Diseases, stress, emotions: what dogs can determine by human smell
Dogs have a very fine sense of smell, which can tell them a lot about the world around them.
The sense of smell of these pets is tuned in such a way that they can read many facts about people by smell.
Dogs have about 125 million olfactory cells, compared to 5 million in humans.
The olfactory bulb (the area of the brain responsible for recognizing smells) in these animals is 40 times larger than in humans.
And pets use this gift of nature to the fullest extent, simultaneously bringing benefit to society. For example, they find explosives, drugs, help search for missing people.
But this is only part of the capabilities of a dog's sense of smell.
Pets can also read human emotions. Science has proven that a person's physical and mental states have their own smell.
It all happens at the hormonal level. People don't notice it, but dogs easily detect changes.
A pet can recognize that the owner is stressed or, on the contrary, happy about something.
They also sense fear in this way. This is signaled to them by the release of adrenaline, which is also called the "fear hormone".
Also, many studies say that dogs are able to detect certain diseases.
We are talking about diabetes, COVID-19, malaria. There are also cases where dogs have detected cancer by smell.
