In a 2022 study, more than one -third of the surveyed 3,000 adults in the United States reported that in most days they feel “completely buried” by stress. At the same time, the growing set of studies document the negative health effects of higher levels of stress, which include an increased rate of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune conditions and even dementia.
Assuming that people’s daily routine is unlikely to become less stressful soon, we need simple and effective ways to mitigate these effects. Dogs can help here.
As researchers at the Institute for the Liaison of the University of Denver, we study the effects that animal has on their humans.
Dozens of studies in the last 40 years have confirmed that pet dogs help people feel more relaxed. This would explain the growing phenomenon of people relying on dogs for emotional support to help them navigate everyday life. It has also been proven that dog owners have a 24 percent lower risk of death and four times a greater chance of surviving at least a year after a heart attack.
Now a new study we conducted with a team of colleagues suggests that dogs may have a deeper and more biologically complex effect on humans than the scientists who have previously been considered. And this complexity can have deep consequences for human health.
How stress works
The human response to stress is a finely tuned and coordinated set of different physiological pathways. Previous studies of the effects of dogs on human stress focused only on once at a time. For our study, we have increased a little and measured many biological indicators of the body condition or biomarkers from the two main stress pathways of the body. This allowed us to get a more full picture of how the presence of the dog affects the stress in the human body.
The tension paths we measured are the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal or HPA, the axis and the sympathetic medullary or SAM, the axis.
When a person experiences a stressful event, the axis of Sam acts quickly, triggering a response to a “battle or flight”, which includes a rush of adrenaline, which leads to an outburst of energy that helps us meet threats. This answer can be measured by an enzyme called alpha-amylase.
At the same time, but a little more slow, the HPA axis activates the adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol. This can help a person encounter threats that can last for hours or even days. If everything goes well when the danger ends, both axes precipitate and the body returns to its calm state.
Although stress can be an uncomfortable feeling, it is important for the survival of a person. Our ancestors of the hunter-gatherer had to respond effectively to sharp stressful events such as animal attack. In such cases, over -response can be as ineffective as insufficient response. Staying in an optimal stress response area increases people’s chances of survival.
More about the story
After the cortisol is released from the adrenal glands, it eventually breaks into your saliva, making it an easily accessible biomarker to track the answers. Therefore, most dogs and stress studies have focused only on saliva cortisol.
For example, several studies have found that people exposed to a stressful situation have a more nasal response to the cortisol if they are with a dog than if they are alone -even more low than if they are with a friend.
Although these studies show that the presence of a dog nearby can lower cortisol levels during a stressful event, which suggests that a person is more relaxed, we suspected that this was only part of the story.
What does our study measure
For our study, we hired about 40 dog owners to participate in a 15-minute laboratory test for a gold standard laboratory. This includes public talk and oral mathematics in front of a group of indifferent people posing as specialists in behavior.
The participants were randomly assigned to bring their dogs to the lab with them or to leave their dogs at home. We measured the cortisol in blood samples taken before, immediately after and about 45 minutes after the test as a biomarker of the HPA axis activity. And unlike previous studies, we also measured the alpha-amylase enzyme in the same blood samples as a biomarker on the SAM axis.
As expected based on previous studies, people who have their dog with them showed more cortisol spikes. But we also found that the people with their dog had experienced a clear alpha-amylase leap, while those without their dog show almost no answer.
No answer can sound like a good thing, but in fact, a flat alpha-amylase answer can be a sign of a dysfunished response to stress, often observed in people who experience reactions to high stress, chronic stress or even PTSD. This lack of reaction is caused by a chronic or predominant stress that can change the way our nervous system responds to stressors.
In contrast, participants with Their dogs had a more balanced answer: their cortisol did not jump too high, but their alpha-amylase is still activated. This shows that they were on the lookout and engaged throughout the test, after which they were able to return to normal within 45 minutes. This is the sweet place to effectively deal with stress. Our studies suggest that our dog satellites hold us in a healthy stress reaction area.
Dogs and human health
This more nun understanding of the biological effects of dogs to the reaction of human stress opens up exciting possibilities. Based on the results of our research, our team has launched a new study using thousands of biomarkers to deepen deep in biology about how psychiatric service dogs are reducing PTSR in the military veterans.
But one thing is already clear: dogs are not just a good company. They may simply be one of the most affordable and effective tools for staying healthy in a stressful world.
Kevin Morris is a professor of social work at the University of Denver. Jaci Gandenberger is a research associate at the University of Denver.
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