Stuff You Should Know - Do animals have a sixth sense?

Episode Date: May 21, 2009

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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Wanderers, welcome. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.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-turvy economy. Check out the all-new Super Stuff Guide to the economy from HowStuffWorks.com, available now exclusively on iTunes. Hey and welcome to the podcast. Whoop, whoop, that's the sound of the police. I'm Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant's with me. Boogie Down Productions, old-school rap. That's right, you're a nice one. Good call. I love it. Yeah, so how you doing? I'm well, sir. Yeah? You? I'm doing really well, Chuck. Yeah,

thank you for asking. Thanks. Do I look healthy? Yeah, from the nose up. I've noticed that my face is becoming increasingly resembling to a catcher's mitt, an old catcher's mitt. And not a compass. No, like a very round catcher's mitt. A perfectly round catcher's mitt. How about that? Like one of those catcher's mitts from like the early days. Maybe my full name could be Compass Head Catcher's Mitt. It's 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 Wiz and LeBron. That's pretty close, actually. I'm impressed. The Wizard and LeBron. LeBron. Okay, yeah, I just added a B. Right, and I would not name my cat after LeBron James. Why? Because he's currently killing the Atlanta

Hawks. Yeah, 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. You mean the story of Oscar? Yeah, I remember when it 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 Christian the Lion, who was taken to Kenya in the 70s. I don't think there was not a tear or two shed. Agreed. And the Bryant household. Especially the one, the version of it that was put to Aerosmith's. Yeah, I don't want to, don't want to miss a thing. Don't want to miss a thing. Yes, exactly. Nice, Chuck. Okay, well, back in 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine,

which is not exactly known for its sensational journalism, published a story about a cat named Oscar. Yes. 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 most part. Right. 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 or there. So Oscar, as I said, is generally aloof except when you're about to die. Right. 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 hours left. Yeah. And Oscar is actually

pretty good at predicting death. Yes. There's at least 25 cases where he accurately predicted the death of a person in the Steer Nursing Home. Right. In Josh'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 dented bedpan found near his lifeless cat body. Not so, because we just called. We called the Steer Nursing Home to find out. 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. Right. So Chuck and I, being the internet sleuths that we are, just 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 deaths anymore? So not true. Oscar's alive. And what I must say, when I said my wife and I really love this story, we didn't see it as a macabre predictor of death kind of thing like Josh Payne. 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? Yeah. There are other theories. Okay. All right. 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? Yeah. You smell sick. That's gross. Like your breath is messed up. Yeah. There's some gunk coming out of your pores. Yeah. When I was sick over the course of the last like 80 podcasts, 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. Ah. You want to know more? No. Swine flu. I want to get back to the cat smelling death. Okay. So smelling is a pretty obvious way. Apparently, as people's organs begin to shut down or fail, there's the hypothesis that this would emit certain smells. Right. Certain chemicals

that humans cannot smell. What's that called when a cell commits suicide? Celicide? Autolysis. Autolysis. Rigor mortis, baby. So, okay. I guess the senses that as these cells begin to cannibalize themselves and break down and all their contents are released, it starts to emit a smell that might attract Oscar, right? Right. But the cool thing is, as you said, it's not like he just goes in points like this one's next and then leaves. He hangs out until the person is dead and then he leaves. Yeah. That's what I took. That's the comforting part to me. Yeah. Comforting or, you know, you wonder if you could get the cat to leave. Maybe you 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 out of here. Right. 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 their fellow patient. Nursing home hygiene. It makes you wonder, Chuck, is it possible that Oscar the cat is in fact the grim reaper? He is not, Josh. Okay. But that's just one example of what we're talking about, which is animals having a six cents. A what? A six cents. Well said, Chuck. Thank you. We already decided that Chuck was going to say six cents and not me because I can't say six cents. Yeah. Thanks for the impression of each other. I have a speech impediment. It turns out. So should we talk about dogs next? Well, yeah.

One of the, one of the things that's fascinating about Oscars, cats aren't, they're not, they don't do that. They're not empathetic. They're not supposed to do that. Yeah. They're not known for being empathetic. Right. Dogs are, right? Dogs tend to be very happy loving creatures. Right. And so it would make more sense if Oscar was a dog. Sure. Because dogs, there's all kinds of anecdotal stories about dogs detecting cancer by smelling and not just anecdotal, my friend. Well, Mr. Stack guy, I happen to have a study right here. Oh, you're killing me. I have a 2006 study, right? And I have no idea where it's from. But seems a little shaky to me. Quite you. It's from Science Daily, pal. Okay. They don't print just anything. That's true. It was a 2006 study

