A Four-Legged Cure

By HEATHER GRIMSHAW

At a time when healthcare costs are rising, a burgeoning body of research shows that the best medicine for a healthful, long life may be snuggled up at your feet. Or it should be.

Researchers around the world have shown a direct correlation between pet ownership and improved health. From increased survival rates after heart attacks and surgery to reducing stress, depression, and anxiety, pet ownership may not just improve mental and physical health, it may actually extend a person’s life.

While people of all ages benefit from interactions with pets, seniors may see more tangible benefits in recovery times and mitigated feelings of isolation and loneliness. Studies show that pet owning seniors take more walks—and get more from them—and are significantly less dissatisfied with their emotional, social, and physical well being than contemporaries without companion animals.

“Just like sunshine and vitamins, pets are just plain healthy for seniors,” said Ed Kane, PhD, who participates in the Pet Partners Program, a visiting animal program for hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers throughout the nation. “They [pets] are that spark plug to getting out among friends, keeping fit, and just making a senior’s day better,” he added.

A variety of medical studies and the doctors who conduct them tell dramatic turnaround tales of patients who find renewed reasons to live after adopting pets.

“The primary benefit that comes from seniors having pets is that they typically maintain a higher quality of mental health,” said JoAnn Turnbull, marketing director for the Delta Society, a non-profit group in Washington State that runs the Pet Partners Program. From casual conversations that focus on pets to increased exercise and societal interaction, seniors find more satisfaction in lives that include pets, she added.

Across the board, medical professionals are singing the praises of pets, companion animals that experience the same joy that humans do during positive interactions, noted Johannes Odendaal, a South African veterinarian and psychologist.

Although this field of research is relatively new—the first published work dates back to the late 1970s and early ‘80s—some medical professionals have recommended pet therapy—or ownership—as a way to enhance patient health for years.

Edward Creagan, MD, a professor at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, has encouraged oncology patients to get pets for the last 30 years. “Studies suggest that pets can do more than keep you young at heart,” he said during an educational summit called PAWSitive InterAction in Atlanta. “They can help keep your heart—and the rest of you—younger and healthier.”

Creagan’s comments, along with those of several colleagues who participated in roundtable discussions about the role pets play in healthful lives, were published in a white paper titled Think PAWSitive! 2003: Pets and the Aging.

To support his recommendations, Creagan cited studies, which show that pet owners are four times more likely to live a full year after surviving a heart attack than non-owners. In the study cited, 28 percent of the patients without pets died before the one-year mark.

In addition to boosting recovery rates, pet owners may be able to stave off disease, say health experts.

“Pets help buffer the impact of stressful life changes, and stress compromises health,” said Sandra Barker, PhD, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Barker, who laughs at the irony of her name, has detected serious, dramatic shifts in well being when animal-assisted therapy was tested on patients who had not responded to medication. After brief exposure to therapy dogs, patients waiting for electro-convulsive therapy experienced a 37 percent reduction in fear levels. In another study, psychotic episodes of psychiatric patients were cut in half after a half hour with therapy dogs.

Although it may sound too good to be true, medical professionals explain that because pet interactions lower cortisol (stress) levels, the body has more energy for self protection and cell growth. Rebecca Johnson, a PhD and registered nurse, explains that while exposure to pets lowers bad neurochemicals such as cortisol, which can lead to depression and anxiety, it boosts good ones like oxytocin, which produces happiness and relaxation.

“There is a chemical justification for animal-assisted therapy and pet ownership,” added Johnson, who recently completed a dog walking study at the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction in Missouri, and saw benefits on both sides of the leash.

People were motivated to walk dogs for altruistic reasons and, as a result, boosted their exercise levels five-fold, she said. “Dog walking is a lot more rewarding than standing on a treadmill. If treadmills were the answer there wouldn’t be so many of them holding up clothes,” she added.

While dogs seem to provide the greatest number of proven health benefits, a smaller subset of studies show similar gains with cats, fish, and snakes.

“The fact that you can see, touch, hear, and feel pets makes pet-assisted therapy a very attractive intervention,” Johnson said.

While the majority of academic research focuses on hospital patients, health benefits extend to preventive medicine for pet owners at home, say experts.

For the elderly, pets provide motivation for health maintenance as well as companionship. “There is evidence [to suggest that] pets allow seniors to cope better with the loss of a friend or family member,” said the Delta Society’s Turnbull. “By assisting their humans in maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle, pets help prevent many health problems that could have otherwise resulted from having high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels.”

As a result, an increasing number of hospitals and nursing homes utilize pet-assisted therapy for patients, and doctors are recommending that patients adopt pets as a way to stay healthy.

Those people who do not want to commit to owning a pet should consider volunteering at shelters or fostering shelter dogs, say medical professionals. Even limited exposure to pets can improve health and mitigate feelings of loneliness, said Johnson, whose last community dog walking study was titled "Walk A Hound for the Pound."

Her latest study focuses on seniors though she sees value in targeting 50-year-old people as well. “Pre-seniors are important people to reach because we may be able to impact their aging,” Johnson said. “It’s not just that healthier people have pets,” she said. “People with pets feel healthier.”