Diabetes-Sniffing Dogs, To be Investigated in the UK

Filed in archive Challenges , Diabetics' Device , Notable , Research on November 25, 2007

Queens University (UK) researchers are looking for volunteers in a study of people with diabetes who own dogs.




To be conducted by Dr. Deborah Wells and by Dr. Shaun Lawson, from the School of Psychology at Queens and the University of Lincoln, respectively, the study's goal is to determine scientifically whether or not dogs can detect diabetes in their owners.

The scientists are looking for 100 volunteers. They would also like to see any video footage that the dog owners might already have of the dogs responding to their owners' diabetic states in any way. They are especially interested in footage of the dogs reacting to low blood sugar levels in their owners.

There is folk knowledge that supports the idea that dogs have this ability, sometimes being able to predict when episodes of low blood sugar will occur. However, there is very little scientific data to support these claims, so the scientists are hoping to collect data that will confirm or refute these stories.

In spite of the lack of information there are people in the United Kingdom attempting to train dogs to detect these blood sugar levels. The research should assist them in doing this.

What if dogs can actually sniff diabetes in humans or predict/detect episodes of low sugar levels? Then medical science should be able to develop artificial means to sniff out blood sugar levels. - some sort of an "electronic noninvasive alert system."

Well, how cool is that?!

Source: Queen's University Belfast