Boosting Pet Longevity and Creating a Healthier Lifespan: A Deep Dive into Anti-Aging and Wellness Strategies with Dr. Heather Oxford

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dogs make the best companions for humans.
This podcast aims to help makehumans better companions for
their dogs.
Welcome to the Baroo Podcast, amodern lifestyle podcast for
dogs and their people.
I'm your host, charlotte Bain.
I've been caring for otherpeople's dogs for more than 15

(00:21):
years and, while I've learned alot in my career, I definitely
don't know at all.
So I've collected anever-evolving roster of amazing
dog people and I learn newthings from them all the time.
Hi, you guys, thank you so muchfor joining me for this episode

(00:46):
of the Baroo Podcast.
In this episode, I am joined byone of my favorite people, dr
Heather Oxford.
Dr Oxford is a renownedholistic veterinarian and she
has also recently become adiplomat to the national
practitioners of anti-aging.
She is back to discuss thesecrets to longevity and a
healthy lifespan in our pups.
Turns out, you guys, it's notmuch different for our pups than

(01:09):
it is for us humans.
We discuss everything from dietand exercise, thermal
regulation, circadian rhythm andeven hormones.
Alright, you guys, let's jumpinto this chat.
So nice to see you again.
I know I see you on a regularbasis, but it's exciting to have

(01:30):
you back on the podcast.
I know it's great to be back.
Thank you.
Well, congratulations are inorder for you, because you
recently became a diplomat tothe American Board of Anti-Aging
Health Practitioners.
Is that correct?
Thank you so much.
Yes, it is so.
Does that encompass pets andpeople, or is that just?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
That's actually a human certification.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Oh, okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, but everything that I have learned
through that I can apply to pets, to pets.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
That's very exciting.
Why is that, can I ask?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, well, a lot of the research that is behind the
human integrative and functionalmedicine is actually based on
animals, and so it's very easyto extrapolate and translate a
lot of this data into ourcompanion animals.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Is that because they live alongside us and share our
lives, or is that?
Why can that be applied to ourcompanion animals?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, a lot of different animalmodels have been studied in
anti-aging research, but reallycompanion dogs are probably the
best species that we could bestudying anti-aging in, because
they do as you said, live rightalongside us.
They are exposed to practicallyeverything we're exposed to

(02:59):
every single day.
So they're in our yards.
If we have chemicals in ouryards, they're going to be
exposed to those same exactchemicals A lot of times.
Our pets are eating some of thevery same foods that we're
eating on a daily basis.
They are experiencing so manyof the very same lifestyle
factors.
If we are exercising many times, our pets are exercising with

(03:24):
us.
Vice versa, they're gettingbasically a very similar
standard of healthcare that weare.
No other animal species canreally boast that claim.
I mean dogs and cats sharevirtually so many of the same

(03:47):
standards of health that we doand also, interestingly enough,
the same top non-communicable orchronic diseases that humans
suffer from as we get older.
They're the same ones that ouranimals suffer from as well.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Oh, interesting, I didn't know, that.
What would some of the we canjump into that.
So today, just for thelisteners, since we just jumped
right in, we are talking aboutlongevity and anti-aging in our
pets and, dr Heather, you justfinished a lecture with the
American Holistic VeterinaryMedical Association.

(04:29):
You were one of the lecturersthere.
That's pretty fantastic.
I had the pleasure of listeningto those lecturers.
You sent them to me because Iasked for them.
I'm just going to say righthere that they were way over my
head, sorry.
They were super interesting, butthey were way too scientific
for me and so I found myselftuning out a little bit.

(04:52):
So I would love to be able totalk about anti-aging and
longevity in a way that petparents can understand yeah,
absolutely, and how we can beproactive with that and why it's
important to be proactive withthe health and wellness and the
longevity of our pets.

(05:14):
Because one thing that didstuff, one thing that stood out
with me is I think that youmentioned the financial burden
of our aging pets and how, if webecome more proactive in
creating a healthier health spanversus a lifespan which we're
going to get into, it can bebeneficial for our wallet.

(05:37):
I guess we're not going to facesome of those really heavy
veterinary costs that we can getlater on in the life.
I mean, I have a 16-year-olddog, so the later in life.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
So well, let's just jump in, yeah okay, sounds good.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Charlotte, thanks for listening to my lectures.
It sounds like you took awayfrom it, it's three hours?
Yeah, I know, or at least theywere with helping you go to
sleep.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
I don't know.
No, it was.
I'm going to say it was reallyinformative and pretty amazing.
I just didn't understand a lotof what you were talking about,
just because I didn't have thelanguage you know, right.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
But I love how interested.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I love how interested the other veterinarians are in
this and how it's kind of at theforefront of healthcare, right
yeah it really is.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It is the junction of really one health.
I mean, it's multi-specieshealth and research.
It's conventional plus holistichealth.
It's everything combined.
It's a lot of upper-levelbiology as well.

(06:55):
So I'm going to try to do mybest to boil that down to make
it understandable to the averagepet parent who really wants to
do the best they can for theirpets, because, as you said,
charlotte, it's really I mean,some of this stuff.

(07:17):
It could involve a little bit ofa financial investment right
into our upfront, but the goalis to invest in our pet's health
and longevity and be asproactive and preventative as we
can throughout their lives sothat as they become adults and

(07:42):
into their geriatric years, theyare experiencing fewer chronic
health issues.
And so, yes, that's where weshould experience lighter
financial burden.
So one of the main reasons whythere's been this explosion in

(08:02):
anti-aging research on the humanside is because billions of
dollars have been put into thisresearch, because world leaders
are now understanding that weare really facing a crisis in
human health, because ourlifespan globally is extending,
which is a great thing.

(08:24):
However, simultaneous to that,we also have, for the first time
in our history, the lowestbirth rate, and so we have fewer
people being born and a growingpopulation of more geriatric or
aged people living longer, andabout 80% of the last years of

(08:50):
our life we're experiencing thishealth span lifespan gap, and
that's what you touched on.
How do we maximize our healthspan?
Well, first I'm going to definehealth span.
So health span is really theyears that we live with quality
health, and so what all of usreally want for ourselves and

(09:13):
for our pets is the longesthealth span possible.
I mean we should be doingeverything we can to stay young
as long as possible and out ofchronic disease for as long as
possible, and to only reallyexperience chronic disease if we
have to for a very short amountof time, and so that's really

(09:36):
the goal of longevity medicineis to maximize our health span
so that we have a shorter amountof time lived in this health
span lifespan gap where we'reexperiencing chronic disease,
and so that's where we couldreally start to see a lighter
financial burden, less financialburden in managing these

(10:00):
chronic diseases.
I mean we're talking trillionsof dollars spent every year just
in the US managing these topfour chronic diseases, and in
veterinary medicine we have seenjust in the past year, annual
veterinary costs literallyalmost double, and we are.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes, I have noticed that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, and one of the reasons why I love this is
because, looking at the numbersand doing some of my research, I
actually saw that inflation hasliterally doubled in the past
two years in veterinary expense.
Right, okay, so there's not muchwe can do about that, because
the whole world has experiencedthat increase in inflation.

(10:46):
But one of the factors that wecan start to control is how much
money has to be spent onchronic disease management.
It's like in human health ourpets we can do better and as
vets we want to do better.
But it is going to start withthe more education we can get

(11:09):
for our pet parents to know thatit's not just supplements and
medicine that help withimproving our pet's health span.
We have to start with afoundation of good lifestyle
factors for our pets, and that'swhere pet parents can have all
the control, and a lot of thisstuff costs no money.

