Health Benefits of Living with Cats and Dogs

I read on WebMB, 27 reasons why, on average, pet owners are more healthy and live longer. There are the obvious health benefit of walking the dog every day. In general, the calming effect of interacting with your pets play a major role in lowering your blood pressure and improving your mood. I can vouched for the sense of well-being that comes from observing our pets since I live with two lovely cats.

Pets and Young Children

Many new parents are afraid to live with a cat or dog when their child is born. I believe that this is a mistake. Many pediatricians will confirm that a baby raises in a house with two cats and a dog will develop a stronger immune system. It’s during our early years that our body learns to distinguish between good versus bad bacteria. Being exposed to cats and dogs teaches the body that these bacteria are not harmful. As long as you select pets that are kid friendly, I think that living with pets is safe for babies and young kids.

One health benefit is that kids who live with pets tend to have less allergies. Other researches where done on young children at risk of developing asthma. They found that, except for kids from mothers who are allergic to cats, children were significantly less likely to develop asthma as they got older if they live with a cat.

Dogs Help in Many Ways

Dogs are trained to perform many tasks to ease the life and improve the health conditions of patients. This sounds strange but apparently one in three dogs living with people with diabetes will alert them when the person experience a sudden drop in the level of blood glucose. What they think happens is that certain dogs can detect the chemical changes in the body through a scent that gives off when we have a drop of blood glucose. If that is true, you can really say that dogs are man’s best friend. But I still prefer living with cats.

You can read the rest and get more details at WebMD. Do you live with pets? Do you think they improve your life?

+ photo: WebMD