Cardiac rehab patients walk their "Friends" (USA)

"ProHealth Care's Regional Heart & Vascular Center at Waukesha Memorial, WI, has partnered with Humane Animal Welfare Society to bring pet therapy benefits to cardiac rehab patients through an innovative new walking program -- one of the first of its kind in the country. Phase 4 cardiac rehab patients are invited to pair up with specially trained pet therapy dogs and walk their "friends" along designated walking paths. Walking times occur 7 days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 - 6 p.m. Did you know that spending time with animals can be medically beneficial? Medical studies and field reports say that patients experience many therapeutic benefits thanks to pet therapy, including:
* decreased anxiety and depression
* increased self-esteem
* lowered blood pressure
* increased motivation to get well
* decreased need for painkillers in some post-operative patients"

Pet therapy for the heart

"Dogs have truly proven they are man's best friend. A study led by nurse Kathie Cole, at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center used dogs to interact with heart patients. The study used therapeutic dogs. There were 76 patients with an average age of 57, that had been hospitalized with heart failure. Patients received a visit from a volunteer with a dog, just a volunteer or no visit at all; physiological responses were measured before, during and after the visits. The findings were that anxiety dropped 24%, in the patients that were visited by a volunteer with a dog. There was only a 10% drop in patients when visited by a volunteer and those with no visits stayed the same" - A Hearty Life