Cat Purr Healing: What the Research Shows

The studies behind this page measured the frequency of cat purrs, how a cat's larynx makes the sound, and heart disease deaths among people who had cats. None of them tested whether a purr heals a person or a cat.

Here is what each study measured, in which animals or people, and what it found.

Do Cats Heal Themselves by Purring?

Cats purr when they are hurt or afraid as well as when they are content. In a study by Elizabeth Von Muggenthaler of the Fauna Communications Research Institute in North Carolina, the abstract says: “cats purr when they are severely injured or frightened.” It is an abstract published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in 2001.

The title of that abstract ends with a question mark: “The felid purr: A healing mechanism?” It describes recordings of 44 felids, including cheetahs, ocelots, pumas, domestic cats, and servals, and it closes with a possibility: “An internal healing mechanism would be advantageous, increasing recovery time and keeping muscles and bone strong when sedentary.”

A veterinary school scientist raised the same question. Leslie Lyons, then an assistant professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, wrote in Scientific American in 2003 that “Cats often purr while under duress, such as during a visit to the veterinarian or when recovering from injury.” She wrote that “it is more plausible that cat purring is a means of communication and a potential source of self-healing.” She also wrote that “it is possible that purring is a low energy mechanism that stimulates muscles and bones without a lot of energy.”

Both the abstract and Lyons describe self-healing as a possibility. The recording tools listed in the abstract were a digital audio recorder, microphones, and an accelerometer on domestic cats. What the abstract measured was sound and vibration.

Cat Purr Healing: What the Frequency Numbers Show

Frequency is how many times per second a sound wave repeats, and it is measured in hertz (Hz). The Von Muggenthaler abstract reports that “Every felid in the study generated strong frequencies between 25 and 150 Hz.” Lyons gives the same figure for cats: a frequency range of 25 to 150 Hz, which she says cats make during both inhalation and exhalation.

The abstract then compares purrs with human medicine. It says: “Purr frequencies correspond to vibrational/electrical frequencies used in treatment for bone growth/fractures, pain, edema, muscle growth/strain, joint flexibility, dyspnea, and wounds.” Dyspnea means shortness of breath. It reports that domestic cats, servals, ocelots, and pumas produce strong frequencies at exactly 25 Hz and 50 Hz, which it calls “the two low frequencies that best promote bone growth/fracture healing,” and it cites a 1994 paper by Chen and colleagues for that claim.

Lyons writes: “Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.”

The abstract compares the recorded numbers with the numbers used in treatment. The cats were recorded, and the comparison is between frequencies.

Cat Purring Health Benefits: What the Heart Study Found

The one human health study on this page asked about cats in the home. It did not ask about purring, and the word purr does not appear in the paper. The paper is in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Neurology. It followed 4,435 participants in a national US health survey (NHANES II) and counted deaths from heart disease and stroke using death certificates.

Its abstract reports a relative risk of death due to heart attack of 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.88) for people who had a cat at some point in the past, compared with people who never had a cat. A relative risk of 0.63 is 37 percent lower than the comparison group's. That is close to, but not the same as, a 40% lower risk of suffering a heart attack, and it counts deaths. In the table, 46 of 1,420 people who had a cat in the past died of a heart attack, against 115 of 2,000 people who never had a cat.

The result was for people who had a cat in the past. For people who had a cat at the time of the survey, the table gives a relative risk of 0.87 with a confidence interval of 0.60 to 1.3 and a p-value of 0.4572. The paper also reports “a trend for decreased risk for death due to cardiovascular diseases” for people who had a cat in the past (0.74, 95% confidence interval 0.55 to 1.0). Deaths from stroke did not follow the pattern, and the authors write that they did not see a protective effect on stroke.

The authors list what the study could not do. It “did not allow us to quantitate cat exposure in terms of years, intensity of physical interaction, and nature of interaction (tactile or visual).” They write that “We cannot exclude that this effect may be an indirect effect,” and they say that the personalities of people who keep cats “may have traits that are protective towards cardiovascular diseases.” Only participants who reported an allergy were asked about cats. The authors write that it remains unclear whether the relationship would be similar “among persons without any allergic response.” They close by saying the results “need to be confirmed in other studies.”

