Dogs: Our faithful companions during good times and bad
Many people say that dogs are their best friends, and scientists have done a lot of research on how they might make us healthier. Today, we’re going to talk about how your friendly dog can help your health in many ways.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says that about 78 million dogs are kept as pets in the United States.
It’s not clear when dogs were first tamed, but a study that came out last year says that it happened in Europe between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.
People and dogs have probably had a special bond of friendship and mutual support since at least the Neolithic era. But why has this bond been around for so long?
Of course, these wolf-related animals have always been great at keeping us and our homes safe by watching over our homes, animals, and things we own. Over the course of history, people have also trained dogs to help them hunt and bred many species with strange looks for their cuteness or beauty.
Also, and this may have always been the case, dogs are very much loved pets that are known for being loyal and always ready to make their owners happy.
In this Spotlight, we talk about the study that shows how our dogs help our health and happiness in many ways. For example, they make us happy, better able to deal with stress, and physically healthier.
Why dogs are good for your health
A lot of studies have shown that having a dog as a pet is good for your health. For example, experts at the University of Harvard in Cambridge, MA, say that people who own dogs have a lower chance of heart disease.
Why does that happen? It’s hard to say for sure that having a dog makes you healthier.
But the benefits may show up because of some changes people make to their lives when they get a dog.
Physical exercise is the most important of these living factors. Yes, if you have a dog, you have to take it for walks at least twice a day, and sometimes even more.
“People feel good when they have dogs.”
Giving off “feel-good vibes” almost quickly is one of the most obvious benefits of sharing your life and home with a dog.
It is hard not to feel better when you come home to a nice dog that is excited to see you, even after a long day at work.
The “love hormone” oxytocin is to blame for this, say experts.
“In the last few decades,” the writers of a review that was published in Frontiers in Psychology write, “the use of animals in therapy, education, and care has grown greatly.”
Our amounts of oxytocin go through the roof when we play with dogs. This chemical “love injection” makes us feel better mentally because it’s the hormone that makes us bond with others.
How studies on dogs can teach us about medicine
When it comes to clinical study about our own health problems, our dogs could also help us find answers and start new lines of inquiry.
A study that MNT reported on earlier this year shows that dogs and their owners both have some metabolism problems, like being overweight.
So, finding out more about the microbiome in dogs’ guts and how their food affects them could help us figure out how to best change the way we eat.
Dogs can get some types of cancer, just like people can. Brain tumours can be just as harmful to humans as they are to dogs, so finding out which genes make dogs more likely to get gliomas could help with cancer studies for people.
Also, a type of cancer in dogs that can spread could help us understand how types of cancer in people have developed.
Pet dogs are not only very loving and often very funny friends whose antics are constantly adding to the Internet’s meme library, but they also keep us in shape. In a sad but cute way, their health problems are often the same as ours..