Playing with Cats Can Reduce Stress

 Pet owners for klangenan have long known, more precisely to feel, that spending time chatting with cats or dogs or other favorite animals is very effective to relieve mental tension and improve mood. In fact, observations show that pets should be part of the patient's recovery / treatment efforts because they are very beneficial for mental health and human comfort.

 The above is scientifically strengthened with the results of new research conducted by Patricia Pendry and Jaymie L Vandagriff, both researchers from Washington State University (Pullman, USA). They tested the effect of pets on the physiology of a number of students.

 The scientists recruited 249 students who were then divided into four groups where the first group was freed to pet and play with cats and dogs for 10 minutes. The next group was assigned to observe people who were interacting with pets while waiting for their turn to play. The third group watched a slide show of various animals, while the last group just sat waiting in silence.

 The saliva samples of the students were collected by Patricia and Jaymie to test their cortisol levels both before and after conducting the experiment. Cortisone is a hormone that will be produced when the body responds to stress. Testing is done using multi-variance linear regression analysis.

 Overall analysis results showed that students who interacted with animals, with very low or very high cortisol levels before the experiment, had significantly decreased cortisol levels after the experiment.

 Jayme revealed that before the experiment began, they learned that the participating students really enjoyed interacting with animals and it helped participants to feel more positive emotions.

 "We want to learn whether interactions with these animals really can help students significantly reduce their stress." Said Patricia, "And it is indeed true. This is very interesting because shrinking stress hormone levels at any time can provide benefits  significant for physical and mental health. "

 This encouraging finding made both researchers eager to continue their research. The plan they will hold a similar study with a longer duration, which is 4 weeks. This research is the first study involving students as participants with conditioning like real life, not simulation in the laboratory.