Thank you for joining us for episode 409 of Live Happy Now.

We know that pets and happiness go hand in hand, or maybe hand in paw, but did you know that your pet could also be improving your brain health as you age?

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and today I'm once again talking with Brittany Darenbacher,

a mental health counselor and certified grief and pet loss specialist to talk about how pets can change the way we age.

Today, Brittany explains what pets can do to keep our brains and bodies healthy as well as how we can use our pets to create happiness for the older people in our lives.

Let's have a listen.

Brittany, thank you for coming back on Live Happy Now.

Hi.

So good to be back.

We have so much to talk about today because brain help.

Super important for our happiness and our well-being.

And now there's a new study that talks about how

pets affect that. But before we get into the pet portion of that, I wanted to find out from you,

like, can you talk about what the connection is between brain health and cognition and our

happiness and well-being? Yeah. So it's kind of like the neuroscience of happiness.

And I feel like happiness is, it's so difficult to define and measure because it is subjective,

right?

Right.

But what I will say on a personal level is that we feel joy in our bodies because of the release of dopamine

and serotonin. And those two types of neurotransmitters in the brain. So both of those chemicals

are heavily associated with happiness. So our brain health just by virtue of that is

hugely linked to our mental health and well-being,

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