Owning a dog is good for your heart, scientists reveal
By Sarah Knapton Science editor
DOG owners have lower blood pres-
sure, are less likely to be obese and are
on average over 6lb lighter than people
without a canine, scientists have found.
A study by the Mayo Clinic and Ital-
ian researchers, showed that people
with dogs are far healthier than those
with either no pets, or those who own a
different animal.
Dog owners, who are more likely to
be women, also earned more, exercised
more and were less likely to have dia-
betes.
Overall, all pet owners had a better
lifestyle than those who did not own an
animal, but those with dogs were found
to be the healthiest.
Dr Andrea Maugeri, of the Univer-
sity of Catania in Italy, who led thestudy, said: “In general, people who
owned any pet were more likely to re-
port more physical activity, better diet
and an ideal level of blood sugar.
“The greatest benefits from having a
pet were for those who owned a dog,
independent of their age, sex and edu-
cation level.”
About 45 per cent of Britons own an
animal, a rise of 5 per cent since 2016,
and dogs are the most popular with one
in four people having a canine.
For the study, researchers looked at
1,769 people, of whom 42 per centowned a pet. None had any history of
heart disease and they were scored on
body mass index, diet, physical activ-
ity, smoking status, blood pressure,
blood glucose and total cholesterol.
Just 29 per cent of dog owners were
obese, compared with 32 per cent of
non-pet owners, and 37 per cent of
non-dog owners. Dog owners weighed
an average of 11st 9lb, compared with
the 12st 1lb of those without a dog.
Out of a total score of 14 for overall
heart health, people with dogs scored
an average of 10 while those withoutscored just nine. Heart and circulatory
diseases cause more than a quarter of
all deaths in the UK, 170,000 deaths
each year, and there are about 7.4 mil-
lion people living with such disease in
the UK – 3.9 million men and 3.5 million
women.
The study is the first to show a link
between pet ownership and a lower
risk of heart problems.
Dr Maugeri said people should con-
sider adopting, rescuing or purchasing
a pet as a potential strategy to improve
their cardiovascular health as long itled them to a more physically active
lifestyle.
Dr Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, the
senior investigator and chairman of the
division of preventive cardiology at
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
said that having a dog may prompt
owners to go out, move around and
play with the animal regularly.
“Owning a dog has also been linked
to better mental health in other studies
and less perception of social isolation,
which are both risk factors for heart at-
tacks,” added Dr Lopez-Jimenez.Stars outraged
at ‘Jewface’
casting of
West End play
By Greg WilfordMIRIAM MARGOLYES and Maureen
Lipman have accused West End pro-
ducers of “overt appropriation” after
they cast non-Jewish actors in a musi-
cal about a Jewish family.
They are among a group of 20 Jewish
artists who signed an open letter to the
team behind Falsettos, which opens at
The Other Palace today.
It claims that the show’s UK debut,
which is centred on a boy’s bar mitz-
vah, features no Jewish talent.
The letter describes the casting of
the play as “at worst, overt appropria-
tion and erasure of a culture and reli-
gion increasingly facing a crisis”. It also
uses the term “Jewface” to refer to non-
Jewish performers in Jewish roles.
The letter, backed by Margolyes, 78,
and Lipman, 73, was published by The
Stage on Wednesday.
Falsettos was written by Americans
William Finn, who is Jewish, and James
Lapine. It won two Tony awards after
its debut on Broadway in 1992.
A spokesman for Selladoor World-
wide, the production company, said:
“We have complete trust in our crea-
tive and production teams to ensure
that this production properly repre-
sents all of the wonderful characters.
“With regards to our cast, like all em-
ployers in the UK we are required to
run recruitment processes that are free
from bias or discrimination with re-
gards to religion, race, gender, age or
any other protected characteristics.
“We do not ask any prospective cast
members about the aforementioned
characteristics, and do not think that it
would be appropriate to do so.”Sculpture BBC
show deemed
‘worthless’ sold
for £500,
By Dalya Alberge
A SCULPTURE that the BBC Fake or
Fortune? programme decided was
worthless has sold for more than half a
million pounds after it was proved to
be a work by Swiss master Alberto
Giacometti.
In an episode first broadcast last au-
tumn, Philip Mould, an art expert, and
Fiona Bruce, the show’s presenter, be-
gan to probe whether the plaster sculp-
ture was a genuine Giacometti. But
without a signature, the show could
not confirm its authenticity.
After the original screening, layers
of household paint were removed from
plaster used in a crude repair, uncover-
ing Giacometti’s signature.
The sculpture sold as an original at
Christie’s in February for more than
half a million pounds. It had been
brought to the show by Claire Clark-
Hall, whose grandmother, Fiona Gar-
fitt, studied in Paris in the Thirties and
was a friend of Giacometti’s mistress.
After a cat knocked the sculpture off
a mantelpiece in the Sixties, Mrs Gar-
fitt’s husband had used Polyfilla and
household paint to repair to the work.
In 2015, one of Giacometti’s bronzes
sold for $141 million (£115 million) – a
world record.
Merely counting A London Zoo keeper notes the weight of a distracted meerkat during its annual weigh-in. Measuring how
much each of the zoo’s 19,000 animals weighs presents a challenge, so keepers use food to lure creatures on to the scales.JAMES VEYSEY/REXCanine companions help
people stay healthier and
you are less likely to suffer
from diabetes or obesity
The Gazing Head
sculpture had been
repaired after being
knocked off a
mantelpiece by a pet
cat in the SixtiesNews
10 ***^ Friday 23 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws