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Do animals have a sixth sense? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. Hey,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast Whoop Whoop. That's the side
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Speaker 1: of the police. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant's with me.
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Speaker 1: Boogie Down Productions, Old school rap. That's right, took nice one,
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Speaker 1: good call. I love it. Yeah. So um, how are
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Speaker 1: you doing. I'm well, sir, Yeah, I'm doing really well. Chuck. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: thank you for asking. Thanks. Do it look healthy from
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Speaker 1: the from the nose up, I've noticed that my base
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Speaker 1: is becoming increasingly resemblant to a catcher's mit, an old
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Speaker 1: catcher's met and not a compass, no, like a very
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Speaker 1: round catchers it a perfectly round catcher man. How about that,
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Speaker 1: like one of those catchers mits from like the early days.
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Speaker 1: Maybe my full name could be compass head catcherst it's
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Speaker 1: a little cumbersome. So, Chuck, have you ever met a cat?
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Speaker 1: I've got two cats, so you have? Oh yeah, you've
1:12
Speaker 1: got the Whiz and Lebron. That's pretty close. Actually, I'm
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Speaker 1: impressed the Wizard and Laurn Lauren. Okay, yeah, I just
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Speaker 1: added a b right, and I would not name my
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Speaker 1: cat after Lebron James currently killing the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he's good though, and a good guy here. Yeah. Sure, so, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: have you ever met a cat that could predict death? No?
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Speaker 1: But I love this story. It's a good one. Do
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Speaker 1: you mean the story of Oscar? Yeah? I remember what happened.
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Speaker 1: Oh really? Oh yeah, I remember reading about it. I've
1:42
Speaker 1: got to pay more attention. Yeah. My wife and I
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Speaker 1: share these animal stories with each other, gotcha. Okay, like
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Speaker 1: Christian the lion who was taken to Kenyan the seventies,
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Speaker 1: don't think there was not a tear or two shed?
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Speaker 1: And I agreed Brian Alsehold, especially the one, the version
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Speaker 1: of it that was put to Aerosmith's Um. I don't
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Speaker 1: want to uh, don't want to miss a thing. Don't
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Speaker 1: want to miss a thing? Yes, exactly, nice Chuck, Okay, well.
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Speaker 1: Back in two thousand seven, the New England Journal of Medicine,
2:08
Speaker 1: which is not exactly known for its sensational journalism UM
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Speaker 1: published a story about a cat named Oscar. And Oscar
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Speaker 1: was a resident at a Rhode Island nursing home, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the Steerhouse Nursing and Rehab Center. And basically he was
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Speaker 1: just a normal cat. Aloof kind of was like, Hey,
2:28
Speaker 1: you're old and I'm staying away from you. For the
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Speaker 1: most part. It was a home. It is a home
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Speaker 1: for people with advanced dementia, and I get the impression
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Speaker 1: that it has a bit of a hospice vibe to
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Speaker 1: it here there um so Oscar, as I said, it's
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Speaker 1: generally aloof except when you're about to die all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden. If you're laying in bed and Oscar comes
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Speaker 1: over to you and sits down next to your bed
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Speaker 1: and starts hanging out with you, you got a couple
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Speaker 1: of hours left. And uh, Oscar is actually pretty good
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Speaker 1: at predicting death. Uh, there's at least twenty five cases
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Speaker 1: where he accurately predicted the death of a person in
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Speaker 1: the Steer Nursing Home and Josher's there was a rumor
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Speaker 1: there is a rumor on the internet going around that
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Speaker 1: Oscar met an untimely death and there was a mysterious
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Speaker 1: dented bedpan found near his lifeless cat body. Not so,
3:21
Speaker 1: because we just called. We called the Steer Nursing Home
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Speaker 1: to find out there were there were It was kind
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Speaker 1: of vague. There were a couple of reputable news sources
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Speaker 1: e g. The Savannah Morning News that carried that story,
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Speaker 1: but they all appeared to be the same. So Chuck
3:36
Speaker 1: and I, being the internet sluice that we are, just
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Speaker 1: picked up the phone and did it the old fashioned way,
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Speaker 1: and we called the nursing home. And Oscar is still
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Speaker 1: alive and well and in the nursing home, apparently predicting
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Speaker 1: death as well. Right, although she said that she was
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Speaker 1: she was looking at Oscar. I wonder if she met
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Speaker 1: Oscar's stuffed body on the counter of the check in
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Speaker 1: on that floor. But how hilarious is that that Oscar
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Speaker 1: would be murdered because patients didn't like him predicting their
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Speaker 1: deaths anymore. So not true. Oscars alive and well. I
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Speaker 1: must say when I said my wife and I really
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Speaker 1: loved the story. We didn't see it as a as
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Speaker 1: a maccab predictor of death kind of thing. Like Josh Bannett,
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Speaker 1: we saw it as a comforting thing that an animal provides.
