The Dog Aging Project
A Working Example: Big Breeds Ignoring Trends
Mouth Health: Far Reaching Effects
Canine Distemper: Safe Prevention if Needed
Tasty Tip: Liver!
Along the Natural Path
Can We Help Dogs (and us) Live Longer?
Ah, aging. That old bugaboo that we’d all like to slow down, especially those parts like dementia and Alzheimers that make the latter years a far greater challenge than we’d like.
But wait. Dogs get dementia, too, and they live so closely with us, what if studying them could help unlock some secrets to help us age more gracefully and skip the mental declines that seem to be growing in incidence?
Enter the Dog Aging Project.
They were the subject of a recent story on 60 Minutes.
The logic as to why dogs make great sense to study, at least on the surface:
They live so close to us
Eat some of the same foods we do
Drink the same water
Exercise with us, etc.
And, while apparently 90% of the things that show benefit in lab mice don’t end up helping humans, perhaps dogs, also with relatively short lives compared to us, could teach us something about aging.
So far, sounds good, right?
And some early parallels have actually emerged that can help us age more gracefully.
The Dog Aging Project has found that dogs that live with other dogs appear to suffer from fewer diseases. And when it comes to cognitive decline, dogs that don’t exercise were found to have a six times greater chance of developing dementia.”
We’ve seen this in human studies, so yeah: parallels.
The Dirty Underbelly Revealed
Sounds pretty cool at first, right?
We love dogs, they live much like we do, and if we can study them to help us both live longer healthier lives, what’s not to love?
Then, the conversation in the interview shifts.
They are working on drug development.
Of course! Any time there’s “billions” to be made, it’s so much easier to sell a promising drug than to change those variables that, you know, are probably the keys to health:
Stopping the gross over vaccination of our pets (worst case: annual vaccines, zero science, all profit). Obviously, this applies to our kids as well.
Improving the diet. Getting off the toxic highly processed kibble and on to something more akin to prey, like every dog and cat has evolved to recognize as real food.
Feeding less often, and ditching the treats, so insulin gets a needed rest.
Avoiding the pesticides we dun pets with orally, topically, and in the environment to kill fleas, ticks, and heartworm.
Drug$ for Year$?
This one sentence should tell you all you know about where this is headed:
My vision is that this is, you know, it’s a daily beef-flavored pill that are given preventatively to keep them healthier longer, similar to a statin, you know, for older Americans,” Haliou said.
Celine Haliou is testing three drugs in her for profit company, Loyal. All aimed at life extension in dogs.
Let’s pull apart her logic a bit, though.
Is Aging a Drug Deficiency Disease?
This one is the lowest hanging fruits. Duh.
Of course it’s not. Aging is built in to the fabric of everything that’s born. Aging and death is inevitable. What we have in our control is how healthy we or our pets are, and that’s modifiable based on a number of wise decisions.
See above. No drug could possibly fix a crappy diet, too many vaccines, or a bombardment of pesticides throughout life.
Statins? Whoa, there.
This class of drugs has been a serious money maker with exceedingly small benefits amid a growing cadre of side effects. These include muscle problems, blood sugar worsening, liver enzyme changes, and neuro/sexual complaints.
Here’s but one example of their effects: https://open.substack.com/pub/seniorhealthsecrets/p/your-statin-lowers-coq10-heres-what
Lipitor has been a great example: lifetimes sales for Pfizer are currently estimated at over $160 Billion.
They claim fewer heart attacks and strokes, but that effect is vanishing low.
NNT is “numbers needed to treat” to get the promised benefit.
With this drug class, that’s 100 over 5 years, meaning it takes 100 people on the daily drug for 5 straight years to see ONE LESS heart attack or stroke, while the other 99 see nada.
And life extension?
Equally unlikely: large RCT studies showed “about a week and a half of life, on average, for years of daily statin use.”
The Dog Drug Studied: Rampamycin
This is a drug studied for longevity in mice. But if dogs showed benefit, living in our homes, sharing food, water, exercise, etc., maybe the market would explode.
And from dogs to humans…see the incentive?
Here’s the concerns, unmentioned in this TV piece, tightly edited as it is.
This drug was originally designed to suppress the immune system of transplant patients! It’s still used for that.
How could anything go wrong giving that for, well, life extension?
A few notable ways:
Increased infectious disease risk
Greater susceptibility to cancer (we all have tumor cells popping up regularly and we depend on our immune systems to take them out).
Loss of muscle mass and strength. Guess what age that happens in… hint: not youth or middle age.
