Is it the Dogzzzzzz Fault?

This just in from the LA Times:

Pet lovers are going to hate this, but a new study in the journal Respiratory Research found a link between snoring in adulthood and being exposed to a dog as a newborn. It is, the authors say, the first study to examine early childhood environmental exposures and later snoring.

Before dog owners with babies get too upset, remember that the study is from a branch of science called epidemiology. Such observational studies can be grist for future research, but they often turn out to be flat out wrong, as a story by Andreas Von Bubnoff explained last year in the Los Angeles Times.

In fairness, a pet dog is not the only culprit when it comes to noisy sleeping habits in later life. Being hospitalized before age 2 for a respiratory infection and having chronic ear infections as a child were also linked to future snoring.

But relax, Fido. Swedish researchers also found that coming from a large family is another risk for future snoring, and no one is suggesting taking extra siblings to the pound.

We-ell….  I don’t know about that.  Given the option, I may have elected to send one or two of my siblings off to the pound.  And, given the fact that other studieshave shown that being raised in a household with a dog may strengthen one’s immune system, I think I’d elect to be a happy, healthy — snoring — dog lover.

[I had hoped to insert a photo here of my husband napping on the couch with a dog sprawled on top of him.  We’ve got several photos like this, I’m sure I’ve got them with at least three different dogs.  But, in the mess of this remodeling project, I can’t find them.  So – imagine a cute photo here of sweet fellow, zonked out horizontally on a large couch with a 30-130 pound dog stretched out asleep on top of him.]

Mark was raised with dogs and here he is, 40 some years later – snoring away with a canine companion (who is quite possibly sawing logs as well).  Maybe there IS something to that study….