How your dog improves your health

You know your dog gifts you with lifelong love and loyalty. Dogs seem to know how to comfort us when we’re down and often provide the punch line to an otherwise everyday routine, making us laugh, snap a picture, and share it on Facebook. But there’s also extensive evidence that owning a dog benefits your health in myriad ways:

• Owning a dog lowers your blood pressure. Studies show pet ownership is just as effective in lowering your blood pressure as a low-salt diet. In fact, some studies have even found spikes in blood pressure are better controlled by pet ownership than by ACE-inhibiting drugs.
• Studies show a pet owner’s cholesterol is an average of 2% lower than people without pets.
• A study of Medicare patients showed patients with pets needed care from their doctors 40% less often than those without pets.
• The American Journal of Preventative Medicine has found children with dogs are far more active than children without dogs, and adults with dogs spend twice as much time being active as adults on their own. Additionally, children with dogs are 50% less likely to be obese.
• Studies done in Australia have shown people tend to trust dog owners more than they do those without dogs.
• Wilkes University found that petting your dog for 18 minutes increases secretion of immunoglobulin A (IgA), which helps your body fight off germs.
• There has been great success treating military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by pairing them with dogs. Veterans regain communication skills, relearn how to be assertive without being overly aggressive, and open up emotionally and affectionately. Some vets even say they can finally sleep at night knowing their dog will alert them to strange noises. The success of groups such as Paws for Purple Hearts and Guardian Angels, which pair vets suffering from PTSD with dog, has been quite substantial. Carol Borden, founder of Guardian Angels, has reported receiving countless letters from wives thanking the group for giving them their husbands back.
• Taking a walk with your dog boosts your parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn calms your body.
• The US Department of Health has found having a pet increases your chances of surviving a heart attack. 28% of cardiac patients with pets survive serious heart attacks while only 6% of those without pets survive. Owning a pet lowers your risk of having a heart attack by as much as one-third. Dog owners are also twice as likely to be alive one year after a serious heart attack than patients without dogs. Male dog owners show fewer symptoms of heart disease overall, including lower triglycerides.
• Dog owners handle stress far more easily. Not surprising given the combined medical benefits of pet ownership.
• Autistic children have shown an increased ability to communicate and improved sharing skills when they have a dog in their home. Dogs also provide a calming effect for autistic children, and when they’re allowed to take their service dog along to school, these children experience fewer and sometimes no outbursts whatsoever, and are able to participate more fully in the school day. The presence of a dog also eases interactions for the child, with the dog acting as an intermediary with other children and also adults.
• Colleges and universities, including Harvard Medical School and the Yale School of Law, are utilizing dogs to decrease stress for their students. Some schools use dogs in their counseling centers while others even have therapy dogs available to students for “check out.” Dogs are also sometimes brought into the classroom to reduce stress during tests.
• The University of Missouri-Columbia did a study using the CES-D Depression Scale that showed dogs do alleviate depression in their owners. Women, specifically, benefit most from owning a dog because they are more likely to form close emotional attachments to dogs than men are. Not to say men don’t benefit, because they do, although they are apparently more likely to benefit if they are single. Spending time with your dog also increases serotonin levels, which helps to both prevent and alleviate depression.
• Households with dogs have been proven to offer their inhabitants early resistance to and protection from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the virus causing the common cold. RSV can be fatal in infants and those with weak immune systems, infecting them with pneumonia and bronchiolitis (inflammation of the bronchioles).
• Going for a walk with your dog actually helps you lose weight more effectively than traditional methods. Studies show a range of potential reasons, including the possibility that you walk farther when accompanied by your dog or are more likely to go for a walk altogether when you know your dog needs to get out and move.
• Feelings of loneliness lessen when you have a dog around. Social interaction increases when you own a dog because others are more likely to approach you to ask questions or comment on your dog. One study showed dog owners have three times more social interactions than those without dogs. Research shows nursing home residents reported feelings of loneliness significantly less often when they were visited routinely by dogs rather than when the visits were people without dogs.
• The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology reported children from homes with “furred pets” actually have far fewer problems with allergies and asthma than children from pet-free homes. Among those prevented are dust mites, ragweed, and grass allergies. Children with dogs in their homes have been found to have 31% fewer respiratory infections and 44% fewer ear infections. Stronger immune systems overall were found in children and babies whose families included dogs.
• Dogs help those with disabilities and illnesses requiring rehabilitation. Therapy dogs offer assistance in countless ways, lessening their owner’s dependence on others. The resulting increased independence has both physical and mental benefits.
• Dog owners live longer. A number of studies show that all the above health benefits dog owners receive add up to longer lives.

Clearly our canine companions offer far greater benefits to us than any we can offer in return, try though we may. In addition to improving our health, our dogs give us an even greater gift: unconditional love, and lifelong loyalty. There are endless accounts of dogs risking and even sacrificing their lives for their human family members. No wonder dogs are called man’s (and woman’s) best friend.