People have had pets going far back into antiquity, and those pets have fulfilled roles such as companionship, surrogate children and spouses. However, it’s only been in comparatively recently times that hard science has taken a dispassionate look at the reality behind the widespread belief that pets have genuine benefits to bestow on their owners’ physical and emotional well-being.

Healthy pets, healthy people

It’s easy to understand the more simple and obvious advantages of having a pet in your life. Owning and caring for a pet can enhance feelings of:

  • Self-esteem
  • Safety and security
  • Self-worth.

Additionally, pet owners are less likely to suffer the effects of:

  • Loneliness and isolation
  • Stress and depression
  • Sadness and loss due to the death of someone close.

Also, activities such as shows or pet-related hobbies can present the opportunity to meet people with similar interests, offering stimulating social interaction. Pets require care, affection and attention, and this gives the owners a sense of purpose that might otherwise be lacking. All of this fosters a climate of enhanced emotional and psychological well-being.

Extra benefits

There are understandable difficulties in measuring the changes in levels of things such as stress and sadness, because they can be relatively subjective. So, over the past 30 years research has sought to identify and quantify the physical differences pet owners have from people who don’t own pets. Some of the results have been surprising and conclusive. Significant numbers of pet owners enjoy a boost in:

  • Cardiac health – lower blood pressure, lower levels of the harmful types of cholesterol and triglycerides. This is not simply attributable to exercise from taking the dog for a walk, because cat owners present comparable results
  • Immune system – lower incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a fairly common cancer of the immune system, pre-primary children in households with pets have fewer allergies and fewer days off from school.

Additionally, proponents of pet therapy point to increasing numbers of hospitals using pets therapeutically with a variety of patients, and cite studies where pet owners are shown to live longer after a heart attack than non-owners.

There is no doubt that pets play an increasingly significant role in many people’s lives, and their owners have long since been singing the praises of their own particular little darling. Now that science has stepped in and identified the therapeutic benefits, it only confirms what the pet owners knew all along: that their Fido or Ginger is worth their weight in gold.

Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day if you want to know more about the role of pets in our well-being. Call us on the EAP number or email us at help@lifeassist.co.za.