Most people know that dogs have a really good sense of smell, but did you know that 40% of the brain goes entirely to their sense of smell!
To put this into perspective, we can taste a teaspoon of sugar in our coffee. They could smell a teaspoon of sugar inside two olympic sized swimming pools!
It has been suggested that dogs can detect many types of cancers in humans because cancers leave specific traces, or odor signatures, in a person’s body and bodily secretions! Now then you would ask (if you were as quirky as me!) then why don’t we employ an animal whose sense of smell is even better than the dog!
Well I fail to see how you can get an African elephant or a Shark to work for you!
Yes! The African elephant is often considered to have the most developed sense of smell among animals. This is due to having a large number of olfactory receptor genes (around 2,000), more than any other mammal, including dogs. However, the best sense of smell can also be measured by how well an animal can detect faint odors, and in that case, the male silkworm moth is the champion!
The male silkworms also can detect the pheromones released by females from a great distance, even at extremely low concentrations, making them the ultimate champions in terms of detecting faint smells!
Other animals with strong senses of smell include Dogs, Bears and Sharks!
You would be surprised to know that even our dear Cows have a surprisingly good sense of smell, which helps them find and choose their food!
In the list above am sure the best candidate to ‘smell’ cancer in humans are indeed dogs!
And Yes! dogs can be trained to smell certain types of cancer. Studies have shown that trained dogs can detect cancer in urine, breath, and even tumor samples. They can distinguish between cancer and non-cancerous samples with a high degree of accuracy!
Dogs possess a significantly larger number of olfactory receptors than humans, allowing them to detect subtle changes in odor. The chief reason here is that cancerous tissues release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are not present in healthy tissues!
By training specific dogs to identify and react to specific odor patterns associated with different types of cancer many cancers can be detected.
It has been shown that dogs can detect a range of cancers, including bladder, breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancer! Which is why scientists are actively exploring the use of dogs and other animals in cancer detection, with the ultimate goal of developing diagnostic tools that can detect cancer early and improve patient outcomes!
Just when you thought the future is only AI; there comes the little bloke with cute eyes and dangling ears! Man’s (or woman’s for that matter!) best friend to the rescue once again!
Best reminds me of one of the best actors! Krishna! At one point he had close to 20 or so movies releasing in the same year! Most may not even know him! You may know his son Mahesh Babu though!
Now smell some sweet sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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