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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Want your kids to be asthma-free?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:00
	Publish Date:		2016-11-14 18:00:00
	Description:		Want your children to be asthma and allergy free? You may want to consider getting a dog. Susan Lynch, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Francisco, has discovered this connection while studying microbes in newborn babies’ bodies. "Exposure in early life to a greater breadth of organisms seems to be beneficial and allows the system to accumulate a greater diversity of organisms, which really means a greater diversity of the microbial functions." In other words, the mixture of home dust and dog’s dander, can help a child become immune to asthma later in life. This seems to contradict a well-known fact that pets can trigger allergies? But Lynch says timing is everything. “In later life for example, if asthma or allergies have developed, then exposure to a dog will clearly will trigger allergies.” So to prevent these immune diseases – a pet should be brought home when a child is no older than one month. Editor's note: special thanks to Emma for taking the time out of her busy day to pose for the accompanying picture.
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