Lately, a lot of colleges and universities, including Harvard Medical School, Yale Law School, and Indiana University have all turned to dogs, and pets in general, to help control the stress of their students, according to USA Today. Personally, as a dog lover, I would love to be able to go and play with puppies all day to let go of some stress after a long week of class. But now other school are actually renting out pets to their students? Does playing with dogs really relieve stress?
According to Animalsmart.org, researchers found that people who own pets and have high blood pressure problems have an easier time keeping their blood pressure lower, which helps reduce stress. Studies also found that heart attack survivors have increased chances in surviving if they own a dog. If dogs are healthy for us, then can Penn State turn towards animals for students to relieve their stress? I think we would all love that.
Also, Harvard Health Publications says that people who own dogs have healthier hearts because dogs allow them to be physically active, and are helpful in keeping humans healthy, not only mentally but physically as well, and more so then cats do. The healthier blood pressure someone has, the more likely they are to be less stressed (Harvard Health Publications infers).
With all this being researched, then it would be beneficial for our students (and even faculty members who are stressed) to be able to have dogs (and other animals) in the dorms and on campus, or even just available by the school for students to go and spend time with the dogs, so that our students will be physically healthier, have another method to relieving stress, and in general happier. Who doesn’t love animals?
http://animalsmart.org/species/dogs/dogs-help-reduce-stress
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/a-dog-could-be-your-hearts-best-friend-201305226291
I think this is a GREAT idea. Someone should probably start something here at Penn State to allow us to rent a dog! With parents being allergic to dogs, I never got to experience the wonders that they bring to people. However, my girlfriend has a dog and I know whenever I see her I always feel a little bit happier (I’m talking about the dog…). I also used to volunteer at a nursing home, and they would always bring a pet rabbit in to play with the patients. Thanks for the cool post!
I would love for the dorms and the campus to let us have dogs or even cats! My aunt actually was going through a lot of stress, and for one of my science experiments I actually did a science experiment on this. I wanted to see how her stress levels would change if she had a dog and a cat around her for a couple weeks time. I saw that after the first 2 weeks with her having a dog, Her blood pressure levels were lowered. Then I did the same thing but with a cat and her blood pressure levels also went down as well. I thought that was pretty cool how animals to me can help with stress like that. I think animals just bring happiness to people and happiness can lower stress.