Healthy Bytes

4 + 2 (legs) = better health

read time: 228 words, about a minute

Psychologist Dr Deborah Wells of Queens University in Belfast has reviewed numerous research papers about the health benefits of pet ownership.

Her findings to be published in British Journal of Health Psychology:
in general, pet owners are healthier than average…
Lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Further, dog owners tend to be healthier than cat owners, experiencing fewer minor ailments and serious medical issues.

Some of it’s obvious – dog owners walk more.
Some of it may not be obvious to non-dog people – dog owners tend to have more social contact.
I can testify to that. When dog owners are out walking their dogs and meet other dog owners there’s often a social exchange. Additionally, people spontaneously talk to you… or stop and want to pet your dog.

It’s like that with parents. They immediately bond on parenting issues and people spontaneously stop and chat with babies.

I was a bit surprised about the research. Not what they found, but what they didn’t discuss. Perhaps it’s not true, or perhaps no one has looked at it.
And that is: unconditional love. You could be gone for 30 minutes and when you get home, the typical dog greets you like a long lost friend. It never matters what you look like, how good a job you do or what your financial worth is.

Now wouldn’t anybody want a friend like that?

This entry was posted on Sun, 21.Jan.2007 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Lifestyle, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.