A different way to think about aging in dogs

Brennen McKenzie, MA, MSc, VMD, director of veterinary medicine at Loyal, a biotechnology company focusing on extending the healthy lifespan of dogs, argues that aging should no longer be seen as a fixed fact, but as a "modifiable risk factor" that can be actively managed. As veterinary medicine has advanced to better understand the biology of aging, researchers have developed more tools to slow down the process of aging and maintain a healthy lifespan for longer. With early, proactive intervention, veterinarians can play a central role in preserving quality of life for aging patients.

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity and cohesion:

McKenzie: I'm Brennen McKenzie. I'm a small animal veterinarian, and I am currently both part-time in private practice, where I've been for almost 25 years now, and also the director of veterinary medicine for Loyal, which is a biotechnology company based in San Francisco, [California], and our mission is developing medications to try to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs.

dvm360: How does seeing age as a modifiable risk factor change care for older patients?

McKenzie: I think, unfortunately, we've always sort of thought of aging as this inevitable, immutable fact of the universe. We can't do anything about it, we just have to cope with it as best we can. And that may have been true at one point, but we know enough now about the biology of aging to really have some useful tools to try to slow the process down and maintain health, function, and quality of life for longer.

It makes me sad when a client comes in with a pet and I say, "How are things going?" and they're like, "Fine. I mean, you know, they're slowing down because they're getting old, but that's okay." And I think that's not usually true. Usually, they have a problem, they may not be comfortable, they may have arthritis, they may have some pain, or they may have too much weight and all kinds of things that can be potentially treated. But we think of it as just aging, and then we don't bother to do what we can to make them better.

So, I think thinking of aging as a modifiable risk factor for what I call the "3 Ds"—disability, disease, and death, the 3 negative outcomes that go with aging—makes us as veterinarians more proactive, more likely to be looking for ways to intervene earlier, before we get really obvious disease and a really significant decline in quality of life.