An old saying is that dogs age seven years for each human one and a new study finds that the comparisons between humans and man's best friend are even closer than that.
The work associated small chemicals and molecules produced during normal bodily processes associated with earlier or later death in dogs the same way they have been shown in humans. These metabolites can reveal what is happening at the cellular level so the team analyzed blood samples from dogs enrolled in the Dog Aging Project, a nationwide, long-term study which includes physical samples from dogs and surveys by owners. Blood samples were examined for metabolic patterns associated with lifespan and those metabolites were used to identify broader signals that could predict risk. Their biomarkers don't cause an outcome like disease or death but can link to a potential cause. Especially in large numbers of animals.
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The interesting part was when they compared the same kinds of metabolic signals in dogs with five large, published studies of human mortality that used similar metabolite-based approaches. In all cases the patterns linking metabolites to earlier or later death were similar. Dogs and humans age a lot alike.
For dog owners, the takeaway is simple: many of the habits that support healthy aging in people are likely just as important for dogs. Maintain a health weight and some exercise. Neither is going to live forever but both will be better off while here.
Citation: Benjamin R Harrison, Joshua M Akey, Noah Snyder-Mackler, Daniel Raftery, Kate E Creevy, Daniel E L Promislow, DAP Consortium, Dogs and humans share biomarkers of mortality, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 81, Issue 4, April 2026, glaf279, DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glaf279
