Intense social connectivity is a blue zone attribute scrutinized for its potential role in supporting longevity.

Does slobbery social contact count? More than two-thirds of U.S. households include a pet, including mine.

In an awe-inspiring paper published in the prestigious journal Science entitled

Oxy Tosin-Gaze Positive Loop and the Co-Evolution of Human Dog Bonds, researchers found

that petting or looking into the eyes of a canine companion leads to oxytocin relief in the brains of both

the humans and the dogs, the same love hormone that bonds breastfeeding mothers to their

infants.

I was reading about the potential mechanisms by which having an animal companion might

improve survival after a heart attack.

When I ran across a passage about a profound cardiovascular response

when petting dogs or horses.

This response usually takes the form of a significant reduction in the heart rate and blood

pressure.

I can totally see that.

But then the next sentence, maybe do a double take.

Unfortunately, we have no information about the physiologic responses of the

person doing the petting. Oh, they were talking about the heart-rate and blood pressure of the

animals. To my surprise, studies of the effects of companion animals on human health have, as one

review put it, produced a mishmash of conflicting result.

But a meta-analysis of studies involving more than 3 million people followed for an average

of a decade found that canine companionship, for example, was associated with a 24% reduction

in the risk of premature death.

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