Is it true that cats can treat people?

There is a common idea that cats have a beneficial effect on people's health and even treat them from physical and mental illness. We decided to check if this is so.

Despite the fact that this statement sounds like another myth, in medicine there is even a separate concept for him - felinotherapy. This is a variety of animal therapy (that is, therapy with the participation of animals), where the cats act as “doctors”. Scientists recently began to seriously investigate the influence of these animals on human health, but there are already work that Confirmthat cats can really have a beneficial effect on people with depression, arthritis, scattered sclerosis and some other diseases. At the same time, Polish researchers note that the ragdolla, Main-kun and American short-haired are best for such therapy. It should be adult healthy cats from a year, sterilized and completely vaccinated.

The most widespread opinion is that cats have a beneficial effect on people with depression and other mental problems. In fact, this is true not only for cats. According to data survey The research institute for human relations with animals, any pets calm their owners, help relieve stress after a difficult day, improve the mood, which, of course, has a beneficial effect on the psychological state of people. This is due to the fact that interaction with animals Enhances The production of oxytocin, hormone, which reduces the level of anxiety and gives a sense of confidence and security. At the same time, the survey revealed a direct dependence between this positive effect and the duration of human communication with a pets. During self-isolation due to Covid-19 pandemia, many began to spend more time with their favorites, and the number of people who notice that pets have a beneficial effect on their psychological health have increased by 13%. 

In addition, pets effectively help to deal with feeling loneliness, replenishing the lack of social ties with people, which also positively affects the psychological state of a person. It was this property of cats, by the way, helped James Bowen, a former drug addict and author of the book "Street Cat named Bob". Acquaintance with the vagabal cat, according to Bowen, helped him overcome dependence and depression and find the meaning of life.

Specialists of the Minnesotsky University They saythat the influence of cats on the psychological state of a person is so great that it helps to reduce the risk of a heart attack by almost a third. For 20 years, they observed 4435 Americans, 55% of which cats lived at home. Scientists discoveredthat, adjusted for other factors, the owners of these animals have a significantly lower risk of heart attack than other participants in the study. The same applies to other cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, scientists believe, domestic cats can become a new recognized prevention method for people with an increased risk of myocardial infarction.

At the same time, a similar effect has even simple monitoring of cats. Biologists of the University of Volgograd conducted experiment: Participants watched a video with cats and listened to the audio recordings of their purification, while scientists measured their pulse, pressure and heart rhythm. After some time, observation of cats all the indicators of the participants normalized, especially beneficial images of cats and the sounds of the purple affected pressure.

According to some researchers, cats help normalize dream. A survey Pets owners in Britain even showed that many people (especially women) sleep more comfortably and calmly with a cat or dog than with their partner.

Usually, dogs act as animal companions, but in recent years cats also joined this work. So, a cat lives and “works” at Denver airport Kseli, which helps travelers cope with stress due to transfers, canceling flights or changing time zones. Stitch, a cat-therapist, Helps passengers and flight crews at the airport of Minneapolis. Cat by name Duke Ellington Supports patients in the medical center of San Francisco.

But psychological support is not all that cats are capable of. Specialists of the Research Institute of Interactions with Fauna in North Carolin found outthat the cats are purring at a frequency of 27 to 44 hertz, and this helps their bones grow up, and heal the wounds faster. At the same time, there is researchthat the effect of frequencies from 25 to 50 Herz strengthens the human bones and helps them grow. Accordingly, the murmur has a beneficial effect on people with bone diseases and injuries. Of course, the effect that the purring cat has on a person has a slightly lower than the one that she receives, but this gave scientists an idea in the future to create a certain mechanism that reproduces the purring to treat those patients who are difficult to perform strengthening physical exercises.

In addition, some notice that cats themselves sometimes lie on sore spots, for example, next to aching joints, and pain subsides. Studies that would explain this from a scientific point of view could not be found, but there is a version that the temperature of the inflamed part of the body increases, and the cats stretch to heat. Moreover, their own temperature It is much higher than human-38-39 ° C, so animals lying next to the patient part of the body have a thermal effect that can slightly reduce the pain, as if it were a heating pad. However, there is no scientific evidence of this.

Of course, for many people, “cat therapy” is an inappropriate option due to allergies to wool. But oddly enough, it is cats that can help avoid the development of allergies - and not only on themselves. American scientists found outthat children who in the first years of life grew up in a house with two cats or dogs are less prone to allergies to wool, pollen and some other allergens than those who grew up with one animal or without at all. Swedish researchers Confirmed This theory, moreover, they believe that the child will grow with a large number of animals, the lower the chance that he will have an allergy. According to their calculations, the risk of developing allergies in children who at an early age lived with five or more cats or dogs, strives for zero. Reduces communication with cats and the probability of development asthma.

Thus, cats really have a beneficial effect on human health: they soothe, reduce the risk of various diseases-from cardiovascular to allergic, and improve the psychological state. Although they, of course, are not a panacea or a replacement of traditional medical or therapeutic treatment, but may be an addition to it.

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What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that cats meow only for the sake of man?
2. Is it true that animals can foresee earthquakes?
3. "Street Cat named Bob" James Bowen