(11:32):
So we Okay, you know there'snot much financial investment up
front to get good lifestylefactors, except that we do
probably need to spend aconsiderable amount on what
we're feeding our pets, becausethat is really the foundation

(11:53):
for everything.
Yes, good nutrition is thebaseline, I mean it's the same
for us, right.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
It is, it's the same for humans, yeah Right.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I mean we could get by on eating very
inexpensive, cheap food, butunfortunately that food tends to
have the highest caloriecontent and the lowest
nutritional value, and so we'rereally.
We might be saving a few buckson the forefront, but on the

(12:21):
back end, when you looklong-term, we're setting
ourselves up for more chronichealth issues.
So right, it's the same thingfor our pets.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, exactly.
So what are those top you weresaying?
You mentioned the top fourissues.
What are those top four issuesthat we have in common with our
pets, or that our pets have incommon with us?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, so the top things are going to In humans
it's cardiovascular disease.
This is the number one thingthat we do, that we struggle
with with morbidity andmortality in humans, and then we
also are struggling withdiabetes and cancer and

(13:01):
arthritis, and these are thesame top diseases that our pets
are struggling with formorbidity, which means chronic
disease that we live with, butalso mortality, things that
actually kill our pets.
Arthritis doesn't kill us, wedon't get euthanized, but our

(13:25):
pets with really long-term,severe arthritis many times,
unfortunately, this is one ofthe top killers of our pets.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
How and why is that?

Speaker 2 (13:35):
But by far and away the number one.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, why is it one of the top killers of our pets?
Because they lose mobility.
And then people, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
So it's actually a broader category of disease.
That is one of the top fourthings that causes mortality in
our dogs.
It's a category calledconsidered old age and it
encompasses arthritis andneuromuscular decline.
And so, as our pets and manytimes we can trace back these

(14:05):
pets that are suffering with badarthritis or neuro decline Many
times, if you look back earlier, they were obese or overweight,
maybe suffering from poornutrition.
Poor nutrition is equivalent topoor nutrition and so if
they're overweight or notgetting the best diet maybe the

(14:28):
diet is inflammatory, it has alot of carbohydrates, not the
best protein sources, that kindof thing then they are set up
for developing arthritis whenthey become adults, experiencing
the symptoms of that arthritiswhen they become adult,
pediatric, and that's going toyes, just as you said, it's

(14:49):
going to limit their mobility,their quality of life starts to
decline, and so many pet ownersare faced with the prospect of
having to euthanize their petsfor this reason.
And but it's not just that, it'salso cardiovascular is a big

(15:11):
one, for pets as well Inventparticular diseases than humans
suffer with with cardiovascular,but it's still the same
category of disease, and canceris about 50% of cause of
mortality in pets.
So it's really unfortunate.

(15:33):
But many of these things we canhelp to prevent by providing
our pets and ourselves with theright kind of lifestyle factors
from birth and then as we getolder, into our adult years and
geriatric.
That's when we can start to use, like nutraceutical supplements

(15:55):
, which are that's another termfor dietary supplements that
aren't FDA approved drugs, sothey're not prescription,
they're over the counter.
So these are supplements youknow, give to your pets and to
ourselves.
And then there are somepharmaceutical or FDA approved
products that can help withlongevity as well.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Can we jump back really quickly?
You mentioned diabetes.
I don't know of any dogs.
Do dogs get diabetes likehumans do?

Speaker 2 (16:26):
So diabetes.
So for dogs it's the categoryof disease that diabetes would
be endocrine.
So endocrine is anothercategory that causes a lot of
morbidity and mortality in dogsand cats, and so you've probably
heard of Cushing's disease.

(16:46):
This is another endocrinedisease, diabetes in dogs.
It's usually insulin dependent,which is a little different
from what most humans sufferfrom.
A lot of humans are sufferingfrom type two diabetes, which is
mostly dietary.
You can control it usingdietary modifications, but our

(17:13):
pets can develop, you know that,like a dietary form of, like
pre-diabetes as well, that wecan help a lot with with the
diet.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
And what does that look like in a pet?
What does diabetes look like ina pet?
Yeah, what does diabetes looklike, how does it present itself
in a pet?
Yes, it does.
Yes, we do that Probably.
So what do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
My thoughts or so in most pets they're going to be.
They're going to developinsulin dependent diabetes, and
so it can look like, you know,increased thirst, increased, so
increased drinking, and thenincreased urination.
It can look like weight loss.
Less commonly you can see rapidweight gain with it though.

(17:56):
So a weight shift and, you know, decreased energy level.
They might be eating more, butthey're still losing weight.
That's a big indication,because they're intaking the
sugar source, but becausethey're not producing the same,

(18:19):
the normal amount of insulin,their body can't accept the
sugar, and so they're actuallylosing weight, even though they
might be eating the same or evenmore than they were before.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
I remember we I do remember we thought that Loki
one of my clients might, I thinkit was back in the day when he
was was not putting on weightand we couldn't figure out why.
We thought we talked about that, I think, but you thought maybe
he was too young for that.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
A couple other forms, and there's a couple other
forms of diabetes too that cancontribute just to, you know, a
problem with water retention,which I think we were suspecting
in that case as well.
Mm-hmm, yeah, so a littledifferent because that one's not
reliant on insulin, right, butbut yeah, so it's interesting

(19:07):
because these pets are sufferingfrom the exact same types of
diseases that humans are intheir old years and usually
experiencing the same exactlifestyle factors that their
humans are.
You know, because the pets areaging five to 10 times faster

(19:28):
than the human.
You can see it, you see theproblems start to mount a lot
faster.
So they're kind of like, youknow, the, the, the sentinel, or
like the canary in the coalmines, so to speak.
For us, you know, and I've hada lot of clients that actually
develop the exact same medicalissues that their pets have

(19:51):
developed.
So it's, I see that, a lot.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
So like if it's, but like later on down the line, or
like like if their pets are kindof the window into what their
future health might look like asthey age.
Yeah, I know but I have seen it.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
I have seen humans be diagnosed around the same time
as their pets, which is reallywild.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
So you mentioned a lot of these diseases you really
talked about.
You know what we eat.
We've talked about this on whatour pups eat and we've talked
about this on the podcast.
What, in your findings, hasshown to be the most beneficial,
if so, like diet for our pups?
If anything has shown toprovide the biggest benefits for

(20:37):
our pups, okay.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
So there's actually a handful of lifestyle factors
that are beneficial forlongevity for ourselves.
In pets those are diet,exercise, actually thermal
regulation and exposure.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Is that like cold lunges yeah?

Speaker 2 (21:00):
exactly, is that a cold versus hot, interesting Yep
and you know sleep andcircadian rhythm and then also
exposure to sex hormones.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, okay, so for our.
I just had Dr Karen Tobias onwhen we talked about so spaying,
right exactly.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, so these are the big top five factors that
pet parents really have a lot ofcontrol over for their pets and
for ourselves.
But you know, so diet by farand away is the number one most
important of these lifestylefactors.
And, interestingly enough, alot of the longevity supplements

(21:48):
that are out there, and some ofthe even pharmaceutical grade,
are actually caloric restrictionmemetics, which is a fancy word
, for they fake your body intothinking that you're on a diet.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
So so Is that like fasting?
Have fasting in fashion forsome?
Yeah, exactly Right.
I don't know if I get it right,so with diet okay.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
so let's break down diet for a second, because it's
the one thing and you know thisis.
I would say, if you take awaynothing else I want pet parents
to take away from this thatthere are two aspects of diet
that we need to work on for ourpets and for ourselves Quantity
and quality.
Okay, so, starting withquantity, there was a big study

(22:46):
in Labrador Retrievers thatlooked at littermates, pups that
were.
Half of them were divided intoa group that got free, fed a
kibble.
The other half of them andthese are littermates, so
sharing the same genetic factorsthe other half of them were

(23:08):
restricted calorically by about25% and they found that the
littermates that werecalorically restricted lived
almost two years longer thantheir littermates that did not
receive caloric restriction.
And in the littermates that werecalorically restricted they

(23:32):
actually had a delay in onset ofaging related diseases,
including arthritis.
So in that group that were justcalorically restricted by 25%,
that means, you know, if theirlittermates were fed 1,000
calories a day, these pets werefed 750.

