Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Research confirms a link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers


Research has confirmed the link between social media use and anxiety among teenagers. More work is ongoing. Experts at Oxford University are beginning a 10 year study into teenage mental health. It's called BrainWaves. Their initial research suggests that the more time youngsters spend on social media the more likely they are to suffer from anxiety and depression.

Currently, the study has involved information collected from 7,200 students in the UK. The study's objective is to find good evidence about this much-discuss link. There has been a lot of discussion both by politicians in the UK and I believe elsewhere about the detrimental effects of being addicted to smart phones through which social media is constantly accessed.

There was a recent report in The Time yesterday which provided evidence that the administrators of TikTok know that their platform is addictive and they desire it to be addictive. This is the objective. They deliberately target young people and hook them in. They present to the world a different picture. A picture in which they state that they are doing their best to make it less addictive but behind the scenes, in truth, they are doing the opposite it appears to me.

Some schools in the UK are banning smart phones from the school grounds in the interests of students' health and welfare and I presume to make them more productive while they attend classes.

It has been found that some teenagers spend eight hours a day on their smart phones bouncing around social media posts.

Some of the data is astonishing. NHS information shows that more than 1 million children and teenagers under 18 are in contact with NHS mental health services. Girls are more likely than boys to have problems. One in five girls aged 16 are in contact with NHS mental health services and these problems have increased significantly over the past five years.

This study by a team at Oxford and I understand Swansea University and The Day newspaper will conduct research involving 50,000 adolescents. The objective is to build evidence on a link between social media use and mental health.

The study is being led by John Gallacher, a professor of cognitive health and Oxford. He told the Financial Times that initial results "found a linear relationship between higher rates of anxiety and depression and time spent networking on social media sites. In the most extreme cases, we have young people reporting they were spending up to 8 hours a day using these sites."

In the UK, a private members bill will be introduced tomorrow in the House of Commons to tackle addictive phone use in children.. The bill proposes a legal requirement that schools are phone-free.

It is called the Safer Phones Bill. It has cross-party support. It's being tabled by Labour MP Josh McAlister. He said: "The evidence is mounting that children doom-scrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm. We need the equivalent of the "seatbelt" legislation for social media use for children. Adults find it hard enough to manage screen time, so why are we expecting children to manage this addictive content without some shared rules?"

In Australia, last month, plans were announced for a social media ban for under 16's. In the UK, charities are calling for the UK to follow suit.

Anne Longfield founder of the Centre for Young Lives (a think tank) said: "This bill opens the door to a crucial national debate about the negative impact smart phones can have on children, and the urgent need to address those problems. Parliament now has an opportunity to reset children's relationship with smart phones, and marginalise their impact and influence on developing young minds."

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Wednesday, 25 September 2024

Kind people are seen as more physically attractive than unkind people

A study has come to the conclusion that kind people are seen as more physically attractive than people who are unkind. There are nonphysical factors which can influence the way people look to others in terms of their attractiveness or unattractiveness. It isn't just about physical features and what society deems to be attractive or unattractive which is another story because these will be conventional viewpoints.


Obviously character does have an impact upon whether others perceive a person as attractive or not. And money can have an influence as well! But that's another story. This research's objective was to "unpick some of the non-physical factors that lead an individual to be perceived as good-looking." The quote comes from The Times, the source of this article.

The researchers came to the conclusion that "being thought intelligent or funny can increase an individual's aesthetic appeal. But being perceived as generous and altruistic beat both of those traits in boosting attractiveness."

Dr. Natalia Kononov, of Tel Aviv University, Israel, who led the research, said: "We discovered that people who are kind to others are judged as more beautiful. So beauty really isn't just skin deep. Being a good person can make you look better too."

The research was based upon 10 experiments involving more than 4000 participants. The results were clear according to The Times report. People considered to have "prosocial" traits i.e. kind, helpful and generous, were consistently judged better looking.

The study worked like this. The participants were first given a verbal description of a person. Let's call them Person A. One group was told that Person A had volunteered at a soup kitchen or helped package food for the needy. A second group were told that Person A lacked prosocial elements.

The participants were then introduced to Person A physically and asked to judge their attractiveness on a scale of 1 meaning not beautiful at all to 7 meaning very beautiful. Those who had been described as prosocial were consistently ranked more highly in terms of looks. They scored about 10% higher than those who had been described as funny and about 7% higher than those that were described as being clever.

Sidebar: here is Cilla Black singing about being kind! I love this song as do millions of others:



Dr. Natalia said: "We did expect to see a connection between prosocial behaviour and attractiveness, but we were surprised by how consistently the effect held across both men and women, whether they were the ones being judged or doing the judging."

She added that, "Being helpful, generous and cooperative is beneficial in social and survival context. These traits signal that someone could be a reliable, long-term partner."

And on that basis, they become more attractive because they are a better partner and someone to live with and more likely to survive and live a better life.

The results were published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

They decided that "This finding opens the door to a broader question about which traits people prioritise when evaluating others. While our study doesn't directly answer that question it does suggest that at least when it comes to beauty evaluations kindness carries more weight than we might have assumed."


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Infographic on the benefits to very ill kids of 'virtual' animal-assisted pen pal intervention

The infographic says it! This is a cross-post to spread the word a little wider. 💖You can read more on this by clicking on this link:  Seriously ill children benefit from having a cat or dog ‘pen pal’. Infographic. Any study which assists very sick children to get better and feel better gets my backing. All healthy and relatively wealthy people have a duty to assist those less fortunate. It is the way to improve a world that desperately needs improving.

“There is something just so unconditional about the love of an animal and the listening that an animal can provide. They don’t argue, they don’t question; they just listen and validate.” - Anne Ingalls Gillespie at the University of Colorado, a former paediatric nurse.

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Study citation: Gillespie AI, Jones J, Johnson-Koenke R, Gilmer MJ, Neu M. Influences of Animal-Assisted Intervention With Canine and Feline Pen Pals on Experiences of Living With Cancer and Blood Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nursing. 2024;41(4):252-264. doi:10.1177/27527530241246249


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Monday, 9 September 2024

Laughter can speed up recovery from illness. Study of sick kids in an Israeli hospital.

