The benefits of a dog on human health are often singled out by the medical profession. An American study had previously shown that dog owners have a lower body mass index than the others and that they go to the doctor less often, while other American researchers had discovered that the presence of a dog at home made children less anxious.
This time it was researchers from Sweden, from the University of Uppsala, who discovered that the presence of a dog in your life was not only good for your heartbut that it reduced the risk of death after a heart attack or one stroke.
The dog, good for the heart
For this study, published in Circulation magazine, the scientists used national registries to track all patients who had a stroke or heart attack between 2001 and 2012. They found that dog owners were on average less likely to die in the months that followed their hospitalization.
“This adds a component to our previous study which had shown that owning a dog is a particularly protective factor for people living alone, when the latter are usually more at risk of death or disease than people living as a couple“. No doubt because the dog provides social support and motivation for physical activity.
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