May 21, 2009 • 20 mins
People have long believed that animals had mysterious powers of prediction. Do animals have a sixth sense? Is there any proof to back this belief up? Explore the fascinating subject of clairoyant animals in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from how Stuff Works dot Com. Join Josh and Chuck,
the guys who bring you Stuff you Should Know, as
they take a trip around the world to help you
get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out the
all new super Stuffed Guide to the Economy from how
(00:22):
Stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast Whoop Whoop. That's the side
of the police. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant's with me.
Boogie Down Productions, Old school rap. That's right, took nice one,
good call. I love it. Yeah. So um, how are
you doing. I'm well, sir, Yeah, I'm doing really well. Chuck. Yeah,
(00:44):
thank you for asking. Thanks. Do it look healthy from
the from the nose up, I've noticed that my base
is becoming increasingly resemblant to a catcher's mit, an old
catcher's met and not a compass, no, like a very
round catchers it a perfectly round catcher man. How about that,
like one of those catchers mits from like the early days.
Maybe my full name could be compass head catcherst it's
(01:07):
a little cumbersome. So, Chuck, have you ever met a cat?
I've got two cats, so you have? Oh yeah, you've
got the Whiz and Lebron. That's pretty close. Actually, I'm
impressed the Wizard and Laurn Lauren. Okay, yeah, I just
added a b right, and I would not name my
cat after Lebron James currently killing the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah,
(01:27):
he's good though, and a good guy here. Yeah. Sure, so, Chuck,
have you ever met a cat that could predict death? No?
But I love this story. It's a good one. Do
you mean the story of Oscar? Yeah? I remember what happened.
Oh really? Oh yeah, I remember reading about it. I've
got to pay more attention. Yeah. My wife and I
share these animal stories with each other, gotcha. Okay, like
(01:48):
Christian the lion who was taken to Kenyan the seventies,
don't think there was not a tear or two shed?
And I agreed Brian Alsehold, especially the one, the version
of it that was put to Aerosmith's Um. I don't
want to uh, don't want to miss a thing. Don't
want to miss a thing? Yes, exactly, nice Chuck, Okay, well.
Back in two thousand seven, the New England Journal of Medicine,
(02:08):
which is not exactly known for its sensational journalism UM
published a story about a cat named Oscar. And Oscar
was a resident at a Rhode Island nursing home, Yeah,
the Steerhouse Nursing and Rehab Center. And basically he was
just a normal cat. Aloof kind of was like, Hey,
you're old and I'm staying away from you. For the
(02:30):
most part. It was a home. It is a home
for people with advanced dementia, and I get the impression
that it has a bit of a hospice vibe to
it here there um so Oscar, as I said, it's
generally aloof except when you're about to die all of
a sudden. If you're laying in bed and Oscar comes
over to you and sits down next to your bed
and starts hanging out with you, you got a couple
(02:52):
of hours left. And uh, Oscar is actually pretty good
at predicting death. Uh, there's at least twenty five cases
where he accurately predicted the death of a person in
the Steer Nursing Home and Josher's there was a rumor
there is a rumor on the internet going around that
Oscar met an untimely death and there was a mysterious
(03:17):
dented bedpan found near his lifeless cat body. Not so,
because we just called. We called the Steer Nursing Home
to find out there were there were It was kind
of vague. There were a couple of reputable news sources
e g. The Savannah Morning News that carried that story,
but they all appeared to be the same. So Chuck
and I, being the internet sluice that we are, just
(03:38):
picked up the phone and did it the old fashioned way,
and we called the nursing home. And Oscar is still
alive and well and in the nursing home, apparently predicting
death as well. Right, although she said that she was
she was looking at Oscar. I wonder if she met
Oscar's stuffed body on the counter of the check in
on that floor. But how hilarious is that that Oscar
would be murdered because patients didn't like him predicting their
(04:01):
deaths anymore. So not true. Oscars alive and well. I
must say when I said my wife and I really
loved the story. We didn't see it as a as
a maccab predictor of death kind of thing. Like Josh Bannett,
we saw it as a comforting thing that an animal provides.
Was trying to comfort these people. So that's the way
I took it. Is it? There are other theories? Okay? Alright,
(04:23):
so Chuck, how could a cat possibly predict death? Right?
They can smell it? Perhaps smelling is probably the likeliest answer. Yes.
You know, when you're sick, like when you have the flu,
you don't smell quite right, you know what I mean?
