Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Animals to People

My name is . and I am here to speak to you regarding the health importance that animals have in our lives both physically and emotionally. Human-animal relationship has for many years proved to have great importance to the physical and emotional health status of people. People who interact with pet animals have often derived a number of benefits from the interaction that has had positive physical and emotional implications on their health. Research in this area has clearly shown that there are a number of benefits that interaction with animals brings to the health of an individual both physically and emotionally. Some of the benefits include bringing happiness, through providing company, bringing mental relaxation and thus peace of mind, improving the activity rate and increasing the fitness of the person among other physical and emotional health benefits.

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The health benefits of human-animal interaction can surely not be ignored because of the significance that this interaction comes with, in our lives. I will begin by looking at the benefits that the human animal interaction has to our physical health. An interaction with animals, particularly riding a horse or running alongside your dog in the field increases the activity rate of your body. Riding on the back of a horse is an activity that requires one to be very alert due to the fact that a horse has to take instructions from the rider in order to add or reduce speed or even negotiate a corner (Wells, 2009). This exercise helps to keep your body fit and strong enough. The body muscles become relaxed and as a result, the blood circulation becomes improved and the health of your body improves significantly.

Another physical health benefit that comes from interaction with animals is the healing that comes with the touch of the body of an animal. Take for example touching your horse and playing with its far as you touch it. It becomes docile and relaxes. This physical touch helps those in pain to reduce their suffering because the pains in physical wounds subside as a result of the effect generated to the mind of the person. The touch of the horse helps your mind to relax and deviate from the pain on your body and as a result, pain becomes insignificant for your mind concentrates on something else that gives it peace. My dear audience, it is important to have animals in our midst especially when we are in difficult times because of the miraculous healing that lies in the relaxation brought about by human-animal interaction with the animals.

My dear audience, you must be aware of the fact that interacting with an animal increases your body strength and physical fitness through several ways. Apart from this interaction requiring you to be alert and keeping your legs fit, the interaction also helps your body to gain enough strength for you general body strength and fitness. Dealing with animals like horses or even donkeys will require that you be fit enough to be able to contain any animal that goes on rampage (Wells, 2009). A good example can be a case where a horse suddenly becomes afraid and starts running around. You will have to make sure that you accost it and contain its movements. This cannot be done if you are weak and feeble. You have to be strong enough to do this. Therefore, interacting with animals helps us to keep our bodies strong and fit so as to be able to contain them and deal with them appropriately and this helps to keep us healthy physically.

Now lets us move to the emotional benefits of the human-animal interaction. My dear audience, there is a saying that there is nothing as relieving and relaxing as nature. Nature is a broad term that encompasses all the state of things as they are around as including people and animals. Animals are part of our nature and as a result. There are physiological changes that occur when one touches an animal. Interaction with horses where one touches their fine far and enjoys their calmness has a number of health benefits. Physiologists have proved that such interaction with animals lowers the heart rate and therefore lowers blood pressure due to the relaxation that is channeled to the mind of the person who is interacting with the animal in question (Wells, 2009).

Secondly, the interaction with animals boosts someones spirits and keeps them happy. Being close to an animal, watching it move around and feed helps to calm the mind of a person. This helps to bring about emotions of happiness and tranquility of the mind. When our mind is in such state, the body functions well and our health is boosted significantly. It goes without saying my dear audience, that the pressure of thoughts in our minds is very detrimental to our health because it can result to complications such as high blood pressure because of the stress in our minds. Therefore, the happiness that comes with touching the animals and feeling good as we interact with animals has significance importance to our mental state because it helps to do away with stress leaving us with a clear mind that is essential for good mental health.

Apart from the mental relaxation, the animals such as dogs and horses offer companionship and help many people find joy and meaning in life. The animals we tend at home are very important companions in many of our lifetime activities. Think of a horse that is always there with you whenever you are travelling, crisscrossing the ranch and whenever you are participating in a horse race. This companionship that this animal provides helps you to find joy and happiness in life and therefore be able to find meaning in your life. As a result of the happiness and joy resulting from this companionship, your health is boosted significantly helping you to avoid complications that are brought about by stress such as heart attack, high blood pressure and depression.

My dear audience, mood improvement is one of the greatest health benefits that ownership of a horse brings to a person. As Waite (2009) puts it, research that has been conducted at Michigan University has indicated that the scores of the mood improvement in teenage girls improve tremendously when they interact with horses for periods of over fifteen minutes. There has been a finding that has indicated that teenage girls who might find themselves in bad mood can get their mood improved to a lighter mood through interacting with a horse quietly. Since this is the case, the study has confirmed that even for other people of different age groups are likely to have the same effect when they interact with horses. I know that you are asking yourselves how this helps to improve the health of a person. The answer is that bad mood is tantamount to stress and depression which might bring upon a person related health complications. Improving the mood therefore helps to alleviate such complications and keep the health of the person involved stable.

My dear audience as I conclude, I want to urge each and every one of you to find a new friend in horses and other pet animals. This is because their benefits to our health are tremendous and we cannot afford to let go of this benefits by keeping away from the animals. Many people think that interacting with animals is unhealthy and uncouth. Today I want to change that mentality by telling you that it is never unhealthy to interact with an animal unless in circumstances where there is risk of contraction of diseases from the animal or danger of being injured by the animal. Therefore, interact with horses and other pet animals to have your health boosted through alleviation of stress and depression, improvement of mood that brings happiness to you, provision of companionship to lonely ones among us especially in certain difficult situations, reduction of stress and alleviation of high blood pressure and improvement of physical activities. Handling a horse and walking with it in the yard can provide perfect physical; activity that will help to keep your body fit. Therefore, advocate for the horse ownership and own horses as well as other pet animals like dogs to boost your health physically and emotionally. Thank you for listening to me.

References

Waite, K. (2009). Benefits of Horse Ownership. Retrieved on 15th January 2016 from http://articles.extension.org/pages/15661/benefits-of-horse-ownership.

Wells, D. L. (2009). The Effects of Animals on Human Health and WellBeing. Journal of Social Issues, 65(3), 523-543.