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Speaker 1: Was trying to comfort these people. So that's the way
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Speaker 1: I took it. Is it? There are other theories? Okay? Alright,
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Speaker 1: so Chuck, how could a cat possibly predict death? Right?
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Speaker 1: They can smell it? Perhaps smelling is probably the likeliest answer. Yes.
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Speaker 1: You know, when you're sick, like when you have the flu,
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Speaker 1: you don't smell quite right, you know what I mean?
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Speaker 1: You smell sick like your breath is messed up, there's
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Speaker 1: some gunk coming out of your pores. I when I
4:43
Speaker 1: was sick over the course of the last like eight podcast, UM,
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Speaker 1: I was waking up with literally my eyelids pasted shut
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Speaker 1: from gunk that was coming out. And don't think that
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Speaker 1: didn't smell, pal You want to know more swine flu?
4:58
Speaker 1: I want to get back to the cats smelling death? Okay,
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Speaker 1: So smelling is a pretty obvious way. Apparently, as UM
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Speaker 1: people's organs begin to shut down or fail. Uh that
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Speaker 1: there's the hypothesis that, um, this would omit certain smells,
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Speaker 1: certain chemicals that humans cannot smell. What's that called? When
5:16
Speaker 1: a cell commits suicide. Uh sellicide at auto license r
5:26
Speaker 1: mortist baby. Um, so okay, the I guess the the
5:31
Speaker 1: the senses that as these cells begin to cannibalize themselves
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Speaker 1: and break down and all their contents are at least
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Speaker 1: it starts to admit a smell that might attract Oscar. Right.
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Speaker 1: But the cool thing is, as you said, uh, he
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Speaker 1: it's not like he just goes in points like this,
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Speaker 1: one's next and then leaves. He hangs out until the
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Speaker 1: person is dead and then he leaves. Yeah, that's that's
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Speaker 1: what I took. Is that's the comforting part to me,
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Speaker 1: and comforting or you know, you wonder if you could
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Speaker 1: get the cat that lead you've got a second chance
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Speaker 1: or something not true at all. I wonder if people
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Speaker 1: have ever tried to bargain with the cat, like, dude,
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Speaker 1: I'll totally get you more friskies if you just get
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Speaker 1: out of here, or if one of the people in
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Speaker 1: the home that didn't like one of the other people
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Speaker 1: left a little trail of kibble, yeah, just to screw
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Speaker 1: with the their fellow patient nursing home hygiene. It makes
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Speaker 1: you wonder, Chuck, is it possible that Oscar the cat
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Speaker 1: is in fact the Grim Reaper. Uh, he is not Josh.
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Speaker 1: But that's just one example of what we're talking about,
6:27
Speaker 1: which is animals having a sixth sense. Oh what a
6:30
Speaker 1: sixth CeNSE? Well said Chuck. You we already decided that
6:34
Speaker 1: Chuck was going to say six cents and not me
6:37
Speaker 1: because I can't say yeah, thanks for the impression of
6:41
Speaker 1: each other. I have a speech impediment, it turns out. So, uh,
6:46
Speaker 1: should we talk about dogs next? Well? Yeah, one of
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Speaker 1: the one of the things that's fascinating about oscars. Cats
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Speaker 1: aren't They're not they don't do that. They're not empathetic,
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Speaker 1: they're not supposed to do that. They're not known for
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Speaker 1: being dogs are right, Um? Dogs tend to be very happy,
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Speaker 1: loving creatures, and so it would make more sense if
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Speaker 1: Oscar was a dog. Sure, because dogs there's all kinds
7:10
Speaker 1: of anecdotal stories, uh about dogs detecting cancer by smelling,
7:15
Speaker 1: and not just anecdotal. My friend, well, Mr Stack guy,
7:20
Speaker 1: I happen to have a study right here, you're killing me.