It’s well known in the transplant world to screw up triglycerides and skew them towards clogged arteries, where stroke and heart attacks begin.
Rampamycin can induce or worsen insulin resistance. That’s the underlying disease that often leads to high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. A estimated 80% of humans on the planet suffer this. I’m one of them. Search out Ben Bikman’s work if this is news or you want to head this off before it gets too advanced.
Sex hormones and fertility are ill effected. Less a concern if your animal’s neutered, but that loss feeds back into worse bone density, mood, energy, and, again, muscle mass.
So… aging. Sigh.
We can surely do better to minimize its downsides that have become increasingly prevalent in people and pets, but the biggest bang for your buck won’t be a lifetime pill. There is no drug in the world without some undesirable side effects.
It’s going to take rolling up your sleeves and setting forth healthier life choices.
The “side effects” from that are all positive, unlike the drug approach.
Life Expectancy? Ha!
Speaking of aging, it’s common knowledge that the bigger the dog, the less time they generally have with us. That’s sad, as these big guys are often some amazing animals.
When I started the Vital Animal Podcast, I was inspired by animal naturopath Thomas Sandberg, whose goal was to demonstrate to the world that big dogs (he has Great Danes) could outlive their expected “norms.”
He’s done that repeatedly now and continues to study the effects of raw diets on longevity. He’s even got an easy way for you to take part in his research.
Give this episode a listen and share my inspiration around his work:
Mouth Health: Deeper Effects
This really surprised me and maybe it will you, as well.
There’s been work done on the oral microbiome showing it is in fact intimately associated with metabolic health.
I shared a podcast with reference to mouthwash and it’s effects on heart health (!) in an earlier issue: https://vitalanimal.substack.com/i/164783692/germaphobes-listen-up
The short version: mouthwash kills beneficial oral flora —>nitric oxide production drops —>blood vessels lose their ability to dilate —>a set up for high blood pressure and heart attack.
Oops.
But the story deepens. There’s another connection between mouth flora and systemic disease.
My metabolic hero, Ben Bikman, PhD, likely the top insulin researcher who studies that wide reaching hormone’s effects on everything imaginable, has brought us his version of this cautionary mouth tale.
There are over 700 species of bacteria living in the mouth! He’s talking human mouths, but I’m sure we can broaden the focus to include dogs and cats.
A Bad Actor
P. gingivalis is one of the bad guys. It messes with your mitochondria, the powerhouses of every cell. Tiredness and dysfunction follows.
Local inflammation in the gums spills out into the blood, and that spells trouble with insulin signaling, and sets cells up to become insulin resistant.
This bacteria can also directly affect the liver’s ability to regulate glucose, causing rises in blood sugar even when it’s clearly not called for.
The little bugger can even colonize the gut, and get out from there into the body general. (You know that what lives inside the gut is technically “outside” the body, right? Think about it…)
And, mouth trouble can set one up for diabetes, which I’ve noticed has climbed significantly in people and pets since my vet school days in the late 70’s.
What’s more, established insulin resistance and diabetes can circle back and make gingivitis worse.
In a nasty loop, high blood sugar impairs the immune system, so it’s harder to fight off those oral pathogens.
What a fine mess this seemingly localized mouth problem creates!
A big (human) takeaway:
…studies show that treating periodontal disease can significantly improve blood sugar control.”
But Dogs and Cats?
In dogs, it’s Porphyromonas gulae, a nasty relative with similar bad effects, but as yet, no indications of insulin effects, just a big inflammation maker.
And you know what’s commonly in the history of nearly all the cancers they find in both humans and pets?
Inflammation. It’s why I recommend you get rotten teeth pulled, rather than fearing anesthesia and letting the chronic inflammation set your animal up for the #1 cause of death in post-middle age.
Where to Start?
If there aren’t teeth that are obviously rotten and loose and need to come out, I’d start with raw bones, the dog and cat’s perfect toothbrush.
Bones won’t mess with oral microbiomes like medicated mouth wash or toothpastes, but chewing raw bones cleans teeth so well, dental cleanings often become a distant memory.
Many was the patient that I’d see whose owner said dental scaling was recommended. I’d raise the gums and not be all that impressed, and recommend adding raw recreational bones a few times a week, if not daily.
More often than not, that made a huge difference in the mouth health of my patient! No dental needed after all.
Wouldn’t you love to see your vet raise Sadie’s lip and be in awe of her beautiful white teeth?
That would only be topped by revealing HOW you got there, right?
Real World Examples
Mouth health. Now we know it has even wider reaching effects, right down to how we handle blood sugar.
