Man's Best Friend, Indeed

An old post from 2005, but stiil relevant.

Researchers have again proved what we already knew – a dog’s a true friend, especially when we’re sick. He can also be a very new friend, as their study showed. And the pup doesn’t have to be one with ‘papers’ – mongrels do just as well.

Over 75 patients hospitalized with heart failure were divided into three groups. The first had well-trained dogs lie on their beds for 12 minutes, where they could be patted and have their ears scratched (the dogs’, that is); the dogs were accompanied by their trainers. The second group of patients was just visited by human volunteers, while the third had no visits.

Anxiety scores in the dog-visited patients dropped an average of 24%, compared with a fall of 10% in the human-visited patients, and a rise of 10% in those with no visitors. Improvements with dog-therapy were also seen in stress hormone (epinephrine) levels, lung small-vessel pressures, and blood pressure readings.

Similar findings have been reported for other conditions, but not in such a well-controlled study. As the main researcher said, “Dogs are a great comfort. They make people happier, calmer, and feel more loved. That is huge when you are scared and not feeling well.”