From today’s TMA Medical News Roundup:
Intervention With Therapy Dog May Reduce Pain Among Patients In ER, Study Indicates
“CNN (3/9, Holcombe) reports that “for patients suffering from pain in the emergency room [ER], just 10 minutes with a” therapy dog “may help reduce pain, according to a study” that “asked more than 200 patients in the emergency room to report their level of pain on a scale from 1 to 10” before and after the intervention. Patients “who got the visit from the dogs reported less pain,” the results published in PLOS One revealed.”
Studies have repeatedly shown that those of us who live with and have healthy relationships with pets tend to live longer and are less likely to suffer from things like heart disease and stress-related illnesses. Research suggests that is also true of having children, but I seem to recall that it was a mixed bag. Kids impose a certain discipline on their parents’ lives – wake time, bedtime, and the like- that are generally beneficial. On the other hand, they create stress as well.