Recent Study Links Dog Ownership and Healthy Blood Pressure

Aren’t dogs just lovely creatures? They keep us company all day long, they guard our homes, they protect our children and they provide us with years and years of unconditional loyalty and entertainment. All these attributes make it seem like dogs are almost the perfect pet to have at home, but what if we told you that having a dog can also help you restore and maintain healthy blood pressure levels?

Dogs’ Effect on Heart Health

We know it sounds farfetched, but in reality, the benefits of animal companionship have been evident for thousands of years, after all Egyptian pharaohs enjoyed the company of cats and a few years ago, the rest of a human being believed to be over 10,000 was buried alongside a puppy. Now science has taken matters into their own hands as usual and set out to prove that having animal companionship could be beneficial to our health.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Oregon State University in Corvallis focused on dog ownership and cardiovascular health and found out that those patients who are battling hypertension will have improved blood pressure levels in the short term and they concluded that owning a dog gives owners a sense of companionship or even a sense of purpose. This was especially true for older patients who are retired or disabled. The study also concluded that patients who spent a considerable amount of time with their dogs actually had considerably lower blood pressure levels than those who didn’t.

Animal Therapy

This breakthrough discovery will indubitably help people understand the benefits of animal-assisted therapy as more and more health professionals everyday are turning to therapy in order to provide an alternate high blood pressure treatment method that is basically non-invasive and beneficial to dogs who are struggling to find a home or that need to be adopted.

After the study ended, the researches then decided to travel to Florida in order to share their discoveries at the Scientific Meeting of the GSA (Gerontological Society of America) in hope of receiving feedback from their peers. After the presentation, the researches were extremely satisfied with the positive encouragement and feedback they received and reported that the other researchers were delighted with the results drawn from the study.

And while there are more active measures that people with hypertension need to take in order to restore healthy blood pressure, dog ownership is without a doubt one of the most interesting therapies for hypertension. However, in order to maximize the efforts and the results obtained by patients with hypertension, it is very important to make a list of significant lifestyle changes that will maximize the efforts that you will put towards restoring your blood pressure. For example, one of the most significant changes that you can make is lowering the amount of salt and other condiments and fast food/junk food, as these are usually packed with sodium. A diet high in sodium can lead to fluid retention, which then causes the heart and the other organs to work at an increased rate in order to be able to supply enough blood to the body at a steady rate, thus elevating blood pressure levels.

PD120: Natural Blood Pressure Supplement

Along with these lifestyle changes, patients may also consider adding a natural blood pressure supplement to their diets, for example PD120, a natural supplement made with natural, bio-available compounds that can help maintain healthy blood pressure without all the nasty side effects that are usually associated with OTC medication and prescription medication.

Another thing to consider for patients with hypertension is the importance of physical activity; usually as people grow older they tend to neglect exercise or ignore it completely due to aches and pains, and those people who were never very active in the first place, have no real motivation to start this late. But if you bring a dog into your home then that will give you the perfect excuse to start moving more often. We recommend going on long walks with your dog once or twice a day and you will notice that with the help of a healthy diet, a natural supplement, and increased physical activity, you can maintain healthy blood pressure without having to endure the nasty side effects usually associated with high blood pressure medication.