You’re racing to meet a deadline, dinner is scorched and suddenly your dog piddles on the floor. Coincidence? Maybe not.
A Swedish study of canine pets and their owners found stress in the dogs closely mirrored anxiety levels in their human companions.
The research measured residue of the stress hormone cortisol in hair from the dogs and humans across several months, and checked it against their personality traits.
Dog cortisol levels over time seemed to mirror the stress and personality characteristics of their owners – much more closely than they reflected personalities of the dogs themselves.
Read more about how stress can be contagious across species.
Bonus: Learn what veterinarians think about soothing skittish pets with CBD oil or other marijuana-derived treatments.
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NPR's Health and Media Fellow Mara Gordon is also a doctor – a family physician at a university clinic in Washington, D.C. -- and some of the young patients she treats struggle with obesity.
Gordon cringes at the memory of what happened recently when she tried to bring up a teen’s weight with the girl and her mom during a check-up.
“I still think about the look of shame on my patient's mom's face, as if her daughter's obesity were a personal failing,” Gordon says.
Meanwhile the teen slumped in stony silence, embarrassed and unable to hear any advice as helpful.
Read more about the ways doctors often contribute to obesity’s stigma, and hear the tips Gordon learned that parents can use, too.
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In 2013, a Veterans Affairs hospital in Madison, Wis., turned to poet and therapist Thor Ringler to help its doctors and nurses better connect to their patients.
What was missing from medical records, Ringler realized, wasn’t scientific data. It was each patient’s life story.
"If you were to try to get a sense of someone's life from that record, it might take you days," Ringler says.
So he started interviewing patients – getting salient details about their life history, passions, values, and fears.
The result of his work, and that of other interviewers, is a mini-biography of each patient, now a part of their electronic medical record, along with test results or a list of symptoms.
Read more about how sharing your life story could improve your hospital care.
More of this week’s health stories from NPRWhat you need to know about the new tick in town
Which states have passed early abortion bans?
How insurance plans skimp on mental health coverage
We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.
Your Shots editor,
Deborah Franklin
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