Having a pet is great. They will give you unconditional love, support and they will be a good listener if you were feeling bad about something and talking to them.
With any animals, if you have a pet, someday, you would encounter the day you have to say “Good bye” to them. That is the hardest part of all in the life with them.
Recently, I stumbled across the news talking about anti-aging drug for dogs.
The drug was already tested on mice, and according to the scientists, the drug extended mice’s life span by 10-15%.
Now, they are looking to see if it would help any for dogs as well.
That magical anti aging drug is called “rapamycin”.
It’s commonly used in kidney transplants to prevent organ rejection.
Rapamycin is a bacterial by-product discovered in the island’s famous statues and is named after Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island.
According to dog time website, University of Washington scientists are learning that it also has rejuvenation properties, and they are testing on Golden Retriever, Labrador, and German Shepherd through the project called “Dog aging project“.
They started with the 3 breed because of their life spans, which are usually 11 to 12 years of age and because they tend to get heart disease and cancer.
According to Dr Kaeberlein, rapamycin wards off heart disease and different types of cancer.
Now should we feel happy for the pill?
Well, as any medicines, these got side effects too; side effects of the drug include cancer, diabetes, infections and more.
That being said, researchers were shocked by results of the initial trials, finding that some dogs showed improved heart functionality after just a few weeks.
Dr Matt Kaeberlein (biologists) says “There will also be a second larger rapamycin study, and a longitudinal study of aging that dogs of all sizes and breeds are potentially eligible for.”
If you were interested in attending to the anti aging study, it looks like you can still sign up for it here.
Their official website home page is here.
The article at dog time says that researcher says that if the benefits are positive, rapamycin (main ingredients of the anti aging drug) could be added to pet food in order to extend the lives of household dogs.
To read the full article at dog time website,please click here.
Personally, I feel that if you would like to help the dog extend the life span and help them live longer, I would think feeding healthy choice of diet make sense more. Relying on the medicine does not sound good to me.
Whether you are dog or human, healthy diet is the base of the health and I do not think just giving a magical pill would do magically good on them,considering pill could also have side effects like any medicine.
Of course, dog needs physical/ mental exercise, too.
If researchers found that it helps the dog greatly to slow the aging process, and suggesting to put the Rapamycin into kibble, I wonder if that formula will be heat resistant because kibble uses heat during the production.
And would that mean, researchers promote process food over fresh food just because they can claim the kibble got anti aging powder or whatever form they use?
Discovery of anti aging drug is interesting but, I would rather keep providing healthy diet and exercise to Palette.
What about you?
Any thoughts on the anti aging drug for dogs?
Apr 24, 2017 | | Dog Health