Medical and Physical Benefits of Pets

Research studies are now available to demonstrate that pets can and do have very positive effects on various aspects of our health.

Some of the many ways that pets have benefited people medically and emotionally:

Pets can decrease the risk of having a heart attack

Some pets have been known to sense an impending heart attack and warn the victim.

Pets can increase the amount of time heart attack victims live after having a heart attack.

People with pets have been found to have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels, even when compared for weight, diet, and smoking.

Dogs and cats have been shown to decrease the blood pressure of their owners when held and stoked.

Pets present for children help reduce stress related to tense or frightening situations.

Many pet owners get increased physical activity from playing with their pets or walking their dogs.

Persons with pets had fewer medical appointments and minor health problems.

Nursing homes with pet therapy had lower medical cost of caring for patients.

Some dogs can sense the onset of a seizure and are trained to alert their owner.

Parkinson's Disease helper dogs are trained to keep a person from "freezing" or locking up.

Some pets have been known to alert their diabetic owners to an oncoming attack of hypoglycemia, allowing the owner to take or eat something before the problem is serious.

There is one recorded incidence of a pet sniffing out a skin cancer called malignant melanoma because of its scent.

Animals have been shown to help children adjust to the death or loss of a friend or family member.

Grieving adults without close human contact support suffered less depression if they had a pet.

When home alone, owners feel less anxious and more safe with a pet.

Pets reduce everyday stress and help owners relax.  They help draw attention away from problems and worries.

Pets provide physical contact by owners having something to touch.  Increasing numbers of research shows that touch is important to our emotional physical health.

Pets help improve and lift our moods.  They pep us up!

They give us companionship and decrease loneliness.

Pets often give elderly owners a reason for living.

Dogs have been shown to increase the socialization among persons with Alzheimer's disease in nursing homes.

Nursing home residents were more likely to participate if an animal was present.