7:23
Speaker 1: I have a two thousand six study right um, And
7:27
Speaker 1: I have no idea where it's from, but it seems
7:30
Speaker 1: a little shaky to me quite too. It's from Science
7:33
Speaker 1: Daily pal. They don't printice anything. UM. It was a
7:37
Speaker 1: two thousand six study where they took eight six patients
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Speaker 1: with cancer with lung cancer and thirty one with breast
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Speaker 1: cancer and these were confirmed cancer cases. And then they
7:46
Speaker 1: used a control sample of eighty three healthy people, right,
7:50
Speaker 1: And they actually took breath samples from these people and
7:54
Speaker 1: and seal them in special tubes, and then they exposed
7:57
Speaker 1: them to these dogs. They had dog sniff the different
8:00
Speaker 1: samples and UM with a eight to seven percent UM accuracy.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. Uh, these dogs could pick out people with cancer.
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Speaker 1: Really wow. So clearly there's some smells that we humans
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Speaker 1: aren't aware of, aren't cognizant of, you know, because we
8:21
Speaker 1: like to smoke and eat cheeseburgers and things like that. UM,
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Speaker 1: that that animals can sense, which would explain why you
8:28
Speaker 1: could detect cancer. And there's another study that showed that
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Speaker 1: UM dogs could detect bladder cancer in urine. So there
8:37
Speaker 1: you have that one to thank you, and uh that
8:40
Speaker 1: you know that makes sense to me because animals certainly
8:42
Speaker 1: have different hearing capacities than we do. UM. High pitched
8:47
Speaker 1: sounds like dog whistles, we can't hear humans typically here
8:51
Speaker 1: between twenty and twenty thousand hurts. And elephants too can
8:55
Speaker 1: hear between sixteen and twelve thousand, and cattle can go
8:58
Speaker 1: all the way up to forty thou And so that's
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Speaker 1: why when animals are said to predict weather and earthquakes
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Speaker 1: and things like that, that and bear barometric pressure changes.
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Speaker 1: They pick up on these things when humans don't. So
9:10
Speaker 1: it's not exactly that they have a sixth sense, but
9:13
Speaker 1: they used the five senses are more heightened than humans are.
9:16
Speaker 1: That's interesting that you say cattle can hear better than
9:19
Speaker 1: anybody else. What was that? Well, because I was reading
9:23
Speaker 1: in this article it mentions the two four tsunami and
9:26
Speaker 1: how there were so few animal carcasses found because so
9:30
Speaker 1: many animals acted strangely and basically headed to higher ground
9:34
Speaker 1: before the tsunami hit. The animals that they found the
9:37
Speaker 1: most of her cattle. So maybe they know and they're
9:39
Speaker 1: just like, I don't have a whole lot to live for,
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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let death take me now. Or maybe they,
9:44
Speaker 1: you know, had a harder time getting out of there
9:47
Speaker 1: than heading the higher crown. I don't know. Yeah, that's
9:49
Speaker 1: just one theory. So okay, So Oscar maybe in the
9:52
Speaker 1: league of his own by predicting death. But yeah, there
9:55
Speaker 1: there is tons of anecdotal evidence that animals, um especially
9:59
Speaker 1: dag can sense illness. Right. Um, there was there was
10:05
Speaker 1: a chihuahua that a woman in England owned. Who um
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Speaker 1: said that her dog detected a breast cancer. I thought
10:13
Speaker 1: you're gonna say, taco bell, No awful. It was a
10:17
Speaker 1: detective breast cancer three different times in her which sucks.
10:21
Speaker 1: She had breast cancer three different times. Better chihuahua was like,
10:24
Speaker 1: you got breast cancer? Hunt? Interesting? And uh. There was
10:26
Speaker 1: a person with a Dalmatian. I don't know where he
10:30
Speaker 1: or she was from, but um, the dalmatian kept smelling
10:34
Speaker 1: this freckle on the on the owner's arm and it
10:39
Speaker 1: turned out skin cancer. Isn't that weird? I believe it? Man?
