Pets' Effects upon Human's Health

Look at this lovely puppy. This makes my day. I think most of people are living with pets today. In fact, according to the article "Pet ownership statistic", more than 62 percents of American households have at least one pet in 2012. 

You might or might not know, pets actually actually have both physical and psychological effects upon human. 

In fact, scientists have discovered that people who have a pet have healthier hearts, stay home sick less often, make fewer visits to the doctor, get more exercise and are less depressed. 

Pets also have psychological effects on human’s childhood. Nienke Endenburg in his article “The Role of Pets in Enhancing Human Well-being” says that pets help improve social and emotional development of children by building them self-esteem and developing their empathy. The youngsters who grow with pets learn at an early age how to care for and nurture a dependent animal. And for them, involvement, positive reinforcement and acceptance are important for building self-esteem.

Empathy is the child’s ability to understand how someone else feels. It is possible that by interacting with pets, children learn to understand the feelings and needs of animals and those of fellow human beings from an early age. And the research also found that children who owned pets felt more empathy towards other people.

Furthermore, pets also have been cited as providing important 'social' support.  Some researchers found that children regularly nominated pets when asked who they would go to with a problem. The 'social' support given by pets has some advantages compared to the social support given by humans. Pets can make people feel unconditionally accepted, whereas fellow humans will judge and may criticize.

Nowadays, most of the households are living with pets, and pets are no longer considered as house guards or burdensome animals we have to take care of, they actually affect us in beneficial way.