Dogs Being Trained to Sniff Out Diabetes

A canine's hyper-sensitive nose can detect tiny changes in blood sugar

AYLESBURY, England - Dogs are being trained in Britain as potential life-savers to warn diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels.

Man's best friend already has been shown capable of sniffing out certain cancer cells, and dogs have long been put to work in the hunt for illegal drugs and explosives.

Their new front-line role in diabetes care follows recent evidence suggesting a dog's hyper-sensitive nose can detect tiny changes that occur when a person is about to have a hypoglycemic attack.

A survey last December by researchers at Queen's University Belfast found 65 percent of 212 people with insulin-dependent diabetes reported that when they had a hypoglycemic episode their pets had reacted by whining, barking, licking or some other display.

At the Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs research center in Aylesbury, southern England, animal trainers are putting that finding into practice and honing dogs' innate skills.

The charity has 17 rescue dogs at various stages of training that will be paired up with diabetic owners, many of them children.

"Dogs have been trained to detect certain odors down to parts per trillion, so we are talking tiny, tiny amounts. Their world is really very different to ours," Chief Executive Claire Guest told Reuters TV.

The center was started five years ago by orthopedic surgeon Dr John Hunt, who wanted to investigate curious anecdotes about dogs pestering their owners repeatedly on parts of their body that were later found to be cancerous.

At around the same time, the first hard evidence was being gathered by researchers down the road at Amersham Hospital that dogs could identify bladder cancer from chemicals in urine.

The move into diabetes followed the case of Paul Jackson, who told Guest and her team about his dog Tinker who warns him when his sugar levels get too low and he is in danger of collapsing.

"It's generally licking my face, panting beside me. It depends how far I have gone before he realizes," Jackson said.

Tinker has now been trained by the Aylesbury center and is a fully qualified Diabetic Hypo-Alert dog, complete with red jacket to announce himself as a working assistance animal.

Source: Just One More Pet

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth

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Can Dogs Smell Cancer?

“All over the world, major universities are researching the therapeutic value of pets in our society and the number of hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and mental institutions which are employing full-time pet therapists and animals is increasing daily.” ~ Betty White, American Actress, Animal Activist, and Author of Pet Love

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2006) — In a society where lung and breast cancers are leading causes of cancer death worldwide, early detection of the disease is highly desirable. In a new scientific study, researchers present astonishing new evidence that man’s best friend, the dog, may have the capacity to contribute to the process of early cancer detection.

In this study which will be published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies published by SAGE Publications, researchers reveal scientific evidence that a dog’s extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls. The research, which was performed in California, was recently documented by the BBC in the United Kingdom, and is soon to be aired in the United States.

Other scientific studies have documented the abilities of dogs to identify chemicals that are diluted as low as parts per trillion. The clinical implications of canine olfaction first came to light in the case report of a dog alerting its owner to the presence of a melanoma by constantly sniffing the skin lesion. Subsequent studies published in major medical journals confirmed the ability of trained dogs to detect both melanomas and bladder cancers. The new study, led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, California, and Tadeusz Jezierski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding, is the first to test whether dogs can detect cancers only by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients.

In this study, five household dogs were trained within a short 3-week period to detect lung or breast cancer by sniffing the breath of cancer participants. The trial itself consisted of 86 cancer patients (55 with lung cancer and 31 with breast cancer) and a control sample of 83 healthy patients. All cancer patients had recently been diagnosed with cancer through biopsy-confirmed conventional methods such as a mammogram, or CAT scan and had not yet undergone any chemotherapy treatment. During the study, the dogs were presented with breath samples from the cancer patients and the controls, captured in a special tube. Dogs were trained to give a positive identification of a cancer patient by sitting or lying down directly in front of a test station containing a cancer patient sample, while ignoring control samples. Standard, humane methods of dog training employing food rewards and a clicker, as well as assessment of the dog’s behavior by observers blinded to the identity of the cancer patient and control samples, were used in the experiment.

The results of the study showed that dogs can detect breast and lung cancer with sensitivity and specificity between 88% and 97%. The high accuracy persisted even after results were adjusted to take into account whether the lung cancer patients were currently smokers. Moreover, the study also confirmed that the trained dogs could even detect the early stages of lung cancer, as well as early breast cancer. The researchers concluded that breath analysis has the potential to provide a substantial reduction in the uncertainty currently seen in cancer diagnosis, once further work has been carried out to standardize and expand this methodology.

This study was supported by the MACH Foundation (Fairfax, CA), Guide Dogs for the Blind (San Rafael, CA) and Frank and Carol Rosemayr (Kentfield, CA).

Adapted from materials provided by SAGE Publications, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Source:  Just One More Pet - 04.27.09

Posted:  True Health is True Wealth

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Your Pet and Your Health

Many of us agree that we should do everything within our power to make sure that our companion animals enjoy the best possible health.  But did you know that simply by being a part of your life, your dog or cat could actually help you to be not only happier but healthier, too?

Of course you did.  It’s all part of the privilege (and fun!) of being a pet parent.  What you may not know is that there’s plenty of science to back it up.  A wealth of knowledge regarding the health benefits associated with having companion animals has been accumulated over the last two decades, including numerous research studies in the U.S. and abroad.

A study published in The British Journal of Health Psychology reports that people who have companion animals tended to be healthier than those who did not.  Additionally, when a dog was part of the family, the members had fewer minor ailments, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol.  Although the explanation for these advantages is unclear, researchers speculated that all benefits could be accounted for by reduced levels of stress, possibly due to increased physical activity and levels of social interaction.

The positive effects of having a canine companion have also been chronicled in research published in the American Journal of Cardiology.  The year-long study documented the effect of having a canine companion in 369 patients who had suffered an acute heart attack.  The positive effects were nothing short of extraordinary!  The patients who had a dog in the home had a much better chance of survival.  Over 7% of patients without a dog died during the study, compared with only 1% of those who had a canine companion.

Researchers at the University of Leicester found that when pets are in a household, children six years and younger develop social skills at an accelerated rate.  Additionally, these children tend to have better coordination, improved confidence, superior communication skills and are even less likely to have allergies!

The British Medical Journal concluded that pets serve a vital need for socialization, especially for those at a higher risk for isolation, like those with physical limitations that might prevent opportunities for social interaction.  Most medical professionals agree that the broader the network of social contacts, the better we are able to deal with difficult life issues.  This study, and others like it, supports the idea that this need for social relations can be fulfilled equally well by companion animals as with people.

And a survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association revealed that bringing a companion animal to the office resulted in higher worker productivity.

These and many other studies reinforce what we as pet parents have suspected all along … that our beloved four-footed companions are integral parts of our families, enriching our lives beyond measure.

Source:  Healthy Pet Net