where they took 86 patients with cancer, 55 with lung cancer and 31 with breast cancer. And these were confirmed cancer cases. And then they used a control sample of 83 healthy people. Right. And they actually took breath samples from these people and sealed them in special tubes. And then they exposed them to these dogs. They had dogs sniff the different samples. And with a 88 to 97% accuracy. Thank you. These dogs could pick out people with cancer. Really? Yep. Wow. So clearly there's some smells that we humans aren't aware of aren't cognizant of. Right. You know, because we like to smoke and eat cheeseburgers and things like that. Sure. That the animals can sense, which would explain why you could detect cancer. And there's another study that showed that dogs

could detect bladder cancer in urine. Yes. So there you have that one too. Thank you. And you know, that makes sense to me because animals certainly have different hearing capacities than we do. High pitch sounds like dog whistles. We can't hear humans typically here between 20 and 20,000 Hertz. And elephants, though, can hear between 16 and 12,000. And cattle can go all the way up to 40,000. So that's why when animals are said to predict weather and earthquakes and things like that, that and 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 use the five senses are more heightened than humans are. That's interesting that you say cattle can hear better than anybody

else. Why is that? Well, because I was reading in this article, it mentions the 2004 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 animal that they found the most of are cattle. So maybe they know and are just like, I don't have a whole lot to live for. I'm just going to let death take me now. Or maybe they had a harder time getting out of there than heading to higher ground. I don't know. That's just one theory. So Oscar may be in a league of his own by predicting death, but yeah, there is tons of anecdotal evidence that animals, especially dogs, can sense illness, right? Right. There was a

chihuahua that a woman in England owned who said that her dog detected breast cancer. I thought you were going to say Taco Bell. No, awful. It was. For people who love food, there's no place on earth quite like Mississippi. We're a melting pot of culinary talent blends the flavors of yesterday and today. Sweet, savory, spicy and smoky flavors that'll satisfy your spirits wherever you choose to wander. Plan your next dining adventure and visit Mississippi.org slash dining, Mississippi. Wanderers welcome. I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild present Bridgewater season two. A lot of people now actually believe that there is some kind of mystical force in this region that attracts

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Really? Which sucks. She had breast cancer three different times. Yeah. But her chihuahua was like, you got breast cancer, huh? Interesting. And there was a person with a Dalmatian. I don't know where he or she was from, but the Dalmatian kept smelling this freckle on the owner's arm. And it turned out skin cancer. Wow. 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? 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. One of the great failings in my opinion of science is that if it can't readily explain something immediately, then it's just it poo-poo's it.

Yeah. And but it's looking more and more like... Which is the scientific term for discredit, I think. Yeah. Poop-poo. Poop-poo. Sorry. 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 the seizure, is the use of the word predict. Right. There is no prediction. I was reading this awesome article on CNN and it was about a woman named Kalise Johnson and she has epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Okay. So, she has a seizure. She is in trouble. Right. She's in a wheelchair and she has to wear a helmet all the time because of this. And she actually recently got a dog that is a seizure sensing dog. Right. Epilepsy

trained. Seizure alert dog. That's what it's called. Yeah. Now, there's all sorts of seizure response dogs. This is established fact. Right. Dogs can be trained to basically go get help. Right. Bring food or a blanket. Some lay on top of their owners while they're having seizures to like to keep, yeah, to keep from any kind of further injury or something like that. Right. This is different though. Totally different. Yes. Because that's a response. Right. This is an alert. She has a dog that she got actually chuck from up the street in Alfreda, Georgia. There's a group called Canine Assistance. Really? Yeah. And in the last few years, they've trained 100 seizure dogs. Wow. And they actually, this is the cool part. Seizure dogs tend to be one of the more

expensive dogs. Oh yeah. Like 10 grand. 20. Really? 20 grand for a dog to train and keep it healthy and fed over its lifetime. Wow. Right. That's a lot of money. Yes. Oh, that's for the lifetime. Yeah. Veterinary care, that kind of thing. Gotcha. That's way more than the average dog. Yeah. Yeah. The cool thing about Canine Assistance is that they, the people who get their dogs get them for free. And they actually fly the people, their dog's recipients out to Atlanta to hang out with the dog for two weeks and they pay for everything. Wow. They pay for airfare, lodging, food, the whole shebang. Awesome. And they actually also pay for the dog's veterinary and food bills for the rest of its life. Really? Yeah. That is a great organization. Say their name again.

