Posted on 11/16/2005 5:21:14 PM PST by Cagey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just a few minutes spent patting a dog can relieve a heart patient's anxiety and perhaps even help recovery during a visit to the hospital, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The effects were much more pronounced than when heart failure patients visited with a human volunteer or were left quietly alone, the researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Dallas.
"This therapy warrants serious consideration as an adjunct to medical therapy in hospitalized heart failure patients. Dogs are a great comfort," said Kathie Cole, a registered nurse at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles who led the study.
"They make people happier, calmer and feel more loved. That is huge when you are scared and not feeling well."
Stress can worsen heart disease, but Cole said no one had scientifically investigated whether simple stress-relieving measures such as petting an animal might help in a way that could be measured.
Cole's team found that a 12-minute visit with a dog helped patients' heart and lung function by lowering pulmonary pressure, reducing the release of harmful hormones and decreasing anxiety.
Her team studied 76 heart failure patients who stayed in the hospital for treatment, randomly assigning them either a 12-minute visit with a dog, a similar visit with a trained human volunteer or leaving them alone.
"We looked at the dogs' effects on variables that characterize heart failure, including changes in cardiac function, neuroendocrine (stress hormone) activation and psychological changes in mood," Cole said in a statement.
Anxiety scores dropped 24 percent for the patients visited by a dog, 10 percent in those visited by a person only and did not change among the patients left alone.
Levels of the stress hormone epinephrine dropped an average 17 percent after a dog visit, they dropped 2 percent in the volunteer-only group and rose an average of 7 percent in the patients left alone.
Systolic pulmonary artery pressure, a measure of pressure in the lungs, dropped by 5 percent during a dog visit and another 5 percent afterward. It rose in the other two groups.
"This study demonstrates that even a short-term exposure to dogs has beneficial physiological and psychosocial effects on patients who want it," Cole said.
Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood effectively. It can be treated with drugs, surgery or, in a last resort, with a heart transplant, but it kills half of patients within about five years.
A Continental Airlines flight attendant based in Houston comforts a rescued female beagle from New Orleans, September 16, 2005. Just a few minutes spent patting a dog can relieve a heart patient's anxiety and perhaps even help recovery during a visit to the hospital, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Allen
Not that you didn't already know this.
Don't worry - we won't tell a soul.
~chuckling~
Yeppers,
Betting anything furry (or feathered) can do you a world of good.
Are you headed to Las Vegas this weekend? Hahahahaha
I have worked in nursing homes for several years...at both nursing homes, where I spent the most time, we always had animals in the nursing home...one nursing home allowed residents to have small animals in their rooms(birds, usually), and then once a week, a visiting group came in with different animals...dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, gerbils, and even a sweet little miniature horse...then when people came to visit their families, they were encouraged to bring in their pets to visit with the seniors...and the workers at both places were also allowed to bring their pets to work with them, so long as the pets could pass the 'animal citizen' test...and both nursing homes had residents dogs, which actually lived at the nursing home..
And the senior residents absolutely loved this...many residents who were almost non responsive to humans, would perk right up and talk to the animals...it was always a win-win situation...the animals got loads of attention, and the residents got unconditional love...
Animals give their unconditional love, and make for better health...humans are lucky to have such wonderful companions...
Any thing I can do to help?
I'm surprised more Nursing homes don't do exactly what you're saying.
When I was unemployed and trying to feel better about myself, I used to do weekly nursing home visits with my little Zulu dog, and with a big ole Orange Tom cat I had. I organized a couple friends with good dogs to do this with me. The cat was the only cat I've ever had that would walk through a new place on leash without wanting to panic and hide under something. I used to be able to just plop him on someone's lap and there he'd stay.
I went to about four different facilities in Gig Harbor. Some would have me go room to room and look in to see if folk wanted to have a pet visit, and some facilities would bring the interested people down to a common room and we'd just let the dogs mingle the room.
And it wasn't complicated... they didn't require that my pets be certified as therapy pets or anything... Those places were happy to have the volunteer entertainment. Some watched me closely till the pets had earned trust and some took my word for it and let me go. So if you do have good judgment about whether your dog is well suited, it's really not hard to go do this, just call them and ask.
More and more are beginning to do this...there was one nursing home on TV, that actually makes having resident animals part of its program...the nursing home is geared to having a large assortment of birds, cats, and dogs that actually live in its nursing home...all the nurses and aides and workers must be comfortable working alongside of animals, or they just dont work there...and no resident is forced to befriend an animal if they dont want to...but the animals are there for those who wish to befriend them...
Slowly, the benefits of having animals around, is being recognized by more and more nursing homes...the residents are happier, seem to be healthier, and for some residents, the animals provide the only 'being', they will communicate with...
I am sure you brought a lot of joy to those residents...people often forget the elderly in nursing homes, and forget that many of those people have a pet that they had to leave behind, when they entered the nursing home...having visitors coming in with their pets, is exactly what these elderly need...
What a great photo!
There were three five year old girls in my home a couple of days ago and all three of them were laying on our eleven year old Chocolate Lab on the floor and it was quite a sight to see. The girls were giggling and fidgeting and Brook didn't complain a bit. In fact, I'm sure she enjoyed it.
The residents loved talking to her, petting her...I know they benefitted from her being there...my dad (who was a rather quiet gentleman) made new friends, because the residents would stop to talk with him and ask about our family. It was a win win situation for all...
They really did enjoy it... And my little dog Zulu was so calm and had such soft eyes she really was popular. She was small enough to pick up and put on the beds for the people who couldn't reach, and she would be gentle to come up close to their faces.
Course some of the men preferred if I went out and brought in my Labrador and told hunting stories, which I did sometimes. I even set up his obedience jumps in a courtyard once and showed them his 'tricks'.
I felt bad to have to quit when I finally got a job and moved. But my friends that I had found doing this, they intended to continue on. A goofy lady I went with had little outfits she dressed her little dog up in. Nutty as a fruitcake, but the residents got a kick out of all the costumes. :~D
Thanks! Both "girls" are our treasures and they just love each
other to pieces too. I was lucky both the 4 yr old daughter
and the 1 yr old dog decided to stop moving long enough for me
to snap that picture.
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