Being an old man, I am always interested in ways to improve one's well-being and overall health. It's important in many respects. In fact it should be a vital objective of all people. We should all be concerned with it and that includes people who care for a domestic cat companion. If a cat owner is ill it's unlikely they'll be able to discharge their cat caring duties fully. It affects the cat negatively. We create the cat's environment in all senses. I am not saying that being happy is easy becomes sometimes it is not!

Laughter can speed up recovery from illness as shown in this study of sick kids in hospital
Clown entertains sick child at hospital which speeds up recovery

With this in mind, it's a known fact that laughter can speed up recovery from illness. A recent study supports the findings of other studies and real-life experiences. In this instance it concerned children patients at hospital. They were seriously ill with pneumonia.

The researchers used a team of specially trained medical clowns with painted faces and the skill to entertain. They found that when they entertained the patients they cut the time they needed to be on intravenous antibiotics.

The researchers followed 51 children aged between 2 and 18 who had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia at the Carmel Medical Centre in Israel.

One group received standard care while the other received the same care plus a 15 minute session with a medical clown twice a day in the first 48 hours after admission to hospital.

The researchers employed three medical clowns from The Dream Doctors Project who use various techniques to relax patients. They employed music, singing and 'guided imagination'. They encouraged the children to drink and eat by themselves again.

The researchers discovered that the group who were visited by a medical clown had an average stay in hospital of 43.5 hours compared with 70 hours for the children who were not visited by the clowns.

Also, the children visited by medical clowns needed only two days of intravenous biotics compared with the usual three days for the control group.

The lead author of the study is Dr. Karin Yaacoby-Bianu. The findings were presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Vienna.

Looking wider, laughter is indeed a contributor to speeding up recovery from illness. It cannot be a cure on its own normally but other scientific studies have suggested that laughter because several positive effects on health and well-being.

For example:
  • It boosts the immune system. It's been shown to increase the production of antibodies and activate T-cells which are essential for a healthy immune response.
  • Laughter lowers the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. These can weaken the immune system and slowdown recovery.
  • Laughter triggers the release of endorphins. These are the body's natural painkillers which make it easier to manage pain and discomfort.
  • And further, laughter improves blood flow and cardiovascular function. These are essential for recovery and overall health.
  • And finally, laughter can alleviate stress and depression thereby improving mental health which can be common during illness. A positive mental state can promote faster healing.

Laughter isn't a replacement for medical treatment but it can complemented and enhance recovery.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Thursday, 5 September 2024

Air pollution and noise might make men and women less fertile

A study has suggested that noisy neighbourhoods can make women less fertile while pollution can make men less fertile. Air pollution over five years was found to be associated with a 24% increased risk of infertility in men aged 32-45. For women, noisy neighbourhoods might be linked to a nearly 15% increased risk of infertility for those over 35.

It's been suggested that buildings should be better insulated against noise. This is a Danish study published in the British Medical Journal. They analysed the Danish National Patient Register data for 526,000 men and 377,850 women aged between 30-45 over the period 2000-2017.

The participants already had fewer than two children and were trying to have more children. The researchers were from the Danish Cancer Institute. They measured small particles in the air called PM 2.5 (particulate matter being a measure of air pollution) and noise pollution. They then cross-reference that with diagnoses of infertility as listed on the National register.

Noise


Women over 35 exposed to noise over 10.2 dB over five years experienced a 14% increased risk of fertility. This did not apply to women in their early 30s.

For men, there was a slightly increased risk of infertility due to road traffic noise among those in the 35-45 age bracket but it didn't affect men in their early 30s.

Globally


Globally, fertility rates have been decreasing. The researchers hope that their research might help in understanding this. The report says: "Political implementation of air pollution and noise mitigations may be important tools for improving birth rates in the Western world."

Mechanism


It's possible that noise pollution may increase infertility due to increased stress according to Professor Jill Belch, an expert in vascular medicine and air pollution from the University of Dundee's School of Medicine. She was not part of this research.

She said: 

"Noise pollution does not get enough attention in terms of ameliorating [fertility]; we know it has effects on mental health, hearing and sleep-even when asleep, noise is perceived as a danger signal causing the fight or flight response to occur, resulting in poor sleep quality."

She added that:

"The mechanism of decreased fertility in women could be related to these, or to a completely unknown mechanism, but the implications of this study, if validated, should require a soundproofing standard for all new bills."

She believes that the findings might have a "very profound" impact on future generations.

The mentioned links between noise and air pollution and infertility was found in those living in rural, suburban and urban areas and across different income and social class levels.

Professor Allison Campbell, the chief scientific officer of Care Fertility, said: 

"People trying to conceive should not be unduly concerned by this research and are advised to take proactive, proven steps such as avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol consumption and maintaining a healthy weight."

Allan Pacey, Professor of andrology at the University of Manchester said it was a good study that:

"It is possible that the real cause of this association lies with something that is not possible to measure. For example, the authors are clear that they did not have information on lifestyle factors such as alcohol use smoking or body mass index."


Cat context


There is always a cat context in terms of research about human health. It's obvious I know but I'll restate it. Cats live in our world. They live in the same environment in which we live. Their anatomy is very similar to ours. Their physiology is very similar to ours. It is likely that health issues generated from air pollution and noise can affect our companion animals in a similar way. There is no research on this as far as I know but we must always think of our companion animals when concluding that environmental factors can damage our health.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Wednesday, 4 September 2024

Gifted word-learning dogs can remember the names of their toys for years

This is a study which confirms perhaps what some lucky people might already know namely that gifted dogs can remember the names of their favourite toys for two years or more and therefore have excellent memories.

And almost all dogs can learn words linked to actions as we also know because they are very trainable. They understand words such as "sit" and "down". But only a small group of gifted dogs described as "gifted word-learners" can learn a wide range of words associated with particular objects.


The research was carried out at Eotvos University. In this study, the researchers challenge the owners of six border college to teach their pets the names of 12 new toys within seven days. The study showed that the dogs were able to learn the names and retrieve the correct toy when requested to do so.

