Health & Wellness

Raised with pets? Your immune system remembers

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 16:46:30 +0000

Raised with pets? Your immune system remembers Rachel Sauer Tue, 08/12/2025 - 10:46

Cody DeBos

CU Boulder researchers, with an international team of colleagues, find that childhood pets are linked to healthier stress responses

If you grew up in a city and without a pet, your immune system likely developed differently than that of someone who shared their childhood with a dog or cat. That difference, new research from �� Professor Christopher Lowry suggests, could influence how your body responds to stress even decades later.

In a study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, an international team of researchers, including Lowry and CU Boulder PhD student John Sterrett, found that for people raised in urban environments, having regular contact with pets early in life may protect against harmful immune responses to stress.

CU Boulder scientist Christopher Lowry and his research colleagues found that having regular contact with pets early in life may protect against harmful immune responses to stress.

“Being raised in a home with pets can provide protection against chronic low-grade inflammation, which we know is a risk factor for stress-related psychiatric disorders and more,” Lowry says.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that our childhood environments can leave a lasting mark on our physical and mental health.

Our oldest friends

Lowry is a professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder and has spent much of his career studying how the microbial world interacts with the human brain. It’s a fascination that traces back to the 1990s when he started exploring how soil microbes influence mood.

“For about 25 years, we have been interested in understanding how microbes found in our environment—in nature, soil, fermenting vegetable matter, and unpurified water—can signal from the body to the brain,” Lowry says.

Along with a research team directed by Stafford Lightman at the University of Bristol’s University Research Center for Neuroendocrinology, Lowry studied Mycobacterium vaccae NCTC 11659 (M. vaccae), a microbe commonly found in soil.

His lab found that exposure to M. vaccae in mice activated serotonin pathways in the brain and produced antidepressant-like behavioral effects.

“M. vaccae is representative of diverse microbes in nature that have the ability to promote immunoregulation and protect us from inappropriate inflammation,” Lowry explains.

The microbe soon became a model for studying what scientists now call “Old Friends”—the microorganisms humans co-evolved with and depend on for proper immune system development.

“Being raised in a home with pets can provide protection against chronic low-grade inflammation, which we know is a risk factor for stress-related psychiatric disorders and more,” says CU Boulder researcher Christopher Lowry. (Photo: Bonnie Kittle/Unsplash)

It’s thought that modern urban living, with its clean indoor environments and reduced contact with naturally occurring microbes, disrupts this relationship. In turn, people living in such environments have experienced a rise in chronic, stress-related disorders.

Pets as microbial messengers

In a previous study, Lowry and his colleagues showed that people raised on farms, with regular exposure to animals, exhibited lower inflammatory responses to psychological stress. But in that study, it was hard to separate the effects of rural living from contact with animals.

So, the team designed a new study to answer a more specific question.

“We designed the study to determine if having pets in the home could protect against inappropriate inflammation in individuals raised in urban settings,” Lowry says.

The team recruited healthy adult men who had been raised in cities either with or without household pets. The participants were then exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test, and measurements of their immune function and inflammation were taken both before and after completing stressful tasks like public speaking.

Compared to their pet-free peers, individuals who grew up with pets showed a more balanced immune response and better regulation of stress-reactive cells.

But what accounts for this striking result?

“Exposures to ‘Old Friends,’ which are thought to increase in homes with pets, interacts with our immune system to produce more regulatory T cells,” Lowry explains. “Without sufficient exposure to ‘Old Friends’ we have reduced capacity to produce these regulatory T cells, which leads to inappropriate or unresolved inflammation.”

In short, a four-legged friend in the house means more microbial diversity. That might be just what your immune system needs to stay in balance.

Something as simple as living with a pet could help buffer the long-term health risks of urban living, notes CU Boulder researcher Christopher Lowry. (Photo: Helena Jankovičová Kováčová/Pexels)

From theory to therapy

Lowry and his team’s findings are just the beginning. He is now involved in several projects exploring how they could be applied in the real world.

“We are interested in exploring if we can increase mental health outcomes by increasing exposure to ‘Old Friends,’” he says, pointing to clinical trials testing microbial supplements and high-diversity plant-based beverages, which contain diverse microbial communities.

