Health news: Washing your dog’s bowl can affect your health, US life expectancy drops, and more

How we feed our pets, store their food and wash their dishes can have negative health consequences if not done properly — for both humans and animals.

There have been multiple outbreaks of illnesses among humans after exposure to E. coli- and salmonella-contaminated dog food, which has been more likely in commercial and homemade raw food diets. These diets typically involve the need to prep pets’ foods in the kitchen, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.

Rhesus monkeys have a sense of when their own hearts are beating, according to new research.

Sensing one’s own physiological states – like your heartbeat, breathing or blushing cheeks – is called interoception. Some previous research has shown that animals can be trained to do tasks that demonstrate this ability. Decades ago, a team of scientists showed rhesus monkeys could be trained to increase and decrease their heart rates. But an open question has been whether monkeys have an unlearned ability to sense their bodily signals rather than being taught to do so.

Certain personality traits may be a key factor in whether people develop mild cognitive impairment later in life, a new study found.

Being more conscientious and extroverted keeps mild cognitive impairment at bay longer, while having higher levels of neuroticism increases the chances of cognitive decline, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

“Personality traits reflect relatively enduring patterns of thinking and behaving, which may cumulatively affect engagement in healthy and unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns across the lifespan,” lead author Tomiko Yoneda said.

Life expectancy in the United States took another hit in 2021, furthering a dramatic decline from 2020 that was the largest since World War II, according to a new report.

The study — published Thursday on the preprint server medRxiv, which means it has not been peer-reviewed — found that after falling nearly 1.9 years in 2020, life expectancy in the US decreased another 0.4 years in 2021 as Covid-19 continued to spread.