Scientists Confirm Dogs Can Detect 8 Diseases

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.

[tinakeshner]

My dog alerts me before I have an asthma attack. He did this on his own.

[budhikarya]

Well I know how to call those kind of dogs...DOGTOR...:)😀

[laurenspicer]

I have 2 stories about this.

1. My dog would jump up on my dad a lot last year, and became super clingy with him. My dad was diagnosed with lymphoma last September and got treatment. He's cancer free now!

2. Ever since we had my dog, he was most affectionate with me. He would lick me more than anyone else. I was recently found to have a cystic fibrosis mutation and have salty skin.

I love my dog and am grateful for him everyday.

[kaiono]

True. My sister had cancer (died 2014) and when our dog was at her side he was gentle and quiet in behaviour, watchful of her movements. Around other family members our dog was playful, barking and jumping all over the place. Dogs are loyal and loving animals. 🙂🐶👍

[dibrentley]

When my husband was sick my dog would sniff his feet every morning. We finally twigged when the dog acted weird something wasnt right. Our dog detect low potassium and low magnesium on one occasion and I forget what the other occasion was but he would walk around in circles around my chair and behave erratically. We used to joke that hubby had a pet scan every morning.

[JTRocksEver]

They left out one, dogs can detect blood clots. My dog kept licking my right leg on my calf. This went on for 4 months. I was subsequently diagnosed with a dvt in that exact spot.

[tyreshawalker]

I have sickle cell and lupus, and some how my dog can tell when I'm not feeling good. He has saved me numerous of times. When I have seizures he alart my family.

[viajer]

In Colombia scientists trained dogs to smell the COVID 19 virus...amazing.

[joejoseph]

My neighbors took their black lab to the vet because he started acting weirdly around their 15 y/o daughter. Barking and circling her. The vet said the dog was fine but told them to take their daughter to a neurologist. She was diagnosed with seizures of absence where she would just stare off into space. If the dog handt reacted they wouldn't have known until she started driving a year later.

[calicooaks]

My CAT found my best friend's stage 3 metastatic breast cancer! It took me SIX WEEKS to convince her to get checked AFTER she confirmed the lump in her breast! We lost her in September of 2019. If not for my cat and her awesome Oncology and Surgical Team, we'd have lost her much sooner!

[OnlyTheChronic]

A dog really is our Best Buddy. It's a shame that some of them don't have the love they deserve

[leighdeens]

We don’t deserve dogs they are too nice and loyal

[lawrence]

My dog was never a lap dog. 35 lb beagles usually aren’t. And was never a licking dog. In fact he doesn’t like to be hugged. Then all of sudden he was wanting to be on top of me licking my hands. I was recently diagnosed with a throat cancer. We don’t know will happen next, but I am convinced he knew I was sick before the doctors did. Amazing.

[maryconder]

Mine can detect an internal MRSA infection weeks before I know it. Bless her, she sticks mighty close both before I know I'm sick and after surgery.❤ We've been through 5 MRSA, we went through 11 stomach/ hernia surgeries before all the MRSA mess and then most recently 1 back surgery. She's my nurse and champion!!

[sammcturk]

I have ecliptic seizures and more times than I can count he saved my life. He could tell before me or anyone that one was coming giving me and my love ones pressious time to react, he's passed now but the signs he taught have helped. He needed no training he just always knew how to help I don't think I'll find any other like him again.

[amysuewest]

Definitely sharing this. My friends dog detected heart breast cancer when it was deep in the tissue and very small. No one could even feel the lump, doctor included. It barely showed up on the diagnostic mammogram, however there it was. :)

[buckysgirl]

Cats can also smell low blood sugar. My late feline friend would alert my mom when her blood sugar was low, sometimes by swatting her on the nose.

[marbles]

My dog kept licking my hand so we took her to the vet and me to the doctor.


It was a blood clot and she saved my hand

[nancyking]

On April 14, 2014, my mother was diagnosed with very early stage breast cancer. The little black shih-poo (shih tzu/poodle mix) that lived up the street from us found it before the doctor did, though.

The couple who lived up the street who owned her would walk her by our house, let her off the leash, then she'd run and jump in our laps. On this particular day, she jumped into my mom's lap, sniffed at her left breast, and kept sniffing. We didn't think much about it at the time, just laughed and thought it was cute. About a month later, during a routine mammogram, they found breast cancer in a very early stage, just nodules. They did a lumpectomy, and put her on medication to keep it from coming back, but she couldn't take it.

We gave little "Harley" some of the credit for saving my mom's life. Sadly, my mom died on March 27, 2019 of stage 5 kidney disease caused by retroperitoneal Fibrosis.

[chevon]

I was walking my sister’s dog in the park one day and we passed a woman who had a scarf on her head like the way cancer patients wear them and she looked bald underneath. The dog went crazy and started barking like mad at her. He never barks at people like that. I think he smelled her cancer, 😔