The results are in: Pet owners actually live longer! Studies have shown that heart attack victims, and other people who are susceptible to stress-related illness, actually benefit medically from owning and caring for their favorite animal!
It doesn't matter if it's a dog, cat, bird, gerbil or even a bowl of fish, owning a pet is definitely therapeutic. Additional research done on HIV and cancer patients, and a related study done on the mentally ill, show that caring for an animal revives a human's nurturing instinct as well as triggering feelings of love, acceptance and hope. All very powerful emotions which are often lacking in people who have serious medical or emotional conditions. Caring for an animal gives the person something to live for. Of course, the companionship of having another living being in the home is also valuable.
Apparently you don't have to be ill to benefit from communing with the animal world. Another study showed that people who were waiting to receive oral surgery, and who spent time watching fish swimming in an aquarium at the dentist's office, were more relaxed, had lower blood pressure and were less anxious when the procedure started. And those fish weren't even the patient's own pets. Obviously something is going on in the animal/human world that is beneficial.
Nursing home administrators report that having communal pets, such as dogs and cats who are allowed to roam the halls and mingle with the residents, actually elevate the patient's overall dispositions and keep many of them active who would otherwise have spent the day in bed or in front of the TV.
Ever day alive is a good one
And no one knows that better than heart patients who are at serious risk of suffering a fatal reoccurrence. But according to the City Hospital in New York, discharged patients who had pets at home were more likely to still be alive one year after discharge than those who did not. Remarkably, the study showed that the presence of an animal companion was more beneficial than the presence of a spouse or close friend.
Which pet is better for you?
Seems like the species doesn't matter as long as there is a bond between pet and owner. Apparently a rat snake is just as good as a golden retriever. What's important is that the human feels a need to care for and communicate with the animal and the animal responds with some occasional attention and gratification. If you think that a snake can't show gratification then you obviously have never owned one.
So, what's behind all of this?
Experts believe that owning a pet, especially if there are no close humans in the patient's life, triggers a survival instinct in what might otherwise be a person who is resigned to dying. After all, if they pass, who would take care of their beloved rat snake?
Hey, even if you're not ill and you have no mental conditions at all (well other than the ones that we all seem to have), you can still add a touch of love and affection to your everyday existence by making room in your heart and home for a pet. Try it. Who knows? You might live longer.