Ask Doctor Fido
Dogs are famous for their sense of smell. This sense is so advanced in dogs that they can smell disease or medical conditions. With over 220 million scent receptors—compared to five to 10 million in humans—dogs can smell things that seem unfathomable to us. Dogs’ ability to detect odors is 10,000 to 100,000 times that of humans. They can detect some odors in parts per trillion, and they can detect countless subtleties in scents. There are dogs who have sniffed out medical issues that even doctors weren’t aware of.
Dogs are most famous for detecting is Cancer. Dogs have been able to sniff out a variety of types including breast cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and lung cancer. A 2019 study found that dogs can correctly pick out blood samples from people who have cancer with 97% accuracy. Narcolepsy is a disorder that affects the ability to control sleep-wake cycles. A person with narcolepsy can suddenly fall asleep, even in the middle of a task. The director of training and behavior for the Service Dog Academy believes that the dogs are able to pick up on a scent when a narcolepsy attack is coming on. For those who suffer Migraines, having a warning before one comes on can mean the difference between managing the problem or succumbing to hours or days of intense pain. Fortunately, some dogs have a talent for sniffing out the signs that a migraine is on the way. Increasingly, dogs are being trained to help people with diabetes by alerting them to their Low Blood Sugar level is dropping or spiking. Dogs4Diabetics is one organization that trains and places service dogs with insulin-dependent persons with diabetes. These dogs undergo extensive training to be able to detect and alert their handlers to changes in blood sugar levels.
The age-old notion that dogs (and other animals) can Smell Fear is an accurate one. Dogs can smell when we are feeling fear or are experiencing an increased level of stress, even if we aren’t showing outward signs.19 What dogs are smelling is the surge of hormones our bodies release to respond to stressful situations, including adrenaline and cortisol. When dogs smell fear, they show signs of stress. In a new study from the University of Bristol, dogs were found to detect Parkinson’s disease well before symptoms appear. Previous research has shown that people with Parkinson’s have increased amounts of sebum — an oily, waxy substance with a distinctively musky odor — on the skin. In the new study, two dogs that had been trained on more than 200 odor samples were presented with skin swabs from 130 people with Parkinson’s and 175 people without the disease, according to a press release. The dogs showed sensitivity of up to 80% — which means they identified people who had the disease 80% of the time. They achieved specificity of up to 98%, which is how good they were at ruling out people who did not have Parkinson’s.
We still have a long way to go to discover exactly what dogs are smelling about us and that’s a skill that could be a real lifesaver.
Smelly evidence
What do you call a fairy that smells bad?
Stinkerbell!
What city has the worst body odor?
Pittsburgh
I’m training my dog to sniff out ripe fruit.
He’s going to be a melon collie.
How would an elephant smell without a trunk?
Trunk or no trunk, he would still smell terrible.
My toenails turned green, shrank, and started smelling like mint.
My doctor says I have a rare condition called Tic Tac Toes.
July 31st Birthdays
1980 – Alexis Knapp, 1998 – Barbie Forteza, 1965 – J. K. Rowling, 1943 – Susan Flannery
1962 – Wesley Snipes, 1979 – A J. Green, 1997 – Blake Michael, 1912 – Milton Friedman