Science plus common sense

One of the pioneers of PFT was Erika  Friedman, head of the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences  at Brooklyn College. Even though there were obvious benefits to owning pets shown in many of the studies, common sense needs to be applied to the findings.

Pets are not medicine, and the scientific  case for the benefits of pet ownership is not watertight. In 1995  in a review of research, Dr. Friedman said there’s no question  that emotions have an impact on health, and that pets may help  promote positive emotions.

Still, it will always be difficult to  study this subject scientifically, since emotions are not measureable.   If pet owners are healthier,  it’s always possible that they were healthier to begin with. Clinical trials are impossible in areas like this—you can’t  really hand out pets and test their effects, as you might test  the effects of a drug.

Also, though it has been shown that  the presence of a friendly pet can have a positive effect on heart  rate and blood pressure, it’s not clear that a person actually  has to own the animal to get the effect.
They could get it from petting an animal coming to visit it for a certain period of time for example. Pet ownership is a big repsonsibility and is becoming prohibitively expensive for some as we struggle through this current recession.

Still, Dr. Friedman concludes  that since heart disease and other stress-related diseases are  so common in our society, it can’t hurt to recommend pets  for their calming effect—at least for people who like animals  and are willing and able to undertake the responsibility and expense of owning  one.

Continued in The Power of Pawsitive Thinking Part 3