Help your Dog Live Longer. Let's start now.

Well, hello you guys and welcome back to The Longevity Vet. I'm Dr. Kevin and I'm glad you're here. In today's video, we're going to take a deep dive into dog longevity, or how to help our dogs live their longest and best lives in the year 2025. Who am I? Well, my name is Dr. Kevin Toman and I graduated from veterinary school back in the dark ages of 1986, long before this internet thing rolled around. And during that almost 40 years of veterinary practice, I developed a passion for the use of longevity science to help the older pets in my care, the older dogs and the older cats live their best lives. And that became a decades-long study in the veterinary supplement world and eventually the use of prescription longevity drugs like Rapamycin, a-carbos, and their friends to help the patients in my care. A couple years back, I started a website called www.helpingpetslivelonger.com. And that's exactly what we do. So why this video on this day? Well, I was surfing the web, as some of us are prone to do, and I came across an article written by a so-called veterinary expert in which she stated that the best way to help your dogs live happily ever after was with annual exams, annual vaccines, by spaying and neutering them, and feeding them a good diet, whatever the heck that means. And you know what I thought to myself? Just stop it. That's the same information I was using in the 1980s, and both the veterinary world and longevity science in particular have come a long way since then. So this video is my effort to get you guys, the loving pet owners of the world, started on the right track when it comes to how to help your dogs live their longest in the year 2025. The first thing you should understand when it comes to longevity science in general, whether it be for humans or for pets, is is that we have no blood tests, we have no biomarkers to tell us whether the surgeries, whether the supplements, whether the drugs we are using in an effort to live longer are actually working. The sad truth is that instead we rely on studies that are done in other species, most notably mice and smaller primates, and try to extrapolate from them to us humans or to our dogs or to our cats. And that's why there's so much bullshit out there in the supplement world, boys and girls. Fact that anybody can say anything they want. And so one vow I'm going to make to you is this: in this video and on my website, www.helpingpetslivelonger.com, the supplements and the drugs that we talk about are going to— are those that have been proven, proven by science, and mostly proven by 40 years of my work in veterinary clinics throughout the western United States. There's no room for anything else in this discussion. So with those things being said, let's get to work. So let's talk about proper veterinary care. You know, that's a subject that is near and dear to my heart after all that time in the clinic. And what do I consider veterinary care? Well, a great veterinary care— the first thing I'm going to tell you about great veterinary care is that it's personalized medicine. The days of my recommending, the days of your veterinarian being able to recommend the same shot series or the same spay and a spay/neuter program for every dog that walks in the door are over. As an example, veterinarians typically recommend 5 or 6 different vaccines, but the reality is, should we be vaccinating that 10, that 10-pound indoor poodle the same as we vaccinate an outside Labrador who spends his life chasing ducks out in the fields? No, we should not, because there are different risks, and it's not only a threat to your economics, but also realistically a threat to your dog's health to use vaccines that are not medically warranted by their individual risk profile. The next thing we should understand is that when it comes to spaying and neutering, you know, when I was— when I graduated from veterinary school back in 1986, we spayed dogs and cats early in their lives. In fact, for many years I worked with animal shelters and we made a habit out of spaying and neutering dogs and cats both at 6 to 8 weeks of age. Why? Because the surgeries were very easy from a technical perspective, and because as soon as you got done, as soon as you turn those patients off the gas, they got up, they walked over, and they got something to eat. I mean, it's like nothing ever happened to them. And so it's the difference between a surgery in an old fart like me at 64 and a surgery in a 7-year-old kid. There's no comparison in the speed of our recoveries. But having said that, there are a bunch of studies recently that suggest that early age spaying and neutering is not doing our pets any favor. In fact, there are species for which it's been proven— well, and we're going to talk more about that in just one second— but in theory, it's been proven that early age spaying and neutering can increase the risk for