You smell sick like your breath is messed up, there's
some gunk coming out of your pores. I when I
(04:43):
was sick over the course of the last like eight podcast, UM,
I was waking up with literally my eyelids pasted shut
from gunk that was coming out. And don't think that
didn't smell, pal You want to know more swine flu?
I want to get back to the cats smelling death? Okay,
So smelling is a pretty obvious way. Apparently, as UM
(05:05):
people's organs begin to shut down or fail. Uh that
there's the hypothesis that, um, this would omit certain smells,
certain chemicals that humans cannot smell. What's that called? When
a cell commits suicide. Uh sellicide at auto license r
(05:26):
mortist baby. Um, so okay, the I guess the the
the senses that as these cells begin to cannibalize themselves
and break down and all their contents are at least
it starts to admit a smell that might attract Oscar. Right.
But the cool thing is, as you said, uh, he
it's not like he just goes in points like this,
(05:48):
one's next and then leaves. He hangs out until the
person is dead and then he leaves. Yeah, that's that's
what I took. Is that's the comforting part to me,
and comforting or you know, you wonder if you could
get the cat that lead you've got a second chance
or something not true at all. I wonder if people
have ever tried to bargain with the cat, like, dude,
I'll totally get you more friskies if you just get
(06:08):
out of here, or if one of the people in
the home that didn't like one of the other people
left a little trail of kibble, yeah, just to screw
with the their fellow patient nursing home hygiene. It makes
you wonder, Chuck, is it possible that Oscar the cat
is in fact the Grim Reaper. Uh, he is not Josh.
But that's just one example of what we're talking about,
which is animals having a sixth sense. Oh what a
(06:30):
sixth CeNSE? Well said Chuck. You we already decided that
Chuck was going to say six cents and not me
because I can't say yeah, thanks for the impression of
each other. I have a speech impediment, it turns out. So, uh,
should we talk about dogs next? Well? Yeah, one of
the one of the things that's fascinating about oscars. Cats
(06:51):
aren't They're not they don't do that. They're not empathetic,
they're not supposed to do that. They're not known for
being dogs are right, Um? Dogs tend to be very happy,
loving creatures, and so it would make more sense if
Oscar was a dog. Sure, because dogs there's all kinds
of anecdotal stories, uh about dogs detecting cancer by smelling,
(07:15):
and not just anecdotal. My friend, well, Mr Stack guy,
I happen to have a study right here, you're killing me.
I have a two thousand six study right um, And
I have no idea where it's from, but it seems
a little shaky to me quite too. It's from Science
Daily pal. They don't printice anything. UM. It was a
(07:37):
two thousand six study where they took eight six patients
with cancer with lung cancer and thirty one with breast
cancer and these were confirmed cancer cases. And then they
used a control sample of eighty three healthy people, right,
And they actually took breath samples from these people and
and seal them in special tubes, and then they exposed
(07:57):
them to these dogs. They had dog sniff the different
samples and UM with a eight to seven percent UM accuracy.
Thank you. Uh, these dogs could pick out people with cancer.
Really wow. So clearly there's some smells that we humans
(08:18):
aren't aware of, aren't cognizant of, you know, because we
like to smoke and eat cheeseburgers and things like that. UM,
that that animals can sense, which would explain why you
could detect cancer. And there's another study that showed that
UM dogs could detect bladder cancer in urine. So there
you have that one to thank you, and uh that
(08:40):
you know that makes sense to me because animals certainly
have different hearing capacities than we do. UM. High pitched
sounds like dog whistles, we can't hear humans typically here
between twenty and twenty thousand hurts. And elephants too can
hear between sixteen and twelve thousand, and cattle can go
all the way up to forty thou And so that's
(09:01):
why when animals are said to predict weather and earthquakes
and things like that, that and bear barometric pressure changes.
They pick up on these things when humans don't. So
it's not exactly that they have a sixth sense, but
they used the five senses are more heightened than humans are.
That's interesting that you say cattle can hear better than
anybody else. What was that? Well, because I was reading
(09:23):
in this article it mentions the two four tsunami and
how there were so few animal carcasses found because so
many animals acted strangely and basically headed to higher ground
before the tsunami hit. The animals that they found the
most of her cattle. So maybe they know and they're
just like, I don't have a whole lot to live for,
I'm just gonna let death take me now. Or maybe they,
(09:44):
you know, had a harder time getting out of there
than heading the higher crown. I don't know. Yeah, that's
just one theory. So okay, So Oscar maybe in the
league of his own by predicting death. But yeah, there
there is tons of anecdotal evidence that animals, um especially
dag can sense illness. Right. Um, there was there was
(10:05):
a chihuahua that a woman in England owned. Who um
said that her dog detected a breast cancer. I thought
you're gonna say, taco bell, No awful. It was a
detective breast cancer three different times in her which sucks.
