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LONDON: It’s a research that might
upset dog lovers across the world — kids who grow up with a canine at home are
more likely to be heavy snorers as adults.
Researchers in Sweden
have carried out the study and found that growing up with a pet dog could
increase a child’s chances of being a snorer later in life by almost a quarter,
the British media reported.
According to them, snoring is not just a
potential annoyance — it has been linked to early death, heart disease and
stroke.
“Dogs may increase airborne particles that would encourage
inflammation and thereby alter upper airway anatomy early in life, causing an
increased susceptibility for adult snoring,” said lead researcher Karl Franklin
of University Hospital Ume.
However, India-based doctor SK Dasgupta
has rubbished the claims of the study published in the latest edition of the
‘BMC Respiratory Research’ journal.
“The man’s best friend cannot be
blamed for snoring. It is vibration of respiratory structures, and the resulting
sound is because of obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping.
“The irregular airflow is caused by a blockage and usually either
due to throat weakness, or mispositioned jaw or often caused by tension in the
muscles or fat gathering around the throat or obstruction in nasal passageway,”
he said. But the researchers have claimed that their study was based on an
analysis of 16,000 people in Europe. All of them answered questionnaires about
their early life, family, sleep, smoking habits, height and weight.
One in five were found to be habitual snorers, defined as loud and
disturbing snoring at least three nights a week. The researchers found that the
habitual snorers were those who grew up with a pet dog at home.
The
study found habitual snorers were more often men, more obese, older, had a
higher prevalence of asthma and chronic bronchitis and had smoked more than
non-snorers.
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