Cat Ownership Correlated With Heart Health 406
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..."
Re:Global Warming Correlated with Pirate Number (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ownership?? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My cats (Score:3, Informative)
Contrary to some people's beliefs, cats and dogs will get along very nicely once they get to know each other. The easiest way to achieve this is to let them grow up together from a very young age.
Not necessarily pseudo-science (Score:4, Informative)
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 [wikipedia.org], 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.
Legality (Score:3, Informative)
Disclaimer= I *own* and have *owned* numerous pets. They've all been treated very well, loved and cared for and fed. They have also all been my *property*.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Except you're completely wrong (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3035327 [americanheart.org] [americanheart.org]
http://www.naturalnews.com/021483.html [naturalnews.com] [naturalnews.com]
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/33677.php [medicalnewstoday.com] [medicalnewstoday.com]
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/features/health-benefits-of-pets [webmd.com] [webmd.com]
Please stop using studies like these to reinforce your prejudices.
Re:Cats Purr (Score:3, Informative)
not in China (Score:4, Informative)
Re:toxoplasma? Maybe you have it? Most cats dont (Score:-1, Informative)
But it's not like every single cat carries the toxoplasm, and it's probably closer to 25 percent.
Given the number of feral, stray, neglected, adopted, un-vetted, un-bathed, and un-cared-for cats,
that's a pretty small percentage. When I worked in animal control the toxoplasm screening wasn't
performed on every incoming stray because a: it was unnecessary and b: it was generally negative.
Not only that, but the infection vector to humans is through the water supply, not direct pet contact,
in the vast majority of cases. People flush their cat litter, which any knowledgeable vet will discourage.
The bug ends up in the water supply, and people drink it. Either that, or you're eating cat turds.
'that varying infection rates between cultures is thought to explain cultural differences of character.'
Yeah. And if you believe that, I just baked up some catshit cookies for you to try.
Re:Toxoplasmosis - kills them before a heart attac (Score:3, Informative)
Additionally, humans are often infected with toxoplasmosis from eating raw or undercooked meat. This is in fact the primary way humans get infected--wikipedia mentions this as the main reason that up to 80% of people in france have come into contact with toxoplasmosis.