The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.

Health Hound: Slim Dogs live Longer — it’s scientific!

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Spectroscopy Now reported this spring that researchers at Imperial College London (working together with the Nestlé Research Center (NRC) and Nestlé-Purina) have carried out a longitudinal study into the optimum nutritional mix for dog food, and in the process have discovered that slim dogs live longer, healthier lives.

Dogs fed 25% less food than their counterparts tended to live two years longer on average than those fed 100% diets, and were also less prone to disease, arthritis and diabetes.

The study aimed to find the best nutritional food mix for dogs, and with the aid of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR) analysis, has shed new light on how calorie count affects lifespan. The research suggests that gut microbes could underpin the benefits of a low-calorie diet on longevity.

Professor Jeremy Nicholson of Imperial College London used NMR spectroscopy to obtain metabolic profiles that offer new clues to the aging process. “This fascinating study was primarily focused on trying to find optimised nutritional regimes to keep pet animals such as dogs healthy and as long-lived as possible,” he explains, “However these types of life-long studies can help us understand human diseases and ageing as well, and that is the added bonus of being able to do long-term non-invasive metabolic monitoring.”

The study involved 24 well looked after Labrador dogs, that were considered in pairs. One dog from each pair was given 25% less food than the other, but both dogs were treated the same otherwise, in terms of exercise and behaviour. Those dogs on the lower calorie diet lived, on average, almost two years longer. There was also fewer cases of diabetes and osteoarthritis with the low-calorie dogs and a greater median age for onset for late-onset diseases.

The study was fifteen years in the making. Nicholson and his team carried out a comprehensive analysis of urine samples from the dogs using NMR in order to determine a metabolic profile for each dog. One key chemical feature that emerged from the analyses is that those dogs on the normal 100% diet had increased levels of aliphatic amines in their urine, which Nicholson explained indicates lower dietary choline catabolism.

Aliphatic amines are putatively associated with various health problems, but moreover, their presence at higher concentrations suggests a more risky microbial profile in the animals’ guts because they reflect a lower level of fat-busting compound choline. “We cannot [yet] tell from our studies if the bug species change or their activities change or both, but we know that one of these is happening,” Nicholson adds.

The changes in gut microbe behaviour or make-up associated with calorie restriction could partly explain why the low-cal dogs lived longer. Abnormalities in some types of gut microbes have recently been linked to diseases such as obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. But researchers also found that the overall effects of ageing on restricted and non-restricted calorie animals exerted a greater effect on the metabolic profile than dietary restriction. This in itself is interesting, and Professor Nicholson and his team hinted at possible implications for human disease and aging.

Perhaps the most important outcome of the research is that it should now be possible to improve the diets of pet and working dogs around the world by modifying the nutritional properties of dog food to mimic the health benefits of dietary restriction.

Nicholson’s team is set to publish new results on other species that reveal even more detail about the effects of gut microbes on diet and diabetes. I wonder if he’ll be studying dachshunds…?

Well, in any case, what Nicholson’s ground-breaking study has shown is that a slightly leaner hound is a healthier hound. So think of that next time you want to give Fido some left-overs, a few too many treats, or a tidbit of cake! And who knows? The same may hold for two-leggeds as for four-leggeds! So there you go: exercise restraint and you may make it into the age of wisdom…

Awoof! Archibald, a slender hound

Posted 21 May 07