She had breast cancer three different times. Better chihuahua was like,
you got breast cancer? Hunt? Interesting? And uh. There was
(10:26):
a person with a Dalmatian. I don't know where he
or she was from, but um, the dalmatian kept smelling
this freckle on the on the owner's arm and it
turned out skin cancer. Isn't that weird? I believe it? Man?
Why not? Like I always say, why not? I mean,
what do we know as humans? I mean, who knows?
(10:50):
Maybe animals can totally smell these things. Should we go
to epilepsy? I think we should. I think we totally should.
This is something that's it's kind of controversial. Um. One
of the great failings of my opinion of science is
that if it can't readily explain something immediately, then it's
just poop poo's it. But it's looking more and more
like which is a scientific term for discredit. I think, yeah,
(11:12):
poo poo, um, it is looking more and more like
dogs can sense epilepsy. Now, I think one of the
misleading things in these two articles can animals predict death?
And can a dog really predict a seizure is the
use of the word predict. There is no prediction. I
was reading this awesome article on CNN and it was
(11:33):
about a woman named Klie Johnson and she has um
epilepsy and cerebral palsy, so she has a seizure. She
is in trouble. She she wrote, She's in a wheelchair
and she has to wear a helmet all the time
because of this UM. And she actually recently got a
a dog that is a UM seizure sensing dog, epilepsy
(11:57):
trained seizure alert dog. That's what it's called. Yeah um. Now,
there's all sorts of seizure response dogs. This is established fact.
Dogs can be trained to um basically go get help,
bring food or a blanket. UM. Some lay on top
of their owners while they're having caesars to like to
keep um. Yeah, to keep from any kind of uh,
(12:18):
further injury or right. Um. This is different though totally different,
because that's a response. This is an alert. Um. She
has a dog that she got actually chucked from up
the street. In alfred and Georgia, there's a group called
Canine Assistance. Yeah and um. In the last few years
they've trained a hundred seizure dogs. Um. And they actually
(12:40):
this is the cool part. Caesar dogs um tend to
be one of the more expensive dogs, like ten g
twenty grand for a dog to train and keep it
healthy and fed over its lifetime. Right, yes, that's for
the lifetime. Yeah, veterinary care, that kind of think. That's
way more than the average dog. Um. The cool thing
(13:04):
about Canine Assistance is that they the people who get
their dogs kidding for free and they actually fly the
people there their dogs recipients out to Atlanta to hang
out with the dog for two weeks and they pay
for everything that pay for air fair um, lodging, food,
the whole shebang. Um. And they actually also pay for
the dogs veterinary and food bills for the rest of
(13:26):
its life. Yeah. That is a great organization. It's a
canine assistance out of Alpharetta, Georgia, and they are doing
some good in the world. Um. But anyway, there in
this article there were two funny well one was terribly ironic,
the other was kind of funny. UM. The the the
researcher a neurologist who is poo pooing the concept that
(13:51):
UM dogs can predict seizures. His name is Dr Gregory Berkley. Barkley,
you give me this look, and I was like, I'm
missing something here, and he said, and I actually agree
with him. He points out that the dogs can't predict
seizures UM, but that it's actually responding to an earlier
stage of the seizure before the patient is aware that
(14:11):
the caesuar is going on. Okay, like an eye movement
or dilation, possibly a smell, something that the patient's not
aware of. And the big problem with seizures is that
if you're driving a car, yeah, and you have a seizure,
so long, right, And I know that the ones who
are good at this, the dogs are good at this,
can predict anywhere. But I mean sometimes it's like thirty seconds,
(14:33):
which is enough time to pull a car over. But
this one lady said that she gets about a thirty
to forty five minute heads up from her her dog,
so did MS Johnson. She gets anywhere from twenty to
forty minutes. And this this dog that she just got
last year named ben Um, he's actually her second. Here's
the here's the horribly ironic thing. Um. She had another
(14:54):
great seizure dog for twelve years named McKeever, who actually
helps through her roughest time. She was having many more
seizures I think, uh, I think about ten a week maybe,
and it's actually gone down since then. But he was
really working over time. She had him for twelve years
until two thousand and seven when he died after having
(15:16):
his own seizure. Boy, isn't that awful? Yeah, this podcast
officially became one that my wife will not listen to.
