Mens Journal

Dogs can smell the

hormones our bodies

release when we’re

anxious or sad.

Health Fitness

&

WHAT WORKS FOR BRETT BAIER + HEALTH NEWS + DR. BOB

The health benefits of owning

a pup go far beyond extra

exercise. New research shows

canines help ward off disease

lower stress levels and even

detect cancer.byDAVID A. K EEPS

EVERY WEEKDAY morning at

the In Situ Foundation in Chico

California an eager pack of

workers awaits their shift. One

by one they are led into a laboratory where

their boss a medical researcher named Dina

Zaphiris gives a simple directive: “Go f ind.”

With that a shaggy staffer approaches a rack

f illed with human samples of blood spit

andexhaled-breathcondensateandbegins

to sniff searching for the sample with a

specif ic odor. Upon f inding it he sits down

and points — with his nose. Mission accom-

plished: Our dogged worker has detected the

organic compounds present in cancer.

Since co-founding In Situ a canine med-

ical-training center in 2004 Zaphiris has

trained more than 50 dogs to detect early-

stage melanoma and upper thoracic lung

breast ovarian bladder and prostate can-

cers. The dogs’ accuracy rate hovers at 98

percent. “In double-blinded trials dogs blow

away all the existing machinery and medi-

caltestswhichcangeneratefalsepositives”

Zaphiris says.

This

Dog

Could

Save

Yo u r

Life

SEPTEMBER 2016 55 MEN’S JOURNAL

LUKE COPPING