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TheLast month, I spent a weekend watching Sonny, an adorable but needy goldendoodle. I walked an average of 8 km a day with Sonny, driving him in dog parks or by the river. I was in a good mood and felt healthier; When I looked around, all the other dog owners seemed happy and fit as well. A new study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality and Results shows this experience, call it "the dog effect", can be a real phenomenon.
The researchers behind the study, published online before the September issue of the journal, discovered that owning a pet could help maintain a healthy heart, especially if this animal was a dog.
"Getting, adopting, saving or buying a dog could improve your cardiovascular health and your health," said Jose Medina-Inojosa, M.D., one of the authors of the study, reverse.
Medina-Inojosa and her team reached this conclusion by analyzing the health parameters of more than 1,700 people participating in the Kardiozive Brno 2030 study, in which a percentage of 1% of the population of the entire city of Brno , in the Czech Republic, has been evaluated for cardiovascular reasons. risk factors.
The researchers scored on seven health behaviors and parameters participants to calculate their overall cardiovascular health scores: body mass index, diet, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, blood sugar and total cholesterol. None of the participants had a history of heart disease.
The researchers compared the cardiovascular health scores of pet owners to those of people without pets. They also compared dog owners to other owners – including those with cats, lizards or cockatoos – and to those who do not own pets.
These comparisons revealed higher cardiovascular health scores in pet parents. Pet owners, particularly dogs, reported more intense physical activity, better nutrition, and healthier blood sugar levels.
These results have an intuitive meaning for one major reason: pets, especially dogs, make you move more.
Beyond that, they bring comfort and companionship while reducing stress. Other research confirms these health benefits: Possession of a pet results in lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, less loneliness and increased physical activity.
A 2017 study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that pet owners had more self-esteem, were in better physical shape, tended to be less lonely, were more conscientious, were more extroverted, tended to be less fearful and tended to be less concerned than non-owners.
These social factors are also essential to heart health. Depression and loneliness or poor social support are documented risk factors for heart attacks and cardiovascular disease.
The study did, however, highlight another surprising finding: dog owners were more likely to smoke. But Medina attributes this trend to cultural factors: the study participants live in the Czech Republic, where smoking is widespread.
But are people who have dogs just healthier at first? Or do they become healthier after adopting a furry friend?
"It's a bit of an egg or a chick situation; who came first? said Medina. "We do not know."
For the moment, however, Medina says that he knows that having a dog seems to improve cardiovascular health.
So, if you're on the fence (or maybe trying to convince your partner to buy a puppy), maybe add a healthier heart to your list of reasons.
Abstract:
Goal: Study the link between pet ownership, and in particular dog ownership, with risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular health in the Kardiovize Brno 2030 study, a prospective cohort randomly selected in Central Europe.
Patients and methods: We included 1,769 subjects (aged 25 to 64 years, 44.3% men) with no history of CVD recruited from January 1, 2013 to December 19, 2014. We compared socio-demographic characteristics, risk factors of CVD and CVH metrics (ie, body mass index, healthy diet, level of physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, fasting glucose and total cholesterol), and score between owners of 39 animals and animal owners other than animals or dog owners and several other subgroups.
Results: About 42% of the subjects had any type of pet: 24.3% owned a dog and 17.9%, another animal. Pet owners, and more specifically dog owners, were more likely to report ideal physical activity, diet and blood sugar, as well as poor smoking, which resulted in a higher CVH score. non-owners of animals (median, 10, interquartile range = 3 vs median, 9, interquartile range = 3, p = 0.006). Compared to owners of other pets, dog owners were more likely to report a physical activity and diet at an ideal level. The comparison of dog owners with non-owners gave similar results. After adjusting for covariates, dog owners had higher CVH scores than non-owners (β = 0.342, SE = 0.122, P = 0.005), other owners of animals (β = 0.309, SE = 0.151; P = 0.041) and non-dog owners (β = 0.341, SE = 0.117, P = 0.004).
Conclusion: With the exception of smoking, dog owners were more likely to reach the recommended level of behavioral CVH indicators (physical activity and diet) than non-dog owners, which was reflected by a better CVH.
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