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  1. Health and Nutrition News

  2. Dec 15, 2020

People Share Type 2 Diabetes Risk With Their Dogs

Dogs who live with people with diabetes are more likely to develop diabetes themselves, compared with dogs whose human companions do not have the disease, according to a study published in the BMJ. The reverse is also true. People whose dogs have diabetes are more likely to get the disease themselves. The reason, apparently, is that people tend to pass their eating habits onto their companion animals, putting them at risk for the same diseases that unhealthful foods cause in humans.

References

Delicano RA, Hammar U, Egenvall A, et al. The shared risk of diabetes between dog and cat owners and their pets: Register based cohort study. BMJ. 2020;371:m4337-m4348. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m4337.

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