Dogs are not just man's best friend. Previous…

Dogs are not just man's best friend. Previous studies have shown that kids with dogs are less likely to develop asthma. Now a new study may show how— if results from mice apply to us. The work was presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology . The study tests what's called the 1 hypothesis. The idea is that extreme cleanliness may actually promote disease later on. Researchers collected dust from homes that had a dog. They fed that house dust to mice. They then infected the mice with a common 2 infection called respiratory syncytial virus —or RSV. Mice who ate the dog dust were protected against RSV infection symptoms , like inflamed, mucus coated airways, suggesting 3 helped them stave off the virus. Those mice also had more diverse communities of gut bacteria than control mice did. The researchers say our pet's microbes may 4 our gut too, and help the immune system learn to 5 to infections. That's important because when kids develop severe RSV their risk of asthma goes up. So next time buster sheds all over the couch, think of it as a 6 dose of probiotics.