The Truth About Cats and Dogs
Is it bad to have pets around small children? Some people are allergic to cats, but are kids more sensitive to pet dander?
Actually, a study done by epidemiologist Christine Cole Johnson at the Henry Ford Hospital came to the opposite conclusion.
She wanted to know whether the common-sense notion that small children should be kept away from dogs and cats was true, so her team collected information on a group of kids from the time they were in the womb to the time they were six years old.
For The Love Of Pets
They looked at parents‘ allergies, the conditions of their homes, and the kids‘ health. Finally, when the kids were six, the scientists tested them to see which ones had the worst allergic responses to common things-dogs, cats, dust mites, grass and mold. Guess what? The kids who had grown up without pets were more likely to have allergy problems than the ones who didn‘t.
And not just by a little bit. They were four times much more likely to develop allergies.
The team speculated that the presence of dogs and cats early in life trains the immune system to respond to allergens effectively later.
Read More:
"Pet Exposure May Reduce Allergies" (Science News)
