Improving Your Health Through Owning Pets
It’s a well-known fact that owning a pet can be good for companionship, but it can also be good for your health. Having a pet is a good source of companionship, which most of us know, but recent studies have proven that companion animals like dogs can help improve our physical and mental health. Lowered anxiety and stress, lower blood pressure and stable heart rate are three health benefits that pets can give their owners, aside from the more obvious benefits like companionship, and providing their owners a diversion during lazy days and unconditional love and good behavior for the most part. Pets in turn would show love and affection to their owners if said emotions are properly conveyed to the pets.
Elderly pet owners can also benefit from their pets, as younger people such as children and their parents are known to do. According to studies, pets can help elderly people enjoy their lives and stay healthy, allowing them to live longer as well. The American Geriatrics Society published in the May 1999 issue of their journal a study showing that independent-living seniors with pets showed better physical and mental health as compared to similar seniors without any pets for companionship. Pets have indeed helped these seniors stay happy and healthy while generally avoiding everyday tension.
At first, having a pet to take care of sounds like a chore. But it wouldn’t exactly be hard work if you consider that this “work”, which includes feeding, bathing, walking, playing with and grooming your pet, is responsible for increasing the levels of beta-endorphins and serotonin, reducing stress, heart rate and blood pressure and keeping us healthier in the long run. The simple acts of changing a cat’s water or opening the doghouse door for the dog to be let in or out are ways of exercising one’s joints and increasing flexibility, as well as serving as a good cardiovascular workout. These may be minor exercises but they are nonetheless helpful in keeping owners healthy.
The intangible benefits of having a pet cannot be ignored either. As stated, pets offer unconditional love and obedience to their owners, and provide physical contact and constant companionship. Pets can provide an emotional boost to the elderly, as well as those without homes or friends and family to turn to. Pets can provide emotional stability in the instance of a personal crisis. On top of protecting owners from danger, pets offer social protection, particularly to those in old folks’ homes or those with little to no friends or family to turn to in need.
Pets are great in helping the elderly continue with their daily routines and providing comfort in their lives – old folks can wake up in the morning, leave their homes, go grocery shopping or interact with friends with more ease if they are taking care of a pet or pets. Medical conditions such as depression and anxiety can easily be eliminated with the help of a pet.
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