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The Amazing Power of Pets
398 Plays2 years ago
Many, many people have pets, and love them dearly... but most people simply aren't aware of the great benefits to physical, mental, and emotional health that can be gained from having a pet companion. Take a listen to learn more!
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Transcript
Introduction to Holistic Health
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Full Spectrum Holistic Health Podcast. This podcast is all about holistic health, what it is, various holistic and alternative health therapies, and how those may help you to be a healthier person. Thanks for choosing to listen today.
Meet Dr. Anthony Burton
00:00:21
Speaker
I know that there are a lot of podcasts out there for you to choose from, but I'm glad you're here.
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm the host for the podcast, Dr. Anthony Burton. I'm a Reiki master, EFT therapist, meditation teacher, and a shamanic practitioner. My goal is to help people be healthier in body, mind, and spirit.
Podcast Content Overview
00:00:43
Speaker
And that's why I'm here. A large part of what I do is educational in nature because so many people are unaware of the power and efficacy of various holistic and alternative therapies.
00:00:57
Speaker
In these podcasts, we will hear stuff that will inform you, enlighten you, and help energize and balance you. Of course, it won't always be just my opinions and ideas because sometimes I will be interviewing knowledgeable and interesting guests from a variety of areas of holistic and complementary health practice. So kick back, relax, open your mind, and listen.
Spotlight on Spectrum Holistic Health
00:01:25
Speaker
Spectrum Holistic Health is a complementary health and wellness business located in northwest Georgia, USA. Check out the website at www.spectrum-holistic.com for more information.
Emotional Pet Stories
00:01:53
Speaker
Okay, first off, full disclosure. Just a few days ago, my lovely wife, Laura, and I had the sad duty of sending our little princess sugar across the Rainbow Bridge. Yes, that's a euphemism for taking her to the vet and having her put to sleep. But doesn't that sound a little better? I like to think it does.
00:02:22
Speaker
sugar, our little long air chihuahua, was unhealthy for her part. She only had three legs, which over time had caused her spine to curve in development of hip dysplasia. She had a congenital ilea enlarged heart, which pressed on her lungs, and it made breathing difficult for her at times. And she had a leaky heart valve, also called mitral valve prolapse.
00:02:51
Speaker
But with all that, she lived for 10 years. In the end, though, she started having small seizures. And the last one was a terrible grand mal that we could not successfully combat. So we allowed her to rest. And believe me, we are still grieving over that loss. However, over time,
00:03:21
Speaker
She taught us many times how important it is to continue to strive in spite of handicaps and things that may work against us that we can't change. There were so many times that I looked to her for encouragement because, you know, if she could scamper out into the yard and quite literally work side by side with our other small dog we had at the time and chase off four coyotes that had wandered up toward the house.
00:03:49
Speaker
Who was I to gripe about my own limitations? I hope you'll forgive that little personal story. I only gave it as a way to introduce the idea that our pets, whether they are dogs or cats or birds or fish or whatever, can provide benefits beyond companionship.
History and Significance of Pets
00:04:11
Speaker
Now, it may have sounded like I was speaking disparagingly of those other animals, but I'm not.
00:04:15
Speaker
I had a beloved, well, I've had actually a few birds that I really, really, they were wonderful, wonderful pets and great company. And I've had fish, couple of cats, couple of skunks, in fact, some ferrets. So I've been around animals a lot. Pets, apparently, have been a part of human life.
00:04:43
Speaker
since the first young wolves crept into the glow of the firelight in order to share in part of a Neanderthal meal. In fact, I just saw this week a scientific article that said that the dogs that we have now, modern dogs, are actually descended from two distinct groups of wolves back in the Fargo long ago days.
00:05:09
Speaker
But then most of the ones we have now are descended from some animals that were domesticated in the East in what we consider, you know, in America, the Orient. So these young wolves that were trying to share part of a Neanderthal meal, maybe they were followed in a few generations by
00:05:36
Speaker
younger Neanderthals picking up dormites out of the grass and sneaking them into the communal cave to keep his pets. Dads may have considered the dormites as snacks and moms may have shrieked about finding them in the sleeping furs. We know from all the things that archaeologists have found that there were pets or at least domesticated animals that were not livestock.
00:06:06
Speaker
back as far as the Neolithic or New Stone Age.
Health Benefits of Pet Ownership
00:06:10
Speaker
An excavated burial from 9500 BC had a human with a small dog curled up in her hands. Cats and dogs and monkeys were all part of the pet scene in ancient Egypt. The Romans kept small toy dogs. They were too small to be useful for hunting or guarding. They kept them as pets.