Once the tests had been completed the owners were asked to hide the toys and store them out of sight. They then waited two years to see whether the dogs could remember them.

"We waited two years and then decided to test the dogs again to see if they still remember the toy names."

There was no rehearsal as I understand it. One of the six dogs had died so the remaining five were tested. And in some instances some toys had been lost so in all three dogs were tested in respect of 12 toys with one tested on 11 toys and one dog on five toys.
"After two years, we had a hard time remembering the names of the toys but just the dogs. They did not seem to struggle."
Four dogs remember the names of between 60% and 75% of the toys. They confirmed this by naming the toy in the spoken word followed by the dogs picking up the correct toy out of a line-up of toys. They did this correctly on 44% of attempts.

This was "significantly above chance level". The report is that a dog faced with 12 toys "would be expected to get it right 8.3% of the time if it was simply guessing, while a dog faced with five toys would get it right 20% of the time based on chance alone". That quote comes from the Times newspaper of September 4, 2024.

The study is published in the journal Biology Letters.

It said that "When comparing the dogs' group performance in the present two-year memory test with that of the one and two-month memory test, it appears there was no significant reduction in their recall of the labelled objects."

The head of the research group, Dr. Claudia Fugazza, said: 
"We know that dogs can remember events for at least 24 hours and odours for up to one year, but this is the first study showing that some talented dogs can remember words for at least two years."
She added that: 
"The findings are our current study cannot be generalised to other dogs because we only tested gifted word-than dogs i.e. individuals that show a special talent for acquiring object words." 
Border collies were found to be the most gifted breed when it comes to vocabulary and the naming of objects. German shepherds, Pekinese and the mini Australian shepherd dogs may have the same talents.

There was a global search for gifted dogs to conduct the test apparently. They were all found to know more than 28 toys by name with some being able to recognise more than 100 toys, remarkably.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Friday, 30 August 2024

Use sounds of nature to de-stress (and connect with nature)

As a cat caregiver you want to be in the best state of mind that you can achieve in order to discharge your duties and responsibilities towards your cat companion to the highest standard! 😉😎 A pretty fancy introduction don't you think? But essentially true. 

The modern world is pretty stressful because it's more competitive than ever before and there's that background noise of impending WW3 and that background noise of climate change which I think makes a lot of people anxious as it is ever present.

Listening to the sounds of nature to destress on your daily commute. Image: MikeB using AI - Bing's Copilot.

So, we need to do all we can to de-stress ourselves and I've always said that if everybody connected with nature by walking in a park every day for half an hour it would help. I do it (Richmond Park - a fabulous place). 

But if you can't do that then you can listen to the sounds of nature on your daily commute on the train which, according to a small study, reduced stress levels by 35% compared to those who had listened to nothing at all.

This is called a 'pilot study' because it's quite small and non-peer reviewed. It was commissioned by South Western Railway, a British railway company. They conducted the test on a loop-line from Waterloo Station and back to Waterloo station; a 45 minute circular journey leaving London and then returning. I have used that line often.

Forty-two passengers participated. The participants in one group were asked to listen to nature sounds for 15 minutes, followed by a 15-minute break, followed by 15 minutes of listening to audio of their choice such as music or perhaps a podcast.

The second group did the same thing in reverse order. Their mood was assessed using a questionnaire described as an "industry-standard mood assessment questionnaire".

They reported "a significant decrease in the average feelings of stress when the passengers listened to the nature-inspired soundscape as compared to their baseline levels".

The research has not been peer reviewed and neither has it been published in a scientific journal. It was carried out in consultation with Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford.

Comment: as mentioned in the first sentence, I believe that all humans need to ensure that they connect with nature because we come from nature. Too often we distance ourselves from nature with concrete, steel, televisions and mobile phones. We live in this human-generated artificial consumer-orientated techno-world which is anathema to nature. Connect with nature, walk in nature as best you can and as regularly as you can and it will help ease some of that pent-up stress and simmering anxiety.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Measuring the power of different types of love from parent-child to cat lover


This is a cross-post from another website of mine. A Finnish study figured out which type of love is the most powerful by MRI scanning participants' brains when they were told stories reflecting different types of love. I'm referring to the following types of love:
  • Parents' love of their children
  • The love between romantic partners
  • The love between close friends
  • The love that a pet caregiver has for their companion animal
  • The love of a person towards a stranger who needs help and
  • The love of nature
Which of these is the most powerful? Which of these forms of love activate most parts of the brain as indicated by the MRI scan? The following is the list in descending order of strength on my reading of the study:
  1. Parents' love their children comes top. This type of love activated more parts of the brain than the other forms of love. In parental love there was a deep activation in the brain's reward system, in the striatum area, while imagining love. This was not seen in any other type of love.
  2. The second most potent form of love was romantic love which is also strongly activated part of the brain relating to reward, attachment and motivation.
  3. The third most powerful form of love is found between the love of friends.
  4. The fourth most powerful type of love is one's love of a companion animal.
  5. And the fifth is the love of a stranger that requires help in a compassionate act which some participants questioned whether this was indeed an act of love. There was much less brain activity in this kind of love.
  6. On a par with the love of a stranger requiring help, or higher is the love of nature which activated very different brain regions "that were absent for interpersonal love" causing activity in areas unrelated to social skills. People need to connect with nature to feel healed (my personal viewpoint).
The study demonstrated the wide range of the concepts of love and its complexity.

Comment: I have said this before, I think it is a little dangerous to generalise as this study has done because you will find many instances of independent, single people living with companion animals who they love more than anything else in the world and upon whom they rely completely and vice versa.

The study recruited 55 people aged between 28-53. They had at least one child and were in a loving couple relationship. 27 of them had companion animals.

