A team of international researchers has found that people who keep cats are relieved of stress and anxiety. They have less heart and blood pressure problems than other people. ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted the lead author Professor Adnan Qureshi of the University of Minnesota as saying, “The logical explanation for this could be that keeping a cat relieves stress and anxiety and as a result reduces the risk of heart disease.
Stroking a pet cat improves blood circulation
According to the researchers, one reason may be that caressing a pet can reduce the level of stress-related hormones in the blood. The team arrived at this conclusion after analyzing data from 4,435 adults aged 30 to 75, about half of whom owned a cat. The team then tracked mortality from all causes, including heart and stroke.
Professor Qureshi said that after a 10-year follow-up, cat owners had a lower rate of death from heart attacks than people who did not own cats. He said that the flow of blood circulation reduces the risk of heart attack by 30 percent, which was a bit surprising.
When the team took into account factors known to trigger heart disease, including high cholesterol levels, smoking and diabetes, cat owners were much less likely to develop a stroke or heart attack. “We certainly expected an effect, as we felt there was a biologically plausible mechanism at work. But the magnitude of the effect was hard to predict,” the research found.
This conclusion was the main result of a 10-year study conducted on more than 4,000 Americans by researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Institute in Minneapolis. The institute’s executive director Dr. Adnan Qureshi, who is also the senior author of the study, told US News and World Report that we have been doing research on this for years. We clearly saw in this research that compared to the general population, people who keep cats are in better health and they also have a lower risk of stroke and heart attack.
Disclaimer: Some of the information given in the news is based on media reports. Before implementing any suggestion, please consult the concerned expert.
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