Those who have a dog at home know the benefits that dogs can bring to mental and physical health. However, a surprising new study revealed that they can also help with our gut health.
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The research from Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, shows that exposure to dogs during childhood is linked to beneficial changes in gut bacteria, intestinal permeability, and blood biomarkers.
The study, led by Kenneth Croitoru and Williams Turpin from the Mount Sinai Hospital’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, found that living with a dog between the ages of five and fifteen is associated with a healthier gut microbiome and a reduced risk of developing Crohn’s disease.
For the study, the researchers investigated how dozens of environmental factors impact the likelihood of developing Crohn’s disease as part of their comprehensive effort to predict those at risk and potentially intervene early.
“The idea behind predicting someone’s disease risk is that you can then start to understand who you might want to do something for to try to prevent illness,” explained Croitoru, a clinical scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI), part of Sinai Health, and a professor of medicine and immunology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Caused by inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, Crohn’s disease can have long-term consequences for overall health and well-being, and the incidence among children under ten has doubled since 1995. However, despite the surprising discovery, Croitoru noted that the study did not reveal why living with a dog makes someone less prone to Crohn’s disease.
“We established associations between environmental factors and Crohn’s disease, and now we are trying to understand how these environmental factors influence the triggering of the disease,” added the specialist, who is also a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Croitoru stated that his ultimate goal is to be able to intervene and prevent the onset of the disease. He and his team are now conducting research aimed at developing and testing prevention strategies, such as adding supplements to the diet to promote a healthy microbiome.
This content was created with the help of AI.