10:44
Speaker 1: Why not? Like I always say, why not? I mean,
10:46
Speaker 1: what do we know as humans? I mean, who knows?
10:50
Speaker 1: Maybe animals can totally smell these things. Should we go
10:52
Speaker 1: to epilepsy? I think we should. I think we totally should.
10:55
Speaker 1: This is something that's it's kind of controversial. Um. One
10:58
Speaker 1: of the great failings of my opinion of science is
11:01
Speaker 1: that if it can't readily explain something immediately, then it's
11:05
Speaker 1: just poop poo's it. But it's looking more and more
11:09
Speaker 1: like which is a scientific term for discredit. I think, yeah,
11:12
Speaker 1: poo poo, um, it is looking more and more like
11:16
Speaker 1: dogs can sense epilepsy. Now, I think one of the
11:19
Speaker 1: misleading things in these two articles can animals predict death?
11:23
Speaker 1: And can a dog really predict a seizure is the
11:25
Speaker 1: use of the word predict. There is no prediction. I
11:29
Speaker 1: was reading this awesome article on CNN and it was
11:33
Speaker 1: about a woman named Klie Johnson and she has um
11:38
Speaker 1: epilepsy and cerebral palsy, so she has a seizure. She
11:42
Speaker 1: is in trouble. She she wrote, She's in a wheelchair
11:46
Speaker 1: and she has to wear a helmet all the time
11:47
Speaker 1: because of this UM. And she actually recently got a
11:52
Speaker 1: a dog that is a UM seizure sensing dog, epilepsy
11:57
Speaker 1: trained seizure alert dog. That's what it's called. Yeah um. Now,
12:00
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of seizure response dogs. This is established fact.
12:05
Speaker 1: Dogs can be trained to um basically go get help,
12:09
Speaker 1: bring food or a blanket. UM. Some lay on top
12:13
Speaker 1: of their owners while they're having caesars to like to
12:15
Speaker 1: keep um. Yeah, to keep from any kind of uh,
12:18
Speaker 1: further injury or right. Um. This is different though totally different,
12:23
Speaker 1: because that's a response. This is an alert. Um. She
12:26
Speaker 1: has a dog that she got actually chucked from up
12:29
Speaker 1: the street. In alfred and Georgia, there's a group called
12:32
Speaker 1: Canine Assistance. Yeah and um. In the last few years
12:36
Speaker 1: they've trained a hundred seizure dogs. Um. And they actually
12:40
Speaker 1: this is the cool part. Caesar dogs um tend to
12:44
Speaker 1: be one of the more expensive dogs, like ten g
12:48
Speaker 1: twenty grand for a dog to train and keep it
12:51
Speaker 1: healthy and fed over its lifetime. Right, yes, that's for
12:56
Speaker 1: the lifetime. Yeah, veterinary care, that kind of think. That's
13:00
Speaker 1: way more than the average dog. Um. The cool thing
13:04
Speaker 1: about Canine Assistance is that they the people who get
13:07
Speaker 1: their dogs kidding for free and they actually fly the
13:10
Speaker 1: people there their dogs recipients out to Atlanta to hang
13:15
Speaker 1: out with the dog for two weeks and they pay
13:16
Speaker 1: for everything that pay for air fair um, lodging, food,
13:20
Speaker 1: the whole shebang. Um. And they actually also pay for
13:24
Speaker 1: the dogs veterinary and food bills for the rest of
13:26
Speaker 1: its life. Yeah. That is a great organization. It's a
13:30
Speaker 1: canine assistance out of Alpharetta, Georgia, and they are doing
13:33
Speaker 1: some good in the world. Um. But anyway, there in
13:37
Speaker 1: this article there were two funny well one was terribly ironic,
13:42
Speaker 1: the other was kind of funny. UM. The the the
13:46
Speaker 1: researcher a neurologist who is poo pooing the concept that
13:51
Speaker 1: UM dogs can predict seizures. His name is Dr Gregory Berkley. Barkley,
13:59
Speaker 1: you give me this look, and I was like, I'm
14:00
Speaker 1: missing something here, and he said, and I actually agree
14:03
Speaker 1: with him. He points out that the dogs can't predict
14:05
Speaker 1: seizures UM, but that it's actually responding to an earlier
14:08
Speaker 1: stage of the seizure before the patient is aware that
14:11
Speaker 1: the caesuar is going on. Okay, like an eye movement
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Speaker 1: or dilation, possibly a smell, something that the patient's not
14:18
Speaker 1: aware of. And the big problem with seizures is that
