5 WAYS PETS INCREASE OXYTOCIN
Pets are members of the family. They, like humans, require love, medical care, and attention....
Dogs are not only the best friends of us humans, but also the best therapists for us.
Dogs are loyal, adorable, enthusiastic, compassionate and warm-hearted, helping unconditionally to prevent, reduce and enhance our physical, mental and social health, not to mention that they accompany us, 24/7 and 365 days without reservation.
It is a truism that dogs are beneficial for our health. But you may still wonder what or to what extent they can really help us. Well, there are a lot of scientifically based studies that address to the issues and prove that dogs do help human’s health as well as show how they can do that. Their magical capabilities are increasingly explored and discovered by scientists and researchers.
Before we explore how dogs are beneficial for our health, let us see the relationship between wellness and health.
Wellness and health
Wellness is easily understandable but may be hard to define conclusively.
Let us see one of many definitions. According to Pfizer, “Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving. To understand the significance of wellness, it’s important to understand how its linked to health”.1
Common for different definitions is the incorporation of physical, mental and social health.
So, what is health then?
World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as being “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Simply put, the core of wellness lies in physical, mental and social health.
Now, let see how dogs are beneficial to our health in terms of these three dimensions.
Physical health
Credit: All Golden Retriever
Whether you like or not, you are obliged to walk your 4 legs buddy two or three times a day. Say, twenty to thirty minutes each time. On the average, you have outwork for more or less an hour each day. Good for you, dude! The obligation gives you regular physical exercises, regardless of the weather and excuses. As a result, you have lower blood pressure with stronger heart.
A comprehensive study for the period between 1950 and 2019 2 indicates that dog owners had a lower level of risk for coronary diseases, due to regular exercises by walking on sidewalks, trails, and path up and down.
Being together with your buddy, petting or hugging them does not only lower your blood pressure and heart rate, but also enhances breathing and relaxes tension of nerves and muscle. A study by Washington State University3 finds out that dog owners who simply pet their dog for 10 minutes daily would get Cortisol (a stress hormone) reduced considerably.
Dogs can detect human’s health condition! The statement sounds like a sales pitch?
No, it is not. The amazing detection power of our best friends are scientifically proved.
While human has about 5 million scent glands, our little best friends have between 125 and 300 million scent glands. That is to say, their power of scent is around thousands times more than ours. Because of the amazing power, studies 4 show that dogs are able to detect hypoglycaemia in diabetics and certain types of cancer only if they have been trained for the specific purposes. The extent of their amazing power is still under study and will be explored continuously to the human’s advantage.
Mental health
Credit: Stocky
Your dog gives you a company, offering you comfort and security as well as alleviating your stress and anxiety, indicated by numerous studies5.
Sometimes, a dog can even prevent suicidal thought. A friend of mine had experienced a feeling of extreme sadness as a result of the breakup with her boyfriend. Following that, her boyfriend even vanished into thin year. She broke down with the thought of taking her own life. She was rushed to a psychiatric hospital. Fortunately, she recovered at last, mostly due to her worry : “If I died, no one would take care of Momo (my dog)”.
Another interesting study was made by College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. The study found that after severing their duties in war, veterans who were permitted to live together with their service dogs later in their civilian lives suffered PTSD far less than their peers without service dogs.
Dogs make you happier because interactions with dogs will increase the level of the hormone Oxytocin which is sometimes called ‘love hormone’6. Oxytocin makes you, among others, happy and relax.
Social health
A study has found that when dog owners are walking their dogs, they are often approached by passersby who say hello or want to pet the dogs. The passersby may take initiative to contact with strangers (dog owners) because they are inclined to trust dog owners. It may explain why dog owners more socially approachable 7and will find it easier to make friends in the neighbourhood. Credit: tracer.co.in
In a study8 about date matching, male participants with dogs are found to be more likeable and approachable by females.
Another interesting study shows that people with their dogs shown in their profile pictures on social media get more ‘likes’.
As the legendary Greek philosopher Aristotle said, ”Man is by nature a social animal”. To have a good social health, humans need socializing. With your dogs, you become more socially approachable by people, giving you a better social health.
Last but not least
Since Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2019/2020, a lot of physical, mental and social problems 9 &10 of different sort have arisen: physical inactiveness, social distancing, loneliness, insomnia, stress, anxiety, depression, anger, to name a few. Thanks to the pets who have really helped a lot to prevent or reduce the problems11. In response to a survey12 of around 4,100 dog owners, over half of them agreed that their dogs helped to reduce their problems of many sorts.
Dogs give you healthiness!
References
1. Pfizer. (2022). What is Wellness. Retrieved from
https://www.pfizer.com/health-wellness/wellness/what-is-wellness
2. Kramer,C.K., Mehmood, S. & Suen, R.S. (2019). Dog Ownership and Survival. A systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2019;12:e005554. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.119.005554
3. Washington State University. (2019). Study demonstrates stress reduction benefits from petting dogs and cats. Retrieved from https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2019/07/15/study-demonstrates-stress-reduction-benefits-petting-dogs-cats/
4. Medical News Today. (2013). Medical detection dogs: how they could save our lives in a sniff.Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269099
5. Barker, S. B., Knisely, J. S., McCain, N. L.,Schubert, C. M., & Pandurangi, A. K. (2010). Exploratory study of stress-buffering response patterns from interaction with a therapy dog. Retrieved from https://habricentral.org/resources/8295
6. Johns Hopkins Medicine. (2015). The friend who keeps you young. Retrieved from
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-friend-who-keeps-you-young
7. Rossbach, K.A. & Wilson, J.P. (2015). Does a Dog's Presence Make a Person Appear More Likable? Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2752/089279392787011593
8. Guéguen, N. & Ciccotti, S. (2015). Domestic Dogs as Facilitators in Social Interaction: An Evaluation of Helping and Courtship Behaviors. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2752/175303708X371564
9. Nienhuls, C.P. & Lesser, I.A. (2020). The Impact of COVID-19 on Physical Activity Behavior and Well-Being of Canadians. 2020 Jun; 17(11): 3899. Retrieved from doi: 10.3390/ijerph17113899
10. Maison, D., Jaworska, D., Adamczyk, D., & Affeltowicx, D. (2021). The challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the way people deal with them. A qualitative longitudinal study. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258133
11.HABRI (2020). This Year, We Are Extra Thankful for Our Pets: How the Human-Animal Bond is Improving Lives During COVID-19. Retrieved from:
https://habri.org/blog/how-the-human-animal-bond-is-improving-lives-during-covid-19/#footnote-3
12. Washington State University Insider. (2020). Bond between humans and dogs strengthened by COVID-19. Retrieved from https://news.wsu.edu/news/2020/06/08/bond-humans-dogs-strengthened-covid-19/