(23:53):
So just by limiting thecalories they were able to live
longer and actually livehealthier.
So it's actually a lot of.
It has to do with triggeringthe, triggering a couple

(24:13):
proteins in our body toupregulate themselves to then
inhibit another protein thatleft unchecked.
This protein called mTOR willspeed up aging.
So we're basically so bydieting we're helping the

(24:36):
anti-aging proteins to inhibitthe pro-aging proteins.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Got it.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, yeah, and so that's where a lot of the
supplements that we have areactually upregulating these
anti-aging proteins, and sothey're able to slow down the
process of aging.
Okay, yeah.
Now what's interesting is,though, that in the newest

(25:05):
findings, they're finding that,with the health of the
microbiome, sometimes this canbe, sometimes caloric
restriction can actually hinderthe health of the microbiome,
because you might be feeding aless robust or less variety in

(25:25):
your diet, because you'recutting the calories out, and so
a lot of the new research isactually showing that much of
the benefits of caloricrestriction actually can be
achieved just through fasting,and fasting is a much easier way
to do this, because you canstill have your full caloric

(25:49):
intake, but you're just limitingthe number of hours that you
eat in a day.
So instead of, for example,maybe eating for like 12 hours,
eating from like 8 am to 8 pm,you might limit yourself to only
eating from like noon until 8pm, and that can help your body
to achieve the same effects inslowing down aging.

(26:13):
And same thing with our pets.
Actually, there is dog agingproject out of the university,
yeah, yeah, and so that was oneof the major findings.
They were looking at theirdatabase of dogs, that's I
believe it was over 14,000 dogsfor this particular study and

(26:34):
they showed that once dailyfeeding was beneficial for
longevity and decreased the riskof a whole host of aging
related diseases in their dogs.
Interesting, okay, yeah, now wecan't.
Obviously it's hard for certainage dogs and also size dogs to

(26:57):
try to eat their entire caloriccontent in one meal.
It wouldn't be healthy, forexample, for like a great dain
or like a large breed puppy,right, yeah, so we have to do
this in moderation.
But we can definitely achievefasting for like an eight hour
window, right, we can definitelylike feed dogs only from noon

(27:18):
until eight.
Or, for an example, we can dotwo meals in there but then have
them have a long window of timewhere they are fasted overnight
, okay.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, that's kind of what we do, that's kind of what
Chance and I do just in generalthese days, because he doesn't
generally want his.
He doesn't want his breakfastfirst thing in the morning
anymore, which I know is commonin a super senior but so we
usually feed him around 11 andthen.

(27:53):
I feed him again at four, andthen that's pretty much, unless
I feed him some of my dinner.
But you know.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
But it still gives a good chunk of my own factors,
exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
We definitely share the same lifestyle factor, yup,
but hey, I'm going to take it.
He's almost, he'll be 16 in twomonths and he's still going
strong, so I'm going to.
I think that's 99 in dog years,right?
So I'm going to from the newcalculation.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, you're doing it right, Charlotte?

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So hopefully that says something for me.
I don't know.
Anyway, continue Diggers, rightyeah.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
So I mean that's the quantity aspect of diet, and
then quality is another big, bigaspect of it.
I mean we don't want to be, youknow, eating fast food for
eight hours and then fasting andlike or do we.
And calling it a day andthinking that we're doing a
great job, yeah, so somebody outthere.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
so thank you for clarifying, because somebody out
there is going to take thisinformation and be like oh, I
can eat whatever I want foreight hours and then Right
exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So we look at, you know, forquality.
We look at what is whole foods,real foods, versus processed,
or the acronym that I love iscrap food, which stands for

(29:27):
calorically dense, refined andprocessed.
So oh yeah, there you go, thereyou go, yep, so crap food.
What qualifies as crap food isif you look at the ingredients
list and you don't know how topronounce some of the
ingredients Right, you can'tfind the ingredients Right.

(29:49):
A lot of things that sayhydrolyzed on there.
That's going to be ultraprocessed, okay.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
And what about?
I'm just going to jump in therereally quickly and say because
I know hydrolyzed for dogs, likeyou can do like a hydrolyzed
protein if they have superallergies, can we comment on
that or that might.
So you know, how does thatfactor into being eating healthy
?
Or I think pet parents who havedogs with allergies might be

(30:17):
like oh wait, but this ishydrolyzed protein.
That I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Okay, yeah, yeah, no, I think it's really germane to
the conversation.
So the hydrolyzed dietssometimes I think they are
necessary for individual pets.
I have used them in my practicewhen necessary and temporarily

(30:41):
Okay.
So for individual pets who haveexperienced really acutely
inflammatory conditions in theirgut and they've become
sensitized to several foodingredients.
Anytime, these pets just cannoteat regular food, at least for

(31:02):
a time until you repair the gutand you repair the microbiome,
and then in most cases I've beenable to get these dogs onto
some form of real food, got it.
So hydrolyzed proteins and, youknow, commercialized like
kibble diets are just by natureprocessed.

(31:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Convenience.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, yes, it's convenience, and the nice thing
is that they are balanced, andso we know that.
You know the dogs are gettingthe basic nutrients that they
need on a daily basis and so,and I think in you know, in
individual cases sometimesthey're absolutely necessary.
However, in the majority ofcases, we can, you know, use

(31:53):
them temporarily and then try tomove away from them.
Okay, To do something that hasa little bit higher quality
nutrition for the pet.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Like real food.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Real food.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Would like a freeze dried, because that's often with
that factor into that.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
That would be a kind of real food.
Yeah, okay, yeah, this contentmake it process?
No, yeah.
So you just want to move awayfrom things that have a lot of
like gumming agents or bulkingagents, you know.
So you want to try to look formore real, recognizable

(32:34):
ingredients to know that you'regetting good quality in the diet
.
And it does need to have astatement on the product that it
has been balanced to meet thenutritional needs of all life
stages.
So that is an importantstatement to look for on your
food.
But I try to get and everypatient is different, but I try

(33:00):
to recommend either a lightlycooked or raw type that is
completely balanced.
It can be frozen, it can befreeze, dried, it could be
dehydrated, air dried.
Those are all okay, but I don't, you know, I try to discourage

(33:22):
lifelong use of a kibble orcanned diet because they do tend
to be ultra processed.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Got it.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, yeah.
And the other things that youwant to look for in the diet is
the fiber content, because fiberis really important for the
microbiome and microbiomefunction is really important for
slowing down aging.
Disbiosis or microbiomeimbalance is one of the key

(33:56):
hallmarks of aging, and so if wecan do our best to keep that
microbiome balanced throughoutlife, we're going to be able to
help to slow down aging and keepthat pet or human more healthy.
And also I think we touched onthis a little bit but
carbohydrates.
So we do know thatcarbohydrates have a high

(34:20):
glycemic load or high glycemicindex, and so in the body that
is generation of sugar, and sothat is not helpful.
As we age, especially sugar inour body is actually stimulating
that pro aging protein thatspeeds up the aging clock.

(34:41):
So we want to do our best torestrict sugar, especially as we
age.
But hopefully, when we're youngwe're setting down, we're
laying down good nutritionalhabits that are low sugar, low
carb, so that we can maintain ahealthy level of low
inflammation in our body.
And same goes for our pets themore carbohydrates we feed them,

(35:06):
the more they're going to bepredisposed to inflammatory
based chronic diseases such asarthritis.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Same as people.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yes, same as people and pet parents might be like
well, my dog's not eatingspaghetti every day, so they're
fine.
But the tricky thing is petfood labels do not have to list
carbohydrates.
If you look on any pet food,guaranteed analysis it's

(35:38):
probably not going to show thecarbohydrates, and this is
problematic because most kibblefoods have a minimum of 40% of
carbohydrates in their foods.
When we look at the nutritionalneeds of dogs, and especially
cats, they don't need that highcarbohydrate load, and so if

(36:02):
they're eating a commercial dietlike that every single day for
every meal of their lives, weare unfortunately contributing
to their inflammatory load.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Okay, got it.
Do they need any carbohydrates?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Some carbs are helpful, so what we talk about
is tolerable carbohydrate loads.
So, in nature, dogs would beomnivorous, and so they would be
consuming some amount ofcarbohydrates, likely on a daily

(36:42):
basis.
Cats, though?
Cats are obligate carnivores.
They're really not going you'renot going to see them in a
field bunching on corn or wheat,so you know.
So in cats they're actuallyless tolerant of carbohydrates,

(37:03):
and we actually know fromresearch that we can help cats
with diabetes by lowering theircarbohydrate intake in their
food.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
We've talked about diet.
Exercise is also important andit's on the list of like the top
five lifestyle factors, and Iremember actually another thing
that I took away from yourseminar was that in Germany they
have like a mandatory two youhave to walk your dog for two
hours every day, which iswonderful, I guess, like you

(37:33):
know, one hour in the morning,one hour at night, and I think
that's fantastic, you know,let's touch on that really
quickly.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, so exercise.
We know from various humanstudies and also animal studies
that exercise not only preventsus from becoming frail, which
you know contributes to a lot ofmobility decline, but it also
maintains our cognitive capacityand our cognitive function.

