Have dog lovers cracked the secret code to gut health? This new study thinks so

Like we needed another reason to pick up a puppy

They’re the four-legged family members we just can’t live without. But it turns out that dogs are giving us more than just slobbery kisses and unconditional love. They’re helping keep our guts healthy too. 

Growing up with a dog is just about the best thing about being a kid. It’s like a built-in-best mate who’s always allowed to play and never has to go home for dinner. But now actual scientists say families with furry members are healthier than those who don’t have canine companions. 

New research from Sinai Health and the University of Toronto has uncovered a link between exposure to dogs during childhood – specifically between the ages of five and 15 – and good gut bacteria, gut permeability and blood biomarkers, as well as a healthier gut microbiome. 

But the biggest benefit of all was that living with a pup as a pet reduced the risk of people developing Crohn’s disease, which is a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease that affects more than 100,000 Aussie men, women and children. It causes swelling and inflammation inside the digestive tract and can lead to abdominal pain, diarrhoea and fatigue, and while the disease can develop at any age, it usually appears in people aged 15 to 30. 

According to the epidemiological study, which was published in the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology medical journey, the leading hypothesis for the pathogenesis of crohn’s disease involves the interplay between environmental factors and the gut microbiota in genetically susceptible people. 

It's good news for good doggos everywhere. Image: iStock

So researchers set out to test the theory using more than 4,200 asymptomatic first-degree relatives of patients with Crohn’s disease in Canada –  which has a high incidence of inflammatory bowel disease –  as part of a 13 year project.

Between 2008 and 2021, the six to 35-year-old siblings and offspring of those with crohn’s were recruited and had their stools collected, while researchers looked at how dozens of different environmental factors could impact the likelihood of developing the devastating disease.

By the end of the study, researchers had discovered that a number of environmental factors were associated with the onset of the disease, most notably living with a dog between the ages of five and 15. However, the results revealed a protective trend of living with canine friends that transcends the age of exposure, suggesting that dog ownership could confer health benefits in reducing the risk of Crohns’ disease. 

Like dogs couldn't get any better. Image: iStock

A second protective factor was also uncovered and that was that living in a larger family during the first year of life is significantly associated with future onset. This backs up previous research that had found living in a larger household for 12 months after birth can reduce the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease. 

While on the other side of the fence, researchers also found that living with birds might increase the risks of Crohn’s disease.

“The idea behind predicting someone’s risk of disease is that you can then also begin to understand who you might want to do something to try and prevent disease,” Kenneth Croitoru, a clinician-scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, which is part of Sinai Health. 

The furry family member. Image: iStock

While it’s all good news for dog owners everywhere, researchers are still scratching their heads over why having a dog lowers your risk of the disease. “We have established associations between environmental factors and Crohn’s and are now trying to understand how these environmental factors affect the triggering of the disease,” Professor Croitory explains. 

His work will also now focus on devising and testing strategies for prevention, such as dietary supplements to promote healthier microbiome, as part of personalised intervention plans to reduce the incidence of Crohn’s disease, for which there is no cure. 

Originally published as Have dog lovers cracked the secret code to gut health? This new study thinks so