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Health & Fitness

Animal Instincts: Pet Therapy's Good for You

The growing field of pet and animal-assisted therapy is boosting wellness for those who need it most: the elderly, hospitalized, and those needing at-home care.

Dogs, cats, birds, fish, horses and even a therapeutic, interactive robot named Paro that looks like a fluffy seal can transform your well-being by simply spending time with you to:

 

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· Reduce depression, irritability and agitation, while increasing social engagement, which has happened to people with Alzheimer’s and dementia who groom, play with and walk pets. The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston finds this also fosters greater physical activity, appetite, laughter, smiles and attempts to communicate.

· Ease anxiety. A two-year study by Alberta Health shows fewer panic attacks in 80 percent of people given dog companions.

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· Manage pain, as found in a 2010 report on cancer visitation therapy by The Gale Group, Inc., where cancer patients were visited weekly by dogs.

· Lower hypertension and heart attacks, as noted in a 2005 study at UCLA Medical Center.

· Foster healing after surgery and invasive medical procedures, proven by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which in 2002 introduced Dr. Jack, a miniature pinscher as its first facility-based service dog.

· Decrease sleeplessness, suicidal thoughts and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Eighty-two percent of PTSD sufferers, otherwise treated with medication, experienced reduced symptoms within one month, a 2011 U.S. Army study found with the Psychiatric Service Dog Society.

·  Create more happiness and comfort by increasing levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin. Petting a dog, cat or rabbit for 15-30 minutes also increased stress-beating hormones in a study by the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Center for the Study of Animal Wellness.

 

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