We have been here before but yet another nail has been driven into the simplistic idea, that every dog year is equivalent to 7 in humans. Studies had already suggested that young puppies age very quickly but that the rate of ageing levels off in mature and older dogs. This has been now largely confirmed by a US genetic study on Labradors with a range of ages (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jul/02/every-human-year-not-equivalent-to-seven-dog-years-scientists-find). The study compared the rates of accumulation of methyl groups associated with DNA in the dogs and humans. The methyl groups basically switch particular genes on or off, determining which proteins (including key enzymes) are made. It was basically confirmed that a 1 year old dog is equivalent to a human aged 30; a 4 year old to age 54 and a 14 year old to 70. If you really want to calculate your best friend's age in human years, this is given by the formula :- human age=16 x ln(dog age)+31 (where ln is the natural log). I suspect that this is a bit too complicated for most folk.
No comments:
Post a Comment