New Delhi (NVI): Dog is a man’s best friend. Accoding to a new research, a dog does not only prove to be just a good friend but it has also been revealed that dog owners live longer and that breeding a dog can be particularly good for heart patients and people living alone.
Doctor Caroline Kremer at MT Sinai Hospital’s University of Toronto Leadership Sinai Center for Diabetes says that we have studied more than 3 million people and the results that have come out are very important.
Kremer and his team said in their results, “Those people who breed dogs have low blood pressure, their cholesterol levels also remain healthy and their stress is also very less in comparison.”
Kremer also added, “Having any pet at home helps you reduce stress and relieve anxiety, depression and loneliness.” However, there are mixed results in this study.
To investigate this, Kremer’s team researched medical literature data dating back to 1950 and found 10 dog breeding studies. They also traced the health data of a total of 38 lakh people in these 10 studies.
According to the study, the risk of death among dog owners decreased by 24% over the next decade compared to those who did not. At the same time, those who were suffering from a heart attack or heart diseases and had a dog, the risk of death was reduced by 65% by the next decade. The total mortality rate of people who lost their lives due to heart causes was reduced by 31% due to dog breeding.
“The increased physical activity of dog breeders played an important role in the cardiovascular benefits,” Kremer said, adding that a dog needs to be taken out for a walk at least three times a day (it increases the physical activity and our heart gets the benefit).
In another study on the same issue, Tove Fall and his team at Uppsala University, Sweden, examined the health of 1,81,696 people suffering from heart attacks and 1,54,617 people suffering from a stroke between 2001 and 2012. They found in the study that the heart attack patients who had a dog reduced their chances of having a second heart attack by 33%. Besides, people living with a dog, partner or child were found to have a lower risk of up to 15 per cent. At the same time, the risk of the second stroke was reduced by 27 per cent in stroke patients living alone. With this, the risk of repeated strokes among dog owners who did not live alone was reduced by 12 per cent.
“We already know that pets make our lives better but it also improves our heart health. It’s a bit surprising,” said the study’s author.
