Infants Raised with Dogs Have Lower Asthma Rates

Infants raised alongside dogs or farm animals are at a lower risk of developing asthma. According to Reuters, Swedish scientists have concluded that infants growing up in the presence of dogs are 13% less likely to develop asthma by the time they reach school age compared to their peers (at six years old). Meanwhile, infants raised on farms alongside animals like horses are even 52% less likely to develop this respiratory disease. The findings do not prove that dogs prevent asthma, but they reject the assumption that the presence of these animals in the early years of a child's life may lead to the disease. The lead researcher, Dr. Tove Fall from Uppsala University in Sweden, believes that pets enrich children's lives in various ways and now we can say that they also strengthen their immune systems. Dr. Fall and her colleagues studied over one million Swedish children born between 2001 and 2010. The study included nearly three hundred thousand school-aged children, 22 thousand children who lived with a dog during their first year of life, and 950 children who were raised on farms. Among the one million children studied, 11,600 had developed asthma by school age. Dr. Fall suggests that the lower risk for these children may be due to their exposure to dirt and microbes present outside the home (which are brought inside by dogs or other pets), leading to a more robust immune system. "Perhaps it is a good thing for infants to grow up in a home with a dog, where not everything can be kept perfectly clean." Recently, research published in the prestigious journal Science indicated that bacteria found in animal waste, particularly cow dung, helps make the structure of respiratory cells in the lungs more resistant to allergies. Therefore, individuals raised on farms and ranches are less likely to suffer from allergies and respiratory diseases like asthma. There is a theory that suggests the more children are exposed to microbes in childhood, the greater their physical resistance to diseases in adulthood. Previous studies in Switzerland on children raised in farms and ranches showed that they suffer from allergies 20% less than their peers living in cities. Research on Amish children (who live an agricultural lifestyle in some eastern U.S. states) also indicated lower allergy rates.