certain types of cancer or certain types of orthopedic disease as a patient ages. Now here's the fly in the ointment, and that is These studies don't take into consideration the fact that virtually every pet that I spayed or that I neutered throughout a 40-year veterinary career will put on 10 to 15% of extra body weight as a result of that spaying and neutering. It's virtually a fact. I mean, it's just like the sun coming up tomorrow, you guys. Virtually every pet who's spayed or neutered will put on weight, and here those studies do not address that fact. And so the question in my mind is whether it's early age spaying and neutering that is creating this increased risk of orthopedic and cancer diseases, or whether it's the increased weight that is responsible for that cancer risk or that orthopedic risk. And honestly, I think it's the latter. But at this point in time, the moral to the story is that you should have a discussion with your veterinarian about when the best time to spay or neuter your pets is. As an example, I just got a little 4-month-old golden retriever pup named Annabelle who's sitting right here at my feet, and the current thought by the doctor's heart out of my alma mater UC Davis is that a female golden retriever should never be spayed. And as a clinical veterinarian, as somebody who spent my life in the veterinary trenches, I disagree with that. I've seen too many cases of uterine and breast cancer as a result of, of not spaying our dogs, and so I am going to spay my little dog Annabelle. But the reality is that those studies are out there and they deserve this, uh, fair consideration by any pet owner who's looking to try and optimize their pet's life. And that's all I'm going to say right now. Now moving right along, what's another facet of veterinary care that is really important to longevity science? Well, The subject is inflammaging, boys and girls, how the inflammation causes aging, whether it be in us or in our pets. In fact, I, about 5 years ago, I read a book by Dr. Agus, I believe his name was, who was Steve Jobs' physician. And in that, he tied a very direct link between inflammation and the aging process. And his point was simple. Every time you and I run into a cold or develop an allergic flare, Every time women wear high heels and end up with sore, sore feet as a result, they are accelerating their aging. And so the goal for all of us, whether it be two legs or four legs, is to reduce inflammation in our systems. How do we do that for our pets? Well, I loosely divide that into two size ranges. Excuse me. And for dogs under 25 pounds, the primary source of inflammation in these small dogs is in their mouth. Mouth. Small dogs, those under 25 pounds, are very prone to dental disease. And here's the thing: if your dog has untreated periodontal disease— and by that I mean infections around the teeth and deep within the gums— they are going to live up to 15% less than a dog who has a cleaner mouth. Now, that's over a year for most small dogs. And so if you're asking, if you have that 20-pound Skipper Key, or whatever the case may be, and you're asking me the single best way to help your dog live longer, I'm going to tell you, go in for an anesthetic dental every single year. Let me be clear, I said anesthetic dental, and here's why. Anesthetic-free dentals do not work. Let me repeat that: anesthetic-free dentals do not work. All they do is scare your pet because, I mean, Well, hell, you know, remember the last time you were in a dental office and you laid back and people were— had a bright light in your face and they're poking around your mouth with these sharp metal instruments? Well, you and I understand that, but our dogs don't. Moral of the story, however, is this: the only way to diagnose periodontal disease in our mouth or in that of our pets is with dental x-rays of every tooth in our body, and that is physically impossible in a pet who's awake. And so good dental care requires anesthesia and dental x-rays of every tooth. If your veterinarian cannot take x-rays of every tooth, then find another vet for your dental work, because the other word for not having dental x-rays is malpractice. It's just that simple. Moving right along, the next— for, for larger breed dogs, those over 40 pounds or so, The biggest source of ortho— let me try that again. The biggest source of inflammation for these larger dogs is their orthopedics, and it's never too early to take their future orthopedic health into consideration. And so for my pal Annabelle here, who's a 35-pound golden retriever puppy, I don't let her go up and down the stairs any more often than I can help it. I do not let her jump up onto the sofa. I do not let her jump up or down from the car. Because every time these dogs jump up and down onto a tailgate or onto a sofa or whatever the case may be, they are actively damaging their spine and their hips and their elbows, the shock absorbers