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Cat Ownership Correlated With Heart Health
Ant tips us to a story making the rounds lately, based on reporting a couple of weeks old, that owning a cat could cut your heart attack risk by one third. No such effect was seen from dog ownership, but the researchers say that could be because there weren't enough dog owners in the study population to provide meaningful statistics. The study: "...analyzed data on 4,435 Americans, aged 30 to 75, who took part in the federal government's second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, which ran from 1976-1980. According to the data in the survey, 2,435 of the participants either owned a cat or had owned a cat in the past, while the remaining 2,000 had never done so. [The] team then tracked rates of death from all causes, including heart and stroke. Cat owners 'appeared to have a lower rate of dying from heart attacks' over 10 years of follow-up compared to feline-free folk..."
Obviously, they died of furball before they were old enough to have a heart attack.
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I'm in ur aortas, reducing your stress
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Pussy is actually good for you, while having a bitch in your life makes no noticible improvements.
They obviously have never seen our cats. Stress reducers? I don't think so.
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Does this mean that I can use my health insurance to pay for cat food?
The story is about a common kind of mistake that shows how important it is to understand the scientific method. Someone does a study and finds that there is a statistical correlation between one phenomenon and another. Then there is a claim that one of the phenomena is the cause of the other. Actually, however, they can both be related to something else that is not understood.
Single people die earlier than married people. The reason does not appear to be that marriage prolongs life. Apparently those who have no strong ties to another person when they are 50 or older are likely to be alone because of some huge stress in their lives. It is the stress that kills, not being unmarried.
The study doesn't make any assertions about a mechanism that might cause cats to have a direct influence on human health. It merely points out that there is a statistically significant correlation. This could be a bizarre coincidence, or it might be something that we had no idea about before. Either way, it's warrants further investigation.
Maybe it's just me, but these "Study finds x could decrease your risk of y by z%" news stories seem to be getting a little out of hand. "The team tracked the death rates for all causes and (surprise!) found some correlation in the statistics". What's next? Study finds people who paint their walls white decrease their risk of brain cancer by 20%? Seems like they'll publish anything just to publish something.
I mean, if this is all it takes to have a career in research then maybe I picked the wrong field. I'd be happy to run some statistics through a data miner for a university salery and grant money.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
Clearly this proves that people with heart problems choose not to buy cats.
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How is that a troll? The parent points out the rather important fact that many, including (arguably) the summary, seem to miss: The study has shown a correlation between cat ownership and decreased risk of heart problems. That does not mean that cats are good for your heart, only that there is a connection. It could be something entirely different, like that (warning: the following hypothetical scenario is sourced right out of my arse) people who like cats tend to be calmer people who stress their hearts less.
So, IOW, anything you might do to relieve stress -- pet your cat (or other pet), exercise (good one with additional proven health and heart benefits), shoot your mother-in-law, etc, is good for your heart.
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Does this include looking at hundreds of Lolcat pictures a day?
Hey! Look a Distraction!
Dogs are dumb, slobbering beasts that make you take them outside to take a shit.
Rather than shitting in (hopefully) a single location and forcing you to clean it up on a near daily basis lest it offend their senses and they decide the clean, but unfolded, laundry would be a better target?
I do have cats, and I tend to think I would rather have cats than dogs. Besides, that is what I have a human spawn for.
Puppies/Human Larvae are cute.
One must be ever vigilant to protect your property from puppies/spawn
One must clean up the little.... treats left behind.
Neither listen well to verbal commands
Neither will shovel the drive or mow the lawn
Clearly children are nothing more than hairless dogs that have developed the ability to walk upright.
tinfoilmedia
Cats are notorious as reservoirs of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoa that infects an estimated one-third of the world's population. This parasite causes behaviorial changes in rats that are infected, damping their fear response to the odor of cats, making Toxoplasma less a parasite for the cat and more of a synergist. In humans, Toxoplasma are thought to influence behavior enough that varying infection rates between cultures is thought to explain cultural differences of character. Perhaps they also have a beneficial side-effect on cardiovascular health, explaining the correlation between cat ownership and this observation?
You mean Guardianship. Humans need to discard the notion that "animals" are nothing more than property. You don't own an animal anymore than you would own your children. They have personalities, wants and needs just like us humans. I have three cats, they are family members, not some inanimate objects that act like they're alive.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
I see "correlated" in the title of the story, plus I see the word "could" in the summary. I do not see anywhere that the summary or title says that there is definite causation. Perhaps that's why the GP was modded Troll.
OMGawd, that's devastating.
"The following 5000 families who did not currently have a pet were given a cat. How many of them had heart attacks compared to the control sample?"
Then you can make a Reality Show out of it.
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Perhaps. But, when you are swept away by a raging flood, your dog will try to save you; your cat will watch you drown and go looking for a new meal-ticket!
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Correlation does not mean causation.
Right.
