Some people abandon
their dogs before their kids are born so as to avoid pet allergies. While a
research has been done to prove the opposite.
According to a team of
Swedish scientists, children who grow up around dogs will have a 15 percent
less chance of developing asthma later in life. This is compared to children
who did not have the company of these furry friends.
Research
Background
The team used the
national register to study the association between children’s contact with dogs
and the children’s future respiratory development. They studied the data of
over a million children in Sweden using nine different national registers. The
new data included two previously unused dog ownership registers.
This study is perfectly
tailored to Sweden because every citizen of the country is assigned a unique
number associated with their name and identity. Whether they go to the doctor
or order a prescription, this number is recorded, and then disassociated with the
data for privacy protection.
The Swedish government
even monitors dog ownership. Every family that owns a dog has registered their
pet with the government since 2001.
Results
With all of this
information, scientists were able to better collate the number of dog owners
who then went on to suffer from asthma.
While this study
demonstrates figures, such raw data does not give people all of the information
they need regarding the prevention of respiratory diseases. It demonstrates the
association between asthma and pet ownership. However, it does not show why
people with dogs may suffer less from asthma.
This study demonstrates
correlation but it doesn’t provide a causal link between the two numbers.
Previous studies have been done on this topic but none have garnered
substantial results that led to conclusions. However, some studies have shown
that living in a rural area or on a farm can reduce the likelihood of asthma by
50 percent.
Possible
Reasons
The
Hygiene Hypothesis
What this study does do
is throw weight behind what is called the hygiene hypothesis.
The hygiene hypothesis
argues that children who are raised in sterile environments are more likely to
have underdeveloped immune systems. As a result, they are more likely to suffer
from allergies and auto-immune diseases later in life.
Hygienic areas and
industrialized countries have led to fewer infectious diseases in the world.
Simple hand washing techniques combined with other anti-bacterial or anti-viral
products have generally prevented whole continents from being plagued by
infectious, preventable diseases. This is great. But there are downsides to
ultra-sterile environments.
Essentially, when your
environment is too clean all the time, it is harder to fight off disease. In
some cases, the immune system might even begin mistaking your body for disease.
This is the underlying cause of most auto-immune disorders.
Studies have suggested
that the more children are exposed to germs, the healthier they are likely to
be later in life. This does not mean that a family simply needs to throw out
the antibacterial products. It means engaging in everyday life and picking up
germs, like the germs that you pick up from dogs.
The
Hygiene Hypothesis and Asthma
But preventing asthma
is not as simple as picking up a new pooch. Asthma is not just caused by
extensive cleanliness. There are certain factors that attack the body that can
cause asthma, too.
Asthma can be caused by
allergens or irritants in the air. It can also be caused by respiratory
infections. Some people get specific genes from their parents that lead to the
development of asthma.
Ultimately, asthma is
not a black and white disease. Many people suffer from it differently. Because
of this, and the lack of further information in the study, scientists cannot
prove much with the current data. It is true that some people who had dogs as a
child did not grow up to develop asthma. But until researchers find out why, it
is best to depend on Fido for love, compassion and protection rather than for
the prevention of respiratory diseases.
Source: Life Hack
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