Can a dog sense a blood sugar drop before its owner does?
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Some trained dogs appear to warn their diabetic owners of a drop in blood sugar, sometimes before the owner feels anything at all. How could an animal notice this, and what do the studies really show?
Publicité
Publicité
In several studies, owners reported that their alert dogs responded more often when blood sugar was out of target range, whether low or high. A more recent study, in which glucose was measured continuously and hidden from participants, reported alerts about 2.8 times more frequent during low blood sugar episodes.
Still, caution is needed. More critical evaluations did not confirm high accuracy: in one small study of eight dogs, the average sensitivity for hypoglycaemia was only about 36%. A review of 62 studies on medical detection by animal smell concluded that the method cannot yet be used in clinical practice.
The chemical compounds the dogs detect are not well identified, and infections, diet or medication can also change the body's odour signatures. The question therefore remains open.
