Are Alert Dogs Truly Helpful to Diabetic Patients?
Dogs have been proven to have the ability to sense changes in a diabetic’s blood sugar levels. Dogs are already active in assisting the deaf, the blind, and helping other physically disabled persons. By using their keen sense of smell, a dog can sense when their owner’s blood sugar levels are dropping and give an early warning alert.
Dog’s keen sense of smell gives it the ability to watch over the blood sugar levels of diabetics. Dogs are able to detect through their 5th sense. Dogs for Diabetics use Labrador retrievers that don’t graduate from guide dog school. These dogs usually flunk for reasons such as refusing to walk in the rain or step onto an escalator - all skills important for being a working dog, but not a general assistance one. These dogs undergo three to four months of training similar to what is used to prepare dog to detect narcotics or explosives. The 2-year-old canines are first taught to detect scent samples of low blood sugar. Then they learn to find that scent on people, and alert others by holding in their mouth a soft tube that hangs from around their neck.
When the hypoglycemic detection dogs were initially announced a few years ago, many were skeptical because glucose sensors were about to hit the market. Since then, the verdict has changed in favor of the dogs. Hypoglycemic people, may, emit an odor that is characteristic, which the dogs detect. Dogs are very sensitive to subtle physiological changes in their human companions that may begin five to 45 minutes prior to an actual attack. The dogs then warn their owners so they can find a safe environment or take necessary precautionary measures.
Even till today the scientists are unsure about this characteristic of dogs that how exactly they can sense changes in the human yokefellows. No one exactly is aware that how the scent is created or which chemicals creates that scent which dogs are able to detect and this great ability of dogs gives great support to the diabetic families whether that’s parents of young kids or old people living alone.
In the United States, there are over twenty million adults and children with diabetes. Diabetics need to test their blood regularly to avoid highs or lows that can cause organ failure.
There is a ninety percent accuracy level for the dogs that have completed training successfully. Due to either mechanical malfunction or other problems interfering with the accuracy of the glucose sensors, more and more diabetics are expressing interest in these specially trained companions. There is still many mysteries surrounding what these dogs are actually sensing when a person’s glucose level drops. Research is ongoing to find out whether dogs are able to reliably detect dangerous drops in glucose levels in the blood. The hope is to find out exactly what the dogs are sensing, then officially recognize and train them to perform as an early warning system for their diabetic companions.
Filed under: Disease & Illness