Pet Therapy and Senior Care Part I

:  Pet Therapy and Senior Care Part I

Pet therapy has been proven effective in senior care. Pets and their senior companions gain numerous benefits from this relationship. Having someone to care for it is something any pet would love to have. In response, the pet can reward its caretaker with undying loyalty. Though human companionship is still the best for seniors, animals can offer them an unconditional love and unreserved affection.

Scientific research proves that having a pet in your family can bring great health benefits, especially to the senior members of the family. The known benefits of animal-human interaction are numerous. However, the bond between a therapy pet and a patient goes deeper than just simple companionship. The treatment yields physical, mental, and emotional benefits.

Physical Benefits

Animal therapy can bring a lot of physical health benefits. Although it all depends on the type of therapy, the benefits that a senior gains from it include the following:

• Just by holding an animal, a person can be relieved of symptoms of depression, have lower blood pressure, and even cut the healing times of surgical patients.
• Heart attack victims owning a pet have longer term survival rates than those who did not.
• Widows with cats are at an advantage over those without one. During their critical stress time, which is the first year after they lost their husbands, cats have been shown to help fill this void in their lives.
• Dog owners who have had a myocardial infarction are more likely to remain alive after one year.
• An increase in physical activity related to owning a pet such as pet grooming, dog walking, and petting can improve blood circulation, strengthen the heart, and slow down the loss of bone tissue. 
• Compared with non-owners, pet owners have shown lower levels of triglyceride and cholesterol
• Loneliness is the very common among seniors. Far more seniors suffer from loneliness that from heart disease or cancer. Love is the best health tonic that can heal this disease, and pets are one of the best providers of love.