Dog Saliva Hazardous And Beneficial

It has been explained by many health doctors and veterinarians that pet dogs can be carriers of bacteria-causing diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to humans. They have discouraged people to prevent dogs from licking their faces because of the possible danger it brings.

These are true as explained by Healthy Pets that dogs have some bacteria that cause infection to humans. But according to a new study, dogs also have some good bacteria that are beneficial to humans especially to babies.

Prevents Asthma

The study was conducted by Dr. Nicholas Lukacs of the University of Michigan and by Dr. Susan Lynch at UC San Francisco.

 According to PetMD, in their research, they discovered some species of good gust bacteria coming from dogs that can protect the respiratory tracks from allergens that can cause respiratory problems like asthma.

The research involved mice subjects. They examined the changes of intestinal bacteria in mice that were exposed to house dust where there are dogs freely going in and out the house. They also check those mice that were exposed to house where there are no dogs at all.

They then tested the mice and exposed them to some allergens. The result was astonishing for those mice that were exposed to house with dogs. They had a diminished asthma-associated inflammatory response. 

The researchers concluded that this was because of the increase levels of Lactobacillus johnsonii in the intestines of mice that were exposed to house dust with dogs. If the results were true, they speculated that this can have same effect in infants that are exposed to house where there are dogs.

Promotes wound healing

Dog's saliva has some interesting wound healing properties. According to some researchers at the University of Florida, there is a protein that was isolated and they call it "Nerve Growth Factor" that increases the wound healing rate twice. Another study also proved that dog's saliva contains nitric oxide according to Dr. Nigel Benjamin of London School of Medicine. As posted by PetMD, this nitric oxide stops the growth of bacteria that can protect the wound from infection.