Dogs may not send Valentine’s Day cards, but they fill our lives with unconditional love every day. So, it’s no surprise that dog owners want their furry friends to live long, happy, and healthy lives. But how can we help dogs not only live longer, but thrive throughout their lives? Well, that’s exactly what the Dog Aging Project is studying.
The research explores the science of canine longevity. The findings could help extend the time we get with our companions and also improve their quality of life.
What is the Dog Aging Project?
“The Dog Aging Project is a long-term longitudinal study of companion dogs, privately owned dogs in people’s homes, with the goals of understanding the genetic and lifestyle factors that influence the aging trajectory in dogs,” explains Kate Creevy DVM, MS, DACVIM (SAIM), a researcher of population-level investigations into morbidity and mortality in companion dogs. “And by lifestyle factors, we mean everything—what they eat, where they live, their social environment, their physical environment, particulates in the air, what their exercise schedule is like.”
Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs (TRIAD) clinical trial
The Dog Aging Project is currently getting a lot of buzz for its clinical trial, TRIAD. The trial studies the effect of rapamycin on canine longevity.
“Rapamycin is a medication that’s been around for a long time in human health,” Creevy explained. “And it’s most commonly used as an immunosuppressant in people, particularly organ transplants like kidney transplants. And that’s at relatively high doses. It suppresses the immune system so that those organ transplants can succeed.”
However, according to Creevy, rapamycin might have other uses. “It was discovered decades ago that at lower doses [rapamycin] has other effects and it changes the way that the cells again process energy. Specifically, it acts on mitochondria, and it impacts the way the cells process energy.”
Anyone who has taken a high school biology class remembers that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. And rapamycin’s impact on the cell’s energy producers has promising implications when studied in mice. Past research in mice shows that when rapamycin is administered below the immunosuppressive dose, it extends the lifespan of mice. And there might be even more benefits.
“In addition to living longer with rapamycin therapy, the older mice have preserved cardiac function, muscle function, and cognitive function more than the mice who do not receive rapamycin,” Creevy said.
Implications for dogs
Because of the positive results in mice testing, researchers have become interested in the effects of rapamycin across species. The Dog Aging Project’s TRIAD clinical trial is exploring these possibilities in our canine companions. According to Creevy, TRIAD is the third clinical trial exploring the impact of rapamycin on dogs.
“My team has done two previous smaller, shorter studies to make sure that the dogs would tolerate it, we didn’t see side effects, and that we could design it,” Creevy said. “TRIAD now is a nationwide study with a plan to enroll 580 dogs. The dogs go into specific clinical trial sites, [and] there are about 20 of [the sites] right now around the country.”
Once dogs are signed up for the trial, the owners administer either rapamycin or a placebo pill to their dogs for a year. Creevy’s team then follows the dogs for two more years to track rapamycin’s impact on lifespan. But there are even more important implications for Creevy.
“For me as a dog owner, a veterinarian, even more importantly, does [rapamycin] preserve aging, health and this this thing that we refer to as healthspan?”
TRIAD, of course, is a key area of the Dog Aging Project’s research. But, for Creevy, some of the most important research of the Dog Aging Project doesn’t involve rapamycin at all. This is where the concept of healthspan comes into play.
Lifespan vs healthspan
When it comes to canine longevity, Creevy notes that beginners should understand two key definitions: lifespan and healthspan. While colloquially, many are familiar with the first term (lifespan = the length of one’s life), the term healthspan is less well-known. And it’s much harder to quantify.
“Healthspan is the period that you are living well, free from chronic disease, in good function, good muscle function, good activity, good cognitive function,” Creevy explained. “And for many of us, that’s what we want for our lives.”
It’s also what dog owners want for their beloved pets. Although the Dog Aging Project emphasizes canine longevity, maximizing the quality of life for our pups is another key goal. According to Creevy, much of the research involved is “aimed at trying to describe not just actual lifespan, but the dog’s experience of that life, [and the] quality of that life along the way.”
One of the advantages of this aspect of the Dog Aging Project is that it focuses on prevention. While the research involving rapamycin is promising, these studies take time, a precious commodity for dogs. And for Creevy, one of the advantages of studying measures that boost canine longevity is that they’re more accessible.
Emphasizing prevention
Creevy offers nutrition and exercise as examples. “Everybody feeds their dog something. And so anytime we can identify a strategy of feeding or a strategy of exercise that promotes better health, that’s so much more available to the average dog owner as compared to a medication that they might have to pay for.”
