Dogs can act as an effective early-warning system for patients with diabetes, scientists have proved for the first time.
Research from the University of Bristol found dogs trained to respond to their owners' hypoglycaemia could alert them to impending lower blood sugars.
It was the first academic study to assess whether trained dogs could be reliably used to provide an early-warning system to monitor glycaemia control.
Glycaemia-alert dogs and specially trained pets were found to accurately and consistently detect the signs of low or high blood sugar in their owners.
The animals alerted their owners when their levels were outside their target range - reducing unconscious episodes, paramedic call outs and improving independence.
Dr Nicola Rooney, from the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences, is lead author of the paper, published in PLOS ONE.
"Despite considerable resources having been invested in developing electronic systems to facilitate tightened glycaemic control, current equipment has numerous limitations," Dr Rooney said.
"These findings are important as they show the value of trained dogs and demonstrate that glycaemia alert dogs placed with clients living with diabetes, afford significant improvements to owner well-being including increased glycaemic control, client independence and quality-of-life and potentially could reduce the costs of long-term health care."
The researchers collected data from the owners of 17 dogs trained by Medical Detection Dogs to assess whether the animals reliably responded to their owners' hypoglycaemic state. Results showed that since obtaining the dogs, all 17 patients reported positive effects.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article