Before we chow down on this story, let's note that the study was funded by Nestle Purina, the dog food maker. Company scientists looked at how dogs and their humans interacted during the pandemic, citing previous research that suggested canines can influence their owners' well-being.

In an online survey of 1,500 people, they found that those with dogs reported less depression and stronger social support compared with folks who didn't have a dog ... yet. Anxiety and happiness scores were the same for both groups.

No one, apparently, asked the dogs what they thought, presuming they must be OK-nine.

Glorious Morning

Morning glories are species of a tropical vine whose blooms open only in the morning. Researchers have discovered that the seeds of many morning glory species contain high concentrations of ergot alkaloids that may be useful in treating mental and physical diseases, plus promoting general well-being.

Much research remains to be done, but their influential potential seems huge (i.e., LSD is an ergot alkaloid).

Body of Knowledge

Who knows whether blonds have more fun? They do have more hair. Hair color determines hair density. The average human head has 100,000 hair follicles, each of which is capable of producing 20 individual hairs during a person's lifetime. Blonds average 146,000 follicles, while people with black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. Those with brown hair fit the average with 100,000 follicles, and redheads have the least dense hair, with about 86,000 follicles.

Get Me That, Stat!

COVID-19 vaccines debuted a little over a year ago. The total U.S. death toll due to COVID-19 is approaching 900,000, but it could have been much worse. A new Commonwealth Fund study estimates that vaccination prevented 1.1 million additional deaths and 10.3 million more hospitalizations from the coronavirus.

Counts

4: Times more likely a professional football player is to develop and die from ALS than other men.

Source: JAMA Network Open

Doc Talk

Bolus: a large dose of a drug that is given (usually intravenously) at the beginning of treatment to raise blood-level concentrations to a therapeutic level

Phobia of the Week

Alliumphobia: fear of garlic (hereditary in vampires)

Best Medicine

First worker: "I'm not feeling well, but I've used up all of my sick days."

Second worker: "What are you going to do?"

First worker: "I'm going to call in dead."

Observation

"Our bodies are our gardens; our wills are our gardeners." — William Shakespeare

Medical History

This week in 1976, the first machine for reading printed matter aloud was given its first public demonstration by inventor Raymond Kurzweil. Using a camera with a computer, pages of printed matter could be scanned, the letters analyzed and reproduced in synthesized English speech at 150 words per minute.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "Chemical processes in the deep interior of Uranus."

OK, this is admittedly juvenile humor at best. The title and paper, published in Nature Communications in 2011, are actually quite serious, detailing molecular dynamics inside the solar system's eighth planet from the sun.

Self-Exam

Q: What is the most valuable part of the human body?

A: Arguably the cells on a newborn's foreskin, which possess growth factors allowing them to be grown into all types of skin, useful for grafts for burns, ulcers and open wounds. A single donor foreskin can produce up to 250,000 square feet of new skin tissue.

Epitaphs

"Against his will,

Here lies George Hill,

Who from a cliff

Fell down quite stiff.

When it happen'd is not known,

Therefore not mentioned on this stone." — Headstone of George Hill at St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet, Kent, England. No dates inscribed.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: kim_hester at Pixabay