okay so this is a bit different so if you're wondering why I've got such a
silly mustache what it's in aid of and why I think this is relevant to you then
just stay tuned Hi for those of you who don't know me I'm Dr. Alex Avery from
OurPetsHealth.com helping you and your pets live a healthier happier life
and this is a little bit different today I thought of doing a little vlog for
a couple of reasons first of these is that I was volunteered by my work to
take part in Movember so for those of you who don't know Movember is all about
growing the mustache for the month of November to raise awareness and to raise
funds for male health issues so that's prostate cancer testicular cancer and
mental health and this got me thinking really because in the profession that
I'm in as a vet mental health plays a massive role some of you might be aware
that vets massively over-represented in suicide statistics so as a vet your four
times more likely to commit suicide than the general population and that's higher
than doctors dentists and any other profession there's a lot involved and I
think there's personality types that attracted to the position as well as
potential stresses and strains of the job working hours potential isolation
and a whole heap of things and in trying to raise awareness for male mental
health that got me thinking about veterinary mental health and then I saw
something in the in the news last week or this started this week that discuss
the benefits of owning pets and how that can benefit mental health so I thought
that was kind of relevant tie into just one for me to talk to you to try and
raise awareness for male health issues for mental health issues in general
amongst yourselves you know I've kind of well my human audience if you like but
also to just discuss the human animal bond a little bit more you know our pets
play such an important part of our lives and I think quite often we underestimate
that so I think the report this week was the fact that young children who are
living exposed to cats who live with cats have a much lower chance of
developing asthma later on in their life and asthma is something that it's
affecting more and more children I believe for reasons that we don't
necessarily understand but having cats can certainly be beneficial and you know
that's fascinating really the other well-known thing is that having pets
having dogs it can really lower our risk of mental health issues I think it
removes not necessarily removes but reduces the feeling of isolation in many
cases maybe feelings of loneliness they provide a great stress relief so it's
always great to have a welcoming face to come home to be that your cat be that
your dog going out getting a walk getting some fresh air gett ing out in
the great outdoors with our dogs we're all aware that exercise is really
beneficial we should be doing 30 minutes 3 times a day or something along those
lines of exercise that increases our heart rates and having a dog is
fantastic for doing that they get us out of the house if it's raining it's cold
you still have to take them for walks or at least we should and it's so important to
get out for their sakes but also for ours they're doing us just as much good
as we are satisfying their needs you know and our pets do so much else for us
we've got to work a board that gives you kind of a pet fact for the
week and this week's one is that trained dogs can alert their epileptic owners to
an oncoming seizure to an hour before that seizures due we have dogs that you
know work for us in security sniffing out drugs and explosives and have dogs on
the front line we have animals that are taken into hospitals to improve the
mental well-being of ourselves when we're sick you know they just do so much
for us so I guess I just wanted to discuss that I just wanted to give a few
thoughts I'd be interested to hear what you think and hear your thoughts on the
matter how do you feel that your pet has helped you what do they bring to your
lives I'd love to hear if you just leave them down in the comments below you know
the whole purpose of of this moustache is to raise awareness of our own
problems so if you're feeling low if you're feeling anxious you're feeling
depressed if things are getting on top of
you really just reach out to somebody that can be a health care professional it can
be an anonymous phone line it can be one of your friends it can be one of your
family really no one wants to see someone suffer with mental health issues
with any health issues so reaching out sooner rather than later is always going
to be a benefit there's always someone willing to listen so until next time i'm
Dr. Alex from our pets health you take care