According to WebMD, dogs have been shown to have a many positive effects on pet owners’ health and lifestyles, in the past couple of years. However, the question remains be asked, “Exactly, what effect do pets have on humans?” From physical to healing mental disorders, I take a closer look in this article on how amazing our fury friends are at helping to inspire us to live better lives.
Dogs require a lot of walking and help you increase in responsibility. These same two factors can actually help you get and stay in shape to a degree. By having an organized routine, dogs allow you to take better care of yourself. Then, they allow you to get outside and some fresh air by dog’s constantly needing exercise and play.
Dogs allow people an emotional comfort in the tough times of life. Some dogs have even been taught to wake people from nightmares. Pets can be great distractions from the everyday troubles of life, and likely, when you don’t expect it. I know many times in my life, when I’d come home from school my dogs would greet me and cause me to feel better after a bad day. Dogs accept and show love unconditionally. As long as you treat them with care, your dog will always love you and be by your side. This alone can help inspire you emotionally, by merely having someone there that cares about you no matter what occurs in life.
Just having dogs inspire people to go out and be more social, since dogs are very social creatures. Our fury friends often require dog parks, walks, and lots of attention, which as any dog lover can tell you this requires you to often interact with other human beings. In fact, merely petting a dog can actually lower stress, blood pressure, heart rate, make you less threatened, and boost levels of serotonin and dopamine. All of these factors make it possible to interact more effectively and personally, with people around you.
Illnesses and mental disorders
In recent years, dogs have found highly affective at helping American soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. After soldiers return home from wars, they still suffer from a variety of illnesses and mental disorders from their service. Therapy dogs are now being used to help veterans live life to the fullest again, and overcome the physiological inflictions of war. A large portion of these affects can be attributed to elevated levels of the hormone, oxytocin. Oxytocin has the ability to improve trust, interpret facial expressions, overcome paranoia, and often counters the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Therapy dogs have been found to increase these levels of oxytocin and allow soldiers to return to living normal lives.
In summary, dogs cannot only be considered man’s best, but also have the ability to inspire human beings to live life to the fullest. From helping people become fit to conquering veteran’s war disorders, our fury friends continue to inspire us to do great things.
For more information on dogs inspiring humans read:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-dogs-can-help-veterans-overcome-ptsd-137582968/?no-ist
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/19/6-ways-pets-relieve-depression/
http://dogsfordepression.org.uk/how-dogs-help-us.html
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/the-health-benefits-of-pets.htm
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/6-ways-pets-improve-your-health
Friendship, Boy and Dog, Husascaran National Park photo, (CC BY-NC 2.0), by Geraint Rowland at Flickr
Therapy goes to the dogs photo, (CC BY 2.0), DVIDSHUB at Flickr
Dogs on call! photo, (CC BY 2.0), college.library at Flickr
Molly the dog photo, (CC BY 2.0), daveynin at Flickr
My dog is so loving photo, (CC BY-SA 2.0), Eric.Ray at Flickr
Buddha dog photo, (CC BY 2.0), SuperFantastic at Flickr
andulkaphoto
germansingergirl
dededos
snowghoul
janainaart
yousharknotpass
jbbartram-illu
2087
titsay