The Health Benefits Of Owning A Cat
Have sore muscles or other aches and pains?
Oh, you do?!
Well, in that case, vibration therapy may be the answer to your problems, as sound frequencies in the 18-35 Hz range have long been used to stimulate muscles and improve bone density in the treatment of a variety of conditions. So yeah, get yourself something like a massage gun, or vibrating foam roller, or a cat.
Yeah, I said get a cat!
Trust me, I know that cats are assholes but here’s the thing…
The frequency of a cat’s purr is 25-150 Hz, which falls well within the frequency range of what’s been shown to help alleviate osteoarthritis, inflammation, muscle pain, and other ailments. Because of this, researchers believe that purring may have a therapeutic effect on human bones and muscles.
So yeah, before shelling out big bucks on a massage gun or any other device for relief, the same benefit can be had for much less with a cat! That means that if you’re already a cat owner, then you’re good to go.
Oh, but what if you don’t already have one?, you ask.
Ha, then just pick up a stray cat from off the street or steal one from the crazy cat lady in your neighborhood!
As we’ve seen, cat ownership has its perks. But there might be an even greater health benefit to owning a cat than just muscle relief. And according to researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Research Center, there certainly is.
In a study that covered a 20-year period and looked at 4,435 people, researchers found that those who owned cats were less likely to die from any sort of cardiovascular condition than those who never owned a cat. The findings held true even after controlling for age, gender, race, and other factors for heart disease and stroke.
It’s uncertain why cats provide such heart benefits, but there are guesses. One of the most plausible explanations for the effect is that cats help lower stress and anxiety due to being lap animals that require petting, with petting being something that’s been shown to not only lower the stress level of the cat receiving the petting but also that of the person doing the petting. Additionally, in some cases, petting is associated with heart rate and blood pressure going down.1But then again, the cardiovascular benefits of cat ownership may have less to do with causation and more to do with correlation, as cat owners tend to have low-stress personality traits that protect them against heart disease and stroke. As an illustration of this personality trait, there’s the fact that it kinda takes the patience of Job to find the appeal in owning something that constantly knocks your shit over like it doesn’t give a fuck and struts around your house like it’s the one that’s paying all the bills and you’re the one that’s mooching off it.
So yeah, get a cat.
And if you already have one, your cat now has another reason for you to worship it!
