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American Morning

Dog or Cat Could be Providing More Than Just Love and Protection

Aired August 28, 2002 - 08:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You animal lovers, this story is for you. Your dog or cat could be providing more than just love and protection for your family. There is a new study out says that your best friends may be your kid's best defense against developing certain allergies. In today's "House Call," medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here.
Good call (ph) for a pet project maybe.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning.

I love these stories, because they're exciting for pet lovers, which you and I both are, but also because they fly in the face of conventional wisdom. The long-standing theory, over 30 years, is that pets are bad for kid in the household. Not so fast. Let's hear how and why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): This is Ralphie, and this is Alexandra, two cats that 15-year-old Katie Luck grew up with. Sadly, they've passed on. But according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they may have left a wonderful legacy for Katie -- lifelong protection from allergies.

DR. DENNIS OWNBY, STUDY AUTHOR: Early exposure to dogs and cats not only suppressed the response to dogs and cats, it lowered the likelihood they were going to be allergic to ragweed, or grass or mold.

GUPTA: Cynthia Luck has asthma and allergies, although she's not allergic to cats or dogs. But luckily, her daughter has remained allergy-free. She gives credit to Ralphie and Alexandra.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They would be around her whenever she wanted to be. The only restriction I ever had was in the crib. If they wanted to lay next to her if she was on the floor, I didn't have a problem wit it.

GUPTA: Here's how the study authors think it works.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The animals introduce bacteria, which is a good thing for the immune system. Very early on, the immune system is still developing. It tends to take a pathway. One pathway is related to allergies, and a propensity to become allergic or not, and we think that exposure to microbacterial products sends the person down the pathway that's nonallergic.

GUPTA: The process of developing an allergy-free immune system appears to happen in the baby's first year of life. And the more pets, the better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With multiple animals, that's a very large effect. It cuts the risk almost in half.

KATHLEEN LUCK: I think it's kind of cool that you can have pets and you might not have allergies.

GUPTA: The researchers say it might even be reasonable to adopt pets, specifically to help your baby avoid allergies later in life. Or to put it another way, when you consider how miserable allergies can be, having a few furry friends just might prevent a doggone catastrophe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: The most amazing thing about this is the kids will not only have less allergies to cats and dogs, but also all sorts of things, molds, ragweed, all sorts of different allergens. So it really seemed to provide them protection from all sorts different things.

KAGAN: So those of us with pets and no kids need to run (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

GUPTA: That's expose those kids early, the first year of life.

KAGAN: Absolutely. On an even more serious note, West Nile, two more cases found in yet another state.

GUPTA: That's right, let's just look at the map real quick here. You take a look at the map and you find that the cases are now going to Oklahoma as well. That has been not confirmed by the CDC, but certainly confirmed by the state officials. Started in New York City right here, and now almost making its way all the way to the western seaboard. No one is surprised by that. You have about 400, 500 cases already. People wouldn't be surprised if we have 1,000 by the end of the season.

KAGAN: And making the march westward as we expected.

GUPTA: That's right, exactly.

KAGAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Good seeing you.

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