Scientists Confirm That Kissing Your Dog Is Good For Your Health
It may seem repulsive, as well as being a habit that is sure to frighten your partner, but a group of scientists seems to have confirmed that kissing your dog is good for your health. It may seem like a contradiction to what we knew about the welfare, health, hygiene and responsible care of our animals, so let’s take a closer look at this story.
Licking for dogs corresponds to our caresses, as dogs use their tongue to express affection.
They have this behavior with the people closest to them, or with those they trust. Furthermore, it is a way of reaffirming the role of presentation within the household hierarchy.
Although this habit of our little friend can become extremely unpleasant for us, especially since we were brought up to think that dogs’ saliva is very dirty.
What many didn’t know is that a recent study at the University of Arizona points in the opposite direction.
According to Kim Kelly, project director, dogs have evolved with us for centuries, making us feel good about them over time.
According to preliminary research, dog owners tend to be happier and stay healthy longer, although no one knows the relationship between these elements.
According to Kelly’s hypothesis, the microbes present in the stomach of dogs have a probiotic effect on our body, promoting the growth of certain elements in our bacterial flora, which are extremely positive for us.
Changes in our microbiota (the set of microscopic organisms that inhabit an ecosystem, in this case, the organisms that live in our body) are decisive for our health and for the way in which our organism defends itself against external agents.
Are all microorganisms good?
One question you should be asking yourself is whether the changes in the microbiota are positive. Should we expose ourselves so that any microorganism comes into contact with our organism? The answer to that is obviously no.
In fact, one of medicine’s greatest achievements is when it is able to get rid of or neutralize the effects of bacteria responsible for many diseases, although not all of them are bad.
What happens to our organism when there is the presence of one or more bacteria is that the microbiota composition of the body changes.
This causes the immune system to become confused and end up attacking not only the invading bacteria, but also attacking the body itself. This phenomenon is due to the permanence of autoimmune diseases, such as asthma.
The ease with which many microorganisms invade our body is alarming, and is due in part to the massive use of antibiotics, which are in charge of extinguishing, in addition to the invader, the microbes that live in our body and work as a natural barrier for bacteria and viruses .
In addition to the overuse of medicines, a poor diet, excessive or very restricted care, this does not allow human beings to develop sufficient defenses to fight external agents.
Likewise, the lack of exposure to natural environments and excessive hygiene end up playing a very important role in the weakness of the human body.
However, contact with dogs, and especially with saliva, makes the intestinal flora of the owners be reinforced, due to prolonged exposure to foreign bacteria that are not harmful to our body.
Studies from different and recognized institutions agree that the intestinal flora of dog owners is different, richer and more varied than that of people who do not live directly with dogs.
Thus, it is believed that dogs’ saliva works as a probiotic agent, which improves the health of the bacteria of the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, gradually improving our resistance to other types of bacteria that really harm the health of human beings.
