Pets and Healing Therapy BY anaconda Are Animals Beneficial to our Health? When we think of therapy animals most likely one would think of the service dogs that assist disabled people with daily activities in life; however is it possible that different animals could be beneficial to someone’s health? There are more than dogs being used for therapy in helping people either with a disability or health issues. Animals play an important role in people’s lives.
In addition to seeing-eye dogs and dogs that can be trained to detect seizures, animals can also be used in occupational therapy, speech therapy, or physical rehabilitation to help patients cover from various surgeries or procedures. Aside from these designated therapeutic roles, animals are also valued as companions, which can certainly affect the quality of our lives. Is that companionship beneficial to our health? Most pet owners will agree that there is something very special about the connection and the love you receive from your pet, and this is possibly why therapy animals can help people.
The bond between animals and humans is quite special. Animals can sense when a person has either a disability, whether it is physical or emotional. They will adjust heir behavior to adapt to the needs of the person they are interacting with. This is somewhat of a “sixth” sense that they posses that enable the animal to better assist the person with what their needs are. One very good example of this type of adoption by an animal was described in an article about the benefits of disabled adults and children swimming with dolphins at the Dolphin Research Center.
They have offered a program since 1988 which enriches the lives of children and adults with special needs. Joan Mew, the director of the Dolphin Research Center had this to say (page 72) “The dolphins seem to sense the disability of the people ND adjust their behavior accordingly. For instance, they’ll reduce their speed and power of a dorsal pull to accommodate the swimmer’s condition. ” The dolphins bring many benefits to the swimmer strengthening their motor skills, lessening stress, and focusing attention.
When the dolphins swim with autistic children and adults they help to bring confidence and a desire for autistic people to want to interact. By teaching an autistic child how to give commands to the dolphin, this brings the child into a more social world for them, something they do not necessarily experience on a daily basis. The dolphins are not Just for our pleasure to watch during shows at Sea World anymore; they bring benefits to our health.
Therapy animals bring substantial benefits to cancer patients who are either going through chemotherapy, radiation or have had surgery. Most cancer patients experience high levels of stress and depression due to their illness and treatments. Having a therapy animal around them reduces their stress and anxiety which allows the patient to focus more on their recovery and getting well. Another fantastic advantage to therapy animals interacting with cancer patients is it lowers their pain evils. Dry. Elise Sob had this interesting study from www. Vesturing. Com on the web; In the March 2006 issue of the “Journal of Holistic Nursing,” Dry. Elise Sob and associates Dunn that canine visitation therapy significantly reduced pain in pediatric patients. The researchers suggested that animal companionship helps reduce the cognitive focus on pain that may occur more with isolation during recovery. According to a November 2009 article in Science Daily, Francis Valises, Ph. D. , URN, and associates at Loyola University found that patients receiving pet therapy required 50 percent less pain medication.
Support animals can help the body release its own natural painkillers and help to reduce dependence on pharmaceutical painkillers, according to the study. This is amazing; the simple act of a therapy dog going to visit a cancer patient can reduce their pain levels. Maybe there should be therapy dogs on every oncology floor or cancer treatment facility. Another animal that might not be thought of as being used to bring health benefits to people is a horse. Horses are normally thought of as either being used for pleasure to ride or work animals.
However, horses are being used to help with people who have physical, mental or emotional issues. Children with ADD (attention deficit disorder) are able to concentrate on grooming the horse for long periods of time which they normally might not be able to do. Children and adults with autism also have greatly benefited from the interaction with horses, enabling them to come out of their quiet world and be more engaging with the horse and then also with people. Franklin Elevation from FEEL (Equine Facilitated Learning) at www. Hypotheses. Erg had this to say about horse therapy on the web “It’s been clinically proven that Just being in the vicinity of horses changes our brainwave tatters”, says Franklin. “They have a calming effect which helps stop people becoming fixated on past or negative events – giving them a really positive experience”. FEEL has proven to be particularly useful for children with autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and bipolar disorders – all of whom may find it difficult to communicate, interact with other people and carry out instructions. The results are startling.
Even those showing severe anti-social and aggressive behavior become calmer and more communicative. Horses are a definite plus to someone with either a physical, mental or emotional usability. Animals are a great benefit to people in nursing homes. The interaction with a pet can help with depression in these facilities. Some of the residents in these places unfortunately do not have family members who are able to visit them often, resulting in depression for the residents. They might start to become withdrawn and not interact with the other residents.
Brining a therapy animal to visit or even live in the facility enables the residents to come out of their sad shell and has them interacting with everyone involved with the therapy animal. Michael Iconic and his heresy dog Ella on particular visit to a nursing home had this experience (page 72) One resident, a wheelchair bound man named Dick, was physically immobilizers from a stroke. His nurse said he did not speak, after she placed Dick’s gnarled hand on Ell’s head and helped him gently stroke her fur, he croaked out “nice dog. The nurse’s eyes went wide with astonishment, and Sinks filled with tears. These therapy animals help bring people happiness and lower their stress and help Witt depression which is very beneficial to a person’s overall health In a research paper on the positive powers of pets written by Cindy C. Wilson, research director of Family Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences she reported that there were beneficial cardiac effects of animals in a sample of 92 healthy Caucasian college women in Arizona.
In her study she observed that both blood pressure and heart rate escalated when the subjects were asked to read aloud in a room with the experimenter. However when the subjects were asked to read aloud again while petting a friendly dog the heart rate and blood pressure decreased instead of escalating. Ms. Wilson also compared baseline measurements of blood erasure, heart rate, and specific psychological traits for the 92 woman. She focused on the cardiac effects and she had this conclusion (page 1560) “This study confirms and extends previous investigations indicating that the presence of a pet decreases blood pressure.
Petting an unknown but friendly dog appears to have a relaxation effect similar to quiet reading. ” The simple stroke of the animal’s fur is clearly not only relaxing but good for our health. James Rising M. D. ; D. V. M a physician and veterinarian in Wallace, Idaho will actually tell his patients to get a dog. He writes a “prescription” for a dog to be filled t the local pound. He believes the health benefits of owning a dog are stellar. Here are Just some of the benefits listed by Dry.
Rising (page 120) Drop Blood Pressure: Dog owners generally display lower systolic blood pressure than non owners. Decrease Hear Rate: When you’re petting a familiar dog, your heartbeat slows, your breathing regularities, and muscle tension eases. Lower Cholesterol and Triglycerides: High blood levels of low density lepidopterist (OLD) and triglycerides mean you have an elevated chance of developing heart disease. Dog owners have lower levels of both. Temper Reaction to Stress: In a recent study involving dockworkers, researchers found that those who owned dogs handled stressful situations better.
As a test the brokers had to calm a furious client who had lost $86,000, those with pets experienced only half the rise in blood pressure their pet less counterparts did. Survive a Heart Attack: Researchers tracked 92 men in the year following their first heart attacks. The second biggest predictor of survival (after degree of damage) was pet ownership. It outranked all other physical, social, and economic variables. Dry. Rising might be correct in giving his patients a prescription for pet adoption. The health benefits of interacting with animals are quite impressive.
