Cats cut risk of heart attack?

An old saying goes, "Dogs have owner, cats have staff." But you should thank your cat for her benevolent dictatorship; it turns out that having a cat in the home has been found to cut the risk of heart attack by nearly a third.

Researchers at the Minnesota Stroke Institute, who studied 4,435 adults for 10 years, credit pets with stress relief. The strength of the connection surprised them: "We certainly expected an effect," says lead author Adnan Qureshi, MD, "but the magnitude...was hard to predict."

American Stroke Association, International Stroke Conference 2/08