My neighbor's golden retriever is a volunteer at the hospital across the street. I smile every time I see his official laminated ID card dangling from his collar. It turns out that he has the right idea. Reuters reports today that heart disease patients who spend time with a dog experience less anxiety and even speedier recoveries than those who are left alone or those who are visited by a human volunteer.

A UCLA Medical Center study of 76 heart failure patients found that levels of the stress hormone epinephrine dropped 17 percent in those who spent time with a dog. They only dropped two percent in those who hung out with a human being. Positive effects were also seen in the lungs where the systolic pulmonary artery pressure of the dog group dropped five percent during the visit and another five percent after the dog had left.