Dr. Kevin Toman

Founder, DogLongevity

"A Veterinarian Since 1986…

… makes me, I think, an old fart. I live on the Central Coast of California with the woman of my dreams, Angela, our pug, and a spoiled Golden Retriever named Anabelle. I have been lucky enough to have two lifetime dogs, a Golden named Brook and a Bernese Mountain Dog named MacGregor.

I have been in veterinary practice for over 30 years, mostly in California and southwestern Colorado. 

I am passionate about the goal of maximizing our pets’ “healthspan”, which I think of as equal parts of their happiness and longevity. I do whatever it takes to achieve that for my patients, from acupuncture and curcumin through laser therapy and rapamycin to surgery and steroids…. whatever it takes to provide the best outcome for the patients entrusted to my care. I have a special interest in orthopedics and the holistic care of pets with cancer. And, at the end of the day, I love old dogs.

When I’m not thinking about pet longevity, you’ll probably find me with a fly rod in my hand on some mountain stream, gardening, or sweating in the gym."

Dog Longevity website: https://doglongevity.vet/

Scientific Articles about Rapamycin:

link.springer.com

Age is the single greatest risk factor for most causes of morbidity and mortality in humans and their companion animals. As opposed to other model organisms used to study aging, dogs share the human environment, are subject to similar risk factors, receive comparable medical care, and develop many of the same age-related diseases humans do. In this study, 24 middle-aged healthy dogs received either placebo or a non-immunosuppressive dose of rapamycin for 10 weeks. All dogs received clinical and hematological exams before, during, and after the trial and echocardiography before and after the trial. Our results showed no clinical side effects in the rapamycin-treated group compared to dogs receiving the placebo. Echocardiography suggested improvement in both diastolic and systolic age-related measures of heart function (E/A ratio, fractional shortening, and ejection fraction) in the rapamycin-treated dogs. Hematological values remained within the normal range for all parameters studied; however, the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was decreased in rapamycin-treated dogs. Based on these results, we will test rapamycin on a larger dog cohort for a longer period of time in order to validate its effects on cardiac function and to determine whether it can significantly improve healthspan and reduce mortality in companion dogs.

link.springer.com

Companion dogs are a powerful model for aging research given their morphologic and genetic variability, risk for age-related disease, and habitation of the human environment. In addition, the shorter life expectancy of dogs compared to human beings provides a unique opportunity for an accelerated timeline to test interventions that might extend healthy lifespan. The Test of Rapamycin In Aging Dogs (TRIAD) randomized clinical trial is a parallel-group, double-masked, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial that will test the ability of rapamycin to prolong lifespan and improve several healthspan metrics in healthy, middle-aged dogs recruited from Dog Aging Project participants. Here, we describe the rationale, design, and goals of the TRIAD randomized clinical trial, the first rigorous test of a pharmacologic intervention against biological aging with lifespan and healthspan metrics as endpoints to be performed outside of the laboratory in any species.

www.frontiersin.org

Geroscience studies of low-dose rapamycin in laboratory species have identified numerous benefits, including reversing age-related cardiac dysfunction. Cardi...

avmajournals.avma.org

Abstract OBJECTIVE To determine the pharmacokinetics of orally administered rapamycin in healthy dogs. ANIMALS 5 healthy purpose-bred hounds. PROCEDURES The study consisted of 2 experiments. In experiment 1, each dog received rapamycin (0.1 mg/kg, PO) once; blood samples were obtained immediately before and at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours after administration. In experiment 2, each dog received rapamycin (0.1 mg/kg, PO) once daily for 5 days; blood samples were obtained immediately before and at 3, 6, 24, 27, 30, 48, 51, 54, 72, 75, 78, 96, 96.5, 97, 98, 100, 102, 108, 120, 144, and 168 hours after the first dose. Blood rapamycin concentration was determined by a validated liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry assay. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined by compartmental and noncompartmental analyses. RESULTS Mean ± SD blood rapamycin terminal half-life, area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 48 hours after dosing, and maximum concentration were 38.7 ± 12.7 h, 140 ± 23.9 ng•h/mL, and 8.39 ± 1.73 ng/mL, respectively, for experiment 1, and 99.5 ± 89.5 h, 126 ± 27.1 ng•h/mL, and 5.49 ± 1.99 ng/mL, respectively, for experiment 2. Pharmacokinetic parameters for rapamycin after administration of 5 daily doses differed significantly from those after administration of 1 dose. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that oral administration of low-dose (0.1 mg/kg) rapamycin to healthy dogs achieved blood concentrations measured in nanograms per milliliter. The optimal dose and administration frequency of rapamcyin required to achieve therapeutic effects in tumor-bearing dogs, as well as toxicity after chronic dosing, need to be determined.

A Review of Rapamycin in Companion Dogs Journal of Veterinary Science, 2025.

https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A15%3A39466127/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A188380537&crl=c&link_origin=scholar.google.com

Rapamycin as a Potential Intervention to Promote Longevity and Extend Healthspan in Companion Dogs

Journal of Veterinary Science, 2025.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12520851/pdf/jvs-26-S181.pdf

Delayed-release Rapamycin Halts Progression of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Subclinical Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Results of the RAPACAT Trial.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2023.

https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/261/11/javma.23.04.0187.xml

Acarbose:

Acarbose Improves Health and Lifespan in Aging HET3 Mice

Aging Cell, 2019.

https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.12898

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.12898

Acarbose, 17-α-estradiol, and Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid Extend Mouse Lifespan Preferentially in Males

Aging Cell, 2014.

https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.12170

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.12170

From Glucose Control to Gut Health: How Acarbose Bridges Metabolic Disease Management, Microbiome Science, and Aging Processes

Healthspan, 2024.

https://www.gethealthspan.com/research/article/acarbose-glucose-control-gut-health-metabolic-disease-microbiome-aging?zp_type=article&zp_slug=acarbose-glucose-control-gut-health-metabolic-disease-microbiome-aging

Metformin Review:

A Critical Review of the Evidence That Metformin Is a Putative Anti-Aging Drug That Enhances Healthspan and Extends Lifespan Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2021.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.718942/full?trk=public_post_comment-text