Top 10 Ways Having a Pet At Home will Improve Your Health

2. Reduce the risk of allergies

Dog or cat hair is usually one of the most common triggers of an allergy. With this in mind we are likely to find that pets can reduce the risk of developing allergies. This was determined by a study published in 2015 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, in which a team of Swedish researchers concluded that exposure to dogs and farm animals in early life was associated with a lower risk of development of school-age asthma. Other research published in the journal Microbiome in 2017 found that children who were exposed to pets at home before birth and up to 3 months after birth experienced changes in the intestinal bacteria associated with childhood allergies. Thus, science supports the theory that increased exposure to potential pathogens and allergens at an early age can strengthen the immune system and make us more resistant to allergies.