Your Four-Legged Healer...
How Cats Are
Good for
Your
Health
By Linda
Marks
All of the four-leggeds who live in this house have had their time as
“senior clinical associates.” Golden is the ambassador of love in the
front yard most of the year, when the weather allows him to meet
and greet all who pass by. The five felines who live on the second floor
have all contributed their special breed of medicine in the bathroom and in
the kitchen and hallways.
An article in the April 20, 2009 Boston Globe, however, provided them
with more impressive credentials: hugging your cat can improve your
health and even increase your longevity! “A growing body of medical
research suggests that people who own or interact regularly with animals
may be healthier than people who don’t.” And specifically, “Cat owners
are less likely to die of a heart attack than non-cat owners....Pet interaction
may help protect against allergies, asthma, and even some kinds of cancer.”
While, on the one hand, there have been studies that have shown that
elderly people who have pets live longer and are happier than those who
don’t, because pets are so common and familiar, there are many ways we
overlook them and take them for granted. No more! The National Institute
for Health has recently formed a public/private partnership with MARS (the
world’s largest maker of pet food), to fund and encourage research on the
timeless bond. James Griffin, deputy branch chief at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, stated
that, “while there are many small studies and much anecdotal evidence of
improved health among cancer patients, autistic children, and others after
interacting with animals,....large-scale, controlled studies are needed to
determine” the role animals play in human health, and how that healing
power may best be tapped.
Adnan Qureshi, a neurologist and executive director of the Minnesota
Stroke Initiative at the University of Minnesota, discovered that cat owners
were 40% less likely to die from heart attacks than non-cat owners. They
were also less likely to die from all cardiovascular diseases — including
strokes. The findings held true, he said, “even when the researchers took
into account other heart disease risk factors, such as age, weight, gender,
race and ethnicity, smoking and cholesterol levels.”
These findings do not surprise me at all. I have long considered a cat’s
purring their “love song.” Holding and petting a purring cat is soothing
for both cat and human. It also generates oxytocin, the anti-stress hormone
that counteracts the effects of the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol contributes to cardiac illness. Oxytocin contributes to cardiac health and reverses
the effects of cortisol. Science aside, I always feel more joyful, receptive and
open when I am holding and petting a purring cat! It just plain feels good!
Cats are also very emotionally tuned in. I have countless stories of
times cats responded to emotional and physical distress in their human
companions. When I am sad, my cats will curl up next to me, offering
comfort and connection. They just know when I need them, and make their
presence known!
While some people fret about pet dander and pet hair, several studies
have shown that pet ownership is actually good for our immune system. A
recent study in San Francisco found that people who reported ever having
owned a pet had about a 30 percent lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, a cancer of the body’s blood-filtering tissues, compared with
non-pet owners. The longer they owned the pet, the more protection they
appeared to have. Earlier studies have linked pet ownership during infancy
with a reduced risk of asthma and allergies, because exposure to pet dander
is believed to desensitize the body toward later contact. The California researchers theorize a similar chain of events with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Whether biologically or emotionally, it makes sense that beings whose
primary purpose is connection, companionship and love would contribute
to our well-being and improve the quality of our lives! So, pull out the
vacuum, let your four-legged into your bedroom, and enjoy their company
on your bed!
Linda Marks, MSM, has practiced heart-centered body psychotherapy (EKP) for
nearly 25 years with individuals, couples, families and groups. Linda and her 13-year-
old son Alex share their home with six four-legged healers: one dog and five cats. She
writes a monthly e-newsletter HealingHeartPower from which this article was
excerpted. For more information or to contact Linda,
www.healingheartpower.com,
LSMHEART@aol.com, (617)965-7846.
