Swedish researchers have been tracking over 3.4 million heartless Swedish residents for 12 years. There are dogs and there are no dogs. By analysing the mortality rates of these populations, scientists draw conclusions by age and sex. The mortality rate of the dog population is 20 per cent lower than that of the non-dog population. Especially for long-lived "i.e. older people," the mortality rate of older people with dogs is 33 per cent lower than that of other non-dogs, and the cardiovascular rate is 8 per cent lower -- for example, stroke or heart failure.
Studies have shown that people with pets — or especially dogs — have some healthy advantages: the population of dogs needs to walk, which requires more movement on the part of the masters, so they can maintain lower blood pressure. According to a paper published in Scientific Reports, lower blood pressure has a significant benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular diseases are by far the most "killing" diseases in the world. "Dogs are forced to change a lot of life habits," says Professor of Epidemiology Resistance at Uppsala University, Tove Fall. "For some people, it is difficult to live alone and maintain healthy lifestyles, and dogs can help.
For this study, researchers analysed information on 3.4 million Swedish residents of government mobile phones over 12 years, including birthdays, sex, age, health status, marital status, and, of course, their health. Since 2001, Swedish residents with dogs have been required to register with relevant institutions, and doggies need to implant a dog with a subcutaneous chip or an ear tattoo so that researchers can ensure the accuracy of the data.
Although the results are clear — 3.4 million people have been able to rule out most of the coincidences as experimental samples — the dog breeders do live longer. However, the specific reasons are not clear, and it may be that, as in the previous conclusion, dogs can make people more mobile or reduce stress. Fall said that dogs could benefit more if they were alone, because dogs needed to exercise outdoors so that they could “forced” people who were not good at sports to walk out of their legs. The majority of people living alone are also able to gain spiritual support for their pets, especially older widows.
But there are limits to this experiment: While researchers have classified confusing variables, such as income and educational attainment, there are many factors affecting human longevity. For example, the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases among dog breeders may be because they were healthier than others from the outset. Having a dog is time-consuming and expensive, so if your main purpose is to get yourself healthy, you might have to reconsider. And this experiment is in Sweden, and geographic location and climate change are very different from other countries.
But after all, the number of subjects in this study is huge and supports the conclusions. Fall also said that she had a "very moving puppy" at home, and that it was a Kokol dog, and her kids liked to play with it in the woods. "We think it means a lot to our family," Fall said, "Your dog doesn't care when you go home after a very bad day. It's always gonna jump up and shake your tail and greet you home.