Citation

Pärttyli Rinne, Juha M Lahnakoski, Heini Saarimäki, Mikke Tavast, Mikko Sams, Linda Henriksson, Six types of loves differentially recruit reward and social cognition brain areas, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 34, Issue 8, August 2024, bhae331, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae331

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Wednesday, 21 August 2024

Obesity drug Ozempic linked to suicidal thoughts

Think twice before using Ozempic as a weight loss drug - 2 possible damaging side effects. Ozempic, which contains the active ingredient semaglutide, was originally developed for treating type 2 diabetes but has gained popularity as a weight loss drug. Studies have shown it can lead to significant weight loss in some people, leading to increased off-label use for weight management. However, it's important to note that it should only be used under medical supervision, as there can be side effects and it's not suitable for everyone. Always consult a healthcare professional for personalized advice.

Ozempic works by mimicking a hormone called GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), which helps regulate appetite and food intake. By activating GLP-1 receptors, it can increase feelings of fullness and reduce hunger, leading to lower calorie consumption and potential weight loss.

Obesity drug Ozempic linked to suicidal thoughts
Obesity drug Ozempic linked to suicidal thoughts. Image: MikeB

Potential dangers


But apparently there are dangers. There appears to be a general belief that Ozempic is some sort of wonder drug that suppresses your appetite leading to weight loss. This appeals tremendously to people who struggle (and I fully understand the difficulties) of controlling their eating. However, there are genuine issues because all drugs are essentially poisons. They are unnatural substances place inside the body where they can be beneficial but there are invariably some sort of side effects and it depends how extreme the side effects are.

The report today, in The Times, is that taking Ozempic "could be linked to a higher risk of having suicidal thoughts" according to a new study. The report states that there have been more than a hundred cases worldwide "where patients have reported feeling suicidal or wanting to self-harm as a side effect of the weight-loss injection, which is prescribed on the NHS to treat type II diabetes."


The drug is also known as Wegovy. Analysis of global data shows an association with "disproportionately increased reporting of suicidality" compared to other medicines. Although, overall cases remain rare. The suicidal thoughts ceased once the patients stopped taking the drug.

The study authors want a warning placed on Ozempic packaging. It is published in JAMA Network Open. It is a reviewed database of adverse drug effects held by the World Health Organisation.

Cause and effect is not proven but as mentioned there is an association between these two i.e. the drug and suicidal thoughts.

It may be the case that the suicidal thoughts could be an "uncommon but tragic consequence" of losing large amounts of weight. Comment: I would doubt that. There have been other drugs that have caused suicidal thoughts including one which treats acne in young people. If a drug is designed to alter the mentality of a person as this drug is, it would be unsurprising to me that it might have adverse effects as described.

The Times also reports that "a review by the European Medicines Agency this year found no link between obesity drugs and suicidal thoughts."

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Cat and human obesity can damage health due to lower production of propionic acid

Obesity can damage the health of cats and people in similar and substantially. There are some amusing stories on the internet about very fat cats being rescued and dieted. They make good stories and fat cats look funny but there is a very serious story behind the fun: serious ill-health at least potentially. Studies regarding animals' gut health can be very useful in understanding the impact that the gut biome has on the health of humans. There is a big overlap here.


A study checked out the effect on gut biome of dieting obese cats and found that it affected the levels of propionic acid
"When the cats are on the special diet formulated for weight loss, propionic acid goes up and stays high, and then goes back down when they’re put back on the maintenance diet. So it really is a dietary change. This paper highlights that when we calorie-restrict cats that are obese, we can alter their microbial ecosystem and those community shifts that we see likely correlate with some metabolic outcomes.” - Jenessa Winston, assistant professor of veterinary clinical sciences at The Ohio State University (Ohio State), US, where the study was conducted.
So what is propionic acid? I consulted with Google's AI bot, Gemini to tell us all about it and more. Here is the dialogue.

What is the role of propionic acid in the gut of animals and humans?

Propionic Acid: A Key Player in Gut Health

Propionic acid is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced by gut bacteria through the fermentation of dietary fibres. It plays a crucial role in maintaining gut health and influencing various bodily functions.

Role in the Gut:

  • Energy Source: Propionic acid is absorbed through the colon wall and transported to the liver where it's used as an energy source.
  • Gut Barrier Function: It helps maintain the integrity of the gut lining, preventing the leakage of harmful substances into the bloodstream.
  • Anti-inflammatory Effects: Propionic acid has anti-inflammatory properties, contributing to overall gut health and potentially reducing inflammation in other parts of the body.
  • Gut Microbiome Balance: It influences the composition of the gut microbiota, promoting a healthy balance of bacteria.
  • Appetite Regulation: Some studies suggest that propionic acid may play a role in appetite regulation by signalling to the brain.

Beyond the Gut:

  • Liver Function: As mentioned, the liver utilizes propionic acid for energy production. It's also involved in gluconeogenesis, the process of creating glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.
  • Potential Systemic Effects: Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, propionic acid has been studied for its potential role in various conditions beyond gut health, such as metabolic disorders and neurological diseases. However, more research is needed to fully understand these effects.

In summary, propionic acid is a vital component of gut health and has far-reaching implications for overall well-being. Consuming a diet rich in fibre can promote the production of this beneficial SCFA.

Would you like to know more about how diet can influence SCFA production?

Yes,

Diet and SCFA Production

Fiber is the key ingredient when it comes to boosting SCFA production. It's the preferred food source for gut bacteria. Different types of fiber influence the production of different SCFAs.

  • Resistant starch: Found in unripe bananas, cooked and cooled potatoes, and green bananas, it promotes butyrate production.
  • Inulin and fructans: Present in garlic, onions, asparagus, and chicory root, these fibers increase the levels of propionate.
  • Pectin: Found in fruits like apples and citrus, it can also contribute to SCFA production.

Other factors influencing SCFA production include:

  • Overall diet: A diet rich in processed foods and low in fiber can hinder SCFA production.
  • Gut microbiome: A diverse and healthy gut microbiome is essential for efficient SCFA production.
  • Antibiotics: These can disrupt the gut microbiome and negatively impact SCFA levels.

It's important to note that while fiber is crucial, consuming a balanced diet with a variety of plant-based foods is generally recommended for optimal gut health and SCFA production.

Does obesity limit the production of propionic acid? Yes.

