Having a pet dog could reduce asthma risk

The association between early exposure to dogs and farm animals and the risk of asthma was assessed using registry data on dog and farm registration, asthma medication, diagnosis, and confounders (factors that could skew the data) for parents and their children. A new research paper has found that if babies and toddlers are exposed to dogs then they have 15% reduced risk of having dementia by the age of 6. “We wanted to see if this relationship also was true for children growing up with dogs in their homes”. “Earlier studies have shown that growing up on a farm reduces a child’s risk of asthma to about half…”

It is good to have dogs around if there is a small child in house.

Not all of the findings were positive when it came to dogs in the family home, Farzan pointed out. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 11 children and 1 in 12 adults has the condition, which makes it hard for air to move in and out of the lungs, causing coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.

Tove Fall, lead researcher at the university, said: ‘Our results confirmed the farming effect and we also saw that children who grew up with dogs had about 15 per cent less asthma than children without dogs’. Farm animal exposure was associated with a reduced risk of asthma in both school-aged children and preschool-aged children.

The authors are affiliated with Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden; and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. “One of the main hypotheses at the moment is that kids in animal environments breathe air that contains more bacteria and bacterial fragments, which actually could lower their risk of asthma”.

It is important to note, however, that the findings of the study do not prove that dogs and horses prevent asthma.

The researchers have also discovered that children living on a farm with various animals can develop a higher protection from allergens.

Fall said she and her team are now working on projects aiming to characterize dogs’ impact on children’s gut microbiome and to investigate whether there are differences in effects of various dog breeds on the risk of asthma. “An allergist/immunologist has specialized training and experience to accurately diagnose your symptoms and develop a treatment plan to help you or your child manage allergy symptoms and potentially keep your furry friends”.