(38:03):
That's preserved by performing,you know, exercise every day
and so, yeah, what's interestingis that in Germany they passed
this law where pet owners haveto walk their dogs for two hours
a day.
When they get fined I'm notsure how big the fines are, but
it is.
You know, that's going toencourage a lot of people to get

(38:26):
out there and get healthier,and I almost wonder if part of
the impetus in implementing thiskind of a law was for the
humans right.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, yeah, get outside and walk around, yeah,
so move your body, yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Because in studies of elderly people, we do know that
pet ownership helps delayfrailty and keeps the human,
yeah, both stronger and moreagile, but also more cognitively
competent for longer.
So, and the same thing happensin our pets Another of the dog

(39:07):
aging project also found that,you know, exercise was related
to cognitive decline inversely.
So the more exercise the pethad had throughout life or was
currently having was directlyrelated to a lower cognitive

(39:32):
decline score.
So basically, these pets whowere more active also had better
cognitive abilities and viceversa, the pets who were less
active had more cognitivedecline.
And so we do know that exerciseworks for people and for
animals, for preserving ourbrains.

(39:56):
We also know that.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
I need to tell that to my mom, because my mom it's
like debating and getting up.
I worried that a dog would liketrip her and make her fall.
But she, if we get the rightsize dog, she, you know, she's
always had dogs her whole lifeand she, you know, she lives
alone now and she's eating tooand she keeps talking about
wanting to get a dog.
But I do think it would be justso keep her moving, keep her

(40:20):
moving, keep her talking andkeeping her, you know right.
Now I can back that up.
Yeah, you can, proving that I'mgoing to have you call her.
What do you call my mom Tell?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
her, okay, hi.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Charlotte's mom, dr Heather, here Get a dog.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
lady Right, get a dog .
We can find her, the right wecould find.
I'm going to try to prescribe adog, but we could find the
appropriate dog for her.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It might take some time, but yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, but it also helps us preserve our muscle
strength and function, and samefor our dogs.
I mean start with the dog.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
I mean sarcopenia is a term for the age related loss
of muscle.
So exercise does preserve themuscle function and strength in
both humans and animals andhelps with our endurance as well
, which helps withcardiovascular health.

(41:18):
And so you know, exercise isjust.
There's a.
There are a couple differentmethods of exercise that we
should be implementing forourselves and our pets on a
regular basis, and so vet rehabexperts, you know, when they

(41:39):
weigh in on this, it'sdefinitely we do.
We need to do a combination ofendurance and cardio activities,
but we also need to maintainmuscle strength with some
strengthening exercises as well.
And so you know, so goodexamples of strengthening
exercises would be actuallythings like tug-of-war or like

(42:06):
dog to dog or dog to dog.
So when they're playing andrough hounsel, they're actually
like, yeah, they're crouching,they're jumping.
It's, you know, like lungingtends to be like, yeah, lunging
a little bit more like explosiveactivities that they're not
going to do if they're just outon a walk with you, and so that

(42:28):
and dog to dog interactions hasalso been shown to help dogs
preserve cognitive function asthey get older as well.
So they need to be social withtheir own species as well.
And then the endurance or cardioaspect.
This is really walks like 20 to25 minute walks.

(42:52):
Three to five times a week isbaseline minimum.
We are all obviously going todo better if we are going to be
able to do better, if we getmore than that, but a lot of
people have very busy lives andyou know.
So if you can squeeze in 20 to25 minute walk, I think I think

(43:17):
you're winning, you're doing agood job.
And so the other aspect,looking at blue zones.
Blue zones, I actually did.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
I watched the blue zone and I found it fascinating.
And someone said one of myclients said to brought the blue
zones up and he said that's whychances do.
He's like.
I'm not worried about you, youlike live a blue zone lifestyle.
I'm like he's like and he's like, and except for the bags of
tortilla chips that eat everyday.
But he, but he mentioned, hementioned, he said that's why

(43:49):
chances, chance does so well,because he, he lives the blue
zone lifestyle, because he hassuch a thriving social life he
has yeah, he has a whole life,he has purpose Right.
He he's always eating wholefoods.
You know he doesn't drink wine.
He saves that part for me, butno, and that was actually my

(44:10):
biggest takeaway from the bluezone was that you can actually
have wine, so that wine is okay.
Cause we go back and forth yeah,back and forth about wine.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Exactly, I think I'm not really to give up my glass
of wine.
Let's repeat that for your.
Let's repeat that for yourlisteners the dogs should not
have wine.
No, dogs.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
We know grapes are very toxic to dogs.
So that's right.
No wine, yep, yeah, there we go.
That's right, took the wrongthing away from there.
But you can enjoy wine whilestaring at your dog, yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yes, you could enjoy wine while taking your dog for a
walk.
How about that?

Speaker 1 (44:44):
In some cities I think, open container to law.
Right there you go Um the bluezone with you.
Anyway, back to the blue zone.
You brought it up and Iinterrupt you.
Yeah, oh, no, yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I was just going to say regarding the blue zones is
that they, when they studiedthese people who were living to
well over a hundred years old inthese zones, these five zones
around the world, um, which oneof them is right here in
California, um, but one of thecommon factors was that these
people were active every hour.
Every hour, they would just getup and move.

(45:21):
A lot of people have desk jobsor you're, you're working from
home and you are sitting at yourdesk for hours.
Your dog is sitting in the bedfor hours, right, yeah?
So every hour, just try to getup and walk through.
You know, walk through yourhome, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Um, you don't have to go to the bathroom.
Your dog would get up andfollow you, for sure.
Exactly, yeah, it can be very,very moving.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah Right, Just get your dog moving.
So I think the thing that Iwould like to do is I think I
think it's more about theability of my clients with older
dogs that it's harder for themto walk for like 20 to 25
minutes, and so I I say, youknow, it doesn't have to be a
big long 20 to 25 minute walkall in one go, Do two or three

(46:10):
little five to 10 minute walks.
That's just as good for them,Um, and in many cases it's
better because they're movingmore frequently.
So you have to do a 25 minutewalk, but just do something
frequently throughout your day,and that is a key aspect of
exercise.
That um segues nicely intocircadian rhythm, because the

(46:32):
more active you are through theday, you're actually going to be
able to sleep better throughoutyour night.
And so you mentioned chance.
Charlotte, like chance, ishaving um less appetite in the
morning, which I see nine timesout of 10.
Yeah, yeah, but this is this isa really common finding in nine

(46:57):
out of 10, I would say of myolder patients that their
appetite for morning time mealsstarts to, starts to wane a
little bit, and um many times Ifind that it is linked with the
quality of sleep that they'regetting.
And so one um one, one of thoselifestyle factors that we

(47:21):
mentioned that is pro longevityis circadian rhythm, and so that
is keeping awake, keepingactive, doing all of your eating
, all of your working out duringdaytime hours, and then when
that sun goes down, you shouldbe winding down as well.
Your pet should be winding down, and so it's okay to take a

(47:42):
nighttime walk.
That's not what I'm saying, but, you know, not do like a huge
meal at night or not do like ahuge workout at night before bed
.
It's not the best for ourcircadian rhythm.
So if we can be winding downand getting to bed and then
trying to shoot, you know, forlike an eight hour rest for

(48:05):
ourselves and our pets, um, andour adrenal glands are able to
manufacture that cortisol, thatstress hormone, throughout the
night, so that the level of ourcortisol is highest in the
morning when we're waking up,and that cortisol is useful to
us to manage our morning anddaytime stress so that we can

(48:27):
actually function well and havea good mood, be ready to take on
our day.
What's happening if we're notgetting good sleep or we're not
getting restful sleep like?
So, say say, we drank thatglass of wine at like 11 o'clock
, maybe we had some nachos withit.
We're probably not going to geta good deep sleep because

