The Best Reasons For Being Owned By Pets

Did you know?

Medical research has shown:
· Seniors who own dogs had 21 percent fewer physician contacts than non-dog owners.
· Pet owners have lower blood pressure.
· Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels than non-owners.
· Companionship of pets (particularly dogs) helps children adjust better to serious illness and death of a parent.
· Pet owners feel less afraid of being a victim of crime when walking with a dog or sharing a residence with a dog.
· Pet owners have fewer minor health problems.
· Medication cost dropped from an average of $3.80 per patient to $1.18 per patient per day in new nursing home facilities in New York, Missouri and Texas that had animals and plants as an integral part of the environment.
· Pets decrease feelings of loneliness and isolation.
· Children who own pets score significantly higher on empathy and pro-social orientation scales than non-owners.

Our physiology seems to be set in such a way that when we take time to enjoy nature and include the rest of the living world around us, there is a harmonious health effect. This is especially true of interaction with other animals. Its effect upon reducing human loneliness and social disconnectedness may positively shape our lives and it may even extend them.