In certain moments there is no more powerful and natural stress reliever than a cat, with its purring and eyes that seem to speak. Having one and loving it brings, however, not only this benefit: it is more overall good for psychological health, it is good for relationships and makes you more resilient, at least at the beginning of the adventure with your feline friend, even towards small daily problems, from headache to cold.
The positive aspects of having a cat have been found in various scientific studies, here is a selection on the occasion of the world day of the cat which is celebrated tomorrow (as established since 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare - International Fund for Animal Welfare) because August is the month in which the abandonment of pets is more frequent. In a study published in 2002 in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers surveyed 120 married couples and paid them a home visit.
Participants were subjected to stressful tasks, such as subtracting three repeatedly from a four-digit number or holding their hand in ice-cold water for two minutes. Before the stressful tasks began, cat owners already had a lower resting heart rate and blood pressure than others and even during activities they were shown to feel more than threatened challenged, have lower heart rate and blood pressure and they even made fewer math mistakes.
From the point of view of relationships, however, a research published in 2015 in the journal Anthrozoös showed that 'cat lovers', cat lovers, tend to be more predisposed towards others, in short, they are more socially sensitive. A 1991 study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine of 71 adults, 24 of whom with a feline friend who had just taken a short time, found a reduction in ailments such as headache, back pain and cold after one month, although (in media) the benefits seemed to wear off over time.
In short, as the poet Charles Baudelaire wrote, there is nothing better than saying "Come to my loving heart, my beautiful cat: hold your claws and let me sink into your beautiful eyes, mixed with agate and metal". In Italy it is estimated that there are more than 60 million pets, of which 7.3 million cats, but food and medical care "are burdened by a rate equal to that of luxury goods, 22%", three times that of German families. veterinarians and companies in the sector say that with an open letter sent to the Government and Parliament, they ask that "at the first useful measure, veterinary services and food for dogs and cats be included in the 10% subsidized VAT range, the same veterinary medicines ".