14:21
Speaker 1: if you're driving a car, yeah, and you have a seizure,
14:24
Speaker 1: so long, right, And I know that the ones who
14:28
Speaker 1: are good at this, the dogs are good at this,
14:29
Speaker 1: can predict anywhere. But I mean sometimes it's like thirty seconds,
14:33
Speaker 1: which is enough time to pull a car over. But
14:35
Speaker 1: this one lady said that she gets about a thirty
14:37
Speaker 1: to forty five minute heads up from her her dog,
14:40
Speaker 1: so did MS Johnson. She gets anywhere from twenty to
14:43
Speaker 1: forty minutes. And this this dog that she just got
14:46
Speaker 1: last year named ben Um, he's actually her second. Here's
14:51
Speaker 1: the here's the horribly ironic thing. Um. She had another
14:54
Speaker 1: great seizure dog for twelve years named McKeever, who actually
14:59
Speaker 1: helps through her roughest time. She was having many more
15:03
Speaker 1: seizures I think, uh, I think about ten a week maybe,
15:07
Speaker 1: and it's actually gone down since then. But he was
15:10
Speaker 1: really working over time. She had him for twelve years
15:13
Speaker 1: until two thousand and seven when he died after having
15:16
Speaker 1: his own seizure. Boy, isn't that awful? Yeah, this podcast
15:20
Speaker 1: officially became one that my wife will not listen to.
15:22
Speaker 1: I will steer her away from this. Yeah, dogs having
15:24
Speaker 1: seizures is kind of sad. Yeah, but what an irony is?
15:28
Speaker 1: So it is possible for a dog to uh Again,
15:32
Speaker 1: we shouldn't use the word predict the seizure, and they
15:34
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to be trained, right, Chuck? Aren't some
15:36
Speaker 1: of them just the household pets that are picking up
15:38
Speaker 1: on this just from living around people with epilepsy. Right,
15:41
Speaker 1: And I think they've also decided that it's uh not
15:44
Speaker 1: breed specific either, so it's not I don't think they
15:46
Speaker 1: found any specific breed has been any better than the next. Right,
15:50
Speaker 1: Is that true? Uh? Yeah, I remember. I think it's
15:53
Speaker 1: the impression I have is that it's more exposure to
15:55
Speaker 1: epilepsy than anything else, and looking for signs and queues,
15:59
Speaker 1: and then the second stages learning to not be afraid
16:02
Speaker 1: of what happens when the owner's eyes roll back ahead
16:05
Speaker 1: and they start trembling, and then they alert. They all
16:07
Speaker 1: have their different ways of alerting. Some poet them, some
16:10
Speaker 1: lick their hand. Uh. Some I think walk around in
16:13
Speaker 1: circles or make a close eye contact. So it's pretty cool.
16:17
Speaker 1: They have their different messages they'll send the owner. Yeah
16:20
Speaker 1: you got anything else? No, I don't think so, Josh.
16:23
Speaker 1: I would like to say, UM. One of the things
16:25
Speaker 1: that I have read in researching this was that, UM, people,
16:29
Speaker 1: since it's not proven, and since if it if it
16:33
Speaker 1: does work, if a dog can sense a seizure early
16:36
Speaker 1: on just from being around someone with epilepsy. UM, I
16:40
Speaker 1: read over and over again that people are kind of
16:42
Speaker 1: warned from staying away from um dog breeders or trainers
16:47
Speaker 1: that charge you like twenty grand for a dog UM,
16:50
Speaker 1: especially with with groups like Canine Assistants out there doing
16:54
Speaker 1: lots of good. Yeah, and they can never guarantee to
16:56
Speaker 1: That's the other takeaway I had is that doctors say
16:58
Speaker 1: that this can be you can be a good thing,
17:00
Speaker 1: but it's certainly not a fail safe and you should
17:03
Speaker 1: never like rely on this as your only means of
17:07
Speaker 1: helping yourself out if you have. But at the end,
17:10
Speaker 1: even if the dogs hit and they feel pretty good
17:13
Speaker 1: and they can and they also doctors said, they do
17:15
Speaker 1: provide the companionship and the and all the other good things. Ultimately,
17:19
Speaker 1: you have a dog, and how can you go wrong
17:21
Speaker 1: when you got a dog? Exactly? My dogs the only
17:23
Speaker 1: thing they can predict is five o'clock dinner time. And
17:27
Speaker 1: so where am I? What does that leave me? Um?