(48:49):
that's going to disturb ourcircadian rhythm, and then we're
going to wake up and we're notgoing to have that cortisol that
we need.
So we're going to feel kind ofcrummy.
So, um, you know, then we'regoing to be tired throughout our
day, we might not be as activethroughout our day.
It sets us up for a viciouscycle of then another night of
great sleep.
So, yeah, if we can do ourthings stay active.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah, I definitely think, as far as chance is
concerned, that the definitelythe night.
He is kind of being a littlerestless in the middle of the
night and I think these days andI it comes and goes, but I do,
I think, uh, I think it's he'sjust uncomfortable and I don't
know if I need to get him a newbed or if it's just his old
bones or if it's he's itchy, youknow or something, but I do

(49:37):
feel him.
I do think he gets up and movesaround and then that is
affecting his.
He's not getting as solid of asleep.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah, and then he's um.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
So he's not like walking around, he's just moving
around a lot Like he can't getcomfortable.
So I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
I'm not there.
We'll look into that one.
It happens a lot.
It happens a lot with aging and, um, you know it is, it is
recognized in human health, um,as you know, uh, varying degrees
of a sundowner syndrome, whereyou're a little bit more
activated at nighttime, sothere's restlessness and maybe

(50:14):
some anxiety, maybe somevocalization at night, um, that
you wouldn't really be seeingduring the daytime.
And it one, um hormone that isreally helpful in regulating
circadian rhythm is melatoninand has just various different

(50:36):
activities in the body inaddition to circadian rhythm,
which makes it a incrediblyimportant hormone and we can
actually supplement it.
I generally recommendsupplementing some melatonin in
my older patients that arestarting to have a little bit of
that sleep wake disturbance, um, and so a little bit of

(50:56):
melatonin at bedtime can helpthem get really nice, restful
sleep and then, if they have alittle bit you know more
cortisol um production duringthe nighttime, most of the time
they're waking up feeling betterand sometimes even even having
a little bit better appetite forthe morning.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
What?
How much melatonin should I bedoing?

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Typical.
Yeah, a typical dog dose isbetween two and six milligrams
about 30 minutes before bedtime.
Okay, and I like to start atthe, at the lower dose.
I with everything I try to do,lowest, yeah, so hmm.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
So he's 54 pounds, so it doesn't matter on the size
of the dog.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Yeah, I would still start him at two milligrams and
see how that affects him.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Okay, interesting, okay, yeah, so, and back to the
walking really quickly.
And that doesn't mean, like you, it doesn't have to do sniffy
walks, or that?
Is that included in after you,or is that like, because you
know sniffy walks are veryimportant in all the rage now,
so it's not like you have to belike booking it and like getting

(52:08):
your cardiovascular up whileyou're walking and dog, you can
also just do this, yeah right,dr, right.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, the sniffary Dr Becker's from the forever book,
forever dog.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Oh, yeah, yeah, oh, that was our first podcast.
Episode was take your dog onthe sniffary first podcast.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
So those are great because those are mental
stimulation, those are a littlebit of physical activity, but
it's just in that right zone tohelp the body to like either
acclimate to the day, if you'redoing it in the morning, or kind
of wind down, if you're doingit in the evening.
So those are great, okay, cool,yeah, yeah.

(52:54):
And then there's there's greatguidance out there for exercises
as well, if like forstrengthening and endurance type
exercises for your dog, yeah,for your dogs.
So Dr Lori McCauley, she's anexcellent rehab vet.

(53:16):
She taught me a lot of what Iknow going through the rehab
course and she actually has aprogram for pet parents.
It's called optimum petvitality and it's a great, a
great program for pet parents tolearn some specific exercises

(53:39):
to do for their pets every day.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Cool, yeah, I love that.
Should she come on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
She should.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Took you a second there, okay, so there's.
You also mentioned thermoregulation and the only thing
that comes to mind are, likethose plunges that the peeps are
doing these days, yeah.
The polar bear club the polarbear club and you know I can't
remember the name of the guy,but he's very popular.
But I can't see that beingsomething healthy to do for your

(54:14):
dog.
So how does that work?
How does thermo regulation workwhen you're talking about your
pet?

Speaker 2 (54:20):
So, yeah, we don't want to be throwing our dogs
into like ice baths and things,because it can be really
stressful for them, as it is forus.
So, yeah, I don't advise doingthat, but exposing them to cold.
So you know, if some of yourlisteners live in areas where

(54:45):
you have some cold weather thatwe could be out with our dogs in
for maybe 10 minutes, that's agreat way to help to turn some
of our white adipose tissue intobrown adipose tissue, exactly,

(55:07):
yeah, so white adipose tissue isthe stuff that we accumulate as
we age.
It's what we generallyrecognize as fat.
It doesn't feel good, some ofus feel like it doesn't look
good.
So, yeah, but we know that froma from a molecular standpoint,

(55:29):
an accumulation of white adiposetissue is unhealthy for us
because, number one, it's one ofthe number one risk factors for
cardiovascular disease inhumans.
But in humans and animals,white adipose tissue actually
secretes inflammatory cytokines,or these inflammatory molecules

(55:53):
, into our bodies that set us upfor higher resting levels of
inflammation.
Unfortunately, and because we'redeveloped, we're accumulating.
What tends to happen with agingis we're losing muscle slowly
and we're depositing more fat,more white fat.
We are giving ourselves moreinflammation because of that

(56:19):
white adipose tissue.
So the benefit of doing thecold plunges or just exposure to
cold, or it doesn't have to beanything extreme, even it could
just be you're sitting in a coldroom and you wish you had a
sweater, but you're forcingyourself to sit there without a
sweater, right?
So your body yeah, so your bodyis having to do a little bit

(56:43):
more work to generate that heatfor yourself.
Okay, so white adipose tissuedoes not consume as much energy
as brown adipose tissue toregulate your body temperature.
So you're actually, if you losewhite fat and you have built up

(57:09):
a little bit more brown fatjust sitting in a cold room,
you're going to burn morecalories.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Okay, yeah, yes, that makes sense.
So how does that reflect on ourdogs then?

Speaker 2 (57:22):
So, same way.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
So exposing them to a little bit of cold.
Keeps them lean.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Keeps them lean and it's also anti-inflammatory
because you're, it's helping youto lose a little bit of the
white fat, white adipose tissueand convert that white into
brown adipose tissue.
So you're decreasing yourinflammation and you're also
increasing your body's abilityto burn calories just sitting

(57:51):
there.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
So what do we need to be mindful about?
Like, if we're taking them outinto the super cold, do we not
put a sweater on them?
Do we not put boots on theirpaws so their paws don't get
like ice burns or like how do webe headway?
Oh yeah, mindfully, because Idon't want people to see the
information.
Yes, Just be like you're goingto walk in the snow.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Everything in moderation, right.
It's not going to do you oryour pet any good to go walk
barefoot in the snow if you'veever done that before and stay
out there for like 30 minutesLike that's not healthy.
So we just need you know.
I would start with like sittingin a cold room or you know,

(58:32):
just like sitting there in thecold, like with not very many
clothes on.
If your dog is one of theselike not very furry dogs, you
know, just sitting there andmaybe they're trembling a little
bit for like 10 minutes beforeyou put their sweater on, okay,
right.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
So moderation this is .
We are not torturing anyone,Right, Right?

Speaker 1 (58:55):
So we're just being uncomfortable.
We're just being a little bituncomfortable with what?

Speaker 2 (58:59):
we're doing Right, exactly so.
This is just a form of hormesis, which is a term for what
doesn't kill you, makes youstronger.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Right, I was going to say toughens you up.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Yeah, yes.
So be a little bit cold,because it's good for lowering
inflammation and building yourbrown fat stores.
You can also, you know,conversely, be a little bit hot,
and again, we are not going totry to induce heat stress or
heat stroke in our animals orourselves.
Right, we are going to do thisin moderation.

(59:33):
So for us, we could go sit in asauna.
This is a great way tostimulate proteins in our body
to reform.
Which is one of the hallmarksof aging is that our protein
synthesis in our body becomesderegulated, and so sitting in a
sauna helps to reregulate thatsame thing for our pets, and so

(59:58):
this has been shown to behelpful in human models of
Parkinson's and Alzheimer'sdisease.
So just sitting in for redsauna.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Is that why they're so popular Like what's doing to
read?

