Pets may someday be called "people whisperers," if the current trend in research continues to show their therapeutic effect on humans.
People discharged from the hospital following a heart attack are almost six times less likely to die within the year if they own a pet. If the pet is a dog, survival rate is more than eight times greater.
Risk factors for heart attack (blood pressure, cholesterol) among the general population are lower among pet owners than among those who do not have a pet. In another study, they found pet owners show only half the increase in blood pressure in response to a stress test than do non-pet owners. This effect shows up even when the pet is not accompanying the human to the stress test.
Speaking in terms of dollars, according to an article in Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, an Australian study computed that it would save that country approximately 145 million dollars annually in total health-care costs if everyone in the country owned a pet.
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