Great. It's Canine Assistance out of Alpharetta, Georgia. That's awesome. And they are doing some good in the world. But anyway, in this article, there were two funny, well, one was terribly ironic. The other was kind of funny. The researcher, a neurologist, who was poo-pooing the concept that dogs can predict seizures. His name is Dr. Gregory Barkley. Barkley. Gotcha. You gave 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, but that it's actually responding to an earlier stage of the seizure. Right. Before the patient is aware that the seizure is going on. Okay. Like an eye movement? Eye dilation. Possibly a smell. Something that the patient is not aware

of. Right. And the big problem with seizures is that if you're driving a car and you have a seizure, you're so long. Right. And I know that the ones who are good at this, the dogs who are good at this can predict anywhere. I mean, sometimes it's like 30 seconds, which is enough time to pull a car over. But this one lady said that she gets about a 30 to 45 minute heads up from her dog. So did Ms. Johnson. I think she gets anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. And this dog that she just got last year named Ben, he's actually her second. Here's the horribly ironic thing. She had another great seizure dog for 12 years named McKeever, who actually helped her through her roughest time. She was having many more seizures. I think, I think about 10 a week, maybe. And it's actually gone

down since then. But he was really working overtime. Right. She had him for 12 years until 2007, when he died after having his own seizure. Oh 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. That is sad. Yeah. But what an irony there. So it is possible for a dog to, again, we shouldn't use it. We're predicted seizure and they don't necessarily have to be trained. Right. Chuck, aren't some of them just household pets that are picking up on this just from living around people with epilepsy? Right. And I think they've also decided that it's 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? Yeah. No, I remember reading that. I think it's, the impression I have is that it's more exposure to epilepsy than anything else and looking for signs and cues. Right. And then the second stage is learning to not be afraid of what happens when the owners' eyes roll back and they start trembling. And then they alert. They all have the different ways of alerting. Some paw at them. Some lick their hand. Some, I think, walk around in circles or make close eye contact. So it's pretty cool. They have their different messages. They'll send the owner. Yeah. You got anything else? No, I don't think so, Josh. I would like to say one of the things I have read in researching this was that people, since it's not proven and since if it

does work, if a dog can sense a seizure early on, just from being around someone with epilepsy, I read over and over again that people are kind of warned from staying away from dog breeders or trainers that charge you like 20 grand for a dog, especially with groups like K9 Assistance 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 know, can be a good thing, 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 a seizure. Sure. But at the end, even if the dog's hitting 50%, it's still pretty good. Right. And they also doctors say they do provide the companionship and all the other

good things. Ultimately, you have a dog. And how can you go wrong when you got a dog? Exactly. My dogs, the only thing they can predict is five o'clock dinner time. Yeah. And so where am I? Why? What does that leave me feeding the dogs? But yeah, 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 six cents, type in animals and predict in the search bar, how stuff works.com. And 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. Okay.

Because these people were awesome. And it was not just fluff. Okay. Like so many fan mail. No, I'm just kidding. Wow, Chuck. Just kidding. Yeah. This is from Wynn in Los Angeles. And Wynn says 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, and we had a couple of people writing about this, is that the price of HFCS is kept artificially low by the policies of the US government. The US government has placed a quota on sugar imports to the US in order to protect the domestic sugar producers. In sugar's case, they're called tariff rate quotas. So that provides for a low tariff on certain quantity, which is a quota

amount, 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 55 cents. And the world price was about 18 cents. Wow. Isn't that amazing? God, I wish I lived in Portugal. Right. In contrast, Josh, HFCS runs about 25 cents per pound. What? So it is no surprise that when President Reagan drastically lowered the quota for sugar in the 80s, driving up the domestic price way, way up, the major soft drink makers switched from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. So there you had it.

Thank you, Gipper. Yeah. If the sugar market in the US was unrestricted, there would be no economic incentive for anyone to use HFCS. And those quotas would be removed from the sugar market is that they would be removed is pretty much impossible now because there's too much money at stake. So we had other people writing about this, and that seems to be what's going on. That's fascinating. Yeah. So thank you, Wynn in Los Angeles. You are a super fan and awesome field reporter. We'll call you. Yeah. 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 them zero credit for it. That's true. Field reporters. We have field reporters.

Yeah. Eye reporters. Eye reporters. So if you wanted to eye report for us or just say hi or be like, what up, yo? Send us an email to stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. And be sure to check out the stuff you should know blog on the howstuffworks.com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? For people who love food, there's no place on earth quite like Mississippi, where a melting pot of culinary talent blends the flavors of yesterday and today. Sweet, savory, spicy and smoky flavors that'll satisfy your spirits wherever you choose to wander.

Plan your next dining adventure at visitmississippi.org slash dining. Mississippi. Wanderers, welcome. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders. The detective agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot, would claim he did it all for this CIA. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.