of a dog's body. And so it is— let me repeat, it's not too early for a young large breed dog for you to think, hmm, what can I do to minimize the concussion and the arching and the pressure on a dog's spine? Whatever you can do to minimize stairs, to minimize jumping for these dogs, will pay off longer term. As an aside, one of the things that a veterinarian hates to see are the use of the Kongs or these oblong toys that when you throw they bounce in all different directions because that makes a dog slam the brakes, stressing their elbows out. It's much easier on a dog's body to throw a tennis ball or whatever in one direction. It's just a much healthier approach. We're also going to talk about supplements that, that work, and unfortunately a couple supplements that do not work to keep your dog's joints healthy, so stick around. And now I have to change the page on my little cheat sheet here because this is a long enough video that I didn't feel comfortable in doing this all from memory. Alright, so moving right along, the next thing we should talk about is lab tests. And you know what, I omitted, I omitted one thing, and that is that for all breeds of dogs, another source of inflammation is allergies. And so let's talk a little bit about that. So I mentioned how for dogs under 25 pounds, dental care is the primary source of inflammation. For dogs over 40 pounds, orthopedic care is the primary source of inflammation. But for all dogs of all sizes, they all run into skin problems. And in fact, there's a study that recently came out saying that skin disease, the itchy dog, is the single most common reason that folks bring their dogs to the veterinary clinic. And so listen, you are not alone. And the things that you should understand are these: pets can be allergic to the damnedest things. And as an aside, at one point I proved that a cat in my care in rural Colorado was actually allergic to gophers. When, when the cat was out feeding on gophers, they would break out with, with horrible skin disease. We kept the cat inside in a barn setting for a little bit, and those lesions disappeared. And so let me repeat, dogs and cats can be allergic to the most strange things, and that includes both diets and environmental allergies. And so in general terms, if your dog is eating something that they are allergic to, you're going to see one of two things. You're gonna see GI distress, vomiting or diarrhea, or you're gonna see inflammation from the neck up. So sometimes swollen muzzle, a lot of times inflammation in both ears. In fact, if your dog has recurrent inflammation, ear infections quote-unquote, on both sides, the reality is the single most common cause is a dietary allergy, not anything that's going on within their ears. So keep that in mind. When it comes to allergies that are not dietary, well, they can be transmitted by, or they can be caused by something like fleas. They can be caused by something like plant allergens or something that your dog is contacting. And so if your dog is developing skin issues just along their belly or on their hands and feet, the reality is this is something that they are likely walking in or laying on that is exposing, that they're allergic to. If the itch is widespread, it may be something that they are inhaling, maybe something that they're, uh, that they're contacting all over, or, you know, fleas, something like that. And so there are a number of different things that you and I can do. If you have a young dog, I would really urge you to have allergy testing done. Blood allergy testing has come a long ways, and now it's about 85 to 90% specific, and if you and I identify something that our dogs are allergic to with a blood test, about two-thirds of the time we can actually desensitize them, not just with the old-fashioned allergy injections, but with oral serum that you and I just squirt into their mouth a couple times a week, and that pays big dividends if you have that proverbial 1 or 2-year-old allergic dog. Okay, I'm gonna break off there on the allergy part of things, although —on any of this stuff, I'm going to mention one thing, and that is we are all in this together. And so if you have questions about anything that I'm going to discuss today, please feel free to get in touch with me at www.helpingpetslivelonger.com. My email is liberally splashed around there, and I will help you if I can. All right, so now we're going to segue back to the original itinerary here, which is the value of lab tests. And I would tell you that it's never a bad idea to have lab tests done when you first think about anesthetizing your pet, whether it be for a spay or a neuter or a dental. And then most times, for the average pet, you don't have to worry about it until they turn 6 or 7 or 8 years of age. But after that point in time, boys and girls, the reality is that every pet should have laboratory tests on an annual basis. And for dogs and cats, That