Feeling stressed? Spending a little time with an animal may help you feel better! Learn more about the science behind this phenomenon from Mayo Clinic. Remember, sharing your life with an animal is a deep commitment of time, effort, and finances. Before bringing a pet home, make sure you have the resources and are fully committed to keeping your pet happy and healthy for their lifetime.
V/O: Dogs visiting humans have some really cool benefits in terms of health outcomes. My name is Dr. Brent Bauer, a physician on staff here at Mayo Clinic. There’s lots of studies that have looked at the benefits of having animals at the bedside, animals in the outpatient setting, animals in our workspace. Some of that science really focuses on the role animals play in reducing stress. I can tell you about my stress. I can rate my stress. But we can also scientifically measure your stress through hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is sometimes called the stress hormone. Tends to go up when we’re stressed, tends to come down when we’re not stressed. We can actually measure cortisol before and after animal visits and demonstrably measure the effect that dogs are having in reducing stress. Most of us just feel better when we have our favorite dog at our side and maybe some of that gets into things I can’t fully explain scientifically, but that’s ok, because I know it helps my patients.