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Cat Purring Effect on Humans: What the Studies Tested

The heart study's authors offer one possible reason for their result, and they describe it as a possibility: “The protective effect may be related to a spontaneous relaxing effect with buffering effect on autonomic reactivity to acute stressors, and/or classical conditioning of relaxing response.” Its abstract begins: “The presence of pets has been associated with reduction of stress and blood pressure.”

It is always important to seek medical advice and treatment from a licensed healthcare provider for any wound or medical condition.

The mirror studies on our page about cats and mirrors tested chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants, magpies, fish, and monkeys. They did not test cats. Another cat question is why cats stretch so much.

Why Do Cats Purr?

A 2023 paper in Current Biology says cats “have long been believed to produce their low-frequency purr vocalizations through a radically different mechanism involving active muscle contractions,” in which nerve signals “typically at 20-30 Hz” make the laryngeal muscles act on the airflow.

The researchers tested the larynges of eight domestic cats in an excised larynx setup, which means larynges removed from the cats. They report that “all eight excised larynges produced self-sustained oscillations at typical cat purring rates,” and that cat larynges “can easily produce sounds in the purr regime with fundamental frequencies of 25 to 30 Hz without neural input or muscular contraction.” They found connective tissue masses “up to 4 mm in diameter” in the vocal fold. They also write that their data “do not fully reject” the muscle explanation, and that purring is “potentially augmented” by muscle contractions.

An older study took a different measurement. A 1987 study in Brain Research recorded electrical activity from the intercostal muscles, the muscles between the ribs, of cats and reported that “expiratory muscles can be involved” and that “reflex components nevertheless play a considerable part in the production of the periodic pattern of muscle activation seen during purring.”

As for when cats purr, Lyons writes that “In domestic cats, purring is most noticeable when an animal is nursing her kittens or when humans provide social contact via petting, stroking or feeding.” She also writes that “Most felid species produce a ‘purr-like’ vocalization.” For where cats like to be touched, see our guide to petting a cat.

Purring also shows up at the veterinary clinic. A study in the Journal of Small Animal Practice enrolled cats at a first opinion clinic to find out how common purring is during an exam and whether it can be stopped, because “When cats purr during examination it is difficult to perform auscultation.” Auscultation is listening to the heart and lungs with a stethoscope. In a randomised trial of 30 purring cats, 17 of the 21 cats placed near a running tap stopped purring.

Cat Purr FAQ

Is A Purring Cat Always A Good Sign?

No. The Von Muggenthaler abstract says cats purr when severely injured or frightened, and Lyons says cats often purr while under duress, such as during a visit to the veterinarian or when recovering from injury. This is why it's essential to be perceptive of what your cat may be telling you, including a happy senior cat.

Do Other Kinds of Cats Purr?

Yes. Lyons writes that “Most felid species produce a ‘purr-like’ vocalization.” The 2001 abstract recorded cheetahs, ocelots, pumas, and servals along with domestic cats, and it reports that every felid in the study generated strong frequencies between 25 and 150 Hz.

Can A Purr Replace Medical Care?

No study on this page tested a purr as a treatment for a cat or a person. Do not ignore veterinary advice or put off getting treatment due to seeing information on this website.

Sources

• Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, “The felid purr: A healing mechanism?” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 110 (2001), abstract: doi.org/10.1121/1.4777098
• Herbst and colleagues, “Domestic cat larynges can produce purring frequencies without neural input,” Current Biology 33 (2023): pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37794583
• Qureshi and colleagues, a national study of cats and fatal cardiovascular disease, Journal of Vascular and Interventional Neurology: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3317329
• Leslie A. Lyons, University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, “Why do cats purr?” Scientific American (2003): scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-cats-purr
• Kirkwood and colleagues, “Intercostal muscles and purring in the cat: the influence of afferent inputs,” Brain Research (1987): pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3032349
• Little and colleagues, “Purring in cats during auscultation: how common is it, and can we stop it?” Journal of Small Animal Practice (2014): pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24329568

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