How your pet helps your health: cuddling with Kitty or playing with Fido can help lower your risk of disease - Healthy by Choice - includes facts on safety

Vegetarian Times, Feb, 1995 by Nancy Monson

BE IT THE SOFT NUZZLE of a dog, the gentle purr of a cat or the tranquility of fish swimming around in their little world, pet owners get great enjoyment out of companions who are always there for them. The next time you're nestled on the couch as your pet sleeps in the corner, you can feel good knowing that not only do you have a devoted friend, but that mounting research shows that interacting with animals can improve your overall physical and mental health.

We are all familiar with seeing-eye dogs, but there also are dogs who "hear" for their deaf owners. For people who have cerebral palsy, there are dogs trained to help them keep their balance. Such animals offer physically challenged owners independence, mobility and a lift in spirits that many traditional therapies cannot provide.

Since the 1970s, researchers have made numerous discoveries regarding how humans (whether physically challenged or not) benefit from animal companions. Many of the preliminary studies of the healthenhancing effects of pets were conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine by Alan Beck, Sc.D., then director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society, and Aaron Katcher, M.D., a psychiatric researcher.

In one early study, Beck and Katcher monitored the blood pressure of several individuals while they talked with a researcher and then, a few minutes later, when a dog was brought into the room. "Blood pressure rose when the subjects talked to other people because [the subjects] were anxious, alert and worried about saying the wrong thing," says Beck, who is now with the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in West Lafayette, Ind. Blood pressure fell, however, when the subjects talked to or petted a dog while speaking with the researcher. More substantial health benefits were uncovered in a landmark study by Katcher and others published in 1980 in Public Health Reports. The study of 92 men (some with families, some without) showed that the social support offered by pets may increase the survival rate of patients during the first year after a heart attack. Deaths among people with pets was one-third that of those who did not own pets. "Only three out of 53 patients with pets [under 6 percent] died, whereas 11 out of 39 patients without pets [or more than 28 percent] died," Katcher says.

A larger, more recent study of 8,000 people published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1992 found that pet owners have a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease compared with non-pet owners: They have lower blood pressure, plasma cholesterol and triglycerides, and are more physically active. Ironically, the pet owners in this study ate more fast food and meat than did non-owners, indicating that having a pet doesn't necessarily spur people to alter heart-risky behaviors, but actually exerts some other, more subtle influence. One explanation: "People physiologically relax around pets," says Beck.

According to Katcher and Beck, who together wrote Between People and Pets (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1983), there are two primary mechanisms by which interacting with a pet helps people. Mechanism A is that pets draw a person's attention outward and stop "destructive rumination." A 1984 University of Pennsylvania study found that watching tropical fish in an aquarium is as effective as hypnosis in relieving anxiety in people about to undergo dental surgery. By focusing on the fish, the patients turn their attention away from the impending surgery, substantially relieving their pre-treatment fears, says Beck.

Another study by University of Minnesota researchers conducted in 1986 suggests that the presence of gerbils, finches and/or fish in the waiting rooms of family physicians helps calm children who are anxious about seeing a doctor.

Mechanism B is that a pet and its owner form a society unto themselves, which makes that person more socially attractive to other people. This can have a positive effect on a person's confidence, often drawing out those who were formerly shy. This is demonstrated by the fact that people rate photos of men and women with pets higher than those of people without pets.

There are still more ways pets benefit humans. For people who need exercise--and who among us doesn't--caring for a dog offers an excellent incentive for daily walking or running outings. A British study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1991, found that dog owners took more frequent and longer walks and had fewer minor health problems over a 10-month period than did non-dog owners.

Pets also make people feel safe, says Beck. "We use them for cues to safety or danger. When you walk into your house and your dog is behaving normally, you don't worry--or even think about the possibility--that there's something amiss. But if the dog is acting strangely, you become suspicious," he says. And while humans judge you and can hurt you with their words or actions, animals offer unconditional love and, by their interest in you, can validate your worth as a person.