News You Didn't Want to Know: Cats Reduce Stress

Cat people, go on with your bad, serene selves. The rest of us, let's try not to get too worked up sniffling and cringing over creepy little felines. Apparently, we kitty-avoiders are already more stressed anyway.

A University of Minnesota study of 4,300 Americans over a span of ten years says that simply having a cat at home offers stress relief. In turn, this could mean that cat owners are a third less likely to have a heart attack.

While your blood pressure might escalate every time Mr. Wiggles claws up your $4,000 leather chaise, at least your likelihood of having cardiac arrest aren't as high as the rest of us lesser-pet owners, right?

How do all the Zenned out dog owners factor in to this research? Unfortunately, there wasn't the same soothing conclusion that having a dog could lead to less stress and fewer heart attacks. However, researchers say that might just be because not enough dog owners participated in their study. Gaze into your pup's big brown eyes for a few seconds and you might just draw your own conclusions on kitty vs. canine calm.