Do you need a reason to buy a dog? How about living longer?
Dr. Caroline Kramer, author of a new systematic review of nearly 70 years of global research published in "Circulation," said that their analysis found having a dog is actually protective against dying of any cause.
The review of the health benefits involved nearly 4 million people in the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
"Dog ownership was associated with a 24% reduction in all cause mortality," said Kramer, an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Toronto.
What is even more interesting is that "For people who had a heart attack or stroke, having a dog was even more beneficial. They had a 31% reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease," Kramer said.
Heart attacks and stroke are the leading causes of death globally, according to the World Health Organization. The benefit was highest for dog owners who lived alone.
In fact, a number of cardiologists believe in the benefits of dog ownership so much they will actually prescribe a dog for their patients, if they believe the person can appropriately care for a pet.
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The COVID-19 pandemic could have killed 40 million deaths by the end of 2020 in the absence of any preventative measures, according to Imperial College London (UK).
Researchers included a number of scenarios, such as
- What would have happened if the world had not reacted to COVID-19,
- Two scenarios incorporating social distancing, which result in a single-peaked epidemic
- And several scenarios for suppressing the spread of the disease that can have the largest overall impact in terms of reducing disease and deaths.
It is noted that ignoring all security measures would lead to a worse development of the coronavirus epidemic and infection of seven billion people. This number would be halved if the number of contacts had been reduced by 40 percent for children, young people and adults, and 60 percent for older people.
Dr Patrick Walker, an author of the report from Imperial, said: "We estimate that the world faces an unprecedented acute public health emergency in the coming weeks and months. Our findings suggest that all countries face a choice between intensive and costly measures to suppress transmission or risk health systems becoming rapidly overwhelmed. However, our results highlight that rapid, decisive and collective action now will save millions of lives in the next year"
The study shows that poor countries will lose far more people than developed ones. A press release from the British university emphasizes that the problem of COVID-19 is common to all countries on Earth.
The modelling showed that implementing measures early on can have a dramatic impact.
If all countries were to adopt this strategy at 0.2 deaths per 100,000 population per week, 95 per cent of the deaths could be averted, saving 38.7 million lives.
However, if this strategy is adopted later (1.6 deaths per 100,000 population per week), then this figure drops to 30.7 million.
In March, Chinese experts published a study in JAMA Cardiology, which claimed that diseases of the cardiovascular system increases mortality by almost 4.5 times from coronavirus.
As many gyms are now closed, many of us find creative ways to exercise and stay fit.
And in order to be more effective, often we tend to invite our friends in the hope that it will motivate us. However, many times the reality is a different story.
A recent video posted on social media has gone viral after a dog owner is doing exercise in his backyard while his pet is sleeping.
And many people are sharing the post with their friends, joking that the sleeping dog is exactly like them.