Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide due to various factors. Some of the causes of cardiovascular disease are obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, genetics, and the lack of an active lifestyle.
Today, technology keeps evolving, and everything becomes available with a button. Our kids become screen-dependent, spending more time on tablets, laptops, and smartphones. This lifestyle is similar in the early years, when children spend more time outdoors, playing and engaging in physical activities.
Dogs are around most households to ensure no burglars try to enter the house, protect the family, or just become their pets. However, Kramer, the assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism from the University of Toronto, researched that owning a dog can reduce death by 24%.
That’s a more valid reason to own a dog at home. Dogs are more than just pets. They even help people live a longer life.
Kramer’s research findings involved 4 million participants from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand.
A published journal in the American Heart Association, called Tuesday in “Circulation,” wrote about how more than 336,000 Swedish men and women had a better health outcome, owning a dog after having suffered from a heart attack.
Having dogs around provided more benefits to people living alone. Dr. Martha Gulati, the CardioSmart.org editor-in-chief, said that people who owned dogs reduced the chance of death than people who didn’t.
This is due to the emotional and physical support that dogs contribute to their owners. These pets are also known to reduce anxiety attacks. Moreover, a daily 30-minute walk with a dog involves physical activity.
Interestingly, a cardiologist named William Suh, MD posted his experience with a patient suffering from heart health concerns on Twitter. Unexpectedly, he wrote a type of dog breed in the prescription paper to treat his patient.
Dr. Suh prefers that his patients own old dogs rather than puppies. Old dogs are easier to manage than pups; having one helps people engage in an active physical lifestyle.
The studies conducted were more of an “Observational.” Observational study means that the researchers cannot fully prove whether the study’s result was directly due to dog ownership or exercise involvement to people.
Dog ownership benefits not only older people but also children. Exercise is no longer a leisure activity but an essential part of life.
No wonder some joggers love to stroll around with their American Staffordshire Terrier along the sidewalks. If you don’t have someone to exercise with, get yourself a dog to keep you active and full of energy every day.
Credits: @willsuh76 via Twitter
