Petting a dog or cat<br /><br />Spending just 10 minutes petting a dog or cat can improve your mood and reduce stress.<br /><br />Scientists studied 249 students to look at what happened when they stroked one of the animals.<br /><br />It was known that stroking cats or dogs can boost your mood, but now there is real research to prove the physiological effects of doing so.<br /><br />The team from Washington State University found that there were huge reductions in the stress hormone cortisol from just 10 minutes of interaction.<br /><br />Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development, said: ‘Students in our study that interacted with cats and dogs had a significant reduction in cortisol, a major stress hormone.<br />‘Just 10 minutes can have a significant impact.’<br /><br />The results were published in the journal AERA Open as the first study demonstrating reductions in students’ cortisol levels during a real-life intervention rather than in a laboratory setting.<br /><br />The 249 college students who took part were randomly divided into four groups.<br /><br />The first group received hands-on interaction in small groups with cats and dogs for 10 minutes. They could pet, play, and hang out with the animals.<br /><br />To compare the effects of different exposures to animals, the second group observed other people petting animals while they waited in line for their turn.<br /><br />The third group watched a slideshow of the same animals available during the intervention, while the fourth group was ‘waitlisted.’<br /><br />Those students waited for their turn quietly for 10 minutes without their phones, reading materials, or other stimuli but were told they would experience animal interaction soon.<br /><br />Several salivary cortisol samples were collected from each participant, starting in the morning when they woke up.<br /><br />Once all the data was crunched from the various samples, the students who interacted directly with the pets showed significantly less cortisol in their saliva after the interaction.<br /><br />These results were found even considering that some students may have had very high or low levels.<br /><br />Professor Pendry said: ‘College is stressful. Students have classes, papers, and exams, but they also often have work, bills to pay, and so many other pressures common in modern life.<br /><br />‘We already knew that students enjoy interacting with animals and that it helps them experience more positive emotions.<br /><br />‘What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way, which it did.<br /><br />‘This is exciting because reducing stress hormones may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health.’<br /><br />FACT OR FAKE<br /><br />#facts #factorfake #catanddog #animalsfacts #cat #dog
