They're quickly turning into monsters :~D
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.
What a nice story and you just reminded me of my dad.
I saw my dad cry twice. The first was when his dog died and the second time was when his mom passed away.
It never ceases to amaze me what a dog can bring to us.
I think thats great that the lady dressed her little dog up...I am sure that was a real treat for the residents...
And it was good of you to set up the courtyard to allow your dog to show off his tricks, and wonderful that you told the old gents the hunting stories...
Often many people think that the elderly are just simply there, and no longer relate to life in the way that they used to...its true, often they are slower in their thinking, and many of them, with forms of dementia are more like children than adults....
But the elderly in nursing homes have so much love to give, and often not enough in the way of visitors to give that love to...we workers have only a limited amt of time to give them, as there are so many of them, and usually the staff is often understaffed....
The animals provide for so many elderly, the opportunity to love another being, to feel the warmth of the fur, and the gentle lick of an animals tongue..things they long for...I have seen time and time again, the good that the animals can do for the elderly...
I have told this story before, but its been a while, so here goes...its a touching story...
We had an elderly man in the nursing home, who had to give up his dog when he entered the nursing home...he was dying, and dying soon...so before he came into the nursing home, he made a search for someone to adopt his dog...he finally picked a nice lady, who seemed to relate so well to his dog, and his dog seemed to favor this lady...so she adopted the dog, and the man entered the nursing home...
After a few months, the docs told the man, that he was really at the end of his life, ,and had but a few weeks left to live...all he wanted, was to see his little dog again...so the nursing home contacted the lady who adopted the dog, and she agreed to visit...
The man, who usually spent the day in bed, and in his pjs, insisted on being sat up in his wheel chair, and dressed in his very finest clothes, on the day his dog was to visit...
The time came and the lady came in with the dog...the little dog, was sweet, friendly, and wagging his tail, at every resident who stopped to pet him...but when the little dog entered his old masters room, the little dog just screamed, screamed with joy, and hopped right up, into the mans lap...the old man began to cry...the lady began to cry...I began to cry...pretty soon, everyone who stopped by the old mans room, was crying...the nursing home was in tears...the lady and the little dog stayed for a couple of hours..
Then it was time for the lady and little dog to leave...it was such a sad thing for the old man...but he knew, his little dog was well cared for, so he kissed him, and gave him back to the lady...the little dog the lady left...and the old man, as I laid him back in bed, ,just smiled...his last wish, to visit with and love his little dog had been granted...
He died a few weeks later...but he died happy, and content, that his little dog, that he loved to much, would continue to live happily with the lady, that the old man had provided...
Working in nursing homes can be depressing, but this is one experience I had, that made all the sad depressing stories just vanish...knowing that we had helped this old man, gave us all reason to be happy, in the work that we do...
~blurry~
That's very sweet, a&m's mom.
Thanks...I was getting blurry just remembering this event, even tho it happened many years ago, I still remember it so clearly, as it was just so wonderful...
I'm glad you told it again because this is the first time I've read it and I hope I always remember it.
Glad you liked it...thanks..
What a lovely story...I need a tissue...
You're still in my town, right? If you wanted to get together and contact a few facilities here, I'd be willing. I think either one of my dogs may do real well, and my current big ole orange tom cat might be just as good as my old one was, if we tried him out.
I visited the assisted living facility on Trosper road a couple times years ago, I went along with a group the director of the human society put together... ~Beauregarde~ I think her name was, but I think I'm spelling it horribly wrong.... I don't know if she's still doing it at all, but we could certainly go on our own.
Yes, I am still in Olympia...that sounds like a good idea...tho probably it could not be until after the beginning of the 'new year'...we are going to be out of town for a while(need to stretch the legs on the RV), and then the holidays are coming up...
Actually the holidays are not usually the time to visit nursing homes, at least from my experience, and here is why...once the holiday season begins, relative who never visit suddenly show up...all the churches and schools who never visit during the year, all of sudden call and now want to come and perform...
From years of working in the nursing homes, I have noticed that there is actually an overload on the residents at the holiday season...everyone wants to visit...now, I am not saying that is bad...but I just wish that the same relatives and churches and schools, and other groups would come throughout the year, rather than only at the holiday time...
I have actually seen the nursing homes turn way people and groups from coming in, as there is actually an overload, and the residents wind up reacting to this, and acting often in bad ways...this may not be true in all nursing homes, but it was in wherever I did work...
So, it would be great, at the beginning of the year to make this a joint venture...I no longer have any animals, but would love to accompany you and your animals...
Thanks for asking...
I could use a tissue too...
What a beautiful story!
Beauregard...that name rings a bell...I have seen her on TV, on the local access channel, when they were trying to adopt out the various animals at the shelter...
And her daughter, worked with me over at the Panorama nursing home, on Sleater-Kinney rd...her daughter was an aide, and then studying to become a nurse, which I think she did...
The daughter got a dog from the shelter, and she was such a sweet dog, that the daughter brought the dog with her to work, and she and the dog worked side by side...
OK - sounds good... lets bring it up again after the new year... and if you don't have a pet to bring, I could use the help to bring more than one of mine :~D
And I could use the fellowship, as a shy person who borders on homebound (no, Tonto, don't go to ~town~, you get beat up when you go to town!) It's good to have a buddy system to keep the schedule :~D. I look forward to meeting you :~D.
Thanks...it was a beautiful sight to see, the old dying man, in his best clothes, the little dog asleep in his lap...
Its a date...look forward to meeting you and your pets as well...I miss having a pet...
They're quickly turning into monsters :~D
How sweet...little kitties are just adorable...
Wicked cute :~D
I've always known this was a stress reducer. (BTW, I didn't actually see your comment about cats, so there's no problem, LOL!)
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