Cats are Healers
from fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz on 02 Dec 17:48
https://mander.xyz/post/21425758

#science_memes

threaded - newest

simple@lemm.ee on 02 Dec 18:09 next collapse

Petting a cat calms down & relieves stress.

There’s a 50/50 chance that a cat will try to claw your eyes out if you rub their belly, but yes.

OpenStars@discuss.online on 02 Dec 18:18 next collapse

Survivorship bias: those who live through the encounter have lowered stress.😁

Aceticon@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 16:55 collapse

The calming down and stress relief all happens once the petting session ends.

OpenStars@discuss.online on 03 Dec 18:42 collapse

Knowing that you survived probably gives you a nice hormonal boost:-).

FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml on 02 Dec 18:44 next collapse

Your stress will reduce to 0 if you die, so

Rhaedas@fedia.io on 02 Dec 19:58 collapse

Depends on the cat. There's some that will let you do just about anything and at most bat you with a paw, claws retracted. Then there's others that if you don't pay attention and pet them just a fraction wrong will take your arm off. Know your cat.

SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net on 02 Dec 21:44 collapse

This is true, I had both living with me at the same time for years.

Sort of still do but the bitey half is more playful now (different cats)

FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Dec 18:41 next collapse

Cat people have 40% less risk of heart attack.*

Cat people are also overrepresented cohorts of wealthy people and women, two cohorts who have a much lower risk of heart attack than the most at risk cohort of poor men.

RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de on 02 Dec 18:56 next collapse

So what you are saying is the more cats I get the richer I will be?

Obi@sopuli.xyz on 02 Dec 18:59 next collapse

Yes that’s exactly how causation and correlation work, go for it!

FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Dec 18:59 next collapse

No but cats are correlated with wealth, I’m not implying any sort of causation, unlike the post lol.

AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space on 02 Dec 20:10 collapse

Because they’re famously expensive to keep?

dangling_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Dec 20:39 next collapse

Scientists have discovered that having more cats reduces the risk of heart attacks and increases wealth with no upper limit*

*study sponsored by toxoplasmosis foundation

Avessandra@lemmy.ml on 02 Dec 21:28 next collapse

And more feminine

superkret@feddit.org on 02 Dec 22:07 next collapse

You don’t have to convince me, I was already sold.

BradleyUffner@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 00:51 next collapse

But I still have lots of cats, right?

CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 11:51 collapse

But I’ll get cat hair on my programmer socks!

Aceticon@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 16:53 next collapse

Correlation and Causation are just fancy-pantsy words used by experts to lie to us common folk!

And009@reddthat.com on 03 Dec 19:54 collapse

Gotta sell them all

zout@fedia.io on 02 Dec 19:03 collapse

Isn't it also that pet owners in general have better health?

FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Dec 19:22 collapse

Possibly. It would make sense, people with poor health who tend to also be poorer financially are less likely to have the ability to take care of a pet.

purrtastic@lemmy.nz on 02 Dec 18:44 next collapse

Sponsored by toxoplasmosis

troyunrau@lemmy.ca on 02 Dec 18:56 next collapse

You can’t tell me what to — oh, a pretty cat!

Donkter@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 21:05 collapse

If toxoplasmosis reduces my heart attack risk and stress with no discernable side effects sign me up!

corvi@lemm.ee on 02 Dec 19:13 next collapse

My cat learned I can’t see when I have the VR headset on and knocked a lamp over onto my head.

Jumi@lemmy.world on 02 Dec 20:05 next collapse

My neighbours cat sleeps on my couch when the door is open and he always wants me to scratch his belly.

lightnsfw@reddthat.com on 03 Dec 19:32 collapse

Nice, that’s basically free healthcare.

Jumi@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 20:49 collapse

Yeah, it’s pretty great. All I have to do is feed their cats when they’re away.

jlow@beehaw.org on 02 Dec 20:43 next collapse

So someone better than me at maths could probably figure out how many cats I’d need to heat my with them room (and if the catfood etc needed would be cheaper than heating) …

superkret@feddit.org on 02 Dec 21:01 collapse

I can answer the second question:
Generally, hot-blooded mammals transform 90% of the energy they get from food into heat.
So using a cat for heating your room is about 90% as effective as burning cat food in an oven.

Here’s some napkin math for where I live:
1kg of firewood has 4kWh = 4000 kcal
which is about equivalent to 1kg of really cheap dry cat food (mostly carbohydrates)

1kg of firewood costs about 40 cents
1kg of cheap dry cat food costs about 1,20€

So, cat-based heating is about 3.3x more expensive than burning pre-dried, commercially purchased firewood.
(all of these prices heavily depend on how much you buy in bulk, though. And if you care about your cat’s well-being, you’re gonna spend 2x more on its food)

RandomVideos@programming.dev on 02 Dec 22:17 next collapse

How would it affect the math if you sold cat videos as NFTs?

superkret@feddit.org on 02 Dec 22:25 collapse

In a market economy, the value of a good increases with demand and decreases with supply.

On the Internet, there is an unlimited supply of cat videos, therefore their market value is 0.

morrowind@lemmy.ml on 03 Dec 01:11 next collapse

c/theydidthemath?

rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de on 03 Dec 17:45 collapse

But cat based heating has a lower efficiency, they do not turn all energy into heat.

superkret@feddit.org on 03 Dec 17:53 collapse

That’s why I wrote it’s 3.3x more expensive, not 3x
10% of the energy is wasted on things like bodily functions, growing, running around and bringing joy to people.

rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de on 03 Dec 19:03 next collapse

You sure it’s only 10%? I would have estimated about 90%

superkret@feddit.org on 03 Dec 19:22 collapse

No, 90% is just for heat.

psud@aussie.zone on 07 Dec 12:01 collapse

But all that running around and buzzing and living becomes low grade heat pretty rapidly

While most of the heat from the cat food furnace will go up the chimney rather than into the room.

I would expect the cat to be closer to 100% efficient than the furnace, unless it spends its time sitting on a window sill behind the curtain radiating towards infinity

superkret@feddit.org on 02 Dec 20:48 next collapse

I have 2 cats.
One of them seems to sense when I’m upset or unwell, and will come to hug me, wrap herself around my neck and purr in my ear.
Then the other one will sneak up on us from behind, jump on her back, and start a cat fight on top of my head.
I love them both, but sometimes I wonder whether getting a second cat was the right decision.

RebekahWSD@lemmy.world on 03 Dec 18:54 collapse

Some cats are grade A dingdongs!

Still love them all.

ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca on 03 Dec 17:59 next collapse

Guinea pigs are kittens that never become cats

Empricorn@feddit.nl on 03 Dec 20:15 next collapse

Wholesome. Except the 4th-panel propaganda. That poor woman is dead after that…

Venator@lemmy.nz on 04 Dec 00:49 next collapse

Depends on the cats personality, some will tolerate, others will kill.

mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 04 Dec 17:42 collapse

Look at the cat’s eyes! She is about to die. That’s why no 5th panel

Slovene@feddit.nl on 04 Dec 18:11 collapse
gregor@gregtech.eu on 03 Dec 20:41 collapse

Does it really heal wounds and stabilize blood pressure? That seems a bit far-fetched.

webpack@ani.social on 03 Dec 21:10 next collapse

according to Google, cat purrs are at a specific frequency that somehow helps you heal faster

Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca on 05 Dec 12:45 collapse

One of it’s purrrposes is to shake wounds and increase bloodflow. This is why cats sometimes pur after conflict; they’re licking their wounds in multiple ways.