Cooperative Living February 2017 - 36
YourHealth | by A.D. Lively, Contributing Writer
Can your pets make you healthier?
A
"
Pets are
a part of
the family.
fter a stressful day, sometimes all
I want to do is go home and zone
out with my cat Ivy sitting on my
lap for a while, " said Michele Vaughn,
a middle school teacher in Tyler, Texas,
who, along with her husband, Jim, rescued
the white female with tabby spots nearly
seven years ago.
" Ivy has a really loud purr and is not
shy about using it, " Vaughn said. " You can
almost feel your blood pressure lowering. "
John Ball, who recently relocated from
Ellensburg, Washington, to Little Rock,
Arkansas, with his 14-year-old chow chow
mix and 8-year-old goldendoodle, echoed
Vaughn's sentiments.
" Every time Miss Hallie and GusGus
lick my hand to go outside for a romp,
I think I can literally feel my blood
pressure decreasing, " he said. " I always say,
it wasn't really a bad day if I come home to
two wagging tails. "
According to the American Veterinary
Medical Association's most recent
U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics
Sourcebook, 56 percent of American
households include pets. And the majority
of these pet owners, 63.2 percent,
consider their companion animals to be
family members.
Like Vaughn and Ball, many also
believe that their pets are not only " tuned
in " to their physical and mental health, but
can also actually help improve them. Is
this possible?
In some cases, yes, according to
researchers like Philip Tedeschi, M.S.S.W.,
L.C.S.W., executive director of the Institute
for Human-Animal Connection and
clinical professor at the University of
Denver Graduate School of Social Work.
The amount of research in the area of
human-animal interaction is increasing
every day, and it is confirming what many
people with companion animals have
already recognized instinctively. " Nonhuman
animals are a very critical part
of people's lives - part of their support
systems and some of the most reliable
and relevant and valued relationships
that people have, " Tedeschi said. Experts
agree these relationships can, in turn,
often have a positive impact on physical
and mental health.
34 | Cooperative Living | February 2017
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© STEVE CREEK
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Cooperative Living February 2017
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