Back to the Horse
For those of you who are technology oriented, this may come as a surprise. Sometimes “old” is “new,” and sometimes “modern” does not mean “better,” especially when we are talking about back-to-the-basics medical therapies. Animal therapy has recently come to the fore, and perhaps a closer look is warranted. The Ancient Greeks were certainly open-minded on the issue, as they placed their wounded soldiers on their horses to help them heal. Researchers have recently explored a vast gamma of such remedies, ranging from horseback riding for cerebral palsy to fish tanks for Alzheimer’s disease to swimming with dolphins for moderate depression. Varying degrees of success have been reported. Plants have even lended a hand, or should I say a “branch.” Horticultural therapy has been found to decrease heart rate, improve mood, and reduce stress. While funding for further studies will be hard to come by (due to the scorn and doubt of the established medical community), and while the impracticality of such therapies and the serious bias inherent in such research are beyond question, perhaps Mother Nature knows best. Think about that the next time you lie supine in the powerful full-body magnet of an MRI (magnet resonance imaging) behemoth. Would not a simple “laying of hands” further ease your tension and contribute to your ultimate recovery? After all, mutual exclusion is the stuff of closed minds. Dr. Al
posted by Dr. Al at
7/27/2006 08:51:00 AM
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