But who’s your reference point?
Mine is the wolf, coyote, leopard and bobcat.
None of them have tooth decay, gingivitis, or bad breath.
Why? They are eating as Nature built them to eat, and that includes bones.
I’m pretty sure that that keeps them saving inflammation for those times when it’s really needed, like an acute injury.
And they won’t experience insulin and blood sugar nor blood vessel issues. You can put money on that one.
Canine Distemper: Easy Prevention
This infectious disease, which can be fatal, is not reportable (like rabies is) so if you hear about an outbreak, it’ll usually be in the local news.
Symptoms are snotty noses and eyes, often purulent discharges (yellow, maybe greenish pus), fever, coughing, and vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.
This is a viral disease, and so supportive care for sick dogs is the typical offering from conventional medicine.
Homeopaths have cured it with the nosode (distemperinum) made from the nasal discharge of a dog suffering the disease. That work goes back to 1929 when a bold veterinarian named Dr. Horace Jervis was battling it unsuccessfully in his clinic’s boarded population. Luckily, he searched out homeopathy, learned about the nosode, and had tremendous success employing that both preventatively and for treatment of his sick dogs.
Reservoir Species
The raccoon and various wild canids (like coyotes) still carry it and while “only the strong survive,” the virus can bleed over to unprotected dogs.
Raccoon distemper is in fact how Dr. Manziano came up with her controlled natural exposure protocol that I outline in my Smart Vaccine Alternatives short course. It works extremely well, and carefully exposed animals develop high titers and likely near life time protection against the disease. Key word: controlled.
Revaccinate? Probably Unnecessary.
The press releases are usually predictably charged up fear pieces to be sure your dogs are “up to date” on their vaccines.
Most recently, in January there was an outbreak in Los Angeles County, in a shelter facility.
As distemper is a core vaccine, odds are, what ever shots your dog received in the past included distemper. It’s the D in the DHLP vaccine and variations of that, and it’s quite effective.
The good news, beside efficacy?
The duration of immunity is very, very long. Here’s a graphic from the late Dr. Ron Schultz, PhD veterinary immunologist from U. Of Wisconsin:
For reference, Challenge means those animals who were protected when live virus was blown at them, while Serology speaks to those who showed positive titers.
You can see the Distemper dogs tested showed extremely long lasting titers (greater than or equal [ ≤] to 15 years!) and they resisted live virus challenges for at least 7 years.
While that immunity persists, re-vaccination wouldn’t likely have any positive effect and could well have a downside.
Distemper In The News? Your Options
As mentioned initially, as this is not a reportable disease, the news is how you’d hear about an outbreak of distemper.
If it appears in your local news, you can assess your vaccination status for any dogs in your care. (Cats won’t be affected, their version is called Panleukopenia, which is unlikely to be newsworthy as it’s also pretty rare these days.)
If your dog had a “D” vaccine (remember: it’s part of most of the combo wombo vaccines) in the past 7 years, you can likely relax. Immunity should still be strong.
If you want to verify that, you can have your vet run a titer test.
If you’ve raised a vaccine-free dog, you can easily employ the distemper nosode, which we typically only give to pups until their immune system matures. It’s part of our parvo/distemper nosode kit that many have used to get their puppies through the susceptibility window until they reach 9 months of age.
Remember, titers are not expected from nosode use alone. That’s not how energetic protection works. While very effective given in a proper protocol, the immunity is short term only.
Similarly, if you’re concerned that your early life vaccine’s immunity may have waned and you’d rather not risk another round of shots (especially in those seniors!), the nosode will be effective protection until the news peters out.
These outbreaks are all self limiting, usually no more than several weeks before they wind down. You can avoid the fear and have safe options to up your dog’s protection if it’s warranted.
Tasty Tip: Are You Feeding Liver?
Here’s an interesting excerpt from a study done on rats with three different diets:
After several weeks, the animals were placed one by one into a drum of cold water from which they could not climb out. They literally were forced to sink or swim. Rats in the first group swam for an average 13.3 minutes before giving up. The second group, which had the added fortifications of B vitamins, swam for an average of 13.4 minutes.
Of the last group of rats, the ones receiving liver, three swam for 63, 83 and 87 minutes. The other nine rats in this group were still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours when the test was terminated. Something in the liver had prevented them from becoming exhausted. To this day scientists have not been able to pin a label on this anti-fatigue factor.”
Prevention Magazine, 1975 published here.
Common misperceptions re: liver
1. It’s full of toxins, right?
Wrong.
