Cardiovascular health: your dog would also be the best friend of your heart.

Cardiovascular health: your dog would also be the best friend of your heart

Having a dog would help maintain good heart health, especially because of the physical activity that it induces. This is suggested by a study of more than 1,700 people.

Photo by Eric Ward

Good for morale, to fight against isolation, and for the heart. Decidedly, having a dog as a pet has important benefits for the health of his master or his mistress.

A new Czech study published in the September issue of Mayo Clinic's "Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes" shows that having a dog is linked to better heart health and fewer cardiovascular risks.

Researchers first gathered information on the health and socio-economic background of some 2,000 subjects in the city of Brno, Czech Republic, from January 2013 to December 2014, creating the "Kardiovize Brno 2030" cohort. Updates are planned for this cohort every five years until 2030.

The study included 1,769 people with no history of cardiovascular disease, including several health data that were annotated: body mass index (BMI), diet, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, blood glucose, and total cholesterol. The research team then compared the heart health of participants with a dog to those with another type of pet, or no pets.

"In general, pet owners were more likely to have optimal physical activity, diet and blood sugar levels," said Andrea Maugeri, co-author of the study. "The biggest benefits were visible to those with a dog as a pet, regardless of their age, gender, and educational level," he added.

For the researcher, adopting, saving or buying a dog could, therefore, be an interesting medical strategy for people at risk of cardiovascular problems, provided of course that they commit themselves to take good care of them. to lead a more active life.

Dogs reflect the stress of their master

Stress levels in dogs and their owners follow each other, according to a new study by Swedish researchers. They think dogs feel the same stress as their owner, not the other way around.

It is known that owning a dog helps to move better on a daily basis and to avoid social isolation. But what is the impact of Man on the latter? Researchers from Linköping University examined the influence of the lifestyle of people with whom dogs lived on their stress levels. Previous work has shown that individuals of the same species can reflect their respective emotional states: for example, there is a correlation between long-term stress in children and their mothers. In this study, the researchers put forward the hypothesis that similar levels of stress occur between a dog and his master.

For this reason, they determined the level of stress over several months within several "dog-owner" couples by measuring the concentration of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the hair of dogs and the hair of humans. "We found that long-term cortisol levels in the dog and its owner were synchronized, so owners with high levels of cortisol had dogs with high levels of cortisol, while owners with low levels cortisol have dogs with low levels of cortisol. "says Prof. Ann-Sofie Sundman, lead author of the study in the university's Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

To match a dog and his master

The study consisted of examining 25 Border Collies and 33 Shetland Sheepdogs, all their owners are women. Dogs and their owners provided hair samples twice, spaced a few months apart. Since physical activity can increase cortisol levels, scientists wanted to make a comparison between these pet dogs and competition dogs. Previous studies have shown that cortisol levels in saliva increase synchronously in dogs and their owners when they train together. This shows that the level of stress of dogs in competition seems to be more related to that of the owner.

A phenomenon that can be explained by the fact that there is a more active interaction between the owner and the dog when they train together. Dog owners were also asked to complete two questionnaires about their personality and that of their dog, and researchers wanted to know if stress levels are correlated with personality traits. "We did not find any major effect of the dog's personality on long-term stress. The owner's personality has had a powerful effect. This led us to think that the dog reflected the stress of its owner. "Explain the authors of the study.

These results suggest that the relationship between an owner and his dog affects the stress level of the dog in question. The researchers plan to study other breeds like the Border Collie and Shetland Sheepdog are dogs that have been raised to work well with humans and respond quickly to signals. "If we learn more about how different types of dogs are influenced by humans, it will be possible to match the dog and the owner in a way that is better for both, from a management perspective. stress. Some breeds may not be as deeply affected if their owner has a high level of stress. "Conclude the researchers.