Scientists Confirm Dogs Can Detect 8 Diseases




You may be surprised to learn that dogs can detect life-threatening diseases in humans.

#1. Dogs can tell when you have cancer
dogs can detect breast cancer, prostate cancer, and even bladder cancer. Simply by sniffing someone’s body.

A study conducted at the University of California Davis has shown that dogs can detect Cancer-affected tissues out of many samples.
Cancer-affected cells have a unique odor that doesn't exist in healthy cells.
While humans have about 5 million scent receptors, dogs can have up to 250 million

There's an organization in the United Kingdom called Medical Detection Dogs in which dogs are trained to find the odor of cancer in samples such as breath, urine, and swabs.

The other interesting piece of evidence comes from a story in the Canada Free Press. Apparently, a woman’s dog tried to bite off a mole located on her leg. It turned out to be malignant melanoma.
A 2019 study published in Experimental Biology found that dogs can consistently pick out blood samples from confirmed cancer patients with a 99% accuracy.

#2. Dogs can detect low blood sugar
For diabetics, this can be a lifesaver. The organization - Dogs4Diabetics - trains dogs extensively to alert owners when their blood sugar is low. The science behind it comes from the fact that dogs can detect isoprene. Isoprene is a chemical in human breath. It rises in volume when a person’s blood sugar drops.
Medical News Today reports a dog can smell this - and when trained - can tell their owner that they need to test their blood sugar. In 2013, the Public Library of Science published a study that these dogs significantly improved the life of insulin-dependent diabetics.

#3. Dogs can tell when you are about to have a migraine.
Psychology Today conducted a study with over 1,000 migraine sufferers - who were also dog owners. What they found was the 54 percent of the dog owners noticed a change in the behavior of their dogs - about one or two hours before the migraine set in.
Believe it or not, there are migraine-alert-service dogs. If they alert you on time, it can mean the difference between suffering a migraine for three days - and being able to manage it successfully.
How do they do it? Like every other medical condition, dogs can sniff it out. This is because if you are on your way to a migraine, your serotonin spikes. Dogs can smell this and they alert you with a whine.



#4. Dogs can sniff out malaria.
Malaria may not be common everywhere, but in the countries where it still exists, it can be deadly. Especially for children.
But once again, it’s our trained and sniffing service dogs to the rescue. Recent research proves that dogs can accurately tell if someone has malaria – simply by smelling their socks. Even if someone is not showing any symptoms, the dog knows well ahead of time when someone has the disease.

#5. Dogs understand fear and stress.
You see, dogs can be trained to smell cortisol levels in humans. Cortisol is the hormone commonly known as the “stress hormone.” So when your cortisol levels rise, dogs can smell it.
They can also be trained to help people with higher than normal stress levels.
One cortisol-sniffing dog at the Calais school for autistic children sniffs the students to see if their cortisol levels are higher than any of the other students. Since autistic children can’t tell someone when they are upset, the dog does the talking for them.

#6. Dogs can be trained to help those who suffer from narcolepsy.
Narcolepsy is a dangerous condition. This when a person can fall asleep instantly – even while they are standing up. In this case, narcolepsy service dogs can detect when an attack is coming on - by a change in the smell of your sweat. This was proven in a 2013 scientific study published in National Institutes of Health. In the study, trained narcoleptic service dogs recognized 11 out of 12 patients with narcolepsy by smelling their sweat samples.
In this case, a trained service dog can alert their owner when they are about to have an episode, based on the biochemical changes in their body. This can save a person who suffers from narcolepsy from experiencing a serious injury.



#7. Dogs can sniff out Parkinson’s disease
In England, a super-sniffing dog noticed a change in his owner’s odor six years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a nervous system disorder that affects movement. This led to scientific research at Manchester University - in an attempt to train other dogs to detect Parkinson’s disease before the classic symptoms emerged. Since 2016, an organization called Parkinson's Alert Dogs has been training canines to recognize the smell of Parkinson's disease.

#8. Dogs can sense the onset of a seizure
Studies have shown that about ninety percent of service dogs develop the ability on their own to sense a seizure.
So after getting to know their owner’s behavior - these dogs know when a seizure is about to happen.

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