themanfromnantucket - There once was a man from Nantucket...
There once was a man from Nantucket...

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'Horsing Around' Reduces Stress Hormones In Youth

'Horsing Around' Reduces Stress Hormones In Youth

'Horsing around' reduces stress hormones in youth

The results are published in the American Psychological Association’s Human-Animal Interaction Bulletinthis month.

"We were coming at this from a prevention perspective," said Patricia Pendry, a developmental psychologist at WSU who studies how stress "gets under the skin" and the effects of prevention programs on human development. "We are especially interested in optimizing healthy stress hormone production in young adolescents, because we know from other research that healthy stress hormone patterns may protect against the development of physical and mental health problems."

NIH grant to apply hard science

Her work is the first evidence-based research within the field of human-equine interaction to measure a change in participants’ levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

"The beauty of studying stress hormones is that they can be sampled quite noninvasively and conveniently by sampling saliva in naturalistic settings as individuals go about their regular day," Pendry said.

While human-animal interaction programs with horses, dogs, cats and other companion animals have been credited with improving social competence, self-esteem and behavior in children, scientifically valid research to support these claims — and an understanding of the underlying mechanism for why people report a positive experience in these programs — has been limited…

She approached the coordinator of PATH (Palouse Area Therapeutic Horsemanship) at the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine, which had been offering a therapeutic riding program for over 30 years. Pendry has been riding and working with horses since she was a child and reacquainted herself with therapeutic horsemanship when she began to look for her next research project at WSU…

Children were randomly assigned to participate in the program or be waitlisted. Based on natural horsemanship techniques, the program provided 90 minutes weekly to learn about horse behavior, care, grooming, handling, riding and interaction.

Participants provided six samples of saliva over a two-day period both before and after the 12-week program. Pendry compared the levels and patterns of stress hormone functioning by measuring cortisol. The results were exciting, she said.

"We found that children who had participated in the 12-week program had significantly lower stress hormone levels throughout the day and in the afternoon, compared to children in the waitlisted group," she said. “We get excited about that because we know that higher base levels of cortisol — particularly in the afternoon — are considered a potential risk factor for the development of psychopathology.”

Evidence to support human-animal work

Pendry said the experimental design underlying the study gives more scientific credit to the claims of therapeutic horsemanship professionals, parents and children who have reported a positive impact from these types of programs. In addition, she hopes the results will lead to development of alternative after-school programs.

While the research focused on prevention, Pendry said she believes it could provide a starting point to look at the impact on children of high levels of stress and physical or mental health issues.

"Partly because of NIH’s effort to bring hard science to the field of human-animal interaction, program implementers now have scientific evidence to support what they are doing," she said. (full article)

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More Posts from Themanfromnantucket

10 years ago
Blessphemysaid:

 blessphemy said: 私もへブルーを読めたらいいな…きれいな書言葉だし。

אני קצת מבולבלת. התרגום מגוגל היה… מוזר. אולי את מתכוונת לתעתק את המילה ״עברית״ (כי ״כחול״ זה לא שפה)? אם כן, אני מסכימה; היא שפה ממש יפה. יפנית גם שפה מעניינת מאוד. האם יפנית שפת האם שלך? 


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10 years ago
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats
Americas First Cat Caf Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats

America’s First Cat Café Opens: Drink Coffee Alongside Adorable Cats

Yesterday, America’s first cat café opened in New York City. Cat lovers, you now have only three more day to sip coffee and eat pastries alongside adorable cats! Purina One teamed up with the North Shore Animal League, the country’s largest no-kill shelter, to create this pop-up café that’s the temporary home to rescue cats. While the concept of a cat café has been around for a while, with Asia and Europe leading the way, this is the first time one has opened in the United States. Two permanent cat cafés are scheduled to open in San Francisco this year.

The concept is simple. Visitors pay an hourly fee or cover charge to sit and lounge with cats. This one, on 168 Bowery, is free. Sixteen cats roam the premises and you’re welcome to pick one up and snuggle with it. If you fall in love with a particular one, you can even adopt it! (Read about each individual cat, here. Looks like “Sushi” is featured in the photo, above.) To get your feline fix, stop by the store from 10a to 7p each day till April 27. If you’d like to learn a little something, you can listen to different cat experts talk about cat health and behavior. The store’s capacity is limited to just 65 people, so you may have to wait in line.

Via My Modern Met


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10 years ago
I Tried A 2-D Printer Once, And The Paper Jammed.

I tried a 2-D printer once, and the paper jammed.

So now I just painstakingly re-create my paper copies by hand, like a medieval monk.


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10 years ago
What If Some Theropod Dinosaurs Had Fluffy, Mobile Cheek Feathers, Like Some Modern Birds, That Would

What if some theropod dinosaurs had fluffy, mobile cheek feathers, like some modern birds, that would puff out when they were happy??

More studies need to be done, we must investigate further!!


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10 years ago

The FCC sided with Comcast and decided to let ISPs censor the internet. The Internet needs to stop this from happening: http://cms.fightforthefuture.org/tellfcc/

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Last Wednesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced a proposal for new rules that would allow for a “ fast lane” of Internet traffic for content providers who are willing (and able) to pay a fee. [1] The proposal reverses the FCC’s previous commitment to net neutrality and open internet and allows ISP’s like Comcast or Verizon to slow down and censor services that don’t pay the toll.

We have to be totally honest, this situation is seriously grim. But there is still hope. The FCC already knows that the Internet community wants net neutrality, but they think they can put their spin on these new rules and sneak them through. If we can prove them wrong right now with a massive public outcry, we can literally save the Internet once again.

We need to stop the FCC now. Big business groups are already ramping up lobbying efforts with the FCC in swarms since Wednesday’s announcement in support of censoring the open Internet and to ensure this dangerous proposal moves forward. [2]

This is a critical moment. In the last few weeks more than 65,000 people have taken action with us. Can you help us get to 80,000 by the end of the day today?

[1] Gautham Nagesh. “FCC to Propose New ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules”. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304518704579519963416350296

[2] Edward Wyatt. Edward Wyatt. “Lobbying Efforts Intensify After F.C.C. Tries 3rd Time on Net Neutrality” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/lobbying-efforts-intensify-after-fcc-tries-3rd-time-on-net-neutrality.html?hpw&rref=politics

  - Fight For The Future


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