Is it Emotionally Intelligent to Own a Pet?

Is it emotionally intelligent to own a pet?
Help your doctor out by getting a cat or dog??

Take a look at this site and read some of the scientific evidence:

Pet Therapy, Healthy Reasons To Have A Pet, therapeutic use of Pets, Benefits of Pet Therapy, holisticonline.com
From the article:

Seniors who own dogs go to the doctor less than those who do not.

In a study of 100 Medicare patients, even the most highly stressed dog owners in the study has 21 percent fewer physician's contacts than non-dog owners. (Siegel, 1990).

Pet owners have lower blood pressure. (Friedman, 1983, Anderson 1992).

A recent study, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, looked at male and female stockbrokers already taking medication to control high blood pressure. Researchers say those with a pet nearby during stressful encounters experienced half the increase in blood pressure as those who did not own a pet.

Lead author, Dr. Karen Allen, calls the results "dramatic and significant." She says while medication can lower blood pressure, it cannot relieve stress and that can force blood pressure back up. The research team says it chose a dog or cat for each stockbroker at the beginning of the study and soon the study participants became very attached to their pets.

Six months later, Allen says, many of the stockbrokers in the medication-only control group went out and got themselves a pet.

Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels than non-owners (Anderson, 1992).

Lots of good stuff in this article about emotional intelligence! It's emotionally intelligent to own a pet, it looks like.