Dog Ownership Linked To 24% Lower Risk Of Dying Early, Research Shows

(CNN) — Need an excellent reason to add a dog to your life? How about living longer? “Our analysis found having a dog is actually protective against dying of any cause,” said Mount Sinai endocrinologist Dr. Caroline Kramer, lead author of a new systematic review of nearly 70 years of global research published Tuesday in “Circulation,” a journal of the American Heart Association. The review of the health benefits of man’s best friend analyzed research involving nearly 4 million people in the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. “Dog ownership was associated with a 24% reduction in all cause mortality,” said Kramer, an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Toronto. The meta-analysis found an even bigger benefit for people who had already had a heart attack or stroke. “For those people, having a dog was even more beneficial. They had a 31% reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease,” Kramer said. Dogs and surviving illness A separate study of more than 336,000 Swedish men and women, also published Tuesday in “Circulation,” likewise found people who owned dogs had better health outcomes after suffering a major cardiovascular event such as heart attack or stroke. Heart attacks and stroke are the leading causes of death globally, according to the World Health Organization. The benefit was highest for dog owne...
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