means a complete blood count, a chemistry panel to assess organ function, a urinalysis to have a look at the plumbing, and many times a thyroid test to make sure that, especially large breed dogs, haven't run into a thyroid problem that creates the same weight gain, the same immune suppression that thyroid disease in humans carries. These tests are relatively cheap, you guys, but one thing I want you to understand Just like me as a 64-year-old veterinarian, uh, older dogs, older cats are going to run into health issues at some point in their life, and the earlier we catch them, the longer our pets are going to be around. Because there's a big difference between catching kidney disease, for instance, when it's just starting, when we can use supplements and diet and blood pressure medications, etc., to keep it from progressing, or— or catching kidney disease later in the game when all we can do is simply stand by as our pet essentially dies. And so early detection counts, and that brings me to one other topic while I'm thinking about it, and that is over the last 3 years there has been increasing interest in early cancer detection tests. Now these are blood tests that can be drawn at the same time as the diagnostic test that I just spoke about. Do you, should you worry about them if you have a dog under 25 or 30 pounds? Yeah, I mean, if you're losing sleep over it at night, go ahead and do so, but otherwise, no. Small dogs die from heart problems, small dogs die from internal medicine problems, but honestly, very seldom do they die from cancer. But if you have a dog over 40 pounds, I'm gonna tell you that those early cancer diagnostic tests are a real benefit for for you. If we, again, if we can catch cancer early in the game, you're gonna have your dog around longer. So these tests are cheap, they're still developing, they're not the world's best yet, but they're getting there, and I would strongly recommend if you have an old, excuse me, a large breed dog, that you begin early cancer detection testing as soon as about age 6 or age 7. Alright, so we're gonna switch over to diets here, and let me be clear, I mean, there's, I get questions on this every day of the week, every day of the week. What's the best diet? Well, you know what, I'm not sure there is a best diet for every individual. That's, and the same thing applies to humans and pets. I'm gonna give you some generalities though and tell you that, listen, I fed my dogs kibbles for a long time, but there's increasing evidence now that the combination of ingredients, I mean, in order for you and me to press a kibble together, it needs to to be high in carbohydrates. In order for it to be baked, what we're doing is we're creating the AGEs, the inflammatory products that will adversely affect our dog's health. And so I'm telling you that there is ample science out there that tells us that dogs who are on kibble diets will live less long than dogs fed fresh food. That's easy for me to say, But one study in particular showed that dogs who were fed cooked human-grade product as compared to dogs who were fed kibble diets, the ones on the fresh diet lived 2 years longer. Oop, that Golden Retriever puppy of mine is working my camera over here, so I apologize. So let me repeat that. I mean, if you're feeding your dog a good fresh diet, the reality is they will live longer than a dog-fed kibbles. Now, what about that fresh diet? Well, there is about a bazillion, quote, human-grade diets out there on the market. Everything from the Farmer's Dog to Just Food for Dogs, and you know what, they're all good. They are all better than the old canned food and kibbles that I used to feed my pets. I think that the best, for what it's worth, is cooking for your dog on a daily basis, or in my case, on a weekly basis. You know, I go ahead and throw some ground chicken, uh, in, or ground turkey, and a combination of vegetables on a rotating basis into, uh, into a pot, and I cook it all for my dog. And she eats roughly, uh, well, 2 pounds of meat plus, plus the veggies, uh, every 4 or 5 days. And the cost to me is about the same as a, one of the premium diets, the Just Food for Dogs or the Farmer's Dog of the world, but I just feel better knowing exactly what I put into my dog's diet because I go to the farmer's market a couple times a week, and so I have the luxury of buying food for her. Now listen, I fully understand that may not be your juice, but the reality is whatever we can do to get away from processed foods for both our health and for those— for our dogs will extend our lives. There's little doubt about it. And so I'm looking, I've got my cheat sheet going here, and one of the things that people ask, well, can I feed my dog a vegetarian or even a vegan diet? And I would tell you this, if your dog has dietary allergies, sometimes a very simple approach is to feed them a vegetarian or vegan diet, and probably 70% of the time that