The Effect Pets Have on Your Health

Owning a pet can add more than happiness to your life--it can also improve your mental and physical health. Numerous studies over the past decade have demonstrated that owning a pet can make a person happier, healthier, more physically fit and calmer than people without a pet.

Blood Pressure & Cholesterol

• Stroking a dog or cat lowers your blood pressure, according to Alan Beck, ScD, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University. The Center for Disease Control promotes pet ownership as a way to lower a person's cholesterol and triglyceride levels--a beneficial affect that may add years to a person's lifespan and help to fight obesity and diabetes.

Mental Health

• Pets make good companions and promote socialization.

  Owning a pet can contribute to a person's good mental health by helping to alleviate loneliness and promoting socialization in public places, such as parks, grooming and pet shops and other places where people with pets congregate.

Exercise

• Walking a dog every day can help improve your circulation.

  Pet owners--particularly dog owners--are more likely to get exercise than people without pets. They are likely to take walks a few times a day and may play active games of catch or chase with their dog. Since a sedentary lifestyle is associated with heart disease, obesity and Type ll diabetes, owning a dog can improve your physical health by encouraging activity.

Healing

• A certified therapy dog can help remove some of the stress of a hospital stay.

  A study by the National Institute of Health demonstrated that people who had recently suffered a heart attack were more likely to live if they had a pet. Hospitals recognize the healing effect of pets on patients and regularly allow "therapy" pets to visit people who are ailing.

Allergies

• Early exposure to pets may help to reduce later allergies.

  Early exposure to pet dander may help to prevent future allergies in children. A 2002 study at the Medical College of Georgia's Section of Allergy and Immunology found that children that were exposed to at least two pets during early childhood were half as likely as children who had no pet exposure to develop common allergies to air fungi, dust mites, ragweed, grass and cats and dogs. Researchers involved in the study believe that an early exposure to endotoxins created an immune response in the children that preconditioned them to a lower incidence of allergic reaction.