By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Our dogs would often look up to the grassy top of the mountain beside our house and their nostrils would be moving up and down, sort of quivering. Then they would start barking or running. Sometimes there were strangers or just a rat in the grassy area.
Every night, while we are still about 100 meters down the hill on our way home, all five of them would be running down the road to meet us. They know the smell or the sound of the car and us occupants.
And how could we miss the often disappearance of the males of them. They would not be seen for a day or two only to come home the next day, hungry, tired and so sleepy. For sure they had been within several kilometers of the vicinity in the residence of a female dog in heat—they could smell a dog in that condition even several kilometers away.
We humans only have 5 million olfactory receptors in one of our nostrils. A dog has about 300 million. Thus the strength of their sense of smell. So strong that there are now trained dogs in a medical facility in the US to detect if a person has cancer. At what accuracy? At 98%. No high tech machine can be that accurate as far as cancer is concerned. Thus the need for a second opinion, or a third or even a fourth opinion which you have to pay with an arm and a leg.
In the beginning, this medical lab research on dogs at Situ Foundation in Chico, California was dismissed as quackery. Not anymore. Some medical institutions, especially in Europe are following suit.
It was also found out in the University of Maryland that pet ownership can be very beneficial to heart attack patients for many reasons. One is the calmative effect of pets that lowers blood pressure, another is the increased social interaction that follows, and the well-known cardiovascular benefits of dog walking.
In 1987 the US National Institute of Health boldly announced that “pet ownership is a variable in public health outcomes that, like food and exercise, cannot be ignored.”
Some trained dogs would be able to detect if their master is about to suffer from diabetes episodes, or cardiac related fainting spells or epileptic seizures.
Even the shedding of a dog’s dander inside homes which some people hate very much can activate the immune system of children against eczema, asthma, and respiratory allergies.
Here’s a very good thing. Interaction with dogs says Rebecca Johnson, director of the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, “There are real physiological responses that humans exhibit in the presence of and interaction with dogs. Chief among them is a potent neurological response: a suppression of the stress hormone cortisol and a surge of endorphins (which decreases feelings of stress and pain), serotonin (which mitigates depression), prolactin (which induces feelings of nurture), and, most significantly, oxytocin (the “love” hormone released during social bonding, cuddling and orgasm). Quality time with dogs also lowers blood pressure and heart rate and fosters a deeper sense of mindfulness.”
The protein found in a dog’s saliva can also make a human wound heal in half the usual time.
As more research are undertaken, surely, we will find out that these are just a droplet from the bucket of the many health benefits we get from dog ownership.**
(Source: This Dog Could Save Your Life by David A. Keeps, Men’s Journal, September 2016, Vol. 25, No.7)
