Beth Birnbaum says she has experienced firsthand the health benefits of owning a cat.
For over 20 years, Birnbaum has been battling painful chronic diseases
such as fibromyalgia, arthritis and degenerative disk disease. The best
medicine for her pain, Beth found, did not come from a prescription,
but instead from her relationship with her adopted cat, Misty.
"Just last week I was on sofa, and in so much pain that I was
crying and couldn't get up," Birnbaum explained. "And Misty is not a
lap cat by nature, but she came over to me, hopped on the sofa, lied
down next to me and put her head on my shoulder and started purring
away."
"I can't really explain it, the feelings I have in those
moments," Birnbaum said. "My pain didn't go away, but it was truly
eased."
And new research suggests the benefits of cat ownership may
even go beyond pain relief. According to the study, presented Thursday
at the American Stroke Association meeting in New Orleans, cat owners
may actually be less likely to die from heart attack, stroke or other
types of cardiovascular disease.
Researchers
at the University of Minnesota's Stroke Research Center looked at 4,435
people, aged 30 to 75 years, who were participating in ongoing national
government health research from the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Study.
They found that over a 20-year period, those who had never
owned a cat had a 40 percent greater risk of death due to heart attack
and a 30 percent higher risk of death due to any sort of cardiovascular
disease than previous or current cat owners. Researchers found no such
protective effects for dog owners.
"This study links pet ownership to health consequences, and
that's very new concept that we haven't previously considered," said
lead study investigator Dr. Adnan Qureshi, executive director of the
Stroke Center at the University of Minnesota.
"I have heard an owner with a chronic, debilitating illness say that
her cat gives her a reason to get up each day," said Marla McGeorge,
veterinarian at The Cat Doctor in Portland, Ore.
Although the researchers weren't able to pinpoint the reason
why cat owners would experience these heart benefits, Qureshi believes
it might have something to do with the ability of cats to lower stress
and anxiety in their owners.
However, Qureshi admitted to the possibility that these heart
benefits might have more to do with the overall personality and
lifestyle of cat owners rather than the cats themselves.
"Maybe cat owners tend not to have high-stress personalities,
or they are just the type of people that are not highly affected by
anxiety or high-stress situations," Qureshi said.
The researchers were not able to analyze the personality traits
of the study's participants, and therefore could not stratify the
individuals based on personality to see how certain personality traits
might relate to cat ownership.
Because of this, some experts believe the research should be taken with a grain of salt.
"I believe the kind of person who would own a cat is a
nurturing, low-stress individual," said Nicholas Dodman, director of
the Animal Behavior Clinic and professor in the department of clinical
sciences at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North
Grafton, Ma. "Most cat owners I see are very invested in their pet. The
cat becomes a focus of their interests and seems to deflect them from
other worries."
Other experts were even more skeptical.
"If you believe this research, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you
at a very good price," said Dr. Steve Nissen, chairman of the
department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and
immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology.
Moreover, some experts pointed to past research on the health benefits of pet ownership which had vastly different conclusions.
A study of heart attack patients published in the American
Journal of Cardiology in 1995 found dog owners were six times more
likely to survive an additional year than patients who didn't own dogs.
The study found that owning cats, however, actually had an adverse
association with survival.
Dr. Robert Myerburg, director of the division of cardiology at
the University of Miami, said it makes more sense that dogs would
provide more heart benefit to pet owners than cats.
"That [makes] sense to me because cats are more allergenic, and
[the] immune response plays a role in heart attacks," Myerburg said.
"[I] don't know why this study comes out opposite."
However, Lawrence McGill, technical vice-president and veterinary
pathologist at ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City, Utah, said it might
make sense that cats would de-stress owners and present heart benefits
that dogs could not.
"I suspect this is due to the type of animal a cat is," McGill
explained. "The cat is most commonly a lap animal and wants [to be]
petted. When being petted, the stress level of the pet and owner goes
down, as well as heart rate and blood pressure in most cases."
In contrast, McGill pointed out that dogs require more hands-on
attention than cats, possibly contributing to the stress of the owner.
"When you get home from work, you have to give a dog attention,
[and] if it is walk time — sorry, you have to do this," McGill
explained. "They need to be fed on a routine basis. Dogs require [more]
attention hands-on and when they want it. Dogs cannot hide their
illnesses as much as a cat … [and] to some people, barking dogs are a
stressor."Still,
cat lover Marty Becker, veterinarian at the North Idaho Animal Hospital
in Sandpoint, Idaho, and author of "The Healing Power of Pets," said
he's experienced firsthand the health benefits from owning his five
cats.
"I had major surgery around September 2001 because of a slipped
disk in my neck and was going through a very hard time," Becker
explained. "It was right around 9/11, and all of that sadness and
stress was physically debilitating and I felt myself slipping away
mentally, but my cats could sense all of this and actually drew nearer
to me. I have experienced the healing power of these animals first
hand."
According to statistics from the American Veterinary Medical
Association, there are more than 72 million pet dogs in the United
States and nearly 82 million pet cats.