Do you own a cat? If you do, then you should consider yourself lucky because according to a study, cat owners live longer since they have reduced risk of getting a heart attack or a stroke.
The study included more than 4,000 participants and was carried by researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Institute in Minneapolis. Dr. Adnan Qureshi, one of the authors of the study, said that stress and anxiety are connected to cardiovascular diseases, specifically heart attacks.
He added that having pets will help people to relieve stress. The study found that cats lower the risk of having a stroke as opposed to dogs.
Dr. Adnan Qureshi with his team examined data on total 4,435 participants, 2,435 of which were former or current cat owners while the rest 2,000 never owned a cat. After a 10-year follow up period, researchers discovered that people who owned a cat had a 30% lower risk of dying from a heart attack as opposed to people who didn’t own a cat.
Kathie Cole who is a clinical nurse at the UCLA Center and School of Nursing was not surprised with the results because as she said, she believes that every animal is special and meaningful to its owner and has a positive effect on their health.
Of course, there are people who will disagree that cats are the cure for heart attacks and those people are also right. However, the lifestyle of cat owners plays the crucial role in this case and it is the link to lower risk of heart attacks, not owning a cat per se.
“Maybe cat owners tend not to have high-stress personalities, or they are just the type of people that are not highly affected by anxiety or high-stress situations,” Dr. Adnan Qureshi said.
Another possible reason why cats can reduce the level of stress and anxiety as opposed to dogs, for example, is that cats are animals that want to be petted. They are lap animals and by petting them people feel relaxed and stress-relieved.
On the other hand, dogs need more attention which can increase the owner’s stress levels. Dogs need you to feed them, take them for a walk, and they demand constant attention as opposed to cats who practically are able to take care of themselves.
Are you a happy cat owner? If so, share this post with your friends and tell them about the benefits of having a cat.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3317329/
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