Your cat or dog can help you be healthy...?

New research reconfirms benefits in blood pressure. Stress levels and activity have been shown to be improved as well.

Anyone who has been attached to a cat or dog can tell you how their companion has helped them through tough times. Now, there's another study to prove it! Professor Erika Friedmann, a human-animal interaction expert at the University of Maryland, followed people suffering from mild hypertension over a 50- year period to determine the effect their dogs or cats had on their blood pressure levels. Preliminary findings include that people had lower blood pressure when in the presence of their animal companions in a variety of situations.

An earlier study conducted by Friedmann found that people of all ages experienced reduced stress responses in mildly stressful situations when in the presence of an animal companion.

Another researcher has found that retirees who walked with shelter dogs over a 12 week period significantly increased their physical activity both with the dogs and outside of that as well. A comparative group of retirees who walked with human companions tended to discourage each other from walking. Rebecca Johnson, director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri, asserts that there are physical benefits if you make a commitment to your dog...animals need to be walked and reinforcement from them and from exercise feels good.

So, if you're looking for one more reason to have an animal companion, think of your own health!