Obesity and Propionic Acid Production

Yes, obesity can indeed limit the production of propionic acid.

Here's a breakdown of how:

  • Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis: Obesity is often associated with alterations in the gut microbiome, a condition known as dysbiosis. These changes can lead to a decrease in the abundance of bacteria that produce propionic acid.
  • Reduced Fiber Intake: Individuals with obesity often have lower fiber intake, which is a primary substrate for propionic acid production.
  • Increased Inflammation: Obesity is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation, which can negatively impact the gut environment and hinder the production of beneficial SCFAs like propionic acid.

Therefore, restoring a healthy gut microbiome, increasing fiber intake, and reducing inflammation are essential steps in potentially increasing propionic acid levels in individuals with obesity.

Improving Gut Health in Obesity

Improving gut health is crucial for individuals with obesity. Here are some key strategies:

Diet

  • High-fiber diet: Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. These provide the necessary fuel for beneficial gut bacteria.
  • Limit processed foods: These often contain harmful additives and lack essential nutrients.
  • Consider a Mediterranean-style diet: Rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil, this diet has been linked to improved gut health and overall well-being.

Lifestyle

  • Regular exercise: Physical activity can help reduce inflammation, improve insulin sensitivity, and support a healthy gut microbiome.
  • Weight management: Gradual weight loss can positively impact gut health by reducing inflammation and improving gut bacteria diversity.
  • Stress management: Chronic stress can negatively affect the gut microbiome. Incorporate relaxation techniques like meditation or yoga into your routine.
  • Adequate sleep: Sufficient sleep is essential for overall health, including gut health.

Supplements

  • Probiotics: These contain live bacteria that can benefit gut health. However, their effectiveness varies, and it's essential to choose reputable brands.
  • Prebiotics: These are non-digestible fibers that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. They are found naturally in many foods but can also be supplemented.

It's important to note that while these strategies can be beneficial, individual responses may vary. 

Important note: diet cats slowly. Consult with your vet.


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Monday, 15 July 2024

Personality is the key to finding your happiness

I don't have an awful lot on this because I can't find the study which by the way is published in the Journal of Personality and Psychology. But according to The Times newspaper report, "Personality is key to finding happiness".

Personality is the key to finding your happiness
Image: MikeB



The author goes on to state that "Your personality has more of an impact on your level of life satisfaction than your circumstances", according to a study. That says to me that the important thing is about how one responds to changing circumstances that seem to be beyond one's control. And that is down to personality.

The researchers hail from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Tartu in Estonia. They wanted to cross check what other people thought about the happiness of other people and what these people thought about their own happiness. There were 20,000 participants.

The cross referenced responses suggested that 80% of the differences in people's life satisfaction could be traced to their personalities according to the researchers led by Dr. Rene Mottus.

Comment: I take this to mean that one's personality dictates how one responds to life events. I think this is about the classic argument that the way you deal with life is how you respond or react to events. 

You can deal with these events positively and find solutions and a good way forward or you can succumb and become a victim to events that happen around you, seemingly beyond your control. With a good personality, a more positive personality, a more optimistic personality you can be happier in getting over these life problems.

That's my personal interpretation and Dr. Rene Mottus said that: 
"Broadly speaking, more satisfied people were more emotionally stable, extroverted and conscientious. But more specifically those satisfied with their life felt understood, excited and decisive, while less satisfied people felt envious, bored, used and unrewarded.... ..Personality tends to be stable, gradually shaped by a mix of thousands of experiences and genetic factors so the more satisfaction is about personality, the less it is expected to react to life's ebb and flow."
In the paragraph above we see two contrasting personality types. One is emotionally stable and conscientious and "extroverted". I take that to mean a person who is confident enough to express their views and optimistic enough to be as positive as one can be when faced with life's problems.

The other personality type is one who is less likely to be positive and conscientious in working towards a better lifestyle. They are perhaps less energetic and therefore become bored. They appear to be envious of people who are more energetic and more conscientious. But when they are less energetic and less conscientious they might tend to decide that they are being 'used' by society (victims). And if they decide they are unrewarded it is perhaps because they are not working hard enough to gain reward, to be rewarded.

This seems to be the difference between a personality which takes a more positive view of life and someone that is prone to negativity. The half full versus half empty mentality. That's my interpretation.

It can be very hard to maintain a positive attitude, I fully accept that. But it certainly pays to be as active as possible and as positive as possible. To get up when knocked down and keep trying. It is hard to do but the rewards are there. 

They are there for all to see. The problem is it can be hard to drag oneself out of a situation where one is bored and feeling unrewarded but the best solution is to start becoming active. In short, to work towards a goal. To be productive. To have a target. That takes effort and self-discipline. But people need targets and PURPOSE in life. We must find purpose to gain life satisfaction.

I sense that self-discipline is behind these results. It's a very important aspect of life and a very difficult one, I fully understand.

Is it possible to change your personality? We inherit personality and it is moulded throughout our lives. It's a bit of nature and nurture. I think it's possible to change one's personality slowly and conscientiously. It takes effort. Sometimes meeting a person can change one's personality and lifestyle.

If you find it difficult to become more conscientious and positive, it would help to get support in some way. The bottom line is it takes effort unfortunately. And I wonder whether today there are too many Gen Z people who tend to think that the world owes them something and they don't really have to apply themselves very hard for a very long time to get rewards. But you do unfortunately.

There is an element here of the positive cycle going upwards and the negative cycle going downwards. The more effort you put in the better things become and the better things become the more motivated you are and the more motivated you are the better things become because you put more effort in. The reverse can happen.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Saturday, 25 May 2024

Dog owners do not know what is in their dogs' food

A study commissioned by Butternut Box conducted by OnePoll, came to the conclusion that millions of dog owners in the UK have no idea what is in their pet's food. There were 2000 participants and 48% of them were able to name just three ingredients. 23% of the participants struggled to understand the ingredients listed on dog food labels.


I'm sure, by the way, that the same would apply to cats. There is certainly, as far as I am concerned, a big disconnect between pet food manufacturers and consumers in respect of labelling ingredients.

