The evidence keeps rolling in. Pets are good for people.

I was quite excited when Discovery CME, an organization that offers online continuing education for physicians, confused me for an MD and sent me their schedule. Among their offerings is a program that seemed right up my alley. The program is entitled “Pets and People: The Power of the Health Connection.” You can watch it online if you have a high speed connection.

The program is intended to be educational material for human physicians. I found this surprising (and, on some levels, disturbing) because the narration and theme of the program make it seem much more like an after-school special than a serious scientific work.

However, it makes solid points.

The above list does not even come close to being complete. If you want to read more about the ways in which having a pet benefits human health, check out the humanhealth tag on this blog. As well, you can find more information The Power of Paws, a website dedicated to spreading the word.

• Can Dogs and Cats Develop Breast Cancer?
• Another Article Points out the Human Health Benefits of Pets
• More Evidence That Pets Help Prevent Cognitive Decline in People
• Yet Another Scientific Paper Documents the Human Health Benefits of Pets
• Pets May Help Prevent Cognitive Decline in Elderly People

Heart disease is very common in dogs. Most cases of heart disease in dogs are hereditary, rather than acquired. This means that, unlike in humans, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are not major causes of heart disease in dogs (although obesity exacerbates heart disease in all species).

There are two major forms of heart disease in dogs. Small breeds are prone to valve disease. Valve disease causes the blood to flow incorrectly through the heart and lungs. Large breeds are prone to cardiomyopathy, a syndrome in which the muscles of the heart lose the ability to function normally. Either condition can lead to heart failure and death.

The mainstays of diagnosing canine heart disease have been physical exam, evaluation for irregular heart sounds known as murmurs, X-rays and echocardiography (ultrasound of the heart). Echocardiography is especially effective at diagnosing heart problems. However, in many cases the problem is not detected until it has been present for a very long time. And, as with all medical conditions, treatment for canine heart disease is most effective if the problem is detected early.

Fortunately, a paper in the May 15, 2008 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association describes a new test that may soon become available to identify dogs with heart disease. The test would be a blood test that could be performed routinely on at-risk breeds.

The test would involve measuring the level of a peptide (a very small protein) in the blood. A recent study demonstrated that blood levels of the peptide reliably predict the presence and severity of heart disease in dogs.

It may be several years before any test involving the peptide is available for veterinarians. However, it is encouraging to know that in the future it may be possible to diagnose heart disease earlier and more easily in our canine friends.

The paper discussed in this post is Oyama, et al J Am Vet Med Assoc 2008;232:1496-1503

Image credit: Heikenwaelder Hugo. Image licensing information: CC
Image confession: it is a human heart. But the canine heart is anatomically similar.

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