Who would have ever thought that pets could be so important to the elderly.  Several studies have found that one month after acquiring a dog or cat, seniors had fewer minor medical problems (ie painful joints, anxiety, hay fever, indigestion, colds and flus, insomnia, back pains and headches).

Seniors need something to keep them active and out in the world, a pet can help them do this.  Being isolated is very conducive to depression.  Another observation made in one study was that seniors who owned pets tended to talk about things in the present while those without pets tended to talk about things in the past.  When we live in the past, we aren’t busy living.

I am sure most of you have read about the studies citing that petting a animal lowers the heart rate and blood pressure.  Of course, it’s not just the petting that we want a pet for.  It’s also the interaction, such as laughter and even disputes.  After all pets can do some of the funniest and most annoying things.  One of the most important benefits of having a pet is that feeling of unconditional love they give us and of course, they never say bad things about us, to us or even verbally disagree or back talk, etc.  You know the things that humans do that we frequently have issues with.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Health and Pets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.