The love of a dog is a real medicine, science confirms it

It is no coincidence that our animal friends are used in pet therapies, their affection heals just like a medicine and science says so too

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Those lucky enough to have a dog in their life already know it, our four-legged friend fills our days with joy, supports us emotionally and last but not least would be able to alleviate our physical suffering. This is revealed by a new study published in the journal Plos One that shows how the health of dog owners can benefit from their presence.

The study involved 200 patients in the emergency room, who were asked to fill out a questionnaire, indicating how much pain they were experiencing on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 referring to the highest pain. The patients were then divided into two groups, one of which was flanked by a therapy dog whom the study subjects stroked and cuddled for about 10 minutes. The researchers asked this group again to report the pain threshold experienced after 10 minutes of pet therapy and the results were more than promising.

The medical team also monitored the patients' blood pressure and heart rate which were measured both before and after the experiment. Although the values were not altered, the researchers noted a noticeable change in the mood of patients in reference to the state of anxiety, of depression that naturally have an impact on our perception of pain. Indeed, the survey showed that the group of patients who spent those 10 minutes with the dog reported that they felt less pain after being in contact with the animal than when he got to the emergency room.

The results confirmed once again the central role that therapy dogs can play in hospital settings in which they represent a comfort for the sick, helping them to cope with anxiety states related to the environment in which they find themselves, the long waits before being examined or the fear of undergoing more complex medical examinations. As we know, the hospital is not a welcoming place, but it could become a little more thanks to the dogs.

Even today there is still a great deal to discover about human-animal interaction.

Our current understanding of the effects of therapy dog visits to emergency wards is quite limited "

said Jessica Chubak of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, but this great potential can form the basis for a multifaceted approach to help patients more.

Source: Plos Org

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