Being man’s ‘best friend’ is a title that our beloved pooch has hold since ancient times. From hunting partners to lifelong companions, dogs clearly benefit their owners. To add to the long list of reasons to love dogs, a recent Swedish study published in the journal Scientific Reports associate dog ownership with reduced risk for cardiovascular disease.
Meanwhile, people living solitarily can decrease their risk of dying by 33% and their risk of cardiovascular related death by 36% simply by owning a dog. Risk of having a heart attack is also found to be 11% lower for dog owners than those who are not.
What can be more adorable than a dog? A dog with a duck as a best friend!
Households with two or more people also experience the same benefits, but at a lower percentage with risk of death by 11% and chances of cardiovascular death by 15%.
“A very interesting finding in our study was that dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death than those living in a multi-person household,” said Mwenya Mubanga, an author on the study and PhD student at Uppsala University.
Everybody loves dogs! Err… perhaps except for these cats.
One of the reasons for these results is the fact that single dog owners often are the only ones interacting with their pet as opposed to married couples or family with children.
According to the study, the improved cardiovascular health can be attributed to increased physical activities that come with dog ownership.
Do you love dogs? Here are some dog memes that you can totally relate to!
Surprisingly, the dirt that dogs bring inside our homes is actually good since it can impact your microbiome- the bacteria inside your gut resulting to a healthier immune system. Let us also not forget that dogs are proved to help humans reduce stress and even depression.
