February 21st, 2010 by admin

If you ask any cat or dog owner, they will tell the animals are one of the family. Talk to them for a while and they will strike you as happy and well-adjusted. This might not seem significant but continuing medical research has detected a significant trend. This is not just your neighbor. It’s the majority of people who keep a pet. The most recent piece of research was presented to the International Society of Anthrozoology conference held in Kansas City this October by a team from Loyola University of Chicago.

They were testing the hypothesis that the use of dogs in a hospital environment would represent a beneficial therapy, promoting faster healing and a better rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery. Some of you will be convinced that dogs are the equivalent of plague carriers and believe they should never be allowed into a hopefully relatively sterile hospital. After all, dogs are barred from most eating places. Allowing animals into public spaces is a balancing of risks and benefits. Hospitals are not as clean as we might believe and dogs do not make what is often a bad situation any worse. In fact, their presence is proving to be great therapy and the benefits of admission now significantly outweigh keeping them out.

The team was using a number of dogs specially trained to respond positively to patients. Each animal has been taught some 40 different commands and will respond with behavior likely to soothe a patient or to motive his or her to resume movement. The exploits a fairly common reaction in humans to stroke dogs. Many find the feeling of fingers running on and through fur to be relaxing. When the dogs also appear to show appreciation, bonding takes place quickly and patients feel happier. Pets are stress busters. Even more significantly, this research confirms that patients going through rehabilitation with dogs healed more quickly and used 50% less painkillers than a control group who relied on human therapists for counseling and support. Regular monitoring found the pets lowered the heart rate and blood pressure of their human companions. In every sense, the trial has proved a real success and more hospitals in Chicago are now being introduced to the use of these dogs. The expectation is that more dogs will be required and a training program is being organized. Read the rest of this entry »

February 21st, 2010 by admin

When at our mother’s knee, we all hear this friendly voice warning us never to forget, “The world is full of thieves and villains.” It first surfaces in unexplained instructions never to walk off with adults we do not know. This is “stranger danger” and it’s only in later years we realize how many predators there are and what they want. Then come all the other warnings about value. This is the “if it’s cheap, it must be bad value warning. Yet, remarkably, we never seem to care when buying a fake Rolex for a few dollars. It just seems like a fun thing to be able to wrap round our wrists and impress our friends for a few hours. The fact this may be stealing from the owners of the brand in some way never seems to connect. Well, ladies and gentlemen, here’s an adult warning for you. There are folk out there on the internet who want to steal from you and, this time, it’s personal. You are the ones who will bear the loss. These particular thieves pick a product where your own defenses may be down. This is the erectile dysfunction market. It exists in both a direct and indirect form.

On the direct sites, these businesses claim to be selling the little blue pills at a fraction the usual retail price. They are full of convincing explanations and promises. All you have to do is send the money and await results. The safer version simply disappears with your money and never troubles the mailman. This is the “smash and grab” approach to theft. There’s no subtlety involved. Like the robber who bashes you over the head to steal your wallet, these guys advertize and run. The more dangerous actually send you some pills. If you are lucky, these pills are completely harmless and will not injure you in any way. If you are unlucky, the pills contain something dangerous and they make you ill. So only buy from trusted online pharmacies. That way you get the real product. Read the rest of this entry »