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
infrared, infrared.
Infrared is a little bit moreanti inflammatory in its
mechanism, but if you're just um, this is more talking about
like hot saunas that reach over106 degrees Fahrenheit for
humans.
I don't recommend putting dogsin saunas, though.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Yeah, I was going to say yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
No, but for dogs again, like sitting out on a hot
day, right, sitting out andletting your dog pant for five
minutes, maybe 10 minutes,watching that tongue.
If the tongue is starting tolook really red, if it's
starting to spread out and looklike a shovel, your dog's
getting too hot and it's nolonger healthy.

(01:00:57):
But sitting there and lettingyour dog and yourself be a
little bit warm Basically, ifit's, if you're feeling okay
with it, your dog is still in ahealthy zone as well.
When you're getting too hot oryou see those signs in your dog,
like the tongue is spreadingand it's very bright red, those
are signs that your dog isstarting to get stressed by the

(01:01:17):
heat and that's no good.
But it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
I don't want to stress the dogs out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Yeah, no, but you know.
So a little bit of heat, alittle bit of cold on a daily
basis is great to help us withour, you know, with slowing down
some of the hallmarks of aging.
Okay, and then the last, thelast of the major lifestyle

(01:01:41):
factors would be exposure to sexhormones.
And so this in human medicine,as we all get beyond
reproductive age, our you know,our androgens and our estrogen
levels start to decline, and weknow from several studies that

(01:02:02):
this has negative impacts onseveral markers of health,
including cognitive ability anddementia, and also various
different chronic diseases aswell.
So in our pets we actually haveeven more control over this,

(01:02:24):
some, in some cases, than humansdo because of spay and neuter
practices, and so in our petswe're actually removing those
sex hormones at a much youngerage, you know, compared to
humans.
So humans, we have our, we haveour hormones throughout our
lives.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Right Whereas these pets.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
They're getting spayed and neutered and they're
having removal of those hormonesat a really young age and
several studies, including onefrom dog aging project, did
identify that the longer petsare exposed to sex hormones did
correlate with greater longevityand lifespan, so Also

(01:03:12):
correlates with less risk ofmultiple different forms of
chronic diseases.
There are a couple forms ofcancer that can be predisposed
to with longer exposure to sexhormones.
So we do have to be mindful ofdifferent forms of cancer and
it's a great discussion to behad with your vet, but I think

(01:03:34):
it should be individual based.
Spay and neuter practicesshould be individual, the like,
individualized, based on eachpet, would be a better way to go
than just a broad protocol foreverybody.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
As I mentioned, we I did have Dr Karen Tobias on a
few episodes ago when we talkedabout all the latest science
regarding spay and neutering ourpets, because this makes me
nervous, because I know it'sgood for the longevity of our
pets, it's fantastic for thehealth and wellness of our pets,
but we have such anoverpopulation problem in this

(01:04:10):
country where pets are just atthis moment in time it's
separate issue and I bring it upall the time but they're just
being used in the ice for spaceright now in shelters all across
the country because there'sjust like.
So I don't want people toblanketly think that they don't
need to spay and neuter theirpet and then go about their
business being irresponsible petowners and whatnot, so like so

(01:04:34):
what we're really saying is liketalk to your veterinarian about
the health benefits and thetiming of spaying and neutering
your pet, right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Yeah, so your question has several parts to it
, two part answer.
So the first part is that's whyrecommendations should be
individually based for each pet,because every pet has a
different circumstance.
It's a different breed thatmight have a different position

(01:05:05):
to different diseases fromanother breed, and you can.
So, looking at, you know,certain kinds of cancer, it's
going to be beneficial to delaythe spay neuter and then at a
certain point, spay neuter andthen that doesn't impact

(01:05:27):
development disease.
Okay, for others it does.
So it's so precision therethere's not like a black or
white there's.
You know you have to look atindividual diseases that your
individual pet might be atgreater risk for than a
different dog or cat, right.
And then the other thing is theyou know spay neuter is not

(01:05:54):
just complete removal.
Right, we have alternative.
Yeah, we have proceduresavailable that many people don't
know about.
But right, just like in humans,we can spare the ovaries, just
take out the uterus.
Or vice versa take out theuterus but take out the ovaries,
but spare the uterus, leavethat intact.

(01:06:15):
For females, or for our males,we can do a vasectomy so that
these individuals still haveexposure to the hormones but
they don't have reproductivecapabilities.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Great yeah, that was very clear, thank you.
Good yeah, so you can still.
You can still keep them healthyand keep them from having
babies, having more puppies,right yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, sometimes it's a littlebit challenging to find vets or
a vet surgeon, right?
Sometimes you have to look alittle bit hard in the area that
you're in to find, to findveterinary professionals who are
performing these, but they'reout there and they exist.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
So Because it's not common knowledge yet right, it's
just not common, you know Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
And I say again, everybody needs to be counseled
on the risks of doing thesealternative procedures.
But once you are informed ofall of the benefits and risks
then people should make adecision based on that
individual pet Right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Right, okay, okay, it's being a new ring is a very
complicated issue.
So, yeah, okay.
Yeah got it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
So those?
So those are the.
Those are really the big fiveLifestyle factors that, okay,
promote slowing down of aging.
Okay, yeah, and so we can.
That's the.
So that's the foundation thatwe talked about for our younger

(01:07:54):
patients, um, human and animal.
You should be laying down thosefoundational factors Early in
life to set them up for the bestoutcome later in life.
And only once you've got thatfoundation laid should you then
be considering, you know,longevity supplements, things to

(01:08:15):
add, um, right to their diet,or you know Pharmaceuticals that
could then further the antiaging or pro longevity effects.
But you know it's, it's likeeverything else.
You can't, you can't just takea pill for that and it's going
to be just as good.

(01:08:35):
You have to have theselifestyle factors as a
foundation for anything else tobe, you know, optimally
effective.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
What can we talk about with some of the
supplements and some of thethings we can add to our pets
diet?
Yeah, mm-hmm, that would helpwith longevity and help with
health and wellness.
I'm assuming something for youknow, arthritis and what and
what ages.
Can we incorporate these thingsinto our well?

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
so it roughly Midway through that your, your pets
expected lifespan would beAround time that I would be
thinking of incorporating thisstuff.
Lifestyle factors start atbirth, but these supplements
would be add-ons in in, likemidlife think, and for humans

(01:09:25):
too.
You know, there's potentiallysome proactive or or preempt,
preemptive effects of doingthese a little bit younger.
But you know, for most peopleand pets I would say, start,
think about starting around,like midlife, that midlife point

(01:09:46):
.
Um, you know.
So these supplements aresupplements and pharmaceuticals
which I'm just going to lumpinto calling them compounds.
Um, can I get around?

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
to what one quick second.
So midlife for dogs would besix ish.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Well, it depends on the pet right.
If it's a chihuahua, it couldbe like nine or ten or like a
Yorkie, you know.
But if it's a great day, youmight want to start thinking
about these things at like agethree or four.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
So for Doug dug my, my saint Bernard's.
Pyrenees yeah, yeah, should we?
Should we be starting now toput?

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
Yeah, probably four, four or five, five okay.
How old?

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
is six.
Is he he's six?
He's low kids age.
Yeah, he's six.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Yeah, okay, so you could be starting to think about
these things now.
So, um, one of the biggestcategories of supplements is, uh
, the nad activators, and nad isbasically a enzyme that's

(01:10:56):
involved in the metabolism Ofevery single cell of your body,
every second of every minute ofof your life.
So when you so, as we age, ourlevels of nad start to decline,
and because it's gettingconsumed from different factors,

(01:11:17):
and so these compounds thatactually Can can help us build
nad and, um, you know to, tosupplement ourselves with more
energy, they actually stimulatethese class of proteins in

(01:11:38):
ourselves to repair dna.
So, as we're going through ourlives, we're experiencing
different environmental and also, you know, Inside our body this
happens too.
We're experiencing thesestressors that are doing damage
to our dna every, every minuteof every day, and so if we don't

(01:11:59):
have enough nad in our body toeffectively stimulate these
proteins to do all the repair,construction you can think of it
as just construction startsbreaking down, right, and so
then you have all of these, allof these projects that don't
have adequate Reconstruction.

