A team of scientists found that dog owners have lower risks of cardiovascular disease and death. How do dogs protect their humans from untimely disease and death?
Canine Protectors From Cardiovascular Disease And Death
Utilizing data from seven different national registries of 3.4 million individuals in Sweden, a team of Swedish scientists wanted to find out whether dog owners have different disease and death risks compared to non-dog owners. The data they studied included dog ownership registration, which has been mandatory in Sweden since 2001, and hospital records in the national database.
What they found was that having a dog evidently lowers the risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and other causes. Generally, they found that having a dog lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease among single-person households, and lowers death risks among the general public.
Their results also showed that people with hunting dogs actually have the lowest risk of cardiovascular diseases compared to other groups. What's more, they found a 33 percent reduction in death risk and 11 percent reduction in myocardial infarction risk among single dog owners compared to single non-owners, something that the authors find quite interesting.
"A very interesting finding in our study was that dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone," said Mwenya Mubanga of the Uppsala University, lead junior author of the study who also points out that perhaps dogs serve as a stand-in family member in single households.