We are a nation of cat-lovers and many people like having cats around the house. Whilst this is often done to foster a sense of companionship – recent studies have suggested that your chances of experiencing a heart-attack or cardiac-events can be reduced by 30%, if you have a cat at home.
For many health and wellbeing experts, reducing stress and anxiety is essential to minimising chances of suffering from cardio-vascular disease. This is one of the reasons that types of pet-therapy are encouraged for people with mental-health problems, and the companionship of a cat can help you to relax and manage stress. For those of you who prefer dogs, there’s no cause for concern, as canine-companionship is also considered to engender similarly soothing and therapeutic effects.
However, whilst the idea that having a cat around the house can be emotionally beneficial is becoming increasingly popular for some mental-health experts, some sceptics feel that this idea is unconvincing, and suggest that perhaps some cat-owners are less prone to stress, in the first place. Many have referenced a recent journal which states that cat-owners are more prone to heart-disease. This can be attributed to the fact that cats can cause allergic reactions in their owners and people around them and that different levels of effort are required for looking after each animal. For instance – whilst cats can be left to their own devices, and often favour a more, “hands-off approach” to pet-care, dogs need to be walked at-least twice a day by their owners. As regular exercise is a key factor in maintaining a healthy-heart, people who own dogs are often forced to do it, whether they want to or not!
Conversely as dogs require more attention – they can induce higher-levels of stress if you wish to be left alone, whereas cats are a good deal more passive and require considerably less attention. So In some ways, it all comes down to whether you are a “cat-person” or a “dog-person” or of course, neither!
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