Dogs help reduce stress for heart failure patients

Mr. Charles Denson, who was moody in the nursing room, suddenly glowed when he saw his pet dog, Bart, visit. This 51-year-old heart failure patient feels relaxed every time he strokes Bart's soft fur.

At the recent meeting of the American Heart Association, researcher Kathie Cole of the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center published a study on the effectiveness of " pet dog " therapy in treating heart failure. . This is considered to be the first study based entirely on scientific evidence to recognize the effect of reducing anxiety, stress and pressure of heart and lungs in patients.

Cole and colleagues investigated 76 heart failure patients with an average age of 57, who were visited by a volunteer with a dog, or only a volunteer or no one to visit. The team meticulously identifies the patient's body reactions before, during and after each visit.

Observations show that the level of anxiety decreased by 24% among those with a visitor who followed a dog, a 10% decrease in those who had only visitors. Unrestrained anxiety in the group did not receive any visits.

The amount of epinephrine , a hormone that the body releases when stressed, reduces 17% in patients with one person and one dog, down 2% in the group of one person. This hormone increased to 7% in the " lonely " group.

Heart pressure dropped by 10% when a patient had a visit with a dog. This pressure increased by 3% when only visitors and 5% in the group did not visit. Lung pressure also decreased by 5% in the group of dogs and humans, but increased in the other two groups.

" When you see a pet dog, you will smile at first and then all worries seem to disappear, " Cole remarked. The author hopes that research is reliable evidence that shows the important role of " pet " therapy in treating heart disease.

My Linh ( according to AP )