Pets can improve your mood. It's a known fact that owning a pet can greatly improve your mood. After all it is virtually impossible to stay in a bad mood when you see a pair of loving eyes staring at you or feel a loving cat rub up against your legs as it's purring.
Pets can also control blood pressure better than drugs. ACE inhibiting drugs can generally reduce blood pressure but they are not as effective on controlling spikes in blood pressure due to stress and tension. In a group of New York stockbrokers who owned dogs or cats were found to have lower blood pressure and heart rates than those who didn't. When they heard of the results, most of those in the non-pet group went out and adopted pets.
Pets can also help with social support. When we are out walking the dog it makes us more approachable and gives people a reason to stop and talk thereby increasing the number of people we meet. This gives us an opportunity to increase our network of friends and acquaintances, which is also a great stress management benefit.
Pets can reduce stress sometimes more than people. We all know the power of talking about our problems with a good friend who is a good listener. Recent research shows that spending time with a pet may even be better. Pets will understand when you are feeling down and depressed and they will offer companionship more than most people.
