Something to purr about: cats reduce heart attack risk

[Catty1]

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/...artattack.html

Something to purr about: cats reduce heart attack risk
Last Updated: Friday, February 22, 2008 | 4:30 PM ET
The Canadian Press

A U.S. study suggests having a cat at home could cut your risk of a heart attack by almost a third.

The finding suggests that the stress relief pets provide to humans is heart-healthy.

Cat owners appeared to have a 30 per cent reduction in heart attack risk, the study found.



Researchers analyzed data on more than 4,400 Americans, age 30 to 75, who took part in the U.S. government's second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, which ran from 1976 to 1980.

A little more than half of the study participants either owned a cat or had owned a cat in the past while the rest had never done so.

Researchers tracked the rates of death in the entire group from all causes, including heart and stroke.

The cat owners had a 30 per cent reduction in heart attack risk than participants who didn't own cats, said the study's lead author, Dr. Adnan Qureshi of the Minnesota Stroke Institute.

But dog lovers shouldn't feel left out, he stressed.

Dogs would probably bring people the same kind of benefit, Qureshi said, but the numbers of dog owners in the study wasn't big enough to count statistically.

[Moesha]

If you have more cats, does the risk go down even more? With 8 cats, I could have little to no chance of a heart attack!

[Catty1]

Heck, adopt two more, you'll live forever!

[columbine]

Hmmm - either it's because they steal our hearts so that we can't damage them, or maybe they loan us a couple of those 9 lives?

Love, Columbine

[catmandu]

I Have To Agree With Moesha, With 9 Found Hotel Cats, I Should Be Healthy For Years To Come.
Thats Great News.

[momcat]

The beneficial effects of having a cat, or any pet, have been proven many times. When someone is petting a cat, blood pressure goes down as does stress levels. My Mom is in a nursing home and a few times a month a group brings kitties and dogs to visit the residents. The residents love it when one of the dogs comes up to lick their face or a kitty jumps in their lap purring and wanting to be petted. And of course the pets absolutely love all the attention they recieve. A local hospital even allows patients to be visited by their pets! How great is that?

[krazyaboutkatz]

This is great news!!! I already knew that owning an animal would help lower your blood pressure and stress levels. Both of my parents have high blood pressure and they've owned cats before but haven't for quite a long time now. Maybe I should e-mail them this study.