(01:12:19):
So you've got a lot of, you know, debilitation happening, um,
right, and decline withinourselves.
And so we can build up our nadlevels by good diet, good
exercise.
That all helps us, helps ourbody to form more nad, but also
we can do it with supplements.

(01:12:40):
So, um, one thing is nadprecursors, which many of your
listeners may already be doingsome form of this for themselves
.
Um, these are things like nmn,not m&m's, but I'm doing the m&m
one they are using m&m diet.

(01:13:02):
Well, dr Heather said we shouldbe eating m&m's m&m's, yeah, uh
and nr.
These are both precursors thatwhen we take them orally, and
also nar, we can take themorally and then our cells can
actually convert them to nad andthen more nad in the body

(01:13:27):
stimulates these proteins torepair our dna.
Also.
These are these are a class ofprotein that are one of those
that I mentioned before that areanti aging, that actually
inhibit the pro aging protein inourselves.
So nad is repairing our dna,but it's also slowing down the

(01:13:49):
aging process for us.
So, um, one product that youand I both love chances on it.
Um, that contains an nadprecursor is leap years.
That was another podcastepisode.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
I'm just gonna push it.
I had them on the podcast.
I am like fully behind thisproduct.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
I've seen a lot of things.
I'm trying to get all myclients on it, yeah.
It's a fantastic product.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
And is there something like that for us
humans?

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
yet.
Uh, yeah, so there's um any nadprecursors, the ones that I
just mentioned, nmn or nr.
Those are available Um tohumans as well.
We just have to find areputable company.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
You know that's gonna say can you say brands or like?
Is there?
Like how do you find areputable company?

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
um, well, um, I, I do a lot, of, a lot of research on
it.
You can actually check consumerlab.
That's a really great resourcefor pet parents.
They do um third party testingof both human and animal
supplements.
Okay, so that's a greatresource Um to find vitamins and

(01:15:00):
any kind of supplement.
Um.
All the for pet quality control, mm-hmm, pets and people.
Yeah, consumer lab, that's agreat resource Um, but find a
reputable company.
Get nmn or, you know, nr.
Talk to your doctor about this,of course, too, to make sure
that it's right for you.
Um, but these are greatcompounds that can Um build nad

(01:15:24):
and help your body to slow downaging, repair your dna Um, and
you know, help you to be Um,have more energy and just feel
better throughout the day.
Yeah, um.
So that's one broad category oflongevity supplements and um.
Then the um.
Another broad category is thecompounds that um that regulate

(01:15:50):
synescence, and you may haveheard about cellular synescence.
This is um when the term zombiecells come into right, right,
right yeah and I feel like a lotof people are reading about
zombie cells lately, um so.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
There is no them from the leap years podcast and I
still don't get what they are,but but there's on these also.
But I like the name.
It's appropriate for ahalloween episode of the burp it
is.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
It is what I found interesting is that a major
research paper talking aboutZombie cells was actually
published on halloween last year.
Oh, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
Yeah, they did that Perfect, I'm sure they did.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
Well, we'll sass in the research.
Yeah, I know, but these.
So these are products that, um,they help cells to either, um
induce autophagy, which is, um aform of, like cell death right,
it's programmed cell death and,um, what happens in aging is

(01:17:00):
that, um, because of a lot ofdifferent processes that are
occurring all at once, we startto lose our, our body starts to
lose its ability to Do much ofprogrammed cell death, and so a
lot of these older cells startGet they, they get taken out of
the cell cycle, so they get putinto this like resting phase.

(01:17:24):
You can think of it.
As for the cell, they're notdoing much of anything for the
function of the the body anymore, except they do play a part in
wound healing.
So there is some function forthem, but there's an
accumulation of them that,during aging, will start to
cause these cells to actuallyturn into inflammatory cells.

(01:17:48):
And when they turn inflammatory, they actually just start
producing these inflammatorymolecules.
And these inflammatorymolecules actually reach out to
neighboring cells, and thereason they're called zombie is
that they infect the neighboringcells and they turn the

(01:18:08):
neighboring cells into Zombiecells that then start producing
more inflammatory molecules.
So these, so the supplementsthat are Targeting these
senescent cells, otherwise knownas zombie cells.
They're working in one of twoways.
Some of them, um, such as um a.

(01:18:32):
One of the combination ofproducts in the leap years is
working in the way of inducingProgrammed cell death for the
old cells in the body.
So when a dog takes thatproduct, they're they're getting
an nad boost, but they're alsogetting um.
At least two days out of themonth they're actually getting

(01:18:56):
this programmed cell deathhappening in their old zombie
cell, which is Kind of you canthink of it as just like
cleaning out the attic orcleaning out the garage, right,
and you're doing away with a lotof inflammation.
So that's why these productsare so great for slowing down

(01:19:17):
Aging, but also helping toprevent aging related disease,
which are mostly inflammatorydriven Um.
Okay, so these supplements?
So they either are going toinduce Programmed cell death um,
these are called senolytics orthey're going to modify the

(01:19:38):
inflammatory molecules that thezombie cells are spitting out.
So those are the two mechanismsthat different molecules in
this class are going to beworking through um, and so the
ones that work on theinflammatory molecules are
called Senomorphics, and many ofyour listeners have probably

(01:19:59):
heard of rapamycin or metformin.
These are, yeah, metformin is areally Sort of popular human
medication.
It's a, it's a prescription um,and it's also used in type 2
diabetes.

(01:20:19):
Um, and then the rapamycin is adrug that is being used in human
medicine, but also in inveterinary medicine.
So, um, there have been someoncologists especially who have
started using rapamycin Um insome for cancer.
Yeah, so one of the the aspectsof clinical use for rapamycin

(01:20:43):
is as an adjunctive tochemotherapeutic protocols for
osteosarcoma in dogs, and sothere's there's still doing
research on this to determine ifrapamycin is effective um in as
an adjunctive for osteosarcoma.
But we do know that rapamycindoes work in lifespan extension

(01:21:10):
in pets.
So, aside from the osteosarcomaaspect, where it may be helpful
, um, we do know that rapamycinhas been shown to slow down
aging, but it is a prescriptionUm, so you would have to talk to
your vet about it, and um Ionly know of veterinary
oncologists who are currentlyprescribing it, so I'm not sure

(01:21:34):
general practitioners areprescribing it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
Got it?
Yeah, um, speaking ofoncologists, um, I was.
I also remember something thatI picked up from your talk, uh,
was how reserve atrol, um, whichI think is what is in red wine.
Back to our conversation aboutwine um, they are Using that.
It can be beneficial for dogswith hemangiosarcoma, which is a

(01:22:02):
form of cancer, and it is alsothe.
Am I, am I correct in this?
And that is also what chancehad the, the Subcutaneous form
of?
He just had a lung removed, um,no sign of it anywhere in elton
, his body, for my listeners, um, but we had a tumor removed um
A few weeks ago and it did proveto be hemangiosarcoma and it,

(01:22:27):
which is like a blood vesselcancer, right, and it can be
extremely dangerous if it's inyour liver, it shows up in their
liver or their spleen or theirchest, um, it's Extremely
dangerous but luckily for chance, it was just in his skin, um,
and apparently that is not asterrifying.
So we're happy with the resultsso far.

(01:22:48):
But how does reserve atrol?
How does that Help somethinglike hemangiosarcoma?