I will steer her away from this. Yeah, dogs having
seizures is kind of sad. Yeah, but what an irony is?
So it is possible for a dog to uh Again,
we shouldn't use the word predict the seizure, and they
don't necessarily have to be trained, right, Chuck? Aren't some
of them just the household pets that are picking up
(15:38):
on this just from living around people with epilepsy. Right,
And I think they've also decided that it's uh not
breed specific either, so it's not I don't think they
found any specific breed has been any better than the next. Right,
Is that true? Uh? Yeah, I remember. I think it's
the impression I have is that it's more exposure to
epilepsy than anything else, and looking for signs and queues,
(15:59):
and then the second stages learning to not be afraid
of what happens when the owner's eyes roll back ahead
and they start trembling, and then they alert. They all
have their different ways of alerting. Some poet them, some
lick their hand. Uh. Some I think walk around in
circles or make a close eye contact. So it's pretty cool.
They have their different messages they'll send the owner. Yeah
(16:20):
you got anything else? No, I don't think so, Josh.
I would like to say, UM. One of the things
that I have read in researching this was that, UM, people,
since it's not proven, and since if it if it
does work, if a dog can sense a seizure early
on just from being around someone with epilepsy. UM, I
(16:40):
read over and over again that people are kind of
warned from staying away from um dog breeders or trainers
that charge you like twenty grand for a dog UM,
especially with with groups like Canine Assistants out there doing
lots of good. Yeah, and they can never guarantee to
That's the other takeaway I had is that doctors say
that this can be you can be a good thing,
(17:00):
but it's certainly not a fail safe and you should
never like rely on this as your only means of
helping yourself out if you have. But at the end,
even if the dogs hit and they feel pretty good
and they can and they also doctors said, they do
provide the companionship and the and all the other good things. Ultimately,
you have a dog, and how can you go wrong
(17:21):
when you got a dog? Exactly? My dogs the only
thing they can predict is five o'clock dinner time. And
so where am I? What does that leave me? Um?
Feeding the dogs? But feeding the dogs, it's their world
and I'm just living in it. If you want to
learn more about animals and their sixth senses? How is
that type in animals and predict in the search part
(17:45):
how stuff works dot com? And uh, that leaves us
with only one possibility, the possibility that it is time
for listener mail. It is Josh. This is part two
of high fructose Corn Syrup Replies. Seriously, dude, I'm telling
you these For some reason, corn brings out the smarts
(18:09):
because these people were awesome and it was not just
fluffy like so many fanmail. No, I'm just kidding, Wow, Chuck,
just kidding. Uh. This is from when in Los Angeles
and when says, uh, he wants to add a little
bit about what we said about HFCs. He said, you
said it was very cheap, and that's why it's used
to such extent. True enough, but you did not mention.
(18:32):
And we had a couple of people right in about
this is that the price of HFCs has kept artificially
low by the policies of the US government. US government
has placed a quota on sugar imports to the US
in order to protect the domestic sugar producers and sugars.
Case are called tariff rate quotas. So that provides for
a low tariff on certain quantity which is a quota amount,
(18:53):
and a higher tariff on any quantity above that level.
So this creates an artificial shortage of sugar that drives
up US prices and supports American sugar growers, but it
also makes sugar a very expensive product. Just to give
you an idea, last year, the price per pound of
sugar in the United States was about fifty five cents
and the world price was about eighteen cents. Wow. Is
(19:14):
that amazing? God, I wish I'd lived in Portugal. Uh.
In contrast, Josh HFCs runs about twenty five cents per pound.
What So it is no surprise that when President Reagan
drastically lowered the quota for sugar in the eighties, driving
up the domestic price way way up, the major soft
drink maker switch from sugar to high princ dos corn strups.
So there you have it, and thank yeah. If the
(19:36):
if the sugar market in the US was unrestricted, there
will be no economic consented for anyone to use HFCs,
and those quotas would be removed from the sugar market.
Is uh that they would be removed as pretty much
impossible now because there's too much money at stake. So
we had other people writing in about this and that's
it seems to be. It's going on. Yeah, So thank you.
(19:57):
When in Los Angeles you are super fan an awesome
field reporter will call you, hey, you know what, we
should start saying what we're going to do in the
future and let people tell us ahead of time. Then
we can work it into the podcast and give him
zero credit for it. That's true field reporters. We have
field reporters. Yeah, eye reporters. So if you wanted to
I report for us, or just say hi or be
(20:18):
like what up yo? Send us a an email to
Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
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(20:41):
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from how Stuff Works dot Com. Join Josh and Chuck,
the guys who bring you Stuff you Should Know, as
they take a trip around the world to help you
get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out the
all new super Stuffed Guide to the Economy from how
(00:22):
Stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast Whoop Whoop. That's the side
of the police. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant's with me.
