Looking Under the Hood: How Metabolic Dysfunction Impairs Health in Aging Dogs

We are all familiar with the negative health consequences of aging: disability, disease, and death. However, even though we know these all increase with age, we tend to think of each clinical problem in senior dogs as having a distinct cause. As a result, we often play a reactive game of whack-a-mole with aging-associated disease; diagnosing and treating each separately after it appears. Fortunately, a growing body of scientific evidence is revealing more about the common mechanisms underlying aging, giving us new targets for preventive interventions to delay the decline in health and function.

This session looks at metabolic dysfunction, a key collection of biological processes that drive the increase in frailty and disease and the decline in quality of life seen in aging. We explore the role of dysfunctional adipose tissue, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia in canine aging and consider strategies for preserving normal metabolic function to extend health lifespan.