5 Ways Keeping Pets Will Help Your Health

Pets Can Boost Your Mood

Just 10 minutes of cuddling your dog and cat can relieve stress by lowering the amount of cortisol in your body. Cortisol is a stress hormone that, in chronically high amounts, can negatively affect your health by raising blood pressure and causing fatigue, insomnia, weight gain, and other harmful effects. It can even weaken your immune system, leaving you vulnerable to contagious disease. Spending those few minutes with your dog will help relieve that stress and keep you from falling prey to a whole host of issues.

Keeping Pets Will Prevent Allergies (In Kids)

While the dander and dust from pets can cause problems for people who already have allergies and asthma, some research indicates that having pets in early childhood can prevent the sensitivity to allergens altogether. In a study that spans over three decades, keeping pets in the home was highly associated with a lower sensitivity toward allergens. It turns out all the grumpy old people claiming that kids need to go out and get dirty may have been right all along.

By the way, if you’re one of the unlucky people who’s allergic to dander, might we suggest a hypoallergenic breed? Or adopting a cat or dog without any hair at all? Their appearance may take some getting used to, but pet a Xolo just once, and you’ll find out how easy they are to love.

Having a Pet Will Make You More Active

Most medical professionals recommend 75-150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each week. That may sound intimidating at first, but having an active dog can make it fun and easy. A daily 20 minute walk or jog with the pup can have hugely beneficial effects on your heart health. Not only that, but a moderately active lifestyle can help you control your weight, improve diabetes, prevent strokes, strengthen your bones, improve your sleep, and even protect against dementia.

Remember when we said having a pet can boost your mood? The exercise that comes from having a dog is part of the mental health boost. Exercise has been extensively shown to improve mental health issues like anxiety and depression. While some mental health issues may make it difficult to exercise, having a pet that requires care can sometimes be the perfect motivation to get moving.

Pets Improve Mental Health

We’ve mentioned some of the ways pets can improve our feeling of well-being, but pets don’t just offer physical benefits to our health; they can be emotional healers too. A review of studies shows that pets offer “ontological security” or emotional support. Pets can be a way to feel connected to another living being, which is a particularly important need for our mental health. The companionship of pets can be a boon to people who are lonely and need a sense of social interaction. Some pets, such as dogs, can even encourage more frequent social engagement.

For other mental health issues, pets often offer an escape or distraction from their symptoms. The author of this review goes so far as to suggest that pets should be part of treatment plans for patients with mental health issues.

Pets Can Be Caregivers

People have bred and trained dogs as workers for centuries, so it should come as no surprise that dogs have already entered the medical field. Medical response dogs are trained to respond to specific health needs for an individual. For diabetics, the dog can be trained to sense when blood sugar levels suddenly drop. The dog will then alert the owner to check their blood sugar and address their specific needs.

Similarly, trained dogs can be used to assist people with conditions like epilepsy, alerting their owners to oncoming seizures, fetching medicine or telephones, and remaining close to the patient during their seizure. While guide dogs for the blind have been in use for quite some time, it seems the opportunities for other service canines are growing steadily. Organizations like the In Situ Foundation are currently training dogs to detect cancer in early screenings of at-risk populations. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before we see dogs in tiny white lab coats.

We know that people love their pets. We love their pets too. That’s why when Hugo isn’t roasting coffee in bulk, we’re partnering with organizations daily to ensure that each cup of coffee you drink supports the animals in our community. Whether you’re purchasing coffee beans in wholesale or in single serve pouches, you can be confident that our profits will help aid dogs and pets in need. We believe that the benefits of caring for animals are not just moral but physically tangible. We think taking care of animals is taking care of our community. That’s something worth raising a cup for.