Having A Dog Can Add Years To Your Life, New Study Reveals
No doubt the cat versus dog debate will endure, however we have some excellent news for dog people. According to research study recently released in Scientific Reports, owning a pooch can add years to your life.
A team of researchers at Uppsala University tracked the health and dog ownership status of more than 3.4 million Swedes aged 40 to 80 years of ages for 12 years, starting in 2001.
No one involved had a history of cardiovascular disease.
Everyone in Sweden should bring a distinct individual recognition number, all medical facility sees are taped, and dog ownership registration is mandatory, which makes it the ideal case study for this sort of experiment.
As the scientists mention, nevertheless, the outcomes can be generalized to all other nations with a comparable culture to dog ownership (consisting of other European countries and the United States).
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The researchers discovered that dog owners were less at risk of dying from heart disease and other causes.
If they owned a pure breed, that is. The results were less clear for those who owned mixed-breeds.
On average, people's danger of death in a multi-person household was lowered by 11 percent, with their danger of passing away from a heart disease decreased by 15 percent.
The health benefit was even more pronounced in single-person households.
" Perhaps a dog may stand in as an essential member of the family in the single households," Mwenya Mubanga, lead junior author of the study and PhD trainee at the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Lab at Uppsala University, explained in a statement.
"The outcomes showed that single dog owners had a 33 percent reduction in risk of death and 11 percent decrease in risk of myocardial infarction throughout follow-up compared to single non-owners."
So why does owning a dog seem so good for you? The research study exposed a correlational relationship between dog ownership and longer lives, but didn't explore the factors behind it. The scientists do, nevertheless, offer some possible explanations.
" We understand that dog owners in general have a higher level of exercise, which could be one explanation to the observed results," Tove Fall, senior author of the research study and associate teacher in Public health at the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Lab at Uppsala University, read in a statement.
This is supported by the fact that hunting dogs like terriers, retrievers, and scent hounds need more workout.
" Other descriptions consist of an increased wellness and social contacts or effects of the dog on the bacterial microbiome in the owner," Tove included.
Tove likewise keeps in mind, nevertheless, some limitations of the study: " There might also be differences in between owners and non-owners already prior to buying a dog, which could have influenced our outcomes, such as those people choosing to get a dog having the tendency to be more active and of much better health."
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