44% of participants were confused by what they perceive as contradictory advice about a healthy dog diet.

And because of this lack of understanding of what is in dog food, 36% of the participants admitted that they are worried about their dog's health in the context of their diet.


Four in 10 found planning their dog's diet stressful and certainly more stressful than trying to work out their own diet with 41% admitting that they would want clearer labelling on dog food packaging.

Clearly, a healthy diet can help a dog to be healthy and help to eliminate or at least manage health problems.

The argument is that there is a need for greater transparency and information about dogs' diets in order to help owners to make better more informed choices.

Comment: there is probably a general suspicion about the quality of pet food made by big business. The problem applies to cats and dogs and other pets. There are some ingredients in pet food such as rendered, hydrolysed or pasteurised animal by-products along with artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives.

It's believed that the manufacturers try to avoid drawing attention to these additives in order to preserve the food and make it look better but which are arguably detrimental to health by making the labelling more opaque and harder to understand.


For 45% of dog owners, price is the deciding factor and 13% were swayed by the packaging. That is the appearance of the packaging encourage them to purchase the product.

27% of dog owners said that their dog was a fussy eater and 17% said that their dog turns up their nose at the food if he or she does not think that it is up to scratch. 11% of dogs refuse to eat their food.

Around 30% of dog owners say that the dog shows more interest in the food that they are eating then the dog food that has been put down for them resulting in 61% of dog owners feeding their beloved pooch human food at least once a week with around 25% of owners admitting that their motivation for doing this is guilt.

That said, 23% provided human food for their dog in the belief that fresh, human quality food is better for a dog than commercially prepared dog food about which they don't know enough.

The conclusion is that there is a need for dog owners to better understand the ingredients in dog food and the same would apply to cat food. And on the other side of the coin, they would appear to be an obligation on pet food manufacturers to be more transparent about dog food ingredients and to minimise additives which might be detrimental to dogs' health.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Saturday, 11 May 2024

Obesity link to 22 types of cancer in humans should concern cat caregivers

Although, unlike human medicine, where cancer is a reportable disease and long-term data are collected there are no comprehensive databases for cancer cases in pets which makes it difficult to talk meaningfully about a possible link between increased cancer rates in cats and increased obesity levels but I want to discuss that. That said, there are claims that cancer rates are rising but it is anecdotal.


And I want to discuss this topic because in the newspaper today there is an article based upon a study which concluded that obesity can increase the risk of more than 30 different types of cancer. This is not saying that obesity per se causes cancer but that obesity exacerbates the prevalence.

The research was led by a team at Lund University in Sweden. Fat cells send out signals that increase inflammation, make extra hormones and growth factors, which increases the risk of tumours.

We know that obesity in humans and in cats can have severe health impacts in other areas i.e. cause numerous other diseases. It is really important for cat caregivers to ensure that their cat maintains an ideal weight. It's so important to health.

But in this article I want to briefly touch on this study for humans. But let's say right away that human anatomy is very similar at a fundamental level to cat anatomy. I have always argued that the causes of illness in humans can often be the same causes of illness in cats. And therefore when I see a study about human health, I tend to think of the health of our cat companions and how we can ensure we protect it.

The study I'm referring to was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice. It concerned 4.1 million adults who were tracked over four decades.

The study confirmed established findings that obesity causes 13 types of cancer including bowel and breast cancer. However, the study identified a further 19 types of cancer associated with weight gain including cervical cancer and some skin cancers.

These forms of cancer make up 40% of all new cases in people affecting tens of thousands of UK citizens annually.

Until this study was published, it was thought that only 25% of cases were obesity-related.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in pets. As I said I can't correlate the rise in feline obesity which has been described as an obesity epidemic and a concomitant rise in cancer diagnoses but I think it is there.

Also about 47% of dogs over the age of 10 develop cancer and for cats it is 32%. But this information comes from personal experience is not comprehensive data as they are estimates. The numbers could be higher.

Female cats are at a higher risk compared to males especially if they've not been sterilised. And the risk of developing mammary gland tumours increases with age with the highest incidence in cats between 10-14 years of age.

My suggestion would be that veterinary clinics need to create a comprehensive database on cancer in domestic cats and dogs. 
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Thursday, 9 May 2024

For LONGEVITY adopt a perfect weight crossbred, spayed female cat

I have been writing about cat longevity quite a lot recently. And I am writing this without reference to any notes; just from what I have read recently and remember. It'll be quite short! 😢😊 I read several studies about domestic cat life expectancy and longevity. Some of the data available is a little unbelievable or uncertain because, in one study, they referred to rescue cats from shelters and I suspect that on occasions they had to estimate the age of the cats. See: Data on lifespan of over 11 million cats and dogs (Banfield Hospitals USA).

But the studies I've read were based upon a very large number of cats and the information came from veterinary clinics and animal hospitals where the cats had died. These clinics had treated the cats beforehand and therefore they had a complete record.

For LONGEVITY adopt a perfect weight crossbred female cat
Females live longer on average. Click on the image to see the original and to download it if you want to.

One consistent item of information running through the mass of data on domestic cat longevity is the fact that female cats live longer than male cats and that would apply to purebred cats and crossbred cats. However, it would apply less to purebred cats because these cats are normally kept indoors full-time whereas crossbreed (random-bred or moggy) cats are normally allowed outside in many countries where they are liable to have accidents and be injured or killed. This distorts data on life expectancy of crossbreed cats.

And it is one reason why, I suspect that male cats have shorter life expectancy than females. Another would be health issues perhaps predominantly concerning urinary tract diseases. Males are more adventurous than females and they patrol large home ranges. Young males are particularly vulnerable to accidents (RTAs primarily). This advice applies to females with a well-maintained, ideal weight and who is spayed (sterilized).

In a particularly good study on this topic, the researchers found that female cats tended to live to 12.5 years on average compared to males who made it to 11.2 years of age; more than the year extra for the females.

See my report on this study concerned males and females: Female domestic cats live longer than male domestic cats (big 2019 UK study).