Boogie Down Productions, Old school rap. That's right, took nice one,
good call. I love it. Yeah. So um, how are
you doing. I'm well, sir, Yeah, I'm doing really well. Chuck. Yeah,
(00:44):
thank you for asking. Thanks. Do it look healthy from
the from the nose up, I've noticed that my base
is becoming increasingly resemblant to a catcher's mit, an old
catcher's met and not a compass, no, like a very
round catchers it a perfectly round catcher man. How about that,
like one of those catchers mits from like the early days.
Maybe my full name could be compass head catcherst it's
(01:07):
a little cumbersome. So, Chuck, have you ever met a cat?
I've got two cats, so you have? Oh yeah, you've
got the Whiz and Lebron. That's pretty close. Actually, I'm
impressed the Wizard and Laurn Lauren. Okay, yeah, I just
added a b right, and I would not name my
cat after Lebron James currently killing the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah,
(01:27):
he's good though, and a good guy here. Yeah. Sure, so, Chuck,
have you ever met a cat that could predict death? No?
But I love this story. It's a good one. Do
you mean the story of Oscar? Yeah? I remember what happened.
Oh really? Oh yeah, I remember reading about it. I've
got to pay more attention. Yeah. My wife and I
share these animal stories with each other, gotcha. Okay, like
(01:48):
Christian the lion who was taken to Kenyan the seventies,
don't think there was not a tear or two shed?
And I agreed Brian Alsehold, especially the one, the version
of it that was put to Aerosmith's Um. I don't
want to uh, don't want to miss a thing. Don't
want to miss a thing? Yes, exactly, nice Chuck, Okay, well.
Back in two thousand seven, the New England Journal of Medicine,
(02:08):
which is not exactly known for its sensational journalism UM
published a story about a cat named Oscar. And Oscar
was a resident at a Rhode Island nursing home, Yeah,
the Steerhouse Nursing and Rehab Center. And basically he was
just a normal cat. Aloof kind of was like, Hey,
you're old and I'm staying away from you. For the
(02:30):
most part. It was a home. It is a home
for people with advanced dementia, and I get the impression
that it has a bit of a hospice vibe to
it here there um so Oscar, as I said, it's
generally aloof except when you're about to die all of
a sudden. If you're laying in bed and Oscar comes
over to you and sits down next to your bed
and starts hanging out with you, you got a couple
(02:52):
of hours left. And uh, Oscar is actually pretty good
at predicting death. Uh, there's at least twenty five cases
where he accurately predicted the death of a person in
the Steer Nursing Home and Josher's there was a rumor
there is a rumor on the internet going around that
Oscar met an untimely death and there was a mysterious
(03:17):
dented bedpan found near his lifeless cat body. Not so,
because we just called. We called the Steer Nursing Home
to find out there were there were It was kind
of vague. There were a couple of reputable news sources
e g. The Savannah Morning News that carried that story,
but they all appeared to be the same. So Chuck
and I, being the internet sluice that we are, just
(03:38):
picked up the phone and did it the old fashioned way,
and we called the nursing home. And Oscar is still
alive and well and in the nursing home, apparently predicting
death as well. Right, although she said that she was
she was looking at Oscar. I wonder if she met
Oscar's stuffed body on the counter of the check in
on that floor. But how hilarious is that that Oscar
would be murdered because patients didn't like him predicting their
(04:01):
deaths anymore. So not true. Oscars alive and well. I
must say when I said my wife and I really
loved the story. We didn't see it as a as
a maccab predictor of death kind of thing. Like Josh Bannett,
we saw it as a comforting thing that an animal provides.
Was trying to comfort these people. So that's the way
I took it. Is it? There are other theories? Okay? Alright,
(04:23):
so Chuck, how could a cat possibly predict death? Right?
They can smell it? Perhaps smelling is probably the likeliest answer. Yes.
You know, when you're sick, like when you have the flu,
you don't smell quite right, you know what I mean?
You smell sick like your breath is messed up, there's
some gunk coming out of your pores. I when I
(04:43):
was sick over the course of the last like eight podcast, UM,
I was waking up with literally my eyelids pasted shut
from gunk that was coming out. And don't think that
didn't smell, pal You want to know more swine flu?
