All about how doggos help human health!

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name: Hyperfixation Nation

Episode Title: The Impact of Dogs on Human Health

Episode #3

You are listening to Hyperfixation Nation, the podcast with your host Blake.

In this episode of Hyperfixation Nation the Podcast we discuss the impact that dogs have on human health. I will cover the impact on mental health and physical health, and the science behind it. 

First a quick overview, one person can have different experiences with different hyperfixations (like me), dogs are absolutely amazing and cute and they are scientifically proven to help human health, both physical and mental. The main reason for all of this is because serotonin stabilizes moods, helps with digestion and motivation, and social connections. There are other chemicals that help but serotonin has the biggest impact.

Ok so I learned all of this information because last year for school we had to choose a researchable topic to write a 10 page paper and do a presentation on and I absolutely love these cute little puppers, and the not so little cute puppers, so I chose this as my topic. As you can imagine, I learned a lot about it and I thought this information was really interesting so I wanted to share. This hyperfixation was different from all of my other hyperfixations because I was stressed to complete it since it was a school project. I know that it is a hyperfixation because before I did this project, I wrote many CER’s (Claim evidence reasoning science papers) and filled up notebooks to try and convince my parents to get me a dog. I would go on walks with my parents just so that I could talk to them about dogs and they couldn’t leave (they didn’t know this was the motivation lol). 

• The anxiety of a due date
• The pressure of other people in my class being farther along
• The hours of doing homework (looking for cute pictures of doggos for my poster board and researching)
• The happy chemicals I got from doing this battling the anxiety of starting

• Regular pet dogs
• Serotonin
• Sleep
• Anxiety/depression/illnesses caused by lowered serotonin
• Adhd
• Mood stabilization
• Therapy dogs
• Same effects as regular pet dogs plus more
• Oxytocin (trusting chemical)
• Great for people with physical impairments - dog w 3 legs, human w 3 limbs 
• Training
• Hospital therapy dogs training vs. school training
• How training helps
• ESA dogs
• All ESA have no training but they get special privileges
• You need a doctor to sign a note saying one would be helpful to your mental state
• Allowed on planes and in apartments that would usually not allow pets
• Not allowed in hotels often (unless they are all pet friendly)
• Usually grocery stores don’t allow them if they don’t allow pets
• Service dogs
• 18-24 months of training
• Most obedient of the trained dogs
• Used for disabilities that cause a physical change (this is an example but there are more situations where they help)
• Someone with PTSD that has nightmares and/or panic attacks from certain situations
• Dogs can sense a nightmare and wake up the human
• Dogs can smell the changes before a panic attack
• People with an anxiety disorder can get help from a dog 
• Can sense teh anxiety attack/panic attack before it gets too bad
• Can force human to pet them
• Allowed everywhere a human is because of the ADA (american disability act)
• If someone has a medical reason (bad allergies for example), they can let the owner know before an event (like if someone calls an uber)
• Especially fit for their human
• Human is taught how to handle the dog with positive reinforcement instead of punishment
• The dog gets further training to make sure they fit the needs of the human perfectly

• Service dogs (seeing eye, seizure alert, gluten alert, etc)
• Keep people safe
• Someone who is blind
• Seeing eye dog
• Someone who has celiac disease (usually kids in schools that are extremely sensitive)
• Someone who struggles from seizures 
• Lay down to stop someone from hurting themselves as much
• Alert when they sense one coming
• Normal doggos
• Sleep - melatonin
• Digestion
• Exercise 
• Attaches the good feeling of being with your dog to the event of exercising 
• Conversation starter
• Seeing other people is good for human overall health

Now to sum it all up!

• Mental health
• Serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin
• Stabilizes mood
• Therapy dogs keep people calm in stressful situations (hospital or school)
• Service dogs lessen the severity and frequency of anxiety/panic attacks
• Physical health
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Digestion 
• Conversation starter and being around people increases the overall health of humans
• Next episode is me interviewing one of my friends about her hyperfixations and experiences so stick around for more points of view about hyperfixations!

Most of the information I got was from articles inside the Gale Opposing Viewpoints database so if you want to read some of those, visiting that website will provide more information. 

I hope you enjoyed the episode, learned something new, and had fun! This is Hyperfixation Nation hosted by Blake, goodbye y’all!

• @theHVSPN