2008/02/22
Based on original reporting by The Canadian Press
A U-S study suggests having a cat at home could cut your heart attack risk by almost a third.
The finding suggests that the stress relief pets provide humans is heart-healthy.
Researchers analyzed data on more than 44-hundred Americans, aged 30 to 75, who took part in the U-S government's second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, which ran from 1976-1980.
A little more than half of the study participants either owned a cat or had owned a cat in the past, while the remaining participants had never done so.
Researchers then tracked rates of death from all causes, including heart and stroke.
Study lead author Dr. Adnan Qureshi of the Minnesota Stroke Institute says the cat owners appeared to have a 30 per cent reduction in heart attack risk.
But dog lovers shouldn't feel left out.
Qureshi stressed that dogs would probably bring people the same kind of benefit, but the numbers of dog owners in the study wasn't big enough to count statistically.