I want to get back to the cats smelling death? Okay,
So smelling is a pretty obvious way. Apparently, as UM
(05:05):
people's organs begin to shut down or fail. Uh that
there's the hypothesis that, um, this would omit certain smells,
certain chemicals that humans cannot smell. What's that called? When
a cell commits suicide. Uh sellicide at auto license r
(05:26):
mortist baby. Um, so okay, the I guess the the
the senses that as these cells begin to cannibalize themselves
and break down and all their contents are at least
it starts to admit a smell that might attract Oscar. Right.
But the cool thing is, as you said, uh, he
it's not like he just goes in points like this,
(05:48):
one's next and then leaves. He hangs out until the
person is dead and then he leaves. Yeah, that's that's
what I took. Is that's the comforting part to me,
and comforting or you know, you wonder if you could
get the cat that lead you've got a second chance
or something not true at all. I wonder if people
have ever tried to bargain with the cat, like, dude,
I'll totally get you more friskies if you just get
(06:08):
out of here, or if one of the people in
the home that didn't like one of the other people
left a little trail of kibble, yeah, just to screw
with the their fellow patient nursing home hygiene. It makes
you wonder, Chuck, is it possible that Oscar the cat
is in fact the Grim Reaper. Uh, he is not Josh.
But that's just one example of what we're talking about,
which is animals having a sixth sense. Oh what a
(06:30):
sixth CeNSE? Well said Chuck. You we already decided that
Chuck was going to say six cents and not me
because I can't say yeah, thanks for the impression of
each other. I have a speech impediment, it turns out. So, uh,
should we talk about dogs next? Well? Yeah, one of
the one of the things that's fascinating about oscars. Cats
(06:51):
aren't They're not they don't do that. They're not empathetic,
they're not supposed to do that. They're not known for
being dogs are right, Um? Dogs tend to be very happy,
loving creatures, and so it would make more sense if
Oscar was a dog. Sure, because dogs there's all kinds
of anecdotal stories, uh about dogs detecting cancer by smelling,
(07:15):
and not just anecdotal. My friend, well, Mr Stack guy,
I happen to have a study right here, you're killing me.
I have a two thousand six study right um, And
I have no idea where it's from, but it seems
a little shaky to me quite too. It's from Science
Daily pal. They don't printice anything. UM. It was a
(07:37):
two thousand six study where they took eight six patients
with cancer with lung cancer and thirty one with breast
cancer and these were confirmed cancer cases. And then they
used a control sample of eighty three healthy people, right,
And they actually took breath samples from these people and
and seal them in special tubes, and then they exposed
(07:57):
them to these dogs. They had dog sniff the different
samples and UM with a eight to seven percent UM accuracy.
Thank you. Uh, these dogs could pick out people with cancer.
Really wow. So clearly there's some smells that we humans
(08:18):
aren't aware of, aren't cognizant of, you know, because we
like to smoke and eat cheeseburgers and things like that. UM,
that that animals can sense, which would explain why you
could detect cancer. And there's another study that showed that
UM dogs could detect bladder cancer in urine. So there
you have that one to thank you, and uh that
(08:40):
you know that makes sense to me because animals certainly
have different hearing capacities than we do. UM. High pitched
sounds like dog whistles, we can't hear humans typically here
between twenty and twenty thousand hurts. And elephants too can
hear between sixteen and twelve thousand, and cattle can go
all the way up to forty thou And so that's
(09:01):
why when animals are said to predict weather and earthquakes
and things like that, that and bear barometric pressure changes.
They pick up on these things when humans don't. So
it's not exactly that they have a sixth sense, but
they used the five senses are more heightened than humans are.
That's interesting that you say cattle can hear better than
anybody else. What was that? Well, because I was reading
(09:23):
in this article it mentions the two four tsunami and
how there were so few animal carcasses found because so
many animals acted strangely and basically headed to higher ground
before the tsunami hit. The animals that they found the
most of her cattle. So maybe they know and they're
just like, I don't have a whole lot to live for,
I'm just gonna let death take me now. Or maybe they,
(09:44):
you know, had a harder time getting out of there
than heading the higher crown. I don't know. Yeah, that's
just one theory. So okay, So Oscar maybe in the
league of his own by predicting death. But yeah, there
there is tons of anecdotal evidence that animals, um especially
dag can sense illness. Right. Um, there was there was
(10:05):
a chihuahua that a woman in England owned. Who um
said that her dog detected a breast cancer. I thought
you're gonna say, taco bell, No awful. It was a
detective breast cancer three different times in her which sucks.
