Friday, April 4, 2008

Cut your risk of heart disease by 1/3!

Just get thee to a cattery!
A new study suggests cat owners are less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than people who, well, don't own cats.

And no, dogs don't do the same trick.

The study, by researchers at the University of Minnesota, found that feline-less people were 30 to 40 percent likelier to die of cardiovascular disease than those with cats.

Yet dog owners had the same rate as non-owners. "No protective effect of dogs as domestic pets was observed,"
We have three cats and a dog. We're practically immortal!

6 comments:

Scotte Hodel said...

Did the study control for cats that pee on the furniture? Is anyone interested in a black cat that doesn't like to be held?

My dog stays.

Unknown said...

I like cats, but I'm not sentimental about them. They're pretty much interchangeable and disposable. Got a bad cat? Toss it out and try again. Repeat until you get one you like.

My dog sits AND stays! (top that!)

Anonymous said...

Gotcha! And just as I suspected when you made that comment linking "cat loving" with "NPR listening," you don't love your cats wholeheartedly and therefore probably won't get all those benefits for your heart. I don't care if my Watchcat has pissed on my Journal (which she has) and is meaner than ary junkyard watchdog (which is debatable), I'm not trading her in on a new model

Unknown said...

Actually David, I've never had to implement "the final option" for one of our cats because of its behavior- and even if I wanted to I'd get outvoted.

On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate our current cats 7,8 and 5. We had a 10 once and I loved it wholeheartedly. I only love the "5" half-heartedly.

Unknown said...

So you rate your cats on a scale of 1 to 10...hmmm...Roxy asked me if you rate your kids too???

Unknown said...

My kids are all 9s. Practically perfect but I don't ever want them to think there isn't room for improvement. My wife is a 9.9. All are keepers.