You will notice that the average age of a male cat is 11.2 years. I've always thought that domestic cats in general live to about 14 or 15 years of age. The studies have forced me to adjust my expectation on cat age downwards.

Crossbred cats tended to live longer than purebreds with lifespans of 11.9 years and 10.4 years respectively. Once again the lifespans are shorter than I expected. I expected better but perhaps my expectations concern a well-looked after domestic cat in a nice home in which the caregiver is concerned about the health and welfare of their companion animal.

There are millions of domestic cats in less than good homes in both the UK and USA and other countries where their caregiving is less than optimal and where some end up in rescue centres and have lives which are far from ideal. All of these factors bear down on longevity sometime substantially.

But if longevity is an important factor to you and it should be as it reflects health then consider the words in the title to this article. 👍💕😊

And if you would like to read some more about domestic cat longevity there are a couple of links below which might interest you. One is about purebred cats and the Birman and Burmese being the longest-lived purebred cats. In fact, these two cat breeds live longer on average than non-purebred cats or crossbred cats according to this study which I have cited below together with a link so you can read a bit more about the topic if you wish.
P.S. In a study "Mortality of Life-Insured Swedish Cats during 1999–2006: Age, Breed, Sex, and Diagnosis" there was no difference in mortality rates between male and female. The study mainly concerned purebred cats. "Sex-specific rates did not differ significantly".
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Data on lifespan of over 11 million cats and dogs (Banfield Hospitals USA)



The information from this enormous study from Banfield Pet hospitals in the USA regarding the life expectancy for dogs and cats derived from clinical data, is very surprising to me. I've produced a little table below which summarises the data. There are two rather odd findings.

Firstly, the lifespan of cats is shorter than that of dogs according to this study which doesn't make sense to me. I have always thought that in general cats have longer lifespans than dogs but comparisons are hard to make due to different lifestyles. 

And secondly the lifespan of ideal weight cats is shorter than the lifespan of obese cats which certainly does not make sense in any shape or form.

I produce it here because the information is on the Internet and you can make what you will of it.

The study itself produces some very fine detailed information which you can read about by clicking on this link if you wish.

The advantages of this study is that the data set comprised 8.9 million dogs and 2.4 million cats which is more than 10 fold greater than the dataset used to generate life expectancy tables for Japanese dogs for example.

As I say above, I can't trust this information despite the enormous amount of information collected from this hospital chain.

They admit to limitations and "a degree of uncertainty of pet age for dogs and cats required as rescued animals or adopted from animal shelters and the inherent limitations of body condition scoring." My guess is that the info is unreliable 😒😢🙄 But maybe I am being too gung ho in saying that.

That would imply that a lot of the cats and dogs were adopted from animal rescue centres and these animals had non-specific ages. I assume that their ages were estimated but I don't know.

I have a better study on another page, on another website which shows that the Birman and the Burmese are the two cat breeds with the best life expectancies of the purebred cats. In both these cat breeds did better than random bred cats in terms of life expectancy but once again I find that information questionable.

And once again I am presenting it here because it might interest people despite my doubts.

It would seem that the one certainty which has been found in other studies is that female dogs and cats live longer than male cats and dogs and this is evident in the table below. I have another page on that topic on another associated website.

Companion animal  Life expectancy
 All dogs  12.69 years
 Mixed-breed dogs 12.71
 All cats  11.18
 Mixed-breed cats 11.12
 Female dogs  12.76
 Male dogs  12.63
 Female cats  11.68
 Male cats  10.72
 Obese dogs  11.71
 Overweight dogs  13.14
 Ideal weight dogs  13.18
Overweight cats 13.67
Obese cats 12.56
Ideal weight cats 12.18

Citation: Life expectancy tables for dogs and cats derived from clinical data.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1082102

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Thursday, 2 May 2024

Orangutan successfully self-treated a large facial wound through plant medicine

It is the first time that humankind has observed a wild animal self-medicating using the leaves of a plant which he chewed for a long time and then placed the paste onto the large facial wound which was acquired during a fight with a rival. The plant he used is called Akar Kuning. It is an anti-inflammatory and antibacterial plant which local people use to treat malaria and diabetes.

Orangutan successfully self-treated a large facial wound through plant medicine
Photos: Armas and the BBC.

This large facial wound had closed within five days which is remarkable. He chewed the stem and leaves of the plant for around 30 minutes. He applied the resultant liquid on to his cheeks for seven minutes and then smeared the chewed leaves in the form of a paste onto his gaping facial wound under his right eye.

The wound had totally healed after a month. The orangutan's name is Rakus. The way he behaved strongly indicated to scientists that he was applying the medicine to heal his wounds. Orangutans rarely eat this particular plant.

Dr. Laumer said: "He repeatedly applied the paste, and he later also applied more solid plant matter. The entire process lasted really a considerable time. That's why we think that he intentionally applied it."

It is known that the great apes use medicine to try to heal themselves. Jane Goodall, the 1960s biologist who is very well known, saw whole leaves in chimpanzee faeces indicating that they had been eaten for medicinal purposes. Other scientists have observed orangutans swallowing leaves which were known to have medicinal qualities.

But as mentioned it is the first time that a wild animal has been seen applying self-made medicine to a wound and successfully killing himself.

They even think that it might have been the first time that this individual had tried this kind of treatment. Perhaps he had learned watching others or perhaps they had told him how to do it.

Perhaps he found out that it worked by accident in touching his wound with his finger that had just had the plant on it. He discovered that the effect was pain relief which made him apply it again and again. That is another theory. My personal theory would be that it is a form of treatment which orangutans in his group know about and they have passed on the knowledge each to the other.

The researchers will observe other orangutans to see if they have the same knowledge in treating themselves for disease or wounds. They expect to discover even more behaviours of a similar quality and more abilities which are very human-like.


P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Wednesday, 24 April 2024

Almost 50% of cats and dogs have their own dedicated room

Almost 50% of cats and dogs have their own dedicated room
Cat caregiver enjoying the company of their cat. Image believed to be in the public domain.

