Dog-owners 'lead healthier lives'

[IceyBlueSibes]

Dog-owners 'lead healthier lives'
BBC News

If you want to live a healthier life get a dog, research suggests.


The companionship offered by many pets is thought to be good for you, but the benefits of owning a dog outstrip those of cat owners, the study says.

A psychologist from Queen's University, Belfast, said dog owners tended to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Writing in the British Journal of Health Psychology, she says that regular 'walkies' may partly explain the difference.
Dr Deborah Wells reviewed dozens of earlier research papers which looked at the health benefits of pet ownership.


She confirmed that pet owners tended in general to be healthier than the average member of the population.

However, her research suggested that dog ownership produced more positive influence than cat ownership.

As well as lower blood pressure and cholesterol, she said dog-owners suffered fewer minor ailments and serious medical problems.

There was also the suggestion that dogs could aid recovery from serious illnesses such as heart attacks, and act as 'early warning' to detect an approaching epileptic seizure.

Stress-busting

Dr Wells said the precise reason for the benefits was not totally clear.

"It is possible that dogs can directly promote our well-being by buffering us from stress, one of the major risk factors associated with ill-health.

"The ownership of a dog can also lead to increases in physical activity and facilitate the development of social contacts, which may enhance both physiological and psychological human health in a more indirect manner."

Dr June McNicholas, a health psychologist who has specialised on research into the health effects of pet ownership said that an important reason for the improved health of dog-owners was not just the exercise received while taking it for walks, but the opportunity for social contact with other dog-owners.

She said: "For older people, an animal can fulfil the 'need to be needed', perhaps after children have left home.
"In some cases, the social support offered by an animal is greater than the support than another human could offer."

[rmci]

I agree. Having any pet around is a benefit but having a dog (or two) can make you get off your but and go for a walk

[Beryl]

ITA w/this. My Dad didn't decline in health until after our Dinky died.

Having my dogs around keeps me balanced on my job even when I'm having to make decisions that I'd prefer not to make -- like moving work off-shore.

[LoveMySiberian]

I completely agree. I was completely deprived of having a dog until right before I turned 19 years old. And it wasn't even a mutual thing, I "fostered" Taz until my dad was vulnerable and started to really like him and sprung it on him to let me keep him. Anyway, I suffer from depression, and I have since I was about 7 or 8 years old. My grandma always told my dad to let me have a dog. I've always been dog crazy and grandma told dad "she NEEDS a dog". I can tell you, ever since I got Taz over a year ago, he has changed me for the better. I am a much happier person now, happier than I've ever been. Around the time when I first got him, I was really stressing about a lot of things, don't know how I would have made it without him!