She had breast cancer three different times. Better chihuahua was like,
you got breast cancer? Hunt? Interesting? And uh. There was
(10:26):
a person with a Dalmatian. I don't know where he
or she was from, but um, the dalmatian kept smelling
this freckle on the on the owner's arm and it
turned out skin cancer. Isn't that weird? I believe it? Man?
Why not? Like I always say, why not? I mean,
what do we know as humans? I mean, who knows?
(10:50):
Maybe animals can totally smell these things. Should we go
to epilepsy? I think we should. I think we totally should.
This is something that's it's kind of controversial. Um. One
of the great failings of my opinion of science is
that if it can't readily explain something immediately, then it's
just poop poo's it. But it's looking more and more
like which is a scientific term for discredit. I think, yeah,
(11:12):
poo poo, um, it is looking more and more like
dogs can sense epilepsy. Now, I think one of the
misleading things in these two articles can animals predict death?
And can a dog really predict a seizure is the
use of the word predict. There is no prediction. I
was reading this awesome article on CNN and it was
(11:33):
about a woman named Klie Johnson and she has um
epilepsy and cerebral palsy, so she has a seizure. She
is in trouble. She she wrote, She's in a wheelchair
and she has to wear a helmet all the time
because of this UM. And she actually recently got a
a dog that is a UM seizure sensing dog, epilepsy
(11:57):
trained seizure alert dog. That's what it's called. Yeah um. Now,
there's all sorts of seizure response dogs. This is established fact.
Dogs can be trained to um basically go get help,
bring food or a blanket. UM. Some lay on top
of their owners while they're having caesars to like to
keep um. Yeah, to keep from any kind of uh,
(12:18):
further injury or right. Um. This is different though totally different,
because that's a response. This is an alert. Um. She
has a dog that she got actually chucked from up
the street. In alfred and Georgia, there's a group called
Canine Assistance. Yeah and um. In the last few years
they've trained a hundred seizure dogs. Um. And they actually
(12:40):
this is the cool part. Caesar dogs um tend to
be one of the more expensive dogs, like ten g
twenty grand for a dog to train and keep it
healthy and fed over its lifetime. Right, yes, that's for
the lifetime. Yeah, veterinary care, that kind of think. That's
way more than the average dog. Um. The cool thing
(13:04):
about Canine Assistance is that they the people who get
their dogs kidding for free and they actually fly the
people there their dogs recipients out to Atlanta to hang
out with the dog for two weeks and they pay
for everything that pay for air fair um, lodging, food,
the whole shebang. Um. And they actually also pay for
the dogs veterinary and food bills for the rest of
(13:26):
its life. Yeah. That is a great organization. It's a
canine assistance out of Alpharetta, Georgia, and they are doing
some good in the world. Um. But anyway, there in
this article there were two funny well one was terribly ironic,
the other was kind of funny. UM. The the the
researcher a neurologist who is poo pooing the concept that
(13:51):
UM dogs can predict seizures. His name is Dr Gregory Berkley. Barkley,
you give me this look, and I was like, I'm
missing something here, and he said, and I actually agree
with him. He points out that the dogs can't predict
seizures UM, but that it's actually responding to an earlier
stage of the seizure before the patient is aware that
(14:11):
the caesuar is going on. Okay, like an eye movement
or dilation, possibly a smell, something that the patient's not
aware of. And the big problem with seizures is that
if you're driving a car, yeah, and you have a seizure,
so long, right, And I know that the ones who
are good at this, the dogs are good at this,
can predict anywhere. But I mean sometimes it's like thirty seconds,
(14:33):
which is enough time to pull a car over. But
this one lady said that she gets about a thirty
to forty five minute heads up from her her dog,
so did MS Johnson. She gets anywhere from twenty to
forty minutes. And this this dog that she just got
last year named ben Um, he's actually her second. Here's
the here's the horribly ironic thing. Um. She had another
(14:54):
great seizure dog for twelve years named McKeever, who actually
helps through her roughest time. She was having many more
seizures I think, uh, I think about ten a week maybe,
and it's actually gone down since then. But he was
really working over time. She had him for twelve years
until two thousand and seven when he died after having
(15:16):
his own seizure. Boy, isn't that awful? Yeah, this podcast
officially became one that my wife will not listen to.
I will steer her away from this. Yeah, dogs having
seizures is kind of sad. Yeah, but what an irony is?