will reduce their symptoms without any expensive blood tests. Without any visits to a veterinary dermatologist. Dogs live just fine on vegetarian and vegan diets, but you need to have them balanced, and so you can't just feed them squash day in and day out, for instance, and hope that they live long and prosper. What you should do is use a veterinary diet service like Balance IT, B-A-L-A-N-C-E-I-T.com, to help make sure that you're not running into any nutritional deficiencies as a result of a vegetarian diet. But let me repeat just just this once, if your dog is running into allergic disease, please consider a vegetarian diet and it may solve your problems without spending a lot of money. Now, speaking of veg— of dietary insufficiencies, over the last couple decades there's been increasing popularity of grain-free diets, and I think in large part it's due to the whole gluten issue in humans, which may be or maybe not overrated by some medical standards, but suffice it to say that there are scads of grain-free diets that are out on the market. And about a decade ago, however, we learned that for people using grain-free diets, many— their dogs were prone to higher risk of heart disease, in particular cardiomyopathy, which is a weakening or stretching of the heart muscle walls. And in particular, what we learned is that grain-free diets many times create the deficiency of a a particular amino acid known as taurine, which is spelled T-A-U-R-I-N-E, in dogs who were fed exclusively these grain-free diets. So the moral to the story, guys, is if you are a grain-free diet believer, and I'm not going to try and sway you one way or the other, but if you are, please visit my website, www.helpingpetslivelonger.com, or go online and find yourself a taurine supplement for your dog. It typically takes just 750 or 1,000 milligrams of taurine on a daily basis to completely eliminate the risk of heart disease in a dog-fed grain-free diet. This is a cheap supplement, you guys, and it's guaranteed to work. Why not use it? Alright, so I need to change the scene of my crime here again. Hang on one moment while I switch to the next page. Alright, and so the next topic du jour is the use of supplements in our pets. And listen, I could spend the next 2 hours talking about this because I sell them, you know, I am, I have a horse in this race. But I'm going to gloss over a few here just to tell you what works and what doesn't to start with. And there's going to be a couple of big names right off the bat that I'm going to surprise you with. What does not work in either humans or in pets? The first example is resveratrol. You know, the old drink a glass of red wine a day to keep your health, keep you healthy as a human. It's just bullshit, guys. It's just, it's been disproven time after time after time. Resveratrol has no health benefits and it's been proven and reproven and reproven over the last 5 years or so. And so do the research, find it on PubMed, and have a look. Another big player you're going to be surprised about, what does not work for us humans or our dogs, glucosamine and chondroitin supplements to help reduce inflammation in our pets' joints or in our joints. There are a bunch of studies now that show the products like the Cosequin and the Dasiquin that I sold for 20 years in a veterinary practice just simply do not work to reduce inflammation in either human joints or in the arthritic joints of our pets. And again, those studies are out there on PubMed or Google Scholar, and I would urge you to go look at them if you choose. What does work to reduce inflammation in our joints or in the joints of our pets? There's a product called Undenatured Type 2 Collagen, or UC2, and it's a specific, a patented form of collagen that reduces inflammation by basically reducing the, the in the immune response, our body's own immune response within an arthritic joint. And it's been proven to work as well as nonsteroidals in the treatment of human knee arthritis. And that's pretty significant. It's cheap, it's proven more successful than glucosamine and chondroitin. Again, hey, you can buy it at helpingpetslivelonger.com, but you can also buy it online or from the pharmacies in, in your area. And so don't get caught up on sourcing. But please consider the switch. You can still use glucosamine and chondroitin if you want, you're just going to spend a lot of money for something that does not really help your pet. Other supplements that you should be aware of are, are the use of curcumin in your pets to reduce inflammation. And listen, curcumin is the single most studied natural supplement in the world, and at last count, there were over 4,200 studies on PubMed alone showing the benefits of curcumin in reducing inflammation in both humans and our pets. That's pretty significant proof, but here's one thing— there are a couple things you should understand. First off, some people say, well, I'm using