He’s also a co-founder of a CU Boulder startup company Kioga, which is developing soil-derived microbiome-based nutritional supplements, food ingredients and therapeutics. Their goal is to improve mental health outcomes for anyone experiencing high levels of perceived stress, whether or not they have a diagnosed disorder.

What comes next?

Lowry also notes that more research is needed to explore if the recent findings hold true for women or people of different ages or backgrounds.

“This is an extremely important question,” Lowry says. “More work is needed to fully understand the importance of upbringing in rural versus urban lifestyles in females.”

Still, the implications are clear. Something as simple as living with a pet could help buffer the long-term health risks of urban living. Given that more people than ever today live in cities and stress-related conditions are on the rise, Lowry’s work offers a hopeful solution.

“Humans co-evolved with these microbes in nature, and our body depends on them for a normally functioning immune system,” he says.

So, the next time you’re scrubbing muddy paw prints off the floor, remember that your four-legged friend is just trying to help you stay healthier in the long run.

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CU Boulder scientist Christopher Lowry and research colleagues find that childhood pets are linked to healthier stress responses.

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Could focused breathing be a key to better health?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:52:30 +0000

Could focused breathing be a key to better health? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/17/2023 - 13:52

Pam Moore

CU Boulder researchers Daniel Craighead, Douglas Seals and their team are studying the effects of a specialized breathing exercise on older adults’ blood pressure, brain health, cognition and fitness

Although the health benefits of exercise are well known, less than 40% of older and midlife Americans meet recommended aerobic activity guidelines. But what if you could improve your health without getting out of your chair—and it took only 10 minutes a day?

High-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) may be the ticket, according to recently published research from the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory, which is led by CU Distinguished Professor Douglas Seals, in the �� Department of Integrative Physiology.

Researchers found that participants who engaged in IMST, a type of breathing exercise designed to strengthen the diaphragm and accessory breathing muscles, appeared to show improvements across multiple health measures, including blood pressure, exercise tolerance, cognition and the functioning of blood vessels in the brain.

How the study was done

IMST is a form of respiratory muscle training that lets you inhale against high resistance by breathing through a device that vaguely resembles a vacuum attachment. “The breath is rapid and intense and feels a bit like sucking up a thick milkshake,” says Daniel Craighhead, an assistant research professor of integrative physiology and the study’s lead investigator.

CU Boulder researcher Daniel Craighead and his colleagues found that high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training may support improvements in multiple health measures, including blood pressure.

All subjects in the randomized, double-blind study were generally healthy men and postmenopausal women, at least 50 years old, classified as having elevated blood pressure (systolic blood pressure of at least 120 mmHg) and on average met minimum physical activity guidelines.

The experimental group performed high-resistance IMST, while the control group used a sham, low-resistance device. Both groups performed a specific protocol for five to 10 minutes per day, six days per week, for six weeks.

While the control group saw no significant health changes, the experimental group showed improvements in blood pressure, aerobic fitness, cognitive abilities and brain-blood-vessel health.

Potential health benefits

On average, subjects’ systolic blood pressure decreased by nine points within six weeks, says Craighead. Given that high blood pressure is a risk factor for many health issues, including cardiac arrest, stroke, dementia and cancer, these preliminary findings justify more research, which Craighead is now spearheading.

Subjects also increased their capacity for aerobic exercise, a metric associated with positive health outcomes including longevity, quality of life and lower risks of stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

At the beginning and the end of the study, subjects were asked to walk on a treadmill with a gradually increasing incline until they could no longer tolerate the activity. Although their VO2 max, or their maximum ability to consume oxygen, didn’t change, subjects walked an average of 12% longer on the second trial—a significant improvement.

There were “really strong improvements” in the quality of the blood vessels in subjects’ brains as well. “Starting in midlife, the health of our brain blood vessels starts to decline. How rapidly and intensely that happens can impact our future risk for mild cognitive impairment and dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease,” says Craighead.

And while it’s too soon to say definitively that IMST could delay or prevent the onset of dementia, “it’s at least a promising early finding,” he says.

Meanwhile, researchers observed significant improvements in subjects’ executive functioning, or the ability to plan ahead, focus attention and switch between multiple tasks. And “executive function is one of the areas [of cognitive function] that declines most rapidly with dementia,” says Craighead.

