Children exposed to dogs less likely to develop schizophrenia later in life

Having a pet pooch has numerous positives and a recent study has found one more. Exposure to dogs since an early age is linked to a reduced risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, according to the US-based research.

Robert Yolken, MD from John Hopkins Children Centre and the primary author of the research, said, "Serious psychiatric disorders have been associated with alterations in the immune system linked to environmental exposures in early life, and since household pets are often among the first things with which children have close contact, it was logical for us to explore the possibilities of a connection between the two."

Yolken and his fellow researchers from Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore studied the implications of contact with dogs and cats during the first 12 years since a person's birth and its impact upon the chances of developing bipolar and schizophrenia later in life. 

A clear reduction in the risks of schizophrenia was observed in the case of people who had pet dogs as young children, while there was no statistically significant link between dogs and bipolar. 

It is still not clearly established whether being raised up with cats either reduces or increases the risk of developing both these metal conditions and this study reflected the same trend. 

Going by the pre-existing body of knowledge, a cat or a dog can modify the human immune system through allergic reactions, microbe exposure and even the positive effect of pets on human neurochemistry. 

In their study, Yolken and his colleagues took a total of 1371 people from Baltimore, USA between the ages 18 and 65, out of which 396 suffered from schizophrenia, 381 with bipolar and 594 mentally fit controls who were screened for any psychiatric condition.

 In the next step, the participants were asked whether they owned cats or dogs before the age of 12.
The findings revealed, that the ones who were exposed to dogs before the age of 13 had a 24 percent less risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia in adulthood.

 "The largest apparent protective effect was found for children who had a household pet dog at birth or were first exposed after birth but before age 3," Yolken explained. 

Yolken said that canines bring their young owners into contact with a plethora of microorganisms and the resulting immune-boosting effects seem to work towards preventing schizophrenia in genetically predisposed individuals.

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Who Can Benefit from Having an Emotional Support Dog?

Having an animal companion is good for the soul. It feels great to feel this kind of unconditional love, completely free of judgment, and to be able to share in that deep emotional connection without even needing to say anything. It gives great comfort to sit with a dog in your lap, sharing a moment of calm and simple happiness together.

We also know dogs can be of great help to the blind, to mobility-impaired individuals, and people suffering from diseases such as diabetes and epilepsy. But can dogs also use their naturally comforting aura to help people suffering from maladies of the soul? Can a dog help an owner suffering from anxiety, depression or PTSD? Certainly.

 

While emotional support dogs are “working” dogs, just like service dogs, they don’t require any formal training. This is because these dogs don’t have any specific task to accomplish, such as pressing an alarm, guarding you while you’re convulsing, etc. No, their “task” is their companionship.

Simply by being there with you, by showering you with love, by not judging you and seeking your affection, emotional support dogs can help you better manage your mental health. 

Several mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and autism, could make you eligible for an emotional support dog. You need to get a certificate from a licensed mental health professional to either get an emotional support dog or assign an existing pet this job.

The only things that are absolutely required of an emotional support dog are to be calm, well-behaved and obedient. For this reason, irate, jittery, sickly, noisy and obnoxious dogs make poor emotional support animals.

Because an emotional support dog doesn’t constitute a regular pet, you are allowed to bring it with you on airplanes without additional charge, and you are allowed to live with one in your apartment, regardless of pet regulations. You are NOT, however, allowed to bring an emotional support dog to public places (e.g. restaurants) that otherwise forbid it.

You can put a vest on your dog (as long as it is not the same color as a service dog’s) to let people know that this is a working dog that shouldn’t be distracted.

If the idea of having a dog around to comfort you and empower you seems like something that can help you, you should definitely give it a try.

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Dogs can sniff out cancer in blood with 97% accuracy

Dogs have smell receptors 10,000 times more accurate than humans', making them highly sensitive to odours we can not perceive.

"Although there is no cure for cancer, early detection offers the best hope," said lead researcher. "A highly sensitive test for detecting cancer could save thousands of lives and change the way the disease is treated," he said.

For the study, the team used a form of clicker training to teach four beagles to distinguish between normal blood serum and samples from patients with malignant lung cancer.

Although one beagle -- aptly named Snuggles -- was unmotivated to perform, the other three correctly identified lung cancer samples 96.7 per cent times and normal samples 97.5 per cent times.