turmeric in my pets, or I'm taking turmeric for myself. Turmeric, kids, is not curcumin. Let me repeat that. Turmeric is not curcumin. Curcumin is the active ingredient within turmeric, but for every— in every pound of turmeric, there's only 3 to 4% curcumin. And so if you're relying on turmeric instead of the purified version, the curcumin, you are wasting your money. And here's why. Curcumin, even under the best of circumstances, is very poorly absorbed. It's just not not set up to be well absorbed by our intestines. And so listen, I can speak with authority on this because as a result of a personal health issue, I spent about 2 years studying the curcumin, the curcumin world, and I ended up formulating our own, our own product made out of a patented form of curcumin that is much more available, but much more bioavailable. In fact, it's 100 times more bioavailable than the average curcumin you can— you and I can buy at Walmart. And so let's— I can talk all day long about that, but it's a supplement called Longevity Plus. Check it out on our website or just email me and I'm happy to chat about it. Once again, my little golden retriever puppy is working my camera over and I apologize for that. So, um, what other supplements should we talk about? We've talked about the use of UC-II, undenatured type 2 collagen, to to help inflamed or arthritic joints. We've talked about the use of curcumin to reduce inflammation from one pointy end of our pets to the other, but remembering that curcumin is not equivalent to turmeric and it needs a lot of help to be well absorbed. The other one thing you should understand is that fish oil works very well. Fish oil is a proven ingredient, a proven natural supplement that is documented to improve inflammation in arthritic joints. That's something you can find anywhere. Now, like everything else I'm going to say, there's a little bit of a caveat there. Don't buy cheap fish oil because it's probably sourced from species of fish that have accumulated mercury by eating smaller fish who in turn have eaten smaller shrimp or whatever the case may be. There's— every time something is eaten by somebody else, the heavy metals that the smaller individual had in them are accumulated. And so it's called heavy metal accumulation. In particular, it applies to mercury and to lead. The best way to get around that, you guys, is to use fish oils that are derived from Northern Atlantic or Alaskan salmon. Those are simply the best products on the market. You can also look for products, for fish oil products, that have the label of being molecularly distilled, and that gets you away from the mercury or from the, from the lead toxicity as well. Okay, moving right along. There are 3 or 4 other supplements that we should at least chat about in passing. One is the use of NMN, like Nancy Mary Nancy, NMN supplements to increase intracellular NADH. And listen, there's a long— if you and I went through the same biochemistry days back in the pathway, back in the day, we remember the Krebs cycle with fear and awe. And suffice it to say that as we age, the mitochondria within our cells start running out of energy. And one of the ways to supplement the energy in our cells is with the use of oral NMN. And I'm a little bit of a gym rat, and so I can give you an N of 1 on this, because when I don't take NMN, it takes me 2 or 3 days to recover from a good workout as a 64-year-old guy who's in good shape. When I do take NMN, I can go right back the next day or within an 18-hour period, and that's sub- I've been surprised by that because I was fully prepared to call bullshit on the NMN industry, but I've seen that work for me and I think it will work for your pets as well. I've already talked about taurine and the necessity to use that in grain-free diets. If you have a dog or a cat taking a grain-free diet, please buy taurine. Buy it from us, buy it from somebody else, I don't care, but buy taurine and it may save your pet's life. Last life. There are a couple new kids on the block. One is a product called fisetin, and it is basically— what's the best way to phrase it? It's the rind of an orange. It and an analog called quercetin, they're both citrus-derived, and the story behind the fisetin and quercetins of the world is that they belong to a class of supplements called senolytics, S-E-N-O-L-Y-T-I-C-S. Why, this isn't a vocabulary lesson, kids, but here's the gist of it, and that is that when you become an old fart like me, there's a certain population of cells within your body that simply stops working. They stop producing the things that they're supposed to work, and instead they just lie there consuming energy but not, not producing any benefit. Worse yet is the fact that these senescent or dying cells are thought to release substances that actively kill, that are active toxins to, to their neighbors around them. And so these products called senolytics, and the natural versions