I’m almost sure I’m going to lose most of my audience this post, and I am absolutely fine with that!
When I first interviewed Borunda and Redekopp, I actually had no idea just how much evidence there was available saying how beneficial dogs are to our health. I measn, I know the concept of emotional support animals didn’t just come out of nowhere, but it goes a bit further than I thought.
Allow me to reintroduce myself.
My name is Nani, and my old blog, with this same name, was primarily interested in using scientific findings to “prove” (as much as science can actually prove anything; the whole point is changing based on evidence) that physical health is mental health, which really should be an obvious conclusion, as the brain is literally part of -and controls- your body, but here we are.
Last time, I told you that there have been many studies about therapy dogs’ ability to ease symptoms of depression and anxiety, the 2 main areas they’ve studied so far. During interactions between dogs and humans (who aren’t scared of them), oxytocin has been found to lower heart rate depending on the situation and to lower blood pressure. It also naturally decreases cortisol levels in the blood. Psychologically, oxytocin is linked to things like trust and social and familial bonding.
In children in particular, dog interactions have also been shown to improve cognitive and learning skills, and stimulate greater frontal lobe activity.
In young adults, they’ve had similar findings, but they didn’t always necessarily lead to better test scores. Still, many universities and colleges provide dogs for their students prior to midterms, for example.
In dog-assisted rehabilitative therapies, such as for a woman recovering from a stroke, I found an anecdotal story of the author observing how much more enthusiastic and engaged she was when interacting and playing with this therapy dog, Peek. Even personally, I mainly retaught myself to walk after my coma by chasing my cat around the house. According to Frontiers in Veterinary Science, an analysis of 10 different studies showed that frequent dog interactions, in this case dog ownership, reduced mortality due to cardiovascular disease by 31%.
One conclusion from this analysis is that the act of taking care of and being around dogs motivates people to do things like playing, walking, feeding, etc., all things helpful in the recovery process anyway. Finding the motivation to do the things that are good for you is a huge part of the battle, and pushing past your own limits to do so isn’t realistic or sustainable. Just ask anyone with a chronic illness or physical disability.
To think that coming to these conclusions requires solid scientific evidence is a bit silly. There’s a reason psychology is considered a soft science: human beings are varied and unique. However it is still nice to know that it exists. It gives credence to experience, especially when our society isn’t always so fond of just accepting things as an unpredictable facet of human existence. I do agree it’s interesting knowing the ‘why’ sometimes, though.
Next up is part 3! Until then,
Salud.
No responses yet