HHS HealthBeat (August 11, 2009)

Cats and hearts

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Having a pet cat can be heartwarming. Even better, one study indicates it can be heart-healthy. Adnan Qureshi of the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Research Center at the University of Minnesota found this in 20 years of national survey data maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[Adnan Qureshi speaks] "People who actually owned cats at one point or another in their life tended to have a lower risk of dying from heart attacks."

Qureshi says the benefit was strong – and affected even people who didn’t own a cat just then but had owned one in the past. He suspects it’s because having a pet cat reduces stress.

Qureshi owns a cat, but he was speaking as a researcher, not a cat-owner. Other researchers have found similar effects among dog owners.

The study was presented at the International Stroke Conference.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011