of those senolytics are quercetin or fisetin, which we carry, are designed to kill those senescent cells and eliminate the spreading of toxins from these old cells, these dying cells, into their neighbors. And so that— there's a lot of, a lot of studies being done on that right now, and I don't think we have the final word, but, but everything to date suggests that they work. Another supplement that we carry and I use routinely for pets with nerve injury is alpha-lipoic acid. It's been proven not only to reduce blood sugar but also to help maintain neuron function. So if your dog, if you have a Corgi or a Dachshund or one of these other long wheelbase models, uh, that are running into spinal disease, please consider the use of alpha lipoic acid along with, for instance, the curcumins of the world to reduce spinal inflammation and keep them as healthy and as mobile as possible. The final supplement I'll mention just in passing is berberine. And you know, there's been a lot of talk lately about the Ozempics of the world, the SGLT inhibitors that that help humans to reduce, reduce body weight. And berberine is considered a natural Ozempic analog. And so we use it— I, I use it because berberine has been proven to reduce blood sugar, has been proven to help individuals lose weight. And there are studies that suggest that berberine and its pharmaceutical big brother metformin actually help to reduce the progression of heart disease in our patients. So just something else to consider. And again, berberine is cheap, you can find it all over, so why not take it? All right, changing the scene one more time on my cheat sheet here, because now we're going to get into the meat of this, this little conversation. And so hang on, I got to change, pull my dog out of the way so she doesn't knock this whole camera affair over. But over the last decade, There's been a tremendous amount of interest in prescription drugs that both humans and pets can take to help increase longevity, and the poster children for these prescription longevity drugs is rapamycin. And it is a drug that started out being used as— as now my dog is chewing on my notes down here, so I'm going to move them gently away from her. So rapamycin started out on the human side as an immune suppressant, but what we learned along the way is that in every mammal species studied to date, rapamycin can increase lifespan by up to about 15% without any other intervention. Now that's pretty impressive. So how is that— how is the long— how are— let me try that again, uh, because because my mother was an English teacher and she's rolling over in her grave. How are rapamycin's longevity benefits manifest? Well, in two different ways. Rapamycin both reduces inflammation and it reduces cancer risk. And those things are important because once you reach the age of 30 or 40 as a human, every one of us has cancer cells wandering our body at any point in time. And it's only our immune system that keeps those cancer cells from creating clinical problem. Well, Rapamycin helps to reduce cancer risk by eliminating cancer cells before they can create a problem, and that's a big deal. Studies in dogs have shown that Rapamycin reduces inflammation and makes arthritic dogs just more comfortable and happier. There are also studies, uh, that, that tell us that Rapamycin benefits cardiac function in both dogs and cats. And here's one thing that is particularly interesting: the worse a pet's heart, the more prominent the effects of rapamycin. So that's pretty— that's something that is pretty substantial, and that is proven by scientific studies. Interestingly, rapamycin has also been shown to reduce the periodontal disease that I spoke about a little bit earlier. And as a 64-year-old male, something that's important to me is that rapamycin has also been proven to reduce the rate of hearing loss for us old farts of the world. And so, geez, you know, here I am, I'm telling you there's a drug called rapamycin that can increase your lifespan or that of your pets by up to 15%. It reduces inflammation, so it makes you feel better. It improves cardiac function and can, and can help treat or sometimes even reverse, in the case of cats, the most common type of heart disease that our pets run into. It also helps to reduce periodontal disease, the inflammation and pain that it causes, and oh, by the way, helps to improve our hearing. Can't argue with that, guys. And one other thing that I should mention in the subject of rapamycin is that chronic kidney disease is a common cause of aging and death as, as, as we all run into our senior years, and that particularly applies to cats. There are a bunch of studies that show rapamycin benefits, that benefits chronic kidney disease in, in both humans and other mammals. And these studies are being actively conducted on our pets at the Ohio State and Florida State University veterinary schools. So I'm going to put a PS in