Patting more pets lowers risk of allergies

More pets equals fewer allergies.

The more cats and dogs you live with in your younger years, the less likely you are to develop allergies, asthma, hay fever and even eczema.

A group of scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, looked at previous scientific studies and found a direct correlation between owning more pets and having fewer allergies.

One of the studies the team looked at included data from 1029 children, aged 7 and 8. Children who had spent the first 12 months of their lives in a home without pets had an incidence of allergies of 49 per cent.

They found a 43 per cent incidence of allergies in children who lived with one pet in the first 12 months of their lives. That rate fell to 24 per cent for children who lived with three pets.

Two of the children in the study had five pets and neither of them had any allergies.

According to the studies, more exposure to pets means lower rate of allergies and, therefore, more protection.

Scientists concluded there is a "dose-dependent relationship" between having pets and fending off allergies.

Previous studies have also found that children who grow up in farms with livestock are less likely to develop allergies.