Honoring Your Family Pets

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Pet Benefits

Your pets positively affect your life in ways you may have never known. They provide unconditional love, which is an innate desire we all have. After reading below you’ll see that your pet deserves to be celebrated.

Pets truly are a gift from above.

Take the time to honor your pet. They deserve it.

PETS ARE GOOD FOR US
by Jack L. Stephens, DVM - President, Pets Best

We all know we feel good when we are with our pets. We look forward to coming home and the exuberant greeting we receive from our pets. But did you know that the feeling you have is biologically wired into your chemistry?

Scientific studies are now demonstrating conclusively that pets have positive effects on us by altering our hormones, neurotransmitters and other chemicals that not only make us feel better, but lower stress and improve our health -- such as decreasing our blood pressure, among other things.

Studies have shown that a quiet interaction of sitting and petting a dog -- even a strange dog -- lowers our blood pressure, decreases our cortisol levels (the stress hormone), increases oxytocin (the happy hormone), increases prolactin (the bonding hormone), increases endorphin (the warm feeling or high feeling hormone), increases phenylethylamine (the attention hormone), increases dopamine and epinephrine (nerve transmitters) and increases serotonin (the chemical involved in preventing depression).

You may not have heard of all these chemicals, and probably haven't heard them used in reference to you and your pets. As a pet lover, you just know you feel better when you are around your pets. Now you know why.

For full article visit: www.spca.com/petcare/item/57

BENEFITS OF PET OWNERSHIP
Did you know that living with a pet is good for you?

Consider these facts:

•Pet owners have lower blood pressure and lower cholesteral levels and in general, this puts them at a reduced risk for heart disease.

•Pet owners report fewer headaches, fewer bouts of indigestion and less difficulty sleeping.

•Dog owners in particular, exercise more though you can certainly get exercise playing with an energetic cat or kitten.

•Pets help safeguard against depression or loneliness.

•Pets actually help improve social skills.

•For children, owing a pet improves their self esteem - someone who loves them unconditionally and wants their undivided attention.

•Pets reduce the number of visits to a doctor by elderly patients.

•Pets help to ease loss. An older person whose spouse has died is less likely to experience deterioration in health if he or she is attached to a pet.

•Your pet may just get you into heaven.

For full article visit: www.secondchanceforanimals.org/benefits_of_pet_ownership.htm

PETS AND THE ELDERLY: A GOOD MIX!
Prepared by Kent Burtner for Washington County Department of Aging and Veterans Services, February, 2000.

According to recent studies older citizens experience some remarkable benefits from owning or being around pets. Among the most surprising data: heart attack patients who owned pets were found to be ten times more likely to survive beyond the first year than non-owners.

In another study, elderly people who owned pets suffered far less deterioration over a one year period than non-owners did. But the best news is that older people are generally happier and continue to function better in their daily lives when they have a pet.

Among over 1,000 independently living elderly Canadians studied last year, the 286 people who owned either a cat or a dog were "more physically active than non-pet owners." They also continued to function better in their ability to carry out the normal activities of daily living.

The study's author, Dr. Parminder Raina, suggested that pet ownership "may provide older people with a sense of purpose and responsibility and encourage them to be less apathetic and more active in day-to-day activities."

Even regular visits with pets can be beneficial. Researchers from Mercy College, Diane Granville and Ira Perelle, studied the effects of regular visits with pets in a nursing home environment. Six dogs, cats and a rabbit were brought by volunteers to visit patients each week for six months. Not surprisingly, as the patients got used to the animals they also became more connected with each other.

For full article: visit www.co.washington.or.us/deptmts/aging/news/eld_pets.htm

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