They discover health benefits for children who grow up with dogs

The boys who live with dogs at home have a lower risk of develop asthma before the age of five and have better lung function, according to research presented at the Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Amsterdam (Netherlands).

The study authors also studied the exposure of babies to cat allergensbut they did not find the same protective effect.

The investigation, carried out by a team from SickKids hospital in Toronto (Canada)included a group of 1,050 children, from whose homes dust samples were taken when the creatures were between three and four months old.

“Babies spend most of their time indoors, so in this research we wanted study allergens in the homebecause these constitute a risk factor important thing that we could modify to reduce asthma,” Dr. Jacob McCoy explained before the ERS Congress.

The study

To do this, they measured the quantities of three possible allergens present in the dust of every child’s house: Can f1 (a protein present in the skin and saliva of dogs), Type d1 (a protein present in the skin and saliva of cats) and endotoxina (a molecule present on the surface of bacteria).

Then, when the children were five years old, a doctor evaluated them for asthma and measured lung function based on the amount of air they could exhale in one second after a deep inspiration, in addition to taking blood samples to evaluate their genetic risk of asthma and allergies.

And what they found was that kids exposed to higher levels of Can f1 (the dog allergen) had 48% lower risk of developing asthma compared to others. And they also had better lung function even in the case of babies with a higher genetic risk of poor lung function. Instead, The researchers did not find no protective effect in infants exposed to cat allergen (Fel d1) or bacterial endotoxin.

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease among children and young people. Photo: Unsplash

«We do not know the cause; however, we know that once a person develop sensitivity to dog allergens, asthma symptoms may worsen; This suggests that early exposure to canine allergens could prevent sensitization, perhaps by altering the microbioma nasal or through some effect on the immune system,” Dr. McCoy said.

For this reason, he believes it is necessary to do more research on this link between contact with dog allergens and lung function and asthma. Among other reasons, because asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease among children and young people, and registers the highest incidence rates during the first four years of life, so it is important to reduce risk factors.

For some time now, various studies have pointed out that the so-called «farm effect» – growing up in a halves the risk of suffering from asthma as a child and as an adult – also occurs among children who grow up with dogs in their homes.

Living with dogs or cats during fetal development or early childhood means fewer allergies. Photo: Unsplash

And several studies have also been published showing that the microbiota – the set of microorganisms that live in the human body– of dog owners is different and more varied than that of the rest of the people.

This may explain why living with dogs or cats during fetal development or early childhood It implies fewer food allergies for babies compared to other young children, as concluded by a study published in 2023 in the journal Plos One by 17 researchers from Japan after studying 66,215 babies in that country.

Mayte Rius Montoro