Among the livers many, many functions is filtering and processing toxins. That’s true.
But it’s not a storehouse of those toxins!
If it were, yes, you’d do well to avoid it.
But, like the test rats in the study showed, liver is an amazingly healthy addition to your carnivore’s diet.
Ever wondered why predators eat the organs of their prey first?
2. It will cause diarrhea
Well, fed in a high amount in an animal unused to eating liver, you could get a loose stool for a short period.
That’s not going to happen if you keep liver to 10% of the diet on a regular basis, or even feed a larger portion now and then, say, twice a week.
Your pet’s microbiome will adjust and loose stools won’t persist, if you see them at all.
On a positive note, raw feeders know that constipation is often resolved by adding more organ meats to your animal’s diet, including liver.
3. It’ll cause vitamin A toxicity
A story here will help. When I was transitioning into holistic vet medicine, we lived up on Mt Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii. Cats joined our family, two or was it three? Itty bitty kitties when they came as rescues.
As a state veterinarian for Maui county, I got to know the ranchers and the slaughter house, and made frequent stops at both.
As liver was so plentiful and cheap, and we had a number of mouths to feed on a bit of a skimpy salary, I’d bring home beef liver for our kitty pride.
Into the blender it went, with some herbs, some greens, some calcium (can’t recall the source), all raw, all blended into a thick soup, and into the food dish it went.
It was feeding frenzy at every meal!
And these little ones grew healthy and sleek, while I had vague memories about the horrors of vitamin A overdosing (dry flaky skin, bone abnormalities, weakness, weight loss — after months of too much vitamin A).
Yes, this vet, still very green on raw feeding (and no internet in those days) was feeding solely liver as the protein source for these mini carnivores, and they thrived. And we fed this way for months to a year!
So, would I do that now?
No, certainly not. That’s quite an unbalanced diet for long term.
But the story helps you understand that it’d be quite difficult to reach toxicity levels of vitamin A feeding liver.
So, with its significant benefits nutritionally (your vitamin/mineral supplement as a whole food!), be sure to offer liver on a regular basis to your pack or pride.
Raw, always raw, to get the most benefit.
And vary the source, just like you should be doing with your meat. Liver can come from cow, calf, goat, chicken, turkey, you name it!
You’ll never go wrong with variety in your pet’s diet. No wolf or bobcat ever ate a mono diet!
Along the Natural Path
Our milking herd had a new arrival recently, who was lucky enough to get petted by our presidents.
While all young animals have the cuteness factor, there’s something extra special about Indian calves. Many have extra long eyelashes, but it’s more than that. Even in all my years in Wisconsin dairy practice, I never saw anything to beat these endearing babies.
We’re moving right along here in Uttar Pradesh, leaving Spring behind and entering hot weather with climbing humidity. Crossed 100º a couple times, so the a/c is back to work in my room and in the ashram prayer hall. The coconut oil won’t be solid again until December, earliest.
Many of us will thankfully be escaping next month to the Himalayan hill station for a couple month stay amid beautiful greenery, towering trees, and blessedly cool temps.
Until then, we seek shade, wrap our heads and cover bare skin against the ever closer (and way hotter) sun which, during winter, we sought out eagerly.
Let us know in the comments what rang the bell for you. Feeling freer to try liver? Less likely to bite when an “anti-aging” daily pill comes your way? More likely to hand out some Vitamin N (“No.”) when distemper vaccine is up for repetition (duration of immunity is a powerful thing to know, eh)? Getting ready to try the raw bone approach to healthier teeth and gums? Tossed your Listerine, yet?
I’ll be there looking for your thoughtful input or questions.
Till next time, keep on making those wise decisions for the innocents in your care. They don’t know how lucky they are to have you watching out for them.
Will Falconer, DVM
Interesting that you’re writing about aging canines this week. My 17 year old dachshund I spoke with you about a month ago died last Sunday, his heart failure finally making his lungs fill up and his desperate bid to breathe driving me to seek the final peace of no more suffering. Would that we had a holistic vet in my part of the world. he had a good run but was suffering dementia too. Working on the husband as I write to ditch the egg shells and start giving our 5 year old some chicken neck every day. Keep writing, I need all the ammunition I can get!
As I have told you in the past, Dr. Falconer, I so wish I had known a wise vet like you in the past when I raised and lived with multiple cats and dogs. If only, I would not have made so many mistakes. If I were sharing my life in the same way now, you better believe those animals would be benefitting from your invaluable advise, and there would be bones and organ meats daily. Please keep giving your wisdom to all who will listen.