How old is your dog in human years? It’s pretty common to go by the age-old “multiply by 7” method, but a new study says that’s just a myth. Instead, researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine say they have a formula which more accurately measures the age of your beloved pet. “This makes sense when you think about it — after all, a nine-month-old dog can have puppies, so we already knew that the 1:7 ratio wasn’t an accurate measure of age,” says study author Trey Ideker in a statement.
They came up with it based on research on Labrador retrievers. Their work has created a new scale which shows based on genetic aging, a 1-year-old lab is closer to a 30 year old human, than a 7 year old. And at 4 years old the dog is close to 52, but then it flips as they get older, and a teen dog is around 70 instead of 100.
The study, published in Cell Systems, looks at the “epigenetic clock.” That clock determines the age of a cell based on chemical processes like methylation, which influences whether the body’s genes are switched on or off. Ideker says changes in epigenetics give scientists clues into how old your genes are, just like the wrinkles in a person’s face. The researchers add epigenetic studies have already been done with people and mice, but co-author Tina Wang suggested trying the process on dogs. “We always look at humans, but humans are kind of boring,” Ideker explains. “So she convinced me we should study dog aging in a comparative way.”
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