I wanted to ask the members of the med-line community if they can share there experiences of pets helping reduce their overall stress levels. Recent studies in Europe, in particular Germany, have found evidence that owning a pet may actually improve overall heath by reducing bio-markers of cardiovascular as well as mental illness.
It would be interesting to know if this can be anecdotally supported among U.S. physicians. Further, have any of your patients benefitted from pet ownership after the onset of a particular medical illness?