THE SLOBBER CURE

摘要

Jazzie spent the summer in foster care, balancing naps on the porch with more demanding tasks like digging holes. The 5-year-old Lab mix had moved in with Richard Kay, a 62-year-old who'd been living alone on the outskirts of Tucson. The two were paired up as part of a clinical trial to see if dogs could do double duty as companions and probiotlcs-delivery devices-or as Chuck Raison, the lead investigator, puts it, "purveyors of microbial goodness." Raison, a professor of human ecology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, knew that adults living under the same roof share about as much of the same bacteria with their canine pals as they do with each other, and that children who live with dogs tend to have lower rates of asthma. Raison hopes to show that dogs can introduce microbes that dampen inflammation, which causes myriad problems for seniors. The bacteria might also help intestinal microbe populations-in the elderly, a compromised microbiome can indicate frailty. There could be an emotional health benefit too. Raison had volunteers swab saliva, skin, and feces-off themselves and the dogs. (The humans also took psychological tests.) The results aren't in yet, but Raison says the study has been unprecedented: "We've had these emails, 'You changed my life. This dog saved me from deathbed depression.' There's not an antidepressant I've seen that has anywhere near the impact on emotional well-being." So far, it seems like Raison is barking up the right tree.