there. There's more to learn about rapamycin and its benefits, but right now I will tell you this: if you are looking to increase the lifespan of Well, honestly, if you're looking to increase your own lifespan or that of your pets, you might want to consider rapamycin. You really might. Okay, moving right along, two more drugs and we're coming down the home stretch, kids. The, the next drug that we're going to talk about is acarbose, uh, with, you know, spelled A-C-A-R-B-O-S-E. And along with rapamycin, both rapamycin and acarbose have proven in what they call the ITP, the Interventional Testing Protocol, which put on by the National Institutes of Health here in the United States. And both rapamycin and acarbose have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to improve lifespan, admittedly in mice, but we think there's a lot of crossover here. And the, the interesting thing about acarbose is that when you use it, uh, in conjunction with rapamycin, the combination of drugs increases lifespan beyond what you would expect by simple addition. So it's 1 1 3 instead of 1 1 2. We also use Acarbose to help drop blood sugar levels in our pets, and this is particularly important for dogs or cats that are running into obesity or diabetic issues. And we think, you know, for Acarbose in particular, that is the primary way it exerts its longevity benefits, is not so much by dealing with heart problems or cancer like, like rapamycin does, but simply by reducing blood sugar. And speaking of blood sugar reduction, the last kid on the block will be metformin. And there we've used metformin in dogs and cats for the control of diabetes for, for decades, but we did not know until recently that metformin has also been proven to reduce the risk of heart failure in dogs with heart problems. And so now, for my, in my personal practice, the reality is metformin is a daily drug that we recommend for any dog who's going through the beginnings of cardiac failure. So that's Rapamycin, excuse me, that is longevity science as of 2025. What is longevity science as of 2027? Well, there's a new drug on the block. Called LOYAL, uh, and, or L-O-Y-A-L-O-Y-0-0-1, and it's put out by a company called LOYAL. This is out of the Bay Area, a couple hundred miles north of where I live, and there's been a bunch of publicity around it because, well, candidly, they're good at marketing, they're good at PR. And the gist of it is this: the L-O-Y-A-L-O-Y-0-0-1 drug acts by reducing a hormone within our body called insulin growth factor. And that insulin growth factor is important to us because there have been studies that show the higher your IGF, the more, the more at risk for cancer you are. And so Loyal's hypothesis is that by reducing IGF in the blood of our dogs, that they can reduce cancer risk and therefore extend lifespan, especially in the older breed dogs. Excuse me. In the larger breed dogs that are most prone to it. Now, we'll see, we'll see. Studies aren't going to be complete for a couple of years yet, and it's a fascinating, um, it's a fascinating thing. I think it'll be very— I'll be very curious to see whether it pans out. But here's one thing you should know, you guys. You and I can reduce insulin growth factor levels in ourselves and in our dogs very simply right now without waiting for any prescription drug. How? By exercise, by reducing the carbohydrate or the sugar component in our diets, and through time-restricted feeding, where instead of feeding ourselves or our dogs 2 or 3 times during a day, we feed them just once, or we only eat ourselves between the hours of 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. And these things are proven, you guys, right now to reduce IGF levels and thus your risk of cancer. So if you're, if you're in the game to win it, you might consider trying to reduce your own IGF or your pet's own IGF instead of waiting for other folks and their LOY-001 drugs to do that for you. And I guess that's it. I'm winding down. And so let me repeat one thing I said a little bit earlier. I am passionate about this. This stuff. I can talk all day long with you about longevity science in your dogs, and for that matter, in your cats, and the use of supplements, the use of drugs, the use of lifestyle in an effort to help your pets live their longest and best life. If you share that fascination, or if you just simply have questions about anything that I talked about today, please reach out to me. You know, again, my website is www.helpingpetslivelonger.com. My web— my email is splashed around liberally in there, and you can track it down without any problem. So if you have questions about your pet or how best to apply longevity science helping them live their best life, please reach out to me, email me. We're all in this together, and I will help you if I can. So again, I'm Dr. Kevin Toman Toman, www.helpingpetslivelonger.com, and I hope you have a great day. Bye now.