"This work is very exciting because it paves the way for further research along two paths, both of which could lead to new cancer-detection tools," said the researcher.

"One is using canine scent detection as a screening method for cancers, and the other would be to determine the biologic compounds the dogs detect and then design cancer-screening tests based on those compounds," he said.

The team plans to use canine scent detection to develop a non-invasive way of screening for cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

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Walking the dog, pottering the plants can lower the risk of death in older people

A few hours a week of light exercise-- walking the dog, pottering about in the garden -- lower the risk of death in older men, even if workouts are brief, researchers said Tuesday.

Their findings, challenge two long-held assumptions about the benefits of physical activity for the elderly.

To improve health and reduce the risk of dying, according to many national health authorities, workouts must be strenuous and more long-lasting.

In some countries, for example, the elderly are advised to do moderate-to-intense exercise at least 150 minutes per week, divided up into segments of no less than 10 minutes.

"UK and US physical activity guidelines don't mention any benefits of light activity," lead author  an epidemiologist said.

"When those guidelines were written there wasn't enough evidence to make a recommendation."

The study, which tracked 1,200 men without heart disease in their early 70s and late 80s, says such guidelines should be revised.

"The results suggest that all activities -- no matter how modest -- are beneficial," the author said.

Encouraging older adults to engage in no-sweat exercise also appears to be more realistic.

Only 16 percent of the volunteers lived up to current British exercise guidelines in sessions of at least 10 minutes. Two-thirds, however, did hit the weekly, 150-minute quota in shorter snippets of activity.

The research drew on data, which began in 1978 with nearly 8,000 participants aged 40 to 59 from a couple dozen towns scattered across Britain.

In 2012, the 3,137 men still living underwent a physical check-up, and answered questions about their lifestyle and sleeping patterns.

Couch potatoes
The study focused on 1,181 participants who wore an accelerometer -- a device that tracks the volume and intensity of physical exercise -- for seven days.

"The availability of body-worn activity monitors has enabled us to investigate whether light activity is linked to longevity," said the author.

The men, who averaged 78 years old, were monitored for five years, during which time 194 of them died.

The study showed that each additional 30 minutes-a-day of light-intensity exercise was associated with a 17 percent reduction in the risk of death.

As expected, a half-an-hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity reduced the risk by even more -- 33 percent.

What counted, however, was the total time spent exercising, not how the time was divided up.

The men who engaged in brief, sporadic bouts of moderately intense activity -- mowing the lawn, swimming, walking briskly -- were as likely to avoid the grim reaper as men whose exercise time was parcelled into longer sessions.

For both groups, the chance of dying was 40 percent lower compared to full-time couch potatoes who hardly moved at all.

The authors cautioned that the structure of the study -- the fact that it was observational, and not a clinical trial -- made it impossible to describe the results in terms of cause-and-effect.

And in the comparison between older men who exercise -- sporadically or regularly -- and those who don't, the fact that the participants who volunteers to wear accelerometers were in better health to begin with may have somewhat skewed the results.

It was also not clear whether the findings would apply to older women, though the author said there was little reason to think they don't.

"We didn't have the necessary data for women," she said.  

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Can puppy love heal cancer?

The unconditional and unflinching love dogs shower on humans might be useful in curing various ailments including cancer, says a study. 

A new research titled 'Canines and Childhood Cancer Study' is analysing the effect of animal-assisted therapy on children diagnosed with cancer.

"It is important to bring evidence-based science and rigorous data to what we already know...," said Robin Ganzert, president of the American Humane Association.

Children will be enrolled during the next 15 months and the study will review the child-animal bond, she added.

Health professionals and animal lovers have myriad anecdotal stories that the study will attempt to quantify in data.

"With a therapy dog visit, our young cancer patients stop being patients and become children again," said Stephanie Cooper Greenberg, who is part of a therapy dog team at John Hopkins University.

They provide a much-needed break from the crushing demands of treatments, tests and infusions, Greenberg added.

Five children's hospitals will collect data in the clinical trial.
"Studies like this are vital for providing an evidence-based medicine which will help us improve public health," said Deborah Linder, principal investigator for the trial in Massachusetts.
In addition to cancer patients, the study will also consider the impact on parents or care givers, healthcare workers, the dog and its handler.

As many as 200 therapy dogs may be involved in the study.

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