I’m uncertain about most of you, but one of the things I miss most when I am away at school is my dog at home. It sounds extremely pathetic, but I feel like I am generally happier when I am with my pet and its comforting to know that your pet is your biggest fan. So what causes this unbreakable bond between an owner and a pet? An article was written and published in a Health Magazine about a man who suffers from bipolar disorder and the impact having his therapeutic dog with him at all times has.
Ashenden and his dog Bella are the ultimate dynamic duo; Bella comes to work with him and is always by his side. The man claims that having Bella with him helps him to keep his temper even despite when his depression flairs up, she provides him with constant companionship and requires him to be extremely active. A dog requires a lot of attention and the owner claims that when he is required to walk and tend to Bella multiple times a day it helps him escape his own problems and focus on her.
As seen in the example by Health Magazine, there is evidence to prove that animals increase people’s happiness and generally their well being. Therapeutic animals are even recognized by National Institute of Mental Health. Many organizations like the American Humane Society and the Delta Society work to provide people struggling with depression or mental illnesses which I think is a wonderful thing.
Sources:
http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/pet-therapy-and-depression.aspx
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/the-health-benefits-of-pets.htm
There’s no denying that dogs can be a huge sense of comfort and give humans an overwhelming feeling of happiness. But I believe that is where the issue lies in this hypothesis; dogs can better one’s emotional state, not technically their biological health. That is according to your blog, so what I did was focus more on if happiness can actually improve one’s health. One study I found claims that a happy lifestyle can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The study included confounding variables such as regular exercise and not smoking, which both could both reduce the risk. The results from measuring the health of 6,000 people in her study proved to be supportive and measurable to her hypothesis. (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-heart-disease/)
Overall, what your hypothesis lacks is experimental value. I support the soft point (happiness) in your argument, but don’t see enough evidence to prove that dogs improve our health (the hard point).
I wrote an article about this topic not too long ago! I found so many more reasons why pets increase your health and happiness. Pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression. Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels. These are indicators of heart disease. People over the age of 65 that have a pet are 30% less likely to go to the doctor. Pets also make people meet new people, exercise, relive anxiety, and add structure to your day. I have a pitbull myself, and I feel as if all of these findings apply to me as well! I am much happier now that I have a pet to love and take care of. If you want to learn more reasons why pets are great, read this article I found: http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/the-health-benefits-of-pets.htm
I agree and disagree with your post. I unfortunately never had a dog or pet, but I do not think that my health has been affected at all. In your article, you only talked about one example with an owner who has a mental disorder. It would be more interesting if you wrote about your average human being. What are the health affects of having a dog if you are an average human being? From personal experience, my family and I (who are your average human beings) are just as healthy and happy as my friends who have dogs or pets. However, after doing some research, I found an article which really opened my eyes a little. There article goes down a huge list on how dogs promote better health for a human. The five main health benefits deal with blood pressure, cholesterol, exercise, obesity, and stress. So, maybe having a pet is better for you after all?
I think that this topic could easily go either way.
http://www.intelihealth.com/article/how-pets-affect-your-health?hd=Man
I completely relate. My dog is my best friend and it sucks being away from him for so long. A study by Miami University in Ohio surveyed 218 people, evenly pet owners and non pet owners. The survey analyzed differences between pet owners and nonowners in terms of well-being, personality type and attachment style. The study revealed that pet owners were typically happier, more physically fit, and more extroverted than non pet owners. To be fair, this study was observational and not experimental. It did not count out any third variables or reverse causation (maybe people who are always happy are more likely to become pet owners). For all we know, this study is a sham. But I’m sure if you asked anyone with a pet, they’d more than agree with the studies findings.
http://www.livescience.com/14983-cat-dog-mental-health.html
I have found that while being at school, the thing I miss the most about home is my dog, and sometimes I feel I miss him more than I do my family! Last year at my high school, we lost a sophomore girl in a car accident and everybody at my school was absolutely devastated, so the administration had therapy dogs available for the following two weeks and I know that generally helped a lot of students, myself included. I think pets can definitely make you happier, great topic for a post!
I love the topic of the post because I definitely miss my dog too. But you mention studies that found the discoveries but you never mentioned what the studies were. How many people participated, were there controls, what did the numbers look like? These are all things that should be considered when discussing the reliability of the findings.
This is an awesome blog post! I personally think it just needs to be a little longer with a little bit more info!! Maybe you can talk about a procedure or experiment that will correlate with your hypothesis