October 28, 2019

While NolaBoomers.com is under construction, our articles can be found here on our sister site, Nola Family. 

CNN must be watching Nola Boomers.

A recent story from CNN says that owning a dog could help you live longer, which is exactly what our health feature in the next issue of Nola Boomers is about — longevity boosters.

The CNN story cites a review of “nearly 70 years of global research” published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association earlier this month.

“Our analysis found having a dog is actually protective against dying of any cause,” quoted Dr. Caroline Kramer, endocrinologist and lead author of the review.

According to the story, dog ownership could have a 24 percent reduction in all-cause mortality, but had a bigger benefit for people who had already had a heart attack or stroke. Furthermore, the benefit was highest for dog owners who lived alone.

“The most interesting part of this study was that people who lived alone actually seem to get the greatest benefit in both the heart attack group and the stroke group,” quoted Dr. Martha Gulati, who is the editor-in-chief of CardioSmart.org, the American College of Cardiology’s patient education platform.

Heart attack survivors living alone who owned dogs had a 33 percent lower risk of death compared to people who did not own a dog, the story says. Stroke survivors living alone had a 27 percent reduced risk of death.

For more life-boosting changes, look for “Longevity Boosters You Didn’t Know About” in the November/December of Nola Boomers in stands early November.

Photo: New Orleans resident Patricia Jones and Lady keep healthy with walks along the levee. Photo by EyeLuster Photography.