Furry, fluffy or scaly, pets are good medicine

does the science have to say?

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has spent the last 10 years examining potential health benefits of animalhuman interaction and continues to gather research through ongoing studies.

Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) showed 90% of respondents reporting that a pet helped them “make it through the COVID pandemic,” a period that challenged mental health globally.

Rainbow Community Center is grateful for the ongoing partnership with the Concord Clayton Pioneer and our monthly column. Since August 2020 when we started this partnership, we have had the opportunity to elevate the voices of LGBTQIA+ community members, RCC staff and board members throughout Contra Costa County every month. The LGBTQIA+ community is diverse, and partnerships such as ours with the Pioneer make it possible to bring these vital stories to the fore.” or your family members are at risk of this targeting simply by living your lives and being yourselves.

I watch my clients, especially young ones, get hurt deeply by the idea that they are objects of random and reasonless hatred. That legislation steals their human rights and angry factions protest their very existence. How do they grow up safe? They keep asking me: “How do I survive?”

How do we support the universality of humanity?

When people or systems have a population they don’t like or don’t trust, we must ask ourselves: Does keeping distance facilitate comfort and happiness, or would connectivity and finding commonalities be more effective?

I have recognized in myself the ability to connect across great divides, to find common ground with those who are uncommon to me. This is what I tell my young ones, those living in fear. We build bridges when we can. In the face of it all, we connect. May you connect.

Kadeth Pozzesi, LMFT, is a clinician at the Rainbow Community Center. Kadeth is an artist, a musician and a warrior poet living in the body of an elder trans person. Send comments and questions to kadeth@rainbowcc.org.

Chandler’s ‘Little Sister’ a fun intro into his genre

lowe come alive. However, I never mistook the so-called Little Sister for Bacall.

Set in Hollywood in the mid-’40s, this is not a simple story. The characters are innocent and not-so-innocent starlets, bad cops – well, bad police departments, a missing brother, family secrets, drugs and gangsters. There’s plenty of violence without today’s explicit gore; same for the sex.

In the United States, 70% of households have a pet kept for pleasure or companionship – a significant increase from 56% in 1988.

Dogs lead the pack, with an estimated 69 million households having at least one. Roughly 45.3 million American households are crazy for cats, and 11.8 million enjoy freshwater fish.

A third of Millennials have pets, while 27% of Boomers and 24% of Gen Xers do as well. Gen Zers are most likely to have an exotic or less typical pet, such as a reptile, bird or rodent.

Nearly 40% of Americans prefer to adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue organization. But we all spend wildly on our furry, feathered or scaly friends: roughly $123.6 billion in 2021.

Pet owners extol the many benefits – physical, emotional and psychological – of sharing life with an animal, but what

“We’re trying to tap into the subjective quality of the relationship with the animal – that part of the bond that people feel – and how that translates into some of the health benefits,” explains Dr. James Griffin, a child development expert at NIH.

Dr. Ann Berger, a physician and researcher at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., works with people facing terminal illness. She focuses on mindfulness to decrease stress and manage pain.

“The foundations of mindfulness include attention, intention, compassion and awareness,” she says. “All of those are things that animals bring to the table. People kind of have to learn it; animals do this innately.”

Interacting with pets has been shown to relieve depression and anxiety and promote healthier responses to stress. A recent survey by the Human

Regular exercise is also vital to good health, and dogs are the four-legged ambassadors of pedestrian pastimes. As a species, they possess a dogged commitment to walking. Dog owners walk an average of 22 minutes more per day than those without.

In addition, dogs promote more human interaction – with friendships often forming at dog parks. An estimated 40% of pet owners say their social support network is comprised primarily of people met through pet ownership.

Cat owners, meanwhile, know the delights of curling up with a purring kitty. The purr frequency is between 20 and 140 Hertz, which is proven to promote bone growth and healing, lower blood pressure and reduce stress. A 2009 study found cat ownership so beneficial to the cardiovascular system that it decreased the likelihood of death by heart attack.

Caring for animals is some- thing to be enjoyed throughout the lifespan. Young people often have their first experience of providing care through interactions with pets or rescued wild animals.

Another study at NIH focused on teenagers diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and compliance with blood glucose checks. Researchers gave a group of diabetic teens a pet fish with instructions to provide care twice a day and clean the tank weekly. This was paired with the subjects reviewing blood glucose logs with parents. In comparison with a control group who did not receive a fish, the teens were found to be significantly more diligent in checking and logging their blood glucose levels – an essential skill in managing diabetes.

Our society places such a premium on independence that it often forgets the importance of connection, warmth and touch. Thankfully, our furry, feathered, scaly and even slimy friends are here to help.

Please send comments and question to Nathalie at newwavenightingale@gmail.com

Hello, faithful readers. I missed last month’s column because I was still unpacking from my move to Portland.

I won’t say how many boxes of books there were, but I can say I’m down to unpacking the last 12. To my surprise and good luck, I found a copy of Raymond Chandler’s “The Little Sister.”

I’ve never read a Chandler book, although the films “The Big Sleep,” “The Long Goodbye” and “Trouble Is My Business” are familiar titles – especially “The Big Sleep” because of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Since I can’t compare Chandler novels, what I can say is that if they are half as much fun to read as “The Little Sister,” I wholeheartedly recommend them. “The Little Sister” is a Philip Marlowe noir mystery with almost nonstop action, even when Marlowe is avoiding mayhem.

What made it so much fun for me is that I wasn’t sure if I was reading a mystery or watching a movie. Adding to my enjoyment was the fact that I was reading/watching Bogart. Honestly, I could see and hear him, and it made Philip Mar-