The Harvard publication, Get Healthy, Get a Dog, is the first publication to compile hundreds of research studies from around the world that document the physical and psychological benefits of dog ownership. These studies provide the most complete picture yet of the many ways in which dogs enrich human life: from lower cholesterol and improved cardiovascular health to weight loss, companionship, defense against depression and longer lifespans.
“The most common reaction we’ve been getting from people about this report is that they are so grateful that someone has finally put into print what they’ve intuitively known all along,” said medical editor Elizabeth Pegg Frates, MD who supervises the Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group at Harvard Medical School.
“We didn’t want to create the impression that a dog is some kind of tool for achieving better health,” says Lisa Moses, VMD who heads the Pain Management Service at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. “We wanted to emphasize that it’s the relationship that provides these benefits – it’s not the pet. And for that relationship to develop and be sustained, you have to do your part.
Doing your part often means going for walks in the rain, sleet or snow, at all hours of the day and night. In fact, one of the primary health benefits of owning a dog is that it boosts your activity level.
The fact that regular exercise helps people lose weight and get healthy isn’t breaking news. The insights come from the critical role the dog plays as a fitness – partner – offering everything from enthusiastic encouragement to obnoxious pestering. Unlike a human partner, a dog is not going to suggest ducking into a movie.
“Sometimes people find that the dog becomes the excuse for taking care of themselves,” says Moses. “It may not be acceptable to them to be so self-oriented, but if it’s about the dog, then it’s okay.”
The American Heart Association uncovered another interesting fact: a dog appears to help someone who is obese overcome his or her embarrassment about being seen in public doing physical activity.
It’s likely that increased exercise plus the calming effects of dogs contribute to lowering blood pressure. One study actually tested dog ownership as a treatment for high blood pressure. Thirty people with borderline hypertension were randomly assigned to either adopt a dog right away or defer adoption to a later date. After 5 months, the segment of new dog owners experienced significant declines in systolic pressure. The group that had been asked to defer adoption experienced these same declines once they had taken their new dogs home and spent time with them.
A Tufts University study found that kids who’ve forged emotional connections to dogs have more empathy, feel more self assured and do better in social settings. “How else would you get your kids to touch and love something?” asks Dr. Beth Frates, the mother of 2 teenage sons. “For boys especially in this culture, there are very few acceptable ways of encouraging this type of bonding and intimacy.”
Having a dog can be like having your own prescription for oxytocin with unlimited refills – except that rather than dispensing this drug, your dog incites you to release it. Also known as the “love,” “bliss,” and “bonding” hormone, oxytocin inspires positive feelings. It helps stave off depression and limit the release of the stress hormone cortisol.
Dr. Moses hopes readers will follow the report’s suggestions and reap the amazing benefits of dog ownership.
“Dogs are more important now than ever before,” she says. “Because people are living longer and so many live alone and don’t have kids. This is the moment for the human-animal bond.”
Bark
Summer of 2015