Yet in TFA's case, there were also these statements:
So after RTFA, there is ample cause to believe that the statistics were analyzed within the context of a hypothesis that the reporter did not explicitly state.
Finding a strong correlation that must exist if the hypothesis is true generally increases confidence in the hypothesis.
Why wasn't the hypothesis reported in the story? More than likely, because it was framed as a null hypothesis, and those can be hard to dummy down to the general public's limited understanding of the scientific method— at least within the framework of articles like TFA. These are written to report newsworthy events, not to teach high school science.
I think we need to get it into terms we can understand.
Cats suck, because they use emacs. Dogs rule because they use vi.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
"The story is about a common kind of mistake that shows how important it is to understand the scientific method. Someone does a study and finds that there is a statistical correlation between one phenomenon and another. Then there is a claim that one of the phenomena is the cause of the other. Actually, however, they can both be related to something else that is not understood."
It's not a mistake at all, and your example is terrible.
First, what you're talking about is called a Confounding Variable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding_variable
Second, you're making the typical mistake of assuming that because confounding variables are sometimes present that they are ALWAYS present, or not controlled for. Do you know what confounding variables were controlled for in this study before you make the assumptions you have? No you do not.
Third, that ridiculous "correlation does not equal causation" mantra that is so often tossed about is designed like so many other easily remembered but relatively useless memes. It's not a scientific principle, it's a caution, nothing more.
The fact is, most of the time, correlation has some effect on causation. If nothing else, it indicates a relationship worth examining.
"Apparently those who have no strong ties to another person..."
This makes me ask, why denounce his study then do exactly what you denounced it for?
I can't tell you how tired I am of people getting modded insightful for misunderstanding then regurgitating something that most people who discuss this subject should understand at a base level.
There's nothing remotely insightful about restating "correlation does not equal causation".
They purr when they are happy and they purr when in distress. It helps in healing, even broken bones mend faster when a cat purrs. There are tons of studies to back up that rather obvious claim, but there is some speculation that a cat's purr can speed healing in others as well. Perhaps why a healthy cat will lie next to a sick one and purr? Perhaps why cat owners have healthier hearts?
Every species of cat purrs, both large and small. No other animal on earth purrs.
Q: How do you make a cat sound like a dog?
A: Spray him with lighter fluid. One match and he goes WOOF.
Q: How do you make a dog sound like a cat?
A: Dip him in liquid nitrogen and cut him in a band-saw. He goes MMMMMEEEEOOOWWW.
(Funnier with good sound effects.)
I know this killed my karma, but I had to share these.
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Dogs have similar effects on health.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3035327 [americanheart.org]
http://www.naturalnews.com/021483.html [naturalnews.com]
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/33677.php [medicalnewstoday.com]
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/health-benefits-of-pets [webmd.com]
Please stop using studies like these to reinforce your prejudices.
Bargain cat scans.
Nothing is foolproof, fools are too ingenious. - Murphy
May i point out that the reverse (causation implies correlation) DOES hold true, and that the whole 'it's just a correlation!' shouting doesn't actually prove whether the study is bogus or not? It still is an interesting data-point, and as a cat-surviver myself, i can only attest to many calming effect a cat, and to a lesser effect a dog might be having on their slave and master, correspondingly. I'm not saying that cats directly reduce the risk of a heart attack, but i think it's interesting that it might be a relatively strong factor playing into the combination of stuff you can do to increase your life expectancy. It might be something as simple as the happiness or the pride that a cat can couse when she decides to honor you with her presence, and starts to purr.
And besides - weren't there a couple of studies that showed that pets in hospital have benificial effects on the patients?
Let's get this straight. Cats only condescendingly permits us to live in the same house with them. They own us. You die less from heart attacks because it's cheaper for them to keep you alive than to find another pet human.
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Cat cleanup before Olympics. Dont click if you love cats.
Cats suck, because they use emacs. Dogs rule because they use vi.
Actually, cats use cat. Maybe some echo redirection.
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Call 911? Heck, my cats can do that and perform CPR while administering Last Rites, just in case.
Seriously...my theory is that cats help reduce vermin about the house, thus contributing to the health of their designated care-providers. (Heaven forfend that anyone should ever think he owns a cat.) My house used to be overrun with those huge cockroaches that they call "palmetto bugs" here in Texas. After I got the cats, no more roaches (but fat and happy cats). They go after anything that wiggles, scuttles, or flies around. (Though their success rate on flying prey leaves something to be desired. Hmm note to self: must look into breeding flying cats.)
The association between humans and cats has been a long and mutually beneficial one. The only major issue to trouble this partnership was the invention of doors by an unknown carpenter circa 3800 B.C. (oddly enough, the unlucky inventor suffered a fatal fall down a steep stairway soon after filing the patent). Ever since, cats have been sitting in front of doors and meowing. Most people think the cat wants out (or in), but not so: the cat is demanding that all doors everywhere be permanently removed. A closed door is an offense to all cat-kind.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary