The promise of a longer life.
Easy, safe, and in a convenient once a day pill.
A drug company, Loyal, is starting trials for a drug that will increase lifespan in dogs, by improving metabolic health. It hopes to be granted conditional approval by the FDA in 2025.
What is Metabolic Health and Why Does It Matter?
Metabolic health involves how well your body manages blood sugar, insulin levels, fat, and hormones. As we and our dogs get older, our metabolic health often declines, which can lead to health issues like diabetes, cognitive decline and cancer.
What’s Metabolic Dysfunction?
Metabolic dysfunction is not a single disease but a collection of problems related to metabolism. It includes issues like insulin resistance (where your body doesn’t use insulin effectively), fat distribution problems, and hormone imbalances.
How Does It Affect Dogs?
Just like in humans, poor metabolic health in dogs can lead to many diseases:
- Diabetes Mellitus: Insulin resistance is a key factor in the development of Type 2 diabetes in dogs, leading to high blood sugar levels.
- Obesity: Dogs with insulin resistance often struggle with obesity, which can further exacerbate insulin resistance and lead to other health issues.
- Hyperlipidemia: Insulin resistance can cause elevated levels of fats (lipids) in the blood, which increases the risk of pancreatitis and other cardiovascular issues.
- Pancreatitis: Chronic high blood lipid levels due to insulin resistance can inflame the pancreas, leading to pancreatitis.
- Hypothyroidism: Metabolic syndrome can contribute to hypothyroidism, where the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones, further complicating insulin resistance.
- Hepatic Lipidosis: Fat accumulation in the liver, often due to insulin resistance, can lead to liver dysfunction and other related issues.
- Cognitive Decline: High blood sugar levels and poor insulin sensitivity can lead to inflammation, oxidative stress, and reduced glucose metabolism in the brain, contributing to cognitive decline, similar to Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
- Cancer: The link between insulin resistance and cancer is well known in humans. The evidence in dogs is suggestive but not fully proven.
What Causes Metabolic Dysfunction?
Insulin Resistance:
Insulin is a hormone, produced in the pancreas, that distributes energy in the body. It moves energy, in the form of blood sugar (glucose), into the cells. When there is excess energy, it stores that energy as fat.
In insulin resistance, the body’s cells (such as muscle, fat, and liver cells) do not respond well to insulin, a hormone that helps glucose (sugar) enter the cells for energy. As a result, glucose remains in the bloodstream, leading to higher blood sugar levels. The pancreas tries to compensate by producing and releasing more insulin. This creates a cycle where blood sugar remains high, and the body continues to produce more insulin, but the insulin becomes less effective over time.
What’s so bad about chronically high insulin?
- Weight Gain
- Heart Disease: Chronically high insulin levels contribute to high blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels, and inflammation, all of which raise the risk of heart disease and stroke.
- Pancreas Burnout: Over time, the pancreas may become overworked and lose its ability to produce sufficient insulin, leading to Type 2 diabetes in humans or diabetes mellitus in dogs.
- Hormonal Imbalances: High insulin levels can disrupt other hormones, worsening metabolic dysfunction and potentially leading to conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in people.
What other Factors Contribute to Metabolic Dysfunction?
- Breed Predisposition: Certain dog breeds are more prone to insulin resistance and diabetes, suggesting a genetic component. For example, Labrador Retrievers and Beagles are known to be at higher risk for obesity and related metabolic disorders.
- Obesity Leading to Adipose Tissue Dysfunction and Chronic Inflammation: Excess body fat, especially fat around internal organs, releases various substances that can impair insulin signaling in muscle and fat cells, leading to insulin resistance.
- Hormonal Imbalances like Cushing’s Disease (Hyperadrenocorticism)and Hypothyroidism
- High-Carbohydrate Diets: High-carb diets and too many calories can cause weight gain and make insulin resistance worse. This has been proven in people and is believed to be true for dogs, although more research is needed.
- Lack of Physical Fitness, leading to Reduced Muscle Mass and Poor Circulation
- Chronic Stress: Prolonged stress can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which can interfere with insulin action and contribute to insulin resistance.
- Natural Aging Processes: While age itself is a factor, it is not the sole cause of insulin resistance. Aging can lead to decreased muscle mass and changes in fat distribution, which can impact insulin sensitivity. However, these changes are often compounded by other factors such as weight gain and decreased physical activity.
Research has shown that improving metabolic health can extend a dog’s lifespan, and people too!
So, how do we do this?
It is always far easier to prevent a problem than to fix it!
Prevention includes:
- Maintain a Healthy Weight
- Regular Exercise
- Routine Veterinary Care to catch problems early
- Nutritional Supplements: Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Probiotics
- Stress Management
- Medication Review: If your dog is on long-term medications like corticosteroids, consult with your vet about the risks of insulin resistance and explore alternative treatments if possible.
But what if your dog already has metabolic dysfunction?
Current treatments focus on weight loss through diet and exercise, optimal nutrition, supplements, as well as monitoring for and treating related diseases like hypothyroidism. One study in Labrador Retrievers showed that diet restriction in dogs led to almost 2 years longer life, likely through improving metabolic health.
Just like in people, there is no magic bullet. Lifestyle changes are hard, and sticking to them even harder.
But what if it could be easier?
Advances in Modern Medicine:
One company is working toward making the prevention and treatment for metabolic dysfunction easier. Loyal is now beginning FDA trials in the US for a new drug they call LOY-002. They are testing the drug in 1000 senior dogs all over the US. They hope to have conditional FDA approval by 2025 and start selling the drug.
The information they are giving on the Loyal website is limited, as they are not yet willing to reveal the exact drug or mode of action, for fear that competitors will rush in and produce a similar drug. They state the drug is thought to improve “metabolic fitness and extend the number of healthy years your dog lives”.
This is a really attractive proposition, but it almost sounds too good to be true.
The factors contributing to metabolic dysfunction are complex. Is it possible for a single drug, that perhaps only affects one pathway, to significantly affect this complex syndrome? I am very interested in the outcome of this study and I think there is potential for some great benefits.
One interesting quote from the Loyal website discusses the Labrador lifespan study: “While caloric restriction itself is not a practical way to extend lifespan in pet dogs, this study showed that improving metabolic health can have a direct and significant impact on lifespan in dogs. We believe drugs will be a more targeted and pragmatic approach to achieving similar benefits.”
I disagree that caloric restriction is not practical. I think it is certainly possible to feed dogs to a lean body condition, or to feed less and exercise more if they are overweight.
I think drugs and drug companies have made amazing and life altering advances over the last century, but they make money from drugs, not healthy lifestyle changes.
Good nutrition, lean body condition and lots of exercise are always going to be reliable choices when helping our pets to live healthier and longer.
Added bonus? Walking a dog is good for us too!
It is very exciting to think of the potential for a medication that could work alongside the healthy lifestyle to keep our pets with us longer. I am eagerly awaiting results of the trial and will update readers with any news!
A teaser for a future article… Loyal is also testing a longevity drug that works in a different way- designed specifically for large breed dogs.
