induced knee joint arthritis in rats BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Bradykinin, through its B2 receptor, is involved in inflammatory processes related to arthropathies. In
carrageenan and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced arthritis in rat, the anti-inflammatory activity of MEN16132, a potent and selective kinin B2 receptor antagonist, was compared with that of steroidal and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The interaction between MEN16132 and dexamethasone was also investigated.
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
Drugs, alone or in combination, were injected into the knee joint 30 min before intra-articular administration of
carrageenan or LPS, in pentobarbital anaesthetized rats. Effects on incapacitation, oedema, neutrophil recruitment and kallikrein system activation, in the knee joint, were assessed.
KEY RESULTS
MEN16132 and dexamethasone (10–300 µg per knee) dose-dependently reduced
carrageenan-induced joint pain, oedema and neutrophil infiltration, reaching a maximal inhibition of about 50%. Dexketoprofen exerted a similar analgesic activity, whereas it did not affect the other inflammatory responses. MEN16132 showed a partial inhibition of LPS-induced joint pain, whereas dexamethasone produced a full analgesic effect. Combination of MEN16132 and dexamethasone showed a strong synergistic interaction in inhibiting both carrageenan and LPS-induced knee joint inflammation. Dexamethasone did not prevent the contact activation of prekallikrein by carrageenan and the subsequent release of kallikreins and bradykinin in the synovium.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Steroids and kinin B2 receptor antagonists appear to relieve
arthritic symptoms induced by carrageenan or LPS and act synergistically to inhibit joint inflammation. This could have interesting therapeutic implications, possibly opening the way for combination therapies in the control of inflammatory arthropathies.