Can Animals Help Healing?

Animals can help you feel better and offer comfort, but can they also help you heal? From a cat’s purr to a dog’s slobbery lick, to a bees pollen our animals can help heal in ways scientists are just now figuring out².

A study found that those who had suffered a heart attack and owned a pet lived longer than those who did not¹. We’ve always heard the phrase of animal companion and it’s easy to smile when your cat purrs or your dog wags his tail, but there is more to those furry four legged companions.

Cat’s have amazing abilities to help aid healing. One such ability is the purr. When a cat purrs it is at sound frequencies of 20 to 140 Hertz^2,3. The Hertz frequencies of 20-50 help heal bone injuries such as fractures². Higher frequencies at around 100 Hertz can also help heal soft tissue injuries to ligaments, tendons and muscles^2,3.

Dogs’ saliva has been found to help heal wounds and the saliva even loosens debris on the surface of a cut². How does this work exactly? Research was done and a protein called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) was found in dog’s saliva and the important thing about this is that wounds treated with NGF healed twice as fast as untreated wounds².

Bees are not often thought of as pets until one decides to try their hand at beekeeping and then you feel responsible for thousands of little insect lives. Bees are quite unique and incredible. Through pollination they provide humans and animals with multiple food sources². Their pollen is also a perfect food, containing all of the nutrients required by the human body as it contains proteins, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and bioflavonoids which are anti-viral, anti-bacterial and help in lowering cholesterol². Fresh pollen also contains at least 20 amino acids that build healthy cells².

These three animals show how helpful to humans they are and that they continue to offer us amazing healing.

References:

1. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/03/09/146583986/pet-therapy-how-animals-and-humans-heal-each-other Opens in new window
2. https://www.goodnet.org/articles/5-animals-incredible-healing-powers-list Opens in new window
3. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180724-the-complicated-truth-about-a-cats-purr Opens in new window