So what does this mean?

If you’re tempted to trade your exercise routine for IMST, Craighead has advice: Don’t. “While it seems to have similar effects to exercise when it comes to blood pressure and other health measures, unfortunately we didn’t see changes in things like cholesterol levels, blood sugar or bone density—all things we know exercise improves.”

That said, if you’re not currently exercising, IMST is a low-impact, time-efficient way to improve your health that has no known serious side effects. While some subjects initially reported neck strain and lightheadedness, those issues resolved and were not significant enough to cause anyone to quit the study, says Craighead. However, he and his research colleagues do recommend that everyone check with their physician before starting IMST because it might not be 100% safe for everyone.

This technique can be helpful for those with health conditions that make it impossible to meet the recommended physical activity guidelines, Craighead suggests.

Those exercising at higher levels may benefit from IMST, too. “I think the data is strong enough to say, if you’re a serious athlete, you might as well add it. And if you don’t benefit from it, you’re likely not doing any harm,” says Craighead. “Say you’re a runner. It’s not going to fatigue your legs or increase your risk of injury, and it’s time efficient.”

While the data suggest that IMST might improve health, cognition and athletic performance, Craighead isn’t calling it a magic bullet. It’s too soon to make any sweeping statements about the IMST’s potential, according to Craighead. Still, he says, “The initial results are really exciting.”

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Workshops aim to help participants cope and feel better

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 21:51:09 +0000

Workshops aim to help participants cope and feel better Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/02/2023 - 15:51

CU Boulder expert to lead series focusing on the science of heart-rate variability and its applicability via the HeartMath system

In a four-part series of workshops at the ��, an expert in heart-rate variability will share research and its application via the HeartMath system.

Participants in the workshop series, which runs from Oct. 10-31, will learn how to utilize the heart/brain connection to regulate heart rhythms to immediately address their emotional state in challenging situations. The workshops will teach participants how to do this while building coherence of heart, mind and emotion, boosting resilience, decreasing stress and improving mental and physical performance, notes Erin Cunningham-Ritter, PhD, who will lead the workshops.

Cunningham Ritter, who is director of wellness and employee engagement for the College of Arts and Sciences, said that the workshops aim to support “our communities with practical, in-the-moment tools for building coherence and capacity for resilience, stress reduction, improved self-regulation, performance and mental and physical health.”

Erin Cunningham Ritter

Each workshop will be held on a Tuesday, beginning on Oct. 10, from 1-2 p.m. The workshops are free and open to all, but participants must register at this link.

The first workshop, on Oct. 10, is the “foundational workshop,” and participants are encouraged to attend the first workshop before each of the subsequent ones.

CU Boulder recognizes that the campus community is our most valuable asset, and that has never been more apparent than it is now, Cunningham-Ritter said.

“To care for our students and employees, and to recognize that all of us face new personal, academic and work challenges, the campus is providing a program designed to support our community as we work to balance home and school life,” she said.

She described HeartMath as an evidenced-based program that teaches participants to access their hearts’ inner balance to become the best version of themselves. These tools, which can be applied in the moment, are proven to help participants reduce stress and anxiety while improving coherence, self-security and decision making, according to Cunningham Ritter.

She added that benefits to the workshops include:

Enhanced ability to focus, process information and solve problems
Increased coherence, vitality and resilience
Reduced stress, worry and fatigue
Improved physiological/psychological health and executive functions

Workshop topics include:

The latest findings from optimal-performance research
Skills for building coherence in the face of change and uncertainty
Intelligent energy self-regulation techniques
Practical ideas for easily integrating valuable tools into everyday routines

The series of workshops comprises:

Four, one-hour virtual meetings
Prompts for practice after each session
Workbooks and learning materials

HeartMath has developed highly successful programs for self-improvement in mental, emotional and physical balance, according to Cunningham-Ritter. However, HeartMath technology and materials are not intended to replace treatments for medical or psychological conditions by licensed physicians, psychologists or other health care professionals.

The series of workshops are sponsored by Be Well, the College of Arts and Sciences’ wellness initiative, and CU Boulder Health and Wellness Services. For more information or to ask questions, contact Erin Cunningham Ritter.