17:32
Speaker 1: Feeding the dogs? But feeding the dogs, it's their world
17:35
Speaker 1: and I'm just living in it. If you want to
17:36
Speaker 1: learn more about animals and their sixth senses? How is
17:41
Speaker 1: that type in animals and predict in the search part
17:45
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com? And uh, that leaves us
17:49
Speaker 1: with only one possibility, the possibility that it is time
17:53
Speaker 1: for listener mail. It is Josh. This is part two
18:00
Speaker 1: of high fructose Corn Syrup Replies. Seriously, dude, I'm telling
18:05
Speaker 1: you these For some reason, corn brings out the smarts
18:09
Speaker 1: because these people were awesome and it was not just
18:13
Speaker 1: fluffy like so many fanmail. No, I'm just kidding, Wow, Chuck,
18:17
Speaker 1: just kidding. Uh. This is from when in Los Angeles
18:21
Speaker 1: and when says, uh, he wants to add a little
18:24
Speaker 1: bit about what we said about HFCs. He said, you
18:27
Speaker 1: said it was very cheap, and that's why it's used
18:29
Speaker 1: to such extent. True enough, but you did not mention.
18:32
Speaker 1: And we had a couple of people right in about
18:33
Speaker 1: this is that the price of HFCs has kept artificially
18:37
Speaker 1: low by the policies of the US government. US government
18:40
Speaker 1: has placed a quota on sugar imports to the US
18:43
Speaker 1: in order to protect the domestic sugar producers and sugars.
18:46
Speaker 1: Case are called tariff rate quotas. So that provides for
18:50
Speaker 1: a low tariff on certain quantity which is a quota amount,
18:53
Speaker 1: and a higher tariff on any quantity above that level.
18:56
Speaker 1: So this creates an artificial shortage of sugar that drives
18:59
Speaker 1: up US prices and supports American sugar growers, but it
19:03
Speaker 1: also makes sugar a very expensive product. Just to give
19:05
Speaker 1: you an idea, last year, the price per pound of
19:07
Speaker 1: sugar in the United States was about fifty five cents
19:11
Speaker 1: and the world price was about eighteen cents. Wow. Is
19:14
Speaker 1: that amazing? God, I wish I'd lived in Portugal. Uh.
19:17
Speaker 1: In contrast, Josh HFCs runs about twenty five cents per pound.
19:21
Speaker 1: What So it is no surprise that when President Reagan
19:24
Speaker 1: drastically lowered the quota for sugar in the eighties, driving
19:27
Speaker 1: up the domestic price way way up, the major soft
19:31
Speaker 1: drink maker switch from sugar to high princ dos corn strups.
19:33
Speaker 1: So there you have it, and thank yeah. If the
19:36
Speaker 1: if the sugar market in the US was unrestricted, there
19:39
Speaker 1: will be no economic consented for anyone to use HFCs,
19:43
Speaker 1: and those quotas would be removed from the sugar market.
19:46
Speaker 1: Is uh that they would be removed as pretty much
19:49
Speaker 1: impossible now because there's too much money at stake. So
19:52
Speaker 1: we had other people writing in about this and that's
19:55
Speaker 1: it seems to be. It's going on. Yeah, So thank you.
19:57
Speaker 1: When in Los Angeles you are super fan an awesome
20:02
Speaker 1: field reporter will call you, hey, you know what, we
20:04
Speaker 1: should start saying what we're going to do in the
20:06
Speaker 1: future and let people tell us ahead of time. Then
20:08
Speaker 1: we can work it into the podcast and give him
20:09
Speaker 1: zero credit for it. That's true field reporters. We have
20:12
Speaker 1: field reporters. Yeah, eye reporters. So if you wanted to
20:16
Speaker 1: I report for us, or just say hi or be
20:18
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20:23
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20:29
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20:36
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