Sixth Sense #1: Diseases And Cancers

At times, dogs may pay particular attention to certain parts of your body, and this may be a sign that you’re due for a checkup at the doctor’s. Studies have shown that, through their keen sense of smell, dogs can “predict” a variety of bodily reactions.

For example, the American Urological Association concluded a study where dogs sniffed out prostate cancer with 98% accuracy. Yet another study found that they can, through the smell of a person’s sweat or breath, detect high or low blood sugar levels in diabetic patients.

Dogs have the ability to detect chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. These compounds refer to naturally occurring chemicals, including scents and odors. Humans can sense certain VOCs, but dogs have a greater ability to detect more potent and potentially dangerous VOCs.

Just imagine this: Dogs have a sense of smell that can be 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than a human’s. That means they can pick up scents that are up to 100,000 times weaker than scents detected by humans. To give you more of an image, a dog can smell a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water.