Honestly, when it comes to sitting down with my dog and petting him I really don’t need much of an excuse. But more than the simple, pure form of companionship that dogs offer, there are actual genuine, measurable health benefits to time spent with man’s best friend.
Recent research into the time-honored bond between man and animal has proved that daily interactions with our pets have a positive effect on our biochemistry, thanks to a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is a powerful hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in our brains. It regulates your social interaction and sexual health, playing a role in behaviors that range from maternal-infant bonding, to empathy, to generosity.
When we hug or kiss a loved one, oxytocin levels increase, leading it to be known as “the love hormone.” Basically, oxytocin is the chemical that helps you bond with other living things.
How Dogs Help
A Japanese study was published a few years ago in the journal Hormones and Behavior titled Dog’s gaze at its owner increases owner’s urinary oxytocin during social interaction. The study involved 55 dogs and their owners. The owners whose dogs gazed at them for two minutes or longer showed higher levels of oxytocin than owners whose dogs gazed at them for less time. The people with dogs with a long gaze – about 23 percent of the group – also claimed to be happier with their dogs than owners whose dogs’ gaze was only around a minute long.
Another study conducted by the Nation Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) showed that petting a dog lowers your blood pressure in a phenomenon known as the “pet effect.” In the NCBI study, sixty people had their blood pressure and heart rates monitored when they interacted with dogs. When they pet the animals, their blood pressures were lower than when they talked to the dog. This means that touch was the cause, rather than simple cognition.
And in a third study published a while ago conducted at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, dog owners were put into an empty room and asked to sit on a rug with their dogs. For half an hour, the owners were instructed to focus all their attention on their dogs, to speak with them, and to pet them. For this study, blood was drawn both before and after the test.
The researchers then found that the dog owner’s not only experienced decreased blood pressure, they also showed higher levels of oxytocin and several other hormones. These hormones are involved with both pain relief and euphoria.
In Conclusion
There is really no excuse for you not to spend a structured chunk of your day not only exercising your best animal friend, but also to invest some time in cuddling them too. It not only makes your dog happy and forms a stronger bond between the two of you, but there are measurable health benefits to treating our fuzzy buddies to pets and love.