So it is possible for a dog to uh Again,
we shouldn't use the word predict the seizure, and they
don't necessarily have to be trained, right, Chuck? Aren't some
of them just the household pets that are picking up
(15:38):
on this just from living around people with epilepsy. Right,
And I think they've also decided that it's uh not
breed specific either, so it's not I don't think they
found any specific breed has been any better than the next. Right,
Is that true? Uh? Yeah, I remember. I think it's
the impression I have is that it's more exposure to
epilepsy than anything else, and looking for signs and queues,
(15:59):
and then the second stages learning to not be afraid
of what happens when the owner's eyes roll back ahead
and they start trembling, and then they alert. They all
have their different ways of alerting. Some poet them, some
lick their hand. Uh. Some I think walk around in
circles or make a close eye contact. So it's pretty cool.
They have their different messages they'll send the owner. Yeah
(16:20):
you got anything else? No, I don't think so, Josh.
I would like to say, UM. One of the things
that I have read in researching this was that, UM, people,
since it's not proven, and since if it if it
does work, if a dog can sense a seizure early
on just from being around someone with epilepsy. UM, I
(16:40):
read over and over again that people are kind of
warned from staying away from um dog breeders or trainers
that charge you like twenty grand for a dog UM,
especially with with groups like Canine Assistants out there doing
lots of good. Yeah, and they can never guarantee to
That's the other takeaway I had is that doctors say
that this can be you can be a good thing,
(17:00):
but it's certainly not a fail safe and you should
never like rely on this as your only means of
helping yourself out if you have. But at the end,
even if the dogs hit and they feel pretty good
and they can and they also doctors said, they do
provide the companionship and the and all the other good things. Ultimately,
you have a dog, and how can you go wrong
(17:21):
when you got a dog? Exactly? My dogs the only
thing they can predict is five o'clock dinner time. And
so where am I? What does that leave me? Um?
Feeding the dogs? But feeding the dogs, it's their world
and I'm just living in it. If you want to
learn more about animals and their sixth senses? How is
that type in animals and predict in the search part
(17:45):
how stuff works dot com? And uh, that leaves us
with only one possibility, the possibility that it is time
for listener mail. It is Josh. This is part two
of high fructose Corn Syrup Replies. Seriously, dude, I'm telling
you these For some reason, corn brings out the smarts
(18:09):
because these people were awesome and it was not just
fluffy like so many fanmail. No, I'm just kidding, Wow, Chuck,
just kidding. Uh. This is from when in Los Angeles
and when says, uh, he wants to add a little
bit about what we said about HFCs. He said, you
said it was very cheap, and that's why it's used
to such extent. True enough, but you did not mention.
(18:32):
And we had a couple of people right in about
this is that the price of HFCs has kept artificially
low by the policies of the US government. US government
has placed a quota on sugar imports to the US
in order to protect the domestic sugar producers and sugars.
Case are called tariff rate quotas. So that provides for
a low tariff on certain quantity which is a quota amount,
(18:53):
and a higher tariff on any quantity above that level.
So this creates an artificial shortage of sugar that drives
up US prices and supports American sugar growers, but it
also makes sugar a very expensive product. Just to give
you an idea, last year, the price per pound of
sugar in the United States was about fifty five cents
and the world price was about eighteen cents. Wow. Is
(19:14):
that amazing? God, I wish I'd lived in Portugal. Uh.
In contrast, Josh HFCs runs about twenty five cents per pound.
What So it is no surprise that when President Reagan
drastically lowered the quota for sugar in the eighties, driving
up the domestic price way way up, the major soft
drink maker switch from sugar to high princ dos corn strups.
So there you have it, and thank yeah. If the
(19:36):
if the sugar market in the US was unrestricted, there
will be no economic consented for anyone to use HFCs,
and those quotas would be removed from the sugar market.
Is uh that they would be removed as pretty much
impossible now because there's too much money at stake. So
we had other people writing in about this and that's
it seems to be. It's going on. Yeah, So thank you.
(19:57):
When in Los Angeles you are super fan an awesome
field reporter will call you, hey, you know what, we
should start saying what we're going to do in the
future and let people tell us ahead of time. Then
we can work it into the podcast and give him
zero credit for it. That's true field reporters. We have
field reporters. Yeah, eye reporters. So if you wanted to
I report for us, or just say hi or be
(20:18):
like what up yo? Send us a an email to
Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
stuff works dot com and be sure to check out
this stuff you Should Know blog on the house stuff
works dot com home page. Brought to you by the
(20:41):
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