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
and going a little bit off base, just purely for
personal reasons, because I wantto know if that's something
that should be giving chance tohelp with Resveratrol is it's a
polyphenol that is found ingrapes and red wine, um in dogs
though we never source it fromthat because those would be

(01:23:14):
toxic.
So in yep, no grapes, nor wine.
So in dogs it's going to besourced from um, japanese knot
weed root and um.
So there are variousresveratrol Um products on the
market over the counter for forpets that you could get, and
resveratrol is one of thosecompounds that helps to build

(01:23:38):
nad, so it's going to help ourcells in all the same ways that
those nad precursors.
It's not quite as effective asthe nad precursors but it's
actually been shown thatresveratrol can provide a
synergistic effect when givenwith nad precursors.
Now, the study that you'rementioning, charlotte, about

(01:24:01):
Resveratrol and caninehemangiosarcoma, that was an in
vitro study so it was done oncell culture, so it hasn't been
done in live dogs withhemangiosarcoma.
And many, many of these studiesthat are done in vitro in cell
culture when you know you cansee really great results in
culture but then you could seecompletely different or you know

(01:24:24):
no effect in the results whenyou do it in a live animal.
So to my knowledge, live animalIn in vivo studies have not
been done yet Um looking athemangiosarcoma and resveratrol,
but that's not to say that youcouldn't give it to chance,
because resveratrol would bereally helpful, just as a

(01:24:45):
longevity supplement For for him.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
Okay, so it's a like a Chinese herb.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
Yeah, you can get it as a.
You can get it as a Chineseherb Um, you can actually get it
as a.
You can get it as a westerntype Um supplement too, like
online.
Okay, you can't, okay, you justwell.
Well, yeah, you just have tomake sure Reputable place, but
yeah we'll talk further about it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
I want to make I want to make this, you know, more
comprehensible for the listener,because we are talk getting a
little technical here and thatcan be overwhelming, at least
for me.
Um and so the anti-agingprotocols, what we what?
Health and wellness, longevity,diet, first and foremost,
activity, exposure to heat andcold, circadian rhythm, good

(01:25:31):
sleep, good quality sleep andbeing mindful about spaying and
neutering your pet, and talkingto your veterinarian about, you
know, what the best practicesare for the dog they have in
front of them, for the breed andand and whatever else is going
on with your dog.
So, and then we've talkedbriefly about supplements, but I
want to make it a little biteasier, like if you were to

(01:25:53):
recommend or get people thinkingabout, like you know, the top
five supplements that they needfor the health and wellness, for
anti-aging and longevity intheir, in their dog.
We don't necessarily have tohave brands, but uh, uh, just in
a way that we can reallyunderstand like okay, he needs
that you know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:12):
So I think a handful of supplements that I would
suggest are going to be going togive you the most bang for your
buck for longevity for yourpets would be would be a good
NAD precursor, whether NMN, nar,nar you know whether you're

(01:26:32):
doing leap years already whichhas an NAD precursor in it.
I also would recommend aproduct that's going to target
those senescent cells, thosezombie cells, so yours has a
good senolytic product in itthat's going to induce program
cell death.
There's also standaloneproducts that can target

(01:26:56):
senescent cells, like quercetin,for example.
A lot of people have usedquercetin for themselves, maybe
for their pets, for allergies,which it is quite effective for,
but it also is a senolytic, soit's going to help induce
program cell death of thosesenescent or zombie cells as
well.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Yeah, we both use quercetin.
I use it and Chance uses it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
yeah, For allergies.
Yeah, and same thing withcurcumin, which is turmeric, and
curcumin is curcumin orturmeric is going to help with
senescent cells as well, andit's also going to do something

(01:27:40):
new that I haven't talked to youabout already is it's going to
induce quality control ofmitochondria.
Mitochondria, those are thepower cells, so that's the
little organelle inside yourcells that's producing all of
your energy all the time.
Mitochondria are superimportant, and so curcumin is

(01:28:03):
really great for mitochondrialhealth.
Also, one aspect ofmitochondrial health is really
important for musclepreservation.
So curcumin is a good one.
Curcumin is a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
Dasequin advance is what Chance takes and it is
something you have to get fromyour veterinarian right.
Dasequin advance and that hasthe cure of human in it Okay so
you can talk to yourveterinarian about maybe adding
dasequin to their supplements orsome sort of joint supplement.
And then you were going tomention, I think another one was
maltone, but not every jointsupplement has curcumin,

(01:28:40):
turmeric, it's just the dasequinadvance.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Otherwise you can find standalone curcumin or
turmeric supplements tosupplement with.
Okay, in addition to the NADprecursor, the senolytic, the
curcumin I would also suggest,or quercetin, I would also
suggest doing melatonin.
Yeah, because as a person,melatonin is probably the most

(01:29:10):
important hormone that our bodymakes, but we don't make it in
enough supply as we get older toreally help regulate that
circadian rhythm.
So supplementing melatonin atbedtime can really help us to
induce deep sleep, which helpsus to actually reverse a lot of

(01:29:33):
the hallmarks of aging as wesleep and, as we talked about,
it can help older pets with awhole host of issues that they
might have during the day aswell.
So I really like doingmelatonin and then just managing
that healthy gut, managing themicrobiome.

(01:29:54):
So a lot of my patients I liketo either run a microbiome
analysis which is available forpets, really pinpoint if the dog
does need, or cat does need, aspecific probiotic to help to
rebalance the microbiome, or wecould do just a very nice

(01:30:18):
helpful prebiotic such aspsyllium husk oh, yeah, okay,
yeah, so psyllium husk is great,yes, he does.
Yeah, so that's really great.
You know it's giving thatmicrobiome the gut, the healthy
gut flora, you know a substrateto feed on and really help our

(01:30:39):
beneficial microbes to flourish,because that's been shown to
produce helpful molecules andfatty acids that can actually
protect our health and evencontribute to helping us have a
better mood.
Yeah, and our pets too.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
What's the best way to get people on board with this
?
I know cost is an issue, but,like you know, we briefly talked
about how expensive senior dogscan be, because they can be so
expensive and that's part of whya lot of them end up at the
shelters, because they have allthese issues.
You know that people can'tafford to pay for, but and how
these little things, theselittle steps that we can do,

(01:31:20):
these little shifts that we canmake earlier in life, can really
help.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
You know it all boils down to an ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure, right,so the most.
Yes, that's going to be thetitle.

Speaker 1 (01:31:34):
That's going to be the title of this podcast
episode.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
Yeah, that's where everything sort of ties in with
this is that by the time you seethe problem, that is just the
tip of the iceberg and that'sjust what's on the surface.
And once you scratch thesurface you have all of these
hallmarks of aging that you'renow dealing with and erosion of

(01:32:01):
hallmarks of health.
So if you're waiting until yousee the signs you can, it's
never too late to startimplementing these things.
It's never too late to changethe diet and make things
healthier.
You know you will always see achange.
You will see a positive changein your pet or in yourself.
But many times we're waitinguntil after we've already

(01:32:24):
developed the chronic diseaseand you know we're anything that
we do to that individual.
At that point, yeah, you'regoing to see benefit, but you're
probably still going to have tomanage that chronic disease.
It's probably you know, withdifferent diseases it's probably
going to be a little bit toolate to completely cure the

(01:32:46):
disease, whereas if you startedoff life this way, with like
healthy lifestyle habits, andthen start implementing the
longevity supplements in therewhen you get, you know, midlife
or older, you have a much betterlikelihood of avoiding the
chronic disease altogether andliving healthy and feeling

(01:33:08):
healthy and feeling younger likewell into your older years
Right and feeling good andthat's important.

Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
Yeah, feeling good, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
So that's why it's so important and also why it's so
hard to convince people that itis important, because until they
see a problem, they thinkeverything is fine.
But you know, I think you know,going through like infectious
disease we develop infectiousdisease as an adult to older, um

(01:33:39):
person or pet that inflammationcan get really out of control
and this is what usually causesthe negative health outcomes
that we see.
And this is not just somerandom, you know.
We don't know why the pet hadsuch a hard time bouncing back
from it this time or why thisperson had to be hospitalized

(01:34:00):
when someone else got through itwithout hardly any symptoms.
Well, it's because these peoplethat have more reaction, more
inflammatory reaction in these,these pets, that have worsening
health outcomes.
It's because they've got thesesigns internally of aging that
we're not able to see outwardlyyet in many cases.

(01:34:23):
So if we can target this stuffbefore we start to see the
outward, you know, appearance ofit, we are benefiting that
individual so much more thanwaiting until we see the actual
signs.

Speaker 1 (01:34:39):
Well, thank you, heather.
I think we really covered itand I would love to have you
back on.
As always, you're welcome.
Thanks, charlotte.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the Baroo
Podcast.
As always, I have put links inthe show notes for some of the
great things that we talkedabout today and if you enjoyed

(01:35:00):
the episode, please don't forgetto rate and follow the Baroo
Podcast.
Wherever you listen to podcasts, don't forget to follow us on
Instagram at Baroo Podcast.
If you have a story of caninecompanionship that you'd like to
share with me, a question oreven a comment, I would love to
hear from you.
You can email me, charlotte, atthebaroocom.
Alright, you guys, let's chatsoon.

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