00:06:36
Speaker
And in Renaissance Europe, there are records of clothing for the rich, of course, not the poor people, but the rich, with pockets specifically made for carrying small dogs. This reminds me a lot of the whole dog as fashion accessory thing that sometimes crops up in present day society where fashionable people carry a dog around in a purse or bag as a decoration.
00:07:05
Speaker
And of course, for centuries, both cats and dogs have played the part of a rat killer, helping to keep down the spread of disease and the destruction of food supplies. But pets, really, they are for more than decoration or rodent control. I want to discuss the part that pets can play in keeping us healthy, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
00:07:37
Speaker
Now, first of all, probably the most obvious one is exercise, at least with some pets, dogs in particular, walking the dog, jogging with the dog, playing fetch with the dog, throwing frisbees or sticks for the dog, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, some studies have suggested that dog owners get almost double the amount of exercise that those who do not have canine companions.
00:08:06
Speaker
Dogs, well not dogs, but pets in general, can have an influence also on our heart health. When we are around someone we care about, when we hug a loved one, our bodies, male or female, secrete a hormone called oxytocin. A woman who's lactating may experience this as a release of milk into the milk ducts of her breast. It's called when a woman's milk is let down.
00:08:37
Speaker
But everyone, male or female, who feels that hormone also experiences a decrease in blood pressure and anxiety. And of course, that, those decreases in anxiety and blood pressure, can help our heart to stay healthy. It's also why a hug from a loved one can be so comforting, whether it's your spouse, a parent, a child. Doesn't matter. Good friend, even.
00:09:06
Speaker
And this same sort of reaction, this development in the body of oxytocin, can come from simple playful interactions or caring interactions that do not even involve hugs. There was a 2015 study published in the journal Science that found that, quote, 30 minutes of such interaction between humans and dogs elevated oxytocin levels by over 300% in humans and
00:09:34
Speaker
by about 150% in the dogs," unquote. Now this may partly explain a study that found that the risk of a second heart attack within one year of a first was significantly less in dog owners.
Therapy Animals in Healthcare
00:09:51
Speaker
In a study of about 400 people who had all had heart attacks, only one dog owner out of 87 died within a year after that first heart attack.
00:10:04
Speaker
compared with 19 out of 282 who did not have a dog. Well, you know, maybe you're not into dogs. That's okay, fine. If you have a high degree of affection for your cat, your ferret, your guinea pig, your cockatoo, even your cold-blooded buddy like a lizard or snake,
00:10:31
Speaker
These affectionate and playful interactions can produce the same sort of reactions in your body. Now, in addition to our physical health, as far as exercise and heart health and so on, pets also can have a positive impact on our mental and emotional health.
00:10:55
Speaker
Whether many people like to admit it or not, dogs, cats, and other pets are not just livestock. Now I know I've known people in my life who, you know, if they had a dog, it was livestock. It was kept outside in a pen. It was fed, but it wasn't given any loving treatment or anything. It was just an animal. But for most people who have pets, they become family. They are companions.
00:11:25
Speaker
And for many singles and older people, they are surrogate support systems that they might ordinarily be supplied by human family members in the house, but which are not present. I want you to think about the many therapy animals that hospitals and hospices employ to lift the spirits are those of those who are confined. People who are going through cancer therapy,
00:11:54
Speaker
Maybe people who are approaching their own end of life. People who simply are lonely because they don't have family members who visit them, whether it's the cause of geographic distance, or because they simply don't have anyone.
Pets During the Pandemic
00:12:10
Speaker
All of these people often can benefit from visits from therapy animals.
00:12:16
Speaker
whether that therapy animal, a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, or even a goat. And yes, there are therapy goats. I just read about them recently that visit hospitals and nursing homes. If you've ever seen baby goats, you know how cute they can be anyway. Now this pandemic, which we hope is mostly over, but I won't say too much too soon,
00:12:44
Speaker
has also created hundreds of thousands of situations where people are separated from each other and from society at large all over the world. Having that living, breathing presence there in the home with you, someone who's eager to be with you, who relies on you, who gives you affection and attention, who is happy to see you and jumps up and down when you run in the room.
00:13:14
Speaker
Even if that creature is not human, it can provide comfort that boosts your mood and even, as stated before, help with physical health. Another thing that animals quite often do is to supply us with good humor, with laughter.
00:13:39
Speaker
Now how many of us have not watched a video either on television or a favorite social media site, you know, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, where a dog or cat or horse or bird or whatever animal does something ridiculous and we just crack up laughing. Sometimes it's because the dog can't seem to figure out that that stick he's carrying is just too long to get through the gate or the door sideways.
00:14:09
Speaker
Sometimes it's because the cat tries to climb the walls because it turns around from eating some food and is confronted by a cucumber on the floor. And for some reason, cats, I guess, and cucumbers are deadly enemies. Not sure about that. Maybe it's because a bird is really into the music and has dance moves that we would love to have ourselves. Laughter can benefit us in ways many of us probably don't know or think about.