In a four-part series of workshops at the ��, an expert in heart-rate variability will share research and its application via the HeartMath system.

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Dietitian to dish on making peace with food

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 17:24:42 +0000

Dietitian to dish on making peace with food Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 11:24

Parsing seven different kinds of hunger, an April 26 Let’s CU Well presentation to discuss honoring your hunger and emotions with kindness

Kathleen Farrell wants to talk about your relationship.

Specifically, your relationship with food.

Farrell is a registered dietitian nutritionist who works at the Clinical Translation Research Center (CTRC) as a research dietitian, but for about six years she worked as a clinical dietitian for Wardenburg Student Health Center at the ��. In that time, she came to understand that many students—and many people in general—have a complicated relationship with food.

While at Wardenburg, Farrell created a handout called the Hunger Tree. She started to ask students: What are you really hungry for? She says it’s key to know what to eat, but just as important to know why you are eating.

Kathleen Farrell nutures relationships with food in her seminar, Honor Your Hunger and Emotions with Kindness.

For some, food can be a subject loaded with meaning and emotion. To some degree, everyone fuels themselves differently—physically, and emotionally. Thus, Farrell uses her hunger tree to get a better understanding of why someone is eating—emotionally versus for a physiological reason. Hunger can be complicated, Farrell says, partly because there are actually seven different types of hunger:

Stomach hunger—actual physical hunger
Mouth hunger—a desire for the taste of a certain food
Eye hunger—desiring a food based on its appearance
Nose hunger—desiring a certain food based on its smell
Mind hunger—what a person’s mind is telling them about a food
Heart hunger—a desire for foods associated with emotions
Cellular hunger—when the body indicates it has need for a nutrient

While it can be acceptable to eat something in response to any type of hunger, Farrell says it can be valuable to understand the underlying reason for the desire.

Farrell uses this example: In the case of heart hunger, what the person might really desire is not food but a hug from a loved one. In that case, the person may be using food as a stand-in for what is really needed because they are “emotionally hungry.”

Making peace with food

For Farrell, a big part of her focus is helping people make peace with food.

One place where inner conflict over food can arise in individuals is from imposition of a diet that is overly restrictive, which Farrell says can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and sometimes binge-eating.

“Wanting to lose some weight—that hunger for change—is totally fine,” she says. “But if it comes to where you’re not giving yourself permission to enjoy food in a healthy way, that can lead to problems.”

Instead, Farrell says she encourages students to moderate themselves. For example, if someone says they love ice cream but are not sure if they should have some, Farrell says she would tell them, “Enjoy it. Have a bowl of ice cream but have a smaller portion size. Maybe try to enhance it by putting some blueberries or almonds on it.”

Meanwhile, to avoid over-eating, Farrell advises people to “feel their fullness.” That means listening for internal body signals that indicate fullness, observing signs of being comfortably full, and pausing in the middle of eating to ask how the food tastes and to determine one’s current fullness level.

Farrell will share additional views on food and what it means to be at peace with food during her upcoming seminar, Honor Your Hunger and Emotions with Kindness. This event is scheduled as a Zoom presentation starting at noon on Wednesday, April 26. The event is free, but registration is required at this link.

The event is part of the Let’s CU Well speaker series for CU staff, students and the general public. The series is part of Be Well, an initiative launched by the College of Arts and Sciences to promote more healthful lifestyle choices.

Don’t expect Farrell to talk at length about dieting in her presentation, because she believes people are better served by focusing on “eating mindfully” (paying attention to what they are eating) rather than focusing strictly on their caloric intake.

“When I talk about honoring your hunger with kindness, part of what I mean is not being too hard on yourself,” she says. “A lot of times, we might set a goal for ourselves, but we might fall short. And it’s important just being able to say, ‘I wasn’t able to meet my goal for the day but it’s OK.’

“We do not need to strive for perfection. Perfection is just too hard to maintain. Instead, progress is what I look for. It is really about sustainability.”

Event Details

Honor Your Hunger & Emotions with Kindness

When: Apr 26, 2023 12:00 p.m. MT
Where: Zoom

Parsing seven different kinds of hunger, an April 26 Let’s CU Well presentation to discuss honoring your hunger and emotions with kindness.

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