A survey commissioned by Homesense, part of the TK Maxx family in the UK, found the following facts about cat and dog ownership which may interest people:
  • 48% of cat and dog owners allocate a certain space in their home, a dedicated room often or a space in the garden for their pets.
  • Just over half, 55%, wanted their cats and dogs to have their own area where they can chill out.
  • 34% of the respondents of which there were 2000, wanted to ensure maximum comfort for their companion animal.
  • 30% wanted all their possessions kept in one place. By this I mean cat and dog products of various sorts.
  • 80% of the respondents dedicated a certain space in their home so that their companion animal's things and toys et cetera don't take up space in the rest of the home.
  • 46% of respondents designed a home around their cat or dog.
  • 21% admitted they were unlikely to buy items just to please their companion animal if those items didn't match with the interior of their home.
The study was in partnership with Kelly Brook to launch a pet an interiors content series “Barkitectural Digest”.

Kelly Brook said that certain parts of our home are designed around her dog, Teddy. Through the study she found that she was not the only one. She is pleased to help others.

The top changes made to dog and cat caregivers' homes included moving delicate things higher up (29% of the respondents) and adding a cat flap (in 21% of the respondents) and installing a garden fence (20%). Also:
  • 16% of the respondents replaced carpets with hard floors.
  • 11% bought scratch-proof furniture.
  • 9% chose dark furnishings to disguise cat and dog fur.
  • 17% installed baby gates to stop wondering cats and dogs.
  • 19% used blankets to cover up damage to furniture and household items.
  • 75% of respondents struggled to find pet products that were of good enough quality and reasonably priced.
The research was carried out by OnePoll.
  • They also found that 41% of the respondents had discovered that owning a companion animal is more expensive than expected. The cost of food and insurers being the expenses that surprised them the most.
  • 15% claimed that they spent more on their cat or dog than they do on their children. The same percentage said that they spent more on their cat and dog than their car or holidays.
  • The average cat and dog owner spent £708 annually.
  • 59% said that they compromised on buying pet products because of the expense.
P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Tuesday, 9 April 2024

Touch your cat and let them touch you for health benefits both ways

A study is out on the Internet at the moment which probably states the obvious but it's always useful to restate the obvious and it might not be so obvious to some people. 😉😎

The conclusion of the study is that people benefit from touch. Yes, a simple act. Touching is part and parcel of the way of life of animals and people. People are animals. The human animal. Let's not kid ourselves that we are any different at a fundamental level which includes experiencing the benefits of touch.

Touch on the face and head is more beneficial than touch on the arm. We can be touched by a professional medical person or a non-medical person but someone we know and the benefits are going to be similar both mental and physical.

People who are ill benefit more than those who are not. Hugging people is touching people. The same benefits. Cuddling your cat is like hugging a person. The same benefits. It cuts both ways by which I mean the cat benefits from your touching and you benefit from touching your cat. Note: hug cats respectfully.



To stress the point, the study states that, "It is widely known that many animal species benefit from touch interactions and that engaging in touch promotes their well-being as well."

You can't really touch your cat enough. You can't overdo it but caregivers should respect the feelings of their cat. Petting your cat is good for both person and cat but different cats have different wishes and people shouldn't overdo petting. Sometimes cats have a limit to the amount of petting they wish to receive.

Notwithstanding that observation, cats enjoy petting and of course people enjoy petting their cats. This is a form of touching obviously and therefore both benefit from it.

Touching can help reduce pain, depression and anxiety in adults and children. In terms of newborn babies, touching helps them gain weight. This is a reflection of the general well-being incurred by the baby when being touched.

The study is titled: A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions. It is published on the Nature Human Behaviour website and the citation at the base of the article provides a link to it.
Overall, touch interventions were beneficial for both physical and mental health, with a medium effect size. Our work illustrates that touch interventions are best suited for reducing pain, depression and anxiety in adults and children as well as for increasing weight gain in newborns. 
The lesson to be learned from the study (if we need to learn a lesson on this topic) is that we should enjoy touching our cat. And our cat will enjoy it. It just needs to be done in a respectful way which means gently and up to the limits allowed by our cat companions. 

You will learn those limits as your cat will complain if you overdo it. Gentleness is a key. Sometimes people can handle their cats too roughly and forgetting that we are bigger and generally stronger. It's a two-way process at all times and interacting with our cat.

And don't treat your cat as a human baby but as a feline, a fine domesticated predator.


Citation


Packheiser, J., Hartmann, H., Fredriksen, K. et al. A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01841-8
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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Monday, 1 April 2024

Dogs and toddlers understand humans pointing to objects but apes don't

The video tells you all about the intelligence of dogs. This video is long but I have started it when the expert demonstrates how dogs are able to understand what to do when a human points at an object. Toddlers also understand this. Dogs are like toddlers in this aspect of instinctive intelligence but apes fail the test.

Dogs understand the meaning of pointing unlike apes and cats but like 2-year-old toddlers.
Dogs understand the meaning of pointing unlike apes and cats but like 2-year-old toddlers.

The video starts with a section about the most intelligent dog in the world (believed) as he can memorise and understand over 1000 words describing different objects that he'll fetch on command.

It is an interesting section too. More interesting to me though is the general assessment that dogs understand pointing which is an ability only fairly recently observed. 


"When his father points [the toddler] makes an inference. When kids his age start understanding pointing it is right when the foundations of what leads to language and culture start to develop."
The dog successful completes the same test. 
"That's really hard for a lot of animals. That's what really special about dogs. They are similar to human toddlers."
It seems that the cat cannot pass this test. In general the consensus of experts is that dogs are more intelligent that cats but the comparison might be unfair.

This is because dogs are more domesticated than cats. They have lived side by side with humans for perhaps up to 30,000 years. For cats it is 10,000 years. 

Perhaps dogs understand humans better than cats and therefore understand the meaning of pointing to an object from which they can make an inference that there is some significance to the action of pointing such as there is something underneath a cup.

It is very tricky to compare cat and dog intelligence for other reason. They have evolved to be good at different things. Dogs are pack animals and are attuned to group living. Cats are essentially solitary and have evolved to live a life alone and survive alone. They are great survivors hence their nine lives badge.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

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