Health
&Fitness
WHAT A DOG CAN DO FOR YOU
The science behind how they make us happier healthier and fitter.THE EYES
âImagine looking at your dog and he looks
back at you â in about 30 seconds oxytocin
courses through your bodyâ says psychologist
Chris Blazina. This hormone associated with
feelings of trust and bonding could increase
by as much as 300 percent research suggests.THE EYEBROWS
Dogs may use facial
expressions â
raising their
eyebrows to make
their eyes look
bigger â to elicit
affection and
deepen the bond
with their owner.THE FUR
Pet and play with
a dog and your
brain soon
releases the feel-
good endorphins
serotonin and
prolactin. After
15 minutes your
levels of the
stress-hormone
cortisol decrease
significantly.By using their incredible sense of
smell canines could even stop new dis-
eases before they start. Dogs can be trained
to inspect planes vehicles and luggage for
meat or live animals that could transmit
diseases to people. âYou could crack down
on poaching while also preventing horri-
ble disease outbreaks â the next Ebola or
HIVâ says Dr. Brian Hare the co-author of
The Genius of Dogs.
Finally dogs are also invaluable as test
subjects: By studying how a sick pooch
reactstoandfightsoffmaladieswecan
better develop solutions for humans. Com-
pared with us dogs age more rapidly and
their diseases manifest faster says Haworth;
they also contract about 50 of the same dis-
eases we do. âUnder a microscope B-cell
lymphoma and bone cancer from a dog look
almost identical to those in a humanâ he
says. In other words f ind out what cures
a dog and you may be on your way to sav-
ing a human life. Older dogs have already
been inducted into trials of a drug called
Rapamycin a fountain-of-youth pill shown
to improve heart health delay disease and
extend the life span of laboratory mice.Animal Bond Research Initiative Founda-
tion a nonprof it thatâs funded more than 300
canine-human health studies. âPeople with
Alzheimerâs and Parkinsonâs get great positive
reinforcement from dogs when doing mem-
ory and physical rehabilitation exercises.â
For anyone thereâs a clear-cut advantage
to having a pup according to gerontologist
Dr. David J. Demko. âThe physical and men-
tal health benef its of owning a dog can add
two years to the life of an ownerâ Demko
estimates. For Haworth who was recently
named president of charities at PetSmart
(where this storyâs author works) stats like
these show that dogsâ roles for the general
public are unequivocal. âI think we should
be giving doctors pads to write out prescrip-
tions for pets.â
THAT IDEA MAY NOT be so far-fetched. Low-
ering our heart rates and calming our nerves
are substantial benef its on their own but
t hatâs just a sliver of what trained canines may
be able to do for us. In the future dogs might
roam our hospitals public spaces and off ices.
âWhat I do was looked at as quackery
by the medical industry 10 years agoâ says
Zaphiris of her cancer-detecting âbiodogsâ
at In Situ. Today she collaborates with Duke
University and trains dogs for the Univer-
sityofCaliforniaDavisandtheParacelsus
Klinik in Switzerland the acclaimed Euro-
pean center for alternative medicine. âWhen
the technique is approved by the FDA I can
screen 300 samples a day with a f ive-dog
teamâ she says. With properly trained dogs
andstrictprotocolsZaphirisexplainscan-
cer screening could become low-tech or as
easy as spitting into a cup and sending it
out to be sniffed. And one day she believes
âthe work we are doing in scent detection
will aid scientists to develop a Breathalyzer
test for cancer.â
That means anyone with a family history
of cancer smokers people with certain pig-
mentation or those who spend a lot of time
inthe suncouldallhavesamplesscreened
at a much younger age to improve treat-
ments and prognoses Haworth says. He
doesnât think it will be so hard to get the
public onboard. âBack in the 1890s pathol-
ogists would taste urine for sweetness to
determine diabetes which is not so far from
having dogs smell urine for cancer.âTHE TONGUE
Researchers
discovered a protein
in dog saliva that
may help human
cuts heal twice as
fast. So go ahead
and let your pup lick
your wounds. THE LEGS
Owning a dog
means youâll walk
an average of five
hours per week
(non-owners log
fewer than three).
Compared with
cat owners youâll
also be leaner have
a stronger heart
and live longer.THE PAWS
Service dogs use their
paws to dial 911 for a
diabetic owner with
dangerously low blood
sugar or to turn on
lights for PTSD
sufferers. Dogs also
use their paws to
comfort us when weâre
anxious similar to
giving us a soothing
pat on the back.THE NOSE
A dogâs sense
of smell is up to
100000 times
more accurate than
ours. Canines are
being trained to
detect the scents
of early-onset
diseases in humans.MENâS JOURNAL 60 SEPTEMBER 2016
TRACY MORGAN/GETTY IMAGES