Scientists confirm my mum knows everything, again!

My mum is always right. I know this because she tells me it is so. And unlike the Pope, my mum's infallibility is not limited to when she is speaking 'ex cathedra'. In fact, it's not even limited to when she is speaking. For this reason, my mum has very little need for 'experts' and 'scientists'.

However, scientists and experts do serve one useful function, 'proving' things that my mum has known all along.

For example, my mum knows that if you live in an environment that is too clean you will lose your resistance to, well, just about everything (the fact that my mum loves animals and hates dusting is a mere coincidence).

And, sure enough, the latest edition of New Scientist reports:

Pets can protect their young owners against common stomach bugs, according to new research.

Jane Heyworth and colleagues at the University of Western Australia found that incidences of gastroenteritis – commonly called stomach flu – were significantly lower in young children living in homes with pets, than those living without.

For six weeks, the team closely observed 965 children aged four to six, noting incidences of nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting. Children that had a cat or dog in their household were 30% less likely to have gastroenteritis symptoms than children who lived in homes without pets.

“It is a commonly held view that dogs and cats are a source of gastroenteritis, but our results do not support that,” Heyworth says. Being licked and touched by pets may allow children to develop immunity from repeated low level exposure of pathogenic organisms, she suggests.

Previous studies have shown that people who keep pets suffer fewer health problems, such as heart disease and depression.
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