00:14:41
Speaker
Laughter relaxes us and produces healthy endorphins that just course through our bodies. And those endorphins are good for us.
Mindfulness Lessons from Pets
00:14:51
Speaker
Laughter actually boosts our immune system, makes us more resistant to disease and makes it easier for our bodies to heal. Laughter can help banish fear and anxiety. And you know, with all the things that are going on now in the world,
00:15:09
Speaker
whether it is in Ukraine or whether it's in other countries or whether it's in this country here in America. There's a lot of stuff out there that can make people worry. And that fear and anxiety is rough on our health. And laughter can help get rid of some of that anyway. Laughter helps fight stress. There's just no way around that. And it's all good. All these things are good things.
00:15:42
Speaker
When our little dog Sugar, the one I spoke about at the beginning of this podcast, was alive, I remember being convulsed with laughter at her full body sneezing fits. She was really small. I think at her heaviest, the most she ever weighed was seven pounds, but most of the time it was, you know, four or five pounds. And so she got into a sneezing fit. She would sneeze.
00:16:11
Speaker
a sneeze, a sneeze and sneeze six or seven or eight or nine times. And each time her entire body was involved in the process and she produced an amazingly loud sneezing sound shaking her head violently with each paroxysm of sneezing. Then I would pick her up and cuddle her and comfort her and ask her what in the world was wrong?
00:16:40
Speaker
And that produced a nice dose of oxytocin for us both after enjoying the benefits of the laughter beforehand. So I guess it was a twofer or maybe even a threefer. You know, we all know how big of a buzzword mindfulness is right now. Well, pets teach us mindfulness. If we will watch them, we'll observe them a little bit.
00:17:09
Speaker
And rightly so.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:17:11
Speaker
I mean, mindfulness has a number of benefits to us that I've talked about before, so I'm not going to go into them now. But I want to ask you, have you ever looked at a cat and thought, wow, that cat looks so anxious and worried all the time? I haven't. Or maybe you watch your dog and think, gee, I wonder if he's worried about whether or not he'll have snacks tomorrow. Now, I really doubt either of those situations occurred. Why? Well,
00:17:39
Speaker
animals, whether they are feline or canine or reptilian or avian or amphibian or whatever, live in and for the moment. They don't stress out our things. Even wild animals who live from day to day, you know, lions don't lay around in their dens at night worrying about whether or not they'll be able to catch another zebra tomorrow for lunch. And the zebra
00:18:07
Speaker
that's out there grazing on the savanna in the Serengeti doesn't waste time worrying about some lion that may or may not be waiting for her tomorrow. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. And yes, I went there and that song just went through my head. So the lion and the zebra and all the other animals let tomorrow take care of itself.
00:18:33
Speaker
The zebra grazes and only reacts to danger when and if it actually appears, instead of worrying about whether or not it will appear. Animals are just mentally structured to be mindful. That's just how they operate. They don't worry about what may happen, what may not happen, but they live for the here and the now. By observing them, how they live,
00:19:03
Speaker
They interact with the world around themselves. We can learn a little bit about being in the moment the way they are. Hakuna Matata, as Pumba the Warthog and Timon the Meerkat in Disney's The Lion King Sing. No worries. So, having a pet, unless you're really allergic to that particular pet,
00:19:29
Speaker
And of course, if you're allergic to dogs, well, there are cats, and sometimes you don't like cats. There are birds and, you know, other things. And there are also dogs and cats that are hypoallergenic. They don't shed, you know. Those animals really, really can be so helpful to our health. They can be of such benefit to us. And, you know, who doesn't want to have a little bit of love once in a while?
00:19:59
Speaker
whether it's from a cat or a hamster or a dog. Think about that the next time you look at someone who may be walking their dog or talking to her like it's a little baby and you might be tempted to think, oh, how silly. Well, it's not silly. They are actually helping themselves to be healthy.
00:20:27
Speaker
while they are sharing their love and affection with that animal. And that animal is sharing their love and affection right back. Namaste. Well, thanks for being here and listening to the podcast today. I trust it has been interesting, informative, and thought-provoking. If you did find it interesting, please be sure to return for another episode and tell your friends too.
00:20:58
Speaker
I'd really love it if you did that. It helps me out. You can share directly from most podcast platforms and be really great if you followed or subscribed to the podcast too. If you want to tell me that you like the show, that you hate it, that you agree or disagree with me or anything else really, Hey, go for it. You can leave a voice message. If your particular podcast platform allows that, or you can leave a message until next time.
00:21:26
Speaker
Stay safe, stay healthy, and keep an open mind. Namaste.