Canine companionship: 10 health benefits of keeping dogs

Whether you own a dog or not, hanging out with our four-legged friends can do wonders for your wellbeing. As compiled from The Huffington Post, here is how the company of a dog can help.

1. Improve cardiac health

Dogs don’t just fill your heart but actually make it stronger! Studies show that having a canine companion is linked to lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol and decreased triglyceride levels, which contribute to better overall cardiovascular health and fewer heart attacks. Also, dog owners who do have heart attacks have better survival rates afterwards.

2. Keep you fit and active

Health experts recommend that adults get about two and a half hours of moderate exercise per week and dog owners are way more likely to hit that goal. “People love to be outside walking their dogs,” says Kay Joubert, Director Companion Animal Services at PAWS, a Washington-based animal advocacy organisation. “It helps them be more active.”

In turn, that activity helps one remain mobile well into old age. Earlier this year, a study in the journal Gerontologist found that older adults who walked dogs experienced “lower body mass index, fewer activities of daily living limitations and doctor visits and more frequent moderate and vigorous exercise.”

3. Help you lose weight

Want to drop a few pounds? Grab your doggie and get hoofing. Research has repeatedly found that daily dog walks help you lose weight since they force you into moderate physical activity. In fact, in 2010, one small study discovered public housing residents who walked “loaner” dogs five times a week lost an average of 14.4 Lbs. over the course of a year.

4. Improve your social life

As we age, it becomes harder to get out and meet new people but not so for dog owners. Researchers have found that about 40% of dog owners make friends more easily, possibly because the vast majority, 4 in 5 speak with other dog owners during walks. “Dog owners in particular tend to be a little more extroverted or outgoing,” explains Joubert. “When you start to engage them about their companion animal, people tend to open up and really blossom.”

5. Reduce stress

There’s a reason therapy dogs are so effective. Spending just a few minutes with a pet can lower anxiety and blood pressure and increase levels of serotonin and dopamine, two neurochemicals that play big roles in our wellbeing. People performing stressful tasks do better when there’s a dog around too, as studies show dogs ease tension both at the office and between married couples.

6. Add meaning and purpose

As our lives pass, it can become difficult to find structure and meaning, day in and day out. According to Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society adoption manager Kristi Littrell, dogs take care of that. “They force people to continue to do things so, even if you’re not feeling well emotionally or physically, the dog doesn’t care,” she said. “They still want you to feed and walk them.”

7. Stave off depression

It’s widely believed that dog owners are less prone to depression, largely because they seem to help in so many other areas of health and wellbeing. The truth is somewhat more complicated. Though there’s evidence that certain dog owners, including isolated elderly women and HIV-positive men, suffer less from depression than those without pets, there’s also proof that dogs don’t do much for other demographics. That said, therapy dogs have been shown to be effective in easing depression for a variety of people, old and young, sick and healthy.

8. Prevent allergies in grandchildren

Back in the ‘90s, experts believed having a dog contributed to children’s allergies. Fortunately, recent research proves the opposite. Dogs and cats actually lower a child’s chance of becoming allergic to pets by up to 33%, according to a 2004 study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. In fact, the young ones might even develop stronger immune systems.

9. Reduce doctor visits

If you’re over 65 and own a pet, odds are you seek medical help about 30 % often than people who don’t have a pet. A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology established that animal-owning seniors “reported fewer doctor contacts than respondents who did not own pets.” And while cats, birds, and other animals were helpful, “Owners of dogs, in particular, were buffered from the impact of stressful life events on physician utilisation.”

10. Battle disease and injury

Owning a dog can help detect, treat and manage a variety of illnesses and debilitations. A few examples include:

• Some dogs are trained to sniff out skin, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.


• Service dogs are known to benefit people with traumatic brain injury and autism to rheumatoid arthritis, increasing mobility and promoting independence.


• Alzheimer’s patients are soothed by dogs, whose companionship also seems to mitigate emotional flare-ups and aggression.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2016.

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