The research has revealed some insightful findings thus far. For instance, Creevy has found that dogs who are fed less frequently have better health status.
“We were able to look at that and across our population, dogs who were only fed once a day had better health status, as reported by their owners, than dogs who were fed more often,” Creevy explained, emphasizing that the data involved here is cross-sectional, meaning that it only represents data points regarding a population at a specific point of time. “What we want to be able to do next, of course, is determine the order of events, right? Is it the case that by feeding your dog only once a day, you encourage these better health outcomes later in life? And I don’t know that. But we’re looking into that. So that one raised a lot of interest for people and people are pretty excited about making good diet choices for their dogs and good nutrition choices for their dogs.”
Other important findings involve the physical activity of dogs.
“We also looked at the fact that dogs who have more physical activity are less likely to have cognitive impairment,” Creevy said. “We know in people that by being more physically active, you decrease your risk of developing cognitive decline. In this first analysis that we’ve published, we know that the more active dogs had less senility. But it could be the case that once your dog has cognitive decline, you stop exercising it because it’s declining. So again, we don’t yet know the direction of what we call the causal arrow. But we hope to figure that out over time, and it would follow what we know in people, if it were the case that physical activity earlier in life promoted better cognitive health later in life.”
Of course, it’s always important to consult with your veterinarian to determine the best course of action for your dog when it comes to drastic changes in diet and physical activity.
Can Fido keep us fur-ever young?
If you’re noticing that these health markers in dogs mirror health markers in human health, Creevy is way ahead of you. Because of the often-symbiotic relationship between dog and owner health, some of this research suggests perks for humans as well.
“The research community cares about understanding dog health because dogs can teach us a lot about human health,” Creevy explained.
And as a result, helping our dogs stay healthy might just unlock unexpected health benefits to dog owners, too. The same is possibly true of the lifespan and healthspan of dog owners. The notion that the two share a linear relationship is highly likely.
Maximizing health benefits for all
This means that if a dog owner lives a healthy lifestyle, their habits are likely benefiting their dog as well. For example, if a dog owner is looking after their heart health, they will likely take their pup (let’s call him Max) with them on walks to reach their daily step goal. When Max’s owner takes him on walks regularly, Max revives virtually every accompanying health benefit, from better cardiovascular health to a boosted mood.
On a similar note, a formerly sedentary dog owner will see health boosts if, upon owning a dog, they improve their healthy habits for (or because of) their furry friend. In other words, many of the habits that improve our health also improve the health of our dogs, and vice versa. So looking after one’s health likely benefits the health of their dogs.
However, the opposite can also be true. A pet owner who is sedentary, for instance, is less likely to walk their dog. Because our own lack of access to health resources and poor lifestyle choices can impact our pups, it’s important to look after ourselves. It’s not just for our sake—it’s for Max’s as well.
In short, the lifespans and healthspans of healthy and unhealthy dog owners and their dogs can mirror each other for better or worse. For Creevy, this relationship makes logical sense.
“If you think about it, they are the only species on the planet that literally lives in our house, sleeps in our bed, eats our food, drinks our water, exercises when we exercise travels with us when we travel, and has access to the kind of medical care that is basically otherwise reserved for ourselves,” she said. “Cats are a close second, but many people don’t manage their cats the way they manage their dogs because cats are frequently less tolerant of those kinds of deviations from routine. And so dogs really present a unique opportunity to do something that benefits dogs and learn things that will benefit their owners. Everybody wins.”
What veterinarians should know
So what do veterinarians need to know about this research? Well, Creevy wants them to not only be aware of it but understand the opportunities it presents.
“Veterinarians should know that we are enrolling and we would love to continue to enroll anybody, any dog anywhere in the U.S., any age, any size, any health condition,” Creevy said. “All dogs are eligible for the Dog Aging Project if their owners go online and fill out our surveys.”
As for the TRIAD study specifically, there are some restrictions. Because larger dogs tend to have shorter lifespans than smaller dogs, TRIAD focuses on the former group.
“Veterinarians should also know that the TRIAD clinical trial is open for enrollment to dogs who are 7 years of age or older and 20 kilos, which is 44 pounds or larger,” Creevy said. “They have to be in good general health for their age.”
Learn more and enroll your dog in the Dog Aging Project here. For the TRIAD trial, you can learn more and sign up here.
Photo credit: © Capuski via Getty Images Plus
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