Heart Disease and your pet
Mike was a communications engineer and a type A personality. He just thrived on the adrenaline rush he received from being under the pressures of constant deadlines. One day he received a full physical including a cardio stress test and received a clean bill of health.
The following day he had a major heart attack. It turned out the he had a 100% blockage of the left side and a 99% blockage of the right side. He was rushed to the hospital and scheduled for surgery the following morning. Unfortunately that night he suffered another heart attack and was rushed into surgery for a triple bypass. Mike determined that the heart attack wouldn’t stop him, threw himself into cardio rehab. He suffered severe chest pains no matter how easy he took the rehab. Because of this the clinic wanted his doctor to sign a waiver. When his doctor refused, Mike gave up rehab.
Staying at home Mike became depressed. He felt there was no purpose to his life. His doctor suggested that they get a dog. There was a study published in 1980 that showed that heart attack sufferers who owned pets had a four time better chance of surviving one year. This study had recruited 96 people, of which 89 had reported monthly for a year. Fifty of these people had pets and 39 of them did not. Amazingly enough the death rate for those without pets was approximately 28% and the death rate for those with pets was only 6% that’s less than 1/4.
Mike’s dog would also “remind” Mike to take his medicine whenever he knew Mike was getting stressed. Yes, animals do react to the way we feel. Just observe your pet’s behavior (especially if it’s a dog). Some other interesting studies have shown that after a heart attack dog owners had 8% fewer doctor visits and cat owners had 12% few doctor visits. Studies have also shown that the pet owning population also took less medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol and didn’t have as much trouble falling asleep at night than non pet owners.
More about the health benefits of pets tomorrow.
Tags: Common Diseases in Pet, Dog Diseases and Symptoms, Heart Disease and your pet, Heart Disease in Dogs and Cats, Pet and Animal Diseases, Pet Disease Symptoms, Prevent Heart Disease in Pet