Health Benefits
What are the health benefits?
Ever wondered why a lot of doctor and dentist waiting rooms have fish tanks? There has been a lot of research going back to the mid 1980’s conducted on the health benefits of looking at fish in an aquarium.
Purdue University in Indiana conducted studies on the effect of watching aquariums in elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. They found that the more patients watched aquariums, the more alert and calmer they were.
The study also found that aggression levels experienced by Alzheimer’s patients decreased and that their appetite increased by almost 20%. This led to improvements in their quality of life, when compared to the control group who did not watch aquariums fish.
Other research has proven that watching a fish tank for 10 to 15 minutes everyday can be very beneficial, by lowering blood pressure substantially, reducing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, as well as stress from work and everyday life. It has even been found that sitting babies and young children in front of the tank is a great way to calm them and stop them from crying!
Watching fish is thought to stimulate serotonin neurotransmitters in the brain leading to increasing production of endorphins. Endorphins are our body’s natural ‘feel good’ hormones and produce a feeling of happiness. These hormones also reduce anxiety, having a calming effect on the body and a range of other health benefits such as lowering blood pressure, and reducing hyperactivity in children.
Although scientists are not exactly sure why this happens, the tank must contain fish. Patients that stare into a tank without fish do not have the same results as patients that stare at a tank with fish in it. It is thought that a combination of the sounds of water movement and bubbles along with the slow, steady movement of the fish is what stimulates the hormone release.
In our modern, hectic lives perhaps the calming influence of aquariums are needed more than ever.
So call us now and we can arrange a no-cost, no-obligation site visit and listen to your aquarium thoughts – or we can give your some of our own aquarium ideas.