There is actually a reason why we feel happier while playing with, petting or even looking into the eyes of our pets....
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/made-each-other/201005/dog-goodNews flash: You aren't nuts if you think your pet is your best friend or baby. Why not? The bond is woven from the same stuff that merges mothers and infants. And, guess what? You aren't imagining your pet makes you feel better either.
The organizers of the 12th International Conference of Human-Animal Interactions have announced that at their meeting this July, scientists will be presenting their
latest findings confirming that friendly human-dog interaction releases oxytocin in both human and dog. http://iahaio2010.se/uploads/press-release_bond-with-petsfinal.pdfThe experiment found that women and their dogs experienced similar increases in oxytocin levels after ten minutes of friendly contact. Also the women's oxytocin response was significantly correlated to the quality of the bond they reported in a survey taken prior to the interacting with their pets.
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http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/animal-behavior >
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To have Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg's findings support these findings is a big deal. She, unlike the other investigators, is a world-renowned oxytocin expert. And oxytocin is one tricky peptide to catch in the act of creating its profound social and anti-stress effects. Having such an oxytocin big shot finally on the trail of what's causing the positive mental and physical effects seen (and documented) in many of the animal-assisted therapies is vitally important to bringing the kind of scientific scrutiny and understanding that will only make animal therapies more effective and more available to us all.
Which is a darn good thing because, as anyone who reads my entries or has read my book--Made for Each Other, the Biology of the Human-Animal Bond-knows, there is no oxytocin pill we can take to cure the social phobias and stress melt downs caused by the lack of nature and nurture of our modern lifestyles. So showing that pets can safely, easily, inexpensively, and immediately give us oxytocin relief is big, good medicine to know about and to take liberally. Thank goodness our pets weren't waiting for the science to roll in before prescribing oxytocin to us.
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