Dogs: Our Best Friends In Sickness And In

Health
By: Emily Kajla, grade 9
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Article by: Maria Kohut, Ph.D., published on August 26, 2018
 Outline
What is this article about?

This article is about how dogs can improve and benefit our
happiness, health and overall well-being.

In this presentation I will be covering:

- The author that wrote the article
- How dogs keep you in good health
- How dogs make people feel good
- Medical detection dogs
- My favourite quote
- Recommendation
 Maria Kohut, Ph.D

Maria recently finished a Ph.D. in English at

the University of Warwick in the United
Kingdom. She is really interested in the human
brain, medical history and the how our bodies
work, before and after life. She worked as a
teacher, writer and a copy editor before joining
Medical News Today.

Throughout her free time she, partakes in

taxidermy, and she learns Japanese.
 How dogs keep you in good health

Owning a dog reduces a person's chance of premature death by up to one

third. Many dog owners have a much lower risk of heart disease.

Benefits come from the many changes you need to make to your life once
you get a dog, the biggest one being physical exercise. When you get a dog,
you are forced to go on at least two walks a day, or sometimes more.

In just a week, the increased time spent on walks might meet the World
Health Organization recommendation of at least 150 minutes of physical
activity

Children who have been exposed to dogs while in the womb, had a reduced
chance of developing skin problems in young life.

Children exposed to some certain bacteria brought by dogs also showed a

decline in asthma symptoms.
 How dogs make people feel good

When people get greeted by dogs, they often feel

excited and happy, this is caused by the love
hormone, oxytocin. When most people interact
with dogs their oxytocin levels shoot up, which
boosts their mental well-being.

Dog owners usually have better social interactions,

are more trusting and more deserving of trust.
Dogs lower symptoms of depression, and this is
why dogs are used for therapy animals

Dogs also can help children going through cancer

therapy, and help people with PTSD deal with
 Medical detection dogs

A dog’s smell is 1,000 to 100,000 times better

than humans, which makes them amazing
medical detectors.
Scientists assume that every sickness has a
distinctive smell because of internal body shifts
that cause various organs to express unique
chemical substances.
Dogs can be trained to sniff out these odors.
For dogs, this job is just a game, which they get
a lot of rewards for.
Dogs can detect 56%-92% of cancers
 Quote

“One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us. By their delight
in being with us, the reliable sunniness of their disposition, the joy they bring to playtime, the
curiosity with which they embrace each new experience, dogs can melt cynicism, and sweeten the
bitter heart.”
I picked this quote because I really like how
it perfectly captures dogs, how happy they
are, reliable, playful, and curious. I also
picked this quote is because I like how the
writer of the quote describes dogs in the
most beautiful, sweet and caring creatures
 Recommendations

I recommend this article to anyone that

wants to learn, or is interested in dogs and
their effect on our lives. Some of the words
are quite advanced, so I think the minimum
age for reading this article would be 12 and
over.
Thank You For Listening