Furry Pets, Healthier Babies

Catching up on my reading:

The therapeutic value of pets is well-known, but a new Canadian study takes it to another level, suggesting that women with animals have healthier babies. Researchers asked the mothers of more than 700 children about pets they owned during pregnancy and for three months after delivery. They found that babies exposed to furry animals—especially dogs—have significantly higher levels of Ruminococcus and Oscillospira, two beneficial gut bacteria associated with a lower risk for allergies and obesity, ScienceDaily​.com reports. The researchers explain that pet bacteria enhance a newborn’s resistance to those chronic health issues. Prenatal pet exposure also reduces the risk that mothers will pass vaginal group B strep (GBS)—linked to sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis—to children during delivery. Eventually, a “dog in a pill” may be developed to help confer these health benefits, predicts study author Anita Kozyrskyj. “It’s not far-fetched that the pharmaceutical industry will try to create a supplement of these microbiomes,” she says, “much like was done with probiotics.”

From the April 28th print edition of The Week Magazine.

Happy Mother's Day!