How Pets Can Protect Children from Obesity and Allergies
'14.06.2017'
Source: USA TODAY
A study by Canadian scientists from the University of Alberta found that pets in the house reduces the risk of obesity and allergies in children.
Boys and girls who are in contact with their pets, especially dogs, from infancy, are less likely to suffer from these ailments, since beneficial bacteria that carry pets are introduced into their microflora.
Families, in which dogs or cats run around the house, can unwittingly protect their children from the development of future obesity and allergies.
Epidemiologist Anita Kozyrsky from the University of Alberta and a team of researchers analyzed data on 700 Canadian children. They found that children who were in contact with animals from an early age, as well as those whose mothers were owners of such during pregnancy, had an excess of microbes from families ruminococcus and oscillospira. The first reduce the likelihood of obesity, and the second - the likelihood of allergies, indicated in the study presented in the journal microbiome.
Kozyrski noted that 2 type microbes increased 2 times when there was a pet in the house. In general, experts believe that their findings apply, primarily, to animals covered with wool.
If the parents decide to get rid of the pet before the baby appears in the house, it is still likely that the newborn will receive these beneficial microbes from the mother.
The findings also suggest that pet exposure may reduce the risk of group B streptococci. They, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can lead to blood infections, pneumonia and meningitis in the newborn.
Kozyrski said she would not be surprised if the pharmaceutical industry creates a “dog in a pill” to take advantage of the microbes.
