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The treatment of osteoarthritis, to date, is essentially palliative.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease where the articular cartilage- the gristle that caps the ends of long bones wears away. More than 20 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, making it the most common form of arthritis.
While the therapeutic approach varies from practitioner to practitioner, the general thrust is similar.
Patients are treated with analgesics or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, injections of glucocorticoids, injections of hyaluronic acid (“rooster comb”) lubricants, and then have surgery.
In patients with relatively mild disease, physicians may also prescribe topical agents.
Many doctors feel that topical non-steroidal drugs may be safer to use than oral anti-inflammatory drugs.
A recent study assessed the efficacy and safety of diclofenac gel in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee in people aged 65 and older. This was actually a compilation of data from three large randomized studies that enrolled a total of 538 patients. Four hundred and thirty three of the volunteers had associated medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. The data was reported by Dr. H. Richard Barthel and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Medical Directors Association.
The patients applied either the topical diclofenac gel in a dose of four grams per day or placebo.
The time frame evaluated was 12 weeks of therapy.
Analysis of the data showed that 56 per cent of the patients who received diclofenac gel had side effects compared with 44 per cent of the placebo group.
One patient, an 80-year old woman, developed a blood clot in the leg and a subsequent pulmonary embolism that was felt to possibly be related to drug therapy.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, particularly in older individuals with an underlying history of hypertension, diabetes, and other cardiovascular disease.
The systemic absorption of topical diclofenac gel is forty times less than the absorption of oral diclofenac according to Dr. Roy Altman, professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. While topical agents may reduce the risk of these problems compared with oral preparations, they do not eliminate them totally.
Also found in the analysis was a much higher rate of skin reactions related to the diclofenac gel. Reactions at the site of application occurred in 8.8 per cent of diclofenac gel patients and only 1.1 per cent of placebo treated patients.
Adverse cardiovascular problems occurred in 2.6 per cent of the diclofenac patients versus 1.1 per cent of placebo treated patients.
Besides the currently available Volteren gel, another recent FDA approved topical preparation is Pennsaid, another diclofenac-based rub.
Another set of studies on Pennsaid, another topical diclofenac preparation, that uses DMSO for penetration, showed efficacy in at least two more studies presented at the American College of Rheumatology meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, from November 7 to November 11. Side effects were generally similar to that of the gel preparation.
In addition, Lidoderm patches were demonstrated to be effective for pain relief in one study of knee arthritis presented at the same meeting. Side effects were few.
While studies like this are interesting, they show the relative inadequacy of current treatment available for osteoarthritis. Pain relief is available but cartilage restoration is still not generally available. Recent data on mesenchymal stem cells does look promising as a method for restoring articular cartilage.
The cost of a prescription drug for male impotence has to certainly be overwhelming for anyone with erectile dysfunction. While you may not be able to stop using a male enhancement as a treatment, perhaps you may wish to consider a less costly alternative with a natural dietary supplement. Erectile dysfunction or male impotence has treatment options and for many men it is necessary to maintain a healthy sexual lifestyle.
Erectile dysfunction or male sexual impotence is a sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis for sexual intercourse. Erectile dysfunction is different from other conditions that interfere with sexual intercourse, such as lack of sexual desire and problems with ejaculation and orgasm. Men are able to ejaculate without an erection; however, erectile dysfunction is regardless of the capability of ejaculation.
It can be examined at different level that comprises psychology and medical reason. If a person is not sexually aroused even when he commits himself, it can be defined as erectile dysfunction. ED is constant inability of generating and maintaining erection hard enough to penetrate. It can occur at any age but ED loves to attack people in there fifties. Everyone faces an occasional stint of ED. As one grows old he can experience the change in erection function. It is natural and nothing to worry about because natural male enhancement has arrived to save men from getting embarrassed in bedroom.
Pfizer introduced oral pill Viagra in 1998 and it created uproar, which is contrary to the reaction generally related with a launch of any usual medication. Since then more then 23 million people have been put it to good use. Different pharmaceutical companies have launched generic version of Viagra and dietary supplements using natural herbs from Asia have also been marketed. They are just as safe and effective as the prescription drug. Doctors worldwide are prescribing generic Viagra to all those suffering from ED. The results have been encouraging and these men have enjoyed their sexual lives as before.
Herbal treatment for natural male enhancement is generally useful and highly-praised. These herbal dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction or male impotence come in easy to use tablets. Most patients can start by taking those 20 minutes before starting any sexually activity and the effect of all the natural male enhancement lasts up to days from a single dose. This does not mean you are erect for that amount of time, but the effects allow you to become erect at will up to four days.
There is no food restriction when it comes of using natural male enhancement, but there is a possibility that it may take a little longer to show its effect if it is taken after a high fat meals like fish, cheeseburger, french-fries etc. One benefit of herbal dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction or male impotence is that you are able to take these natural male enhancement tablets with alcohol. Additionally you will find that there are no side effects as with many of the prescription drugs.
Lets summarize some of the benefits of natural male enhancement over prescription drugs.
1.) You do not need a prescription because they are herbal in nature and not currently regulated by prescription and FDA laws. This also means you do not need to visit a doctor, and can get these types of products online discreetly shipped directly to you.
2.) Some of the common side effects of prescription sexual dysfunction or enhancement products are: headaches, flushing, stomach ache, and changes in vision. Also, these medications are to be approached with much caution since they have been linked to heart attacks.
3.) With a natural product, you can be sure you will gain additional benefits from a male enhancement product, due to the ingredients used. Many of the ingredients play dual roles in enhancing sex, as well as providing additional energy and being a natural “youth” remedy. A lot of men report having a renewed sense of vitality and having desires they may not have felt in months or even years.
4.) Cost. Currently even the cheapest online pharmacies Generic male enhancement offerings are around $160 for just 90 tablets. They can cost much more than this depending on where they are purchased. Many people shy away from online medical pharmacies due to their reputation for diluted or inactive products, so this option is not even advisable.
One thing we would like to remind is to always enjoy safe sex and for those who are suffering from erectile dysfunction or male impotence, enjoy a healthy sexual lifestyle with herbal dietary supplement for natural male enhancement.
The Food and Drug Administration recently asked a scientific panel to consider ways of studying drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The drugs studied included amphetamines such as Adderall, and methylphenidates, sold as Ritalin, Concerta, Methylin, and Metadate. Data gathered by the agency’s own studies suggested a link between the drugs and an increased risk of sudden death and serious cardiovascular problems. To confirm their findings, the agency decided to seek outside corroboration from a Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee.
A federal health official said that the FDA’s research shows there is a strong possibility that the drugs may be linked to the deaths of 25 people between 1999 and 2003. Of those deaths, 19 were children. The research also discussed 54 cases of serious cardiovascular problems in adults and children being treated with the drugs, including heart attack, stroke, hypertension, palpitations, and arrhythmias. An additional 26 deaths were counted between 1969 and 2003 due to deaths by suicide, intentional overdose, drowning, heat stroke, and other disease.
The FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee reviewed different ways to study whether or not the deaths could be attributable to the use of the ADHD drugs. Some of the patients already had heart problems or high blood pressure, but the findings on the whole warranted further investigation. Dr. David Graham of the FDA explained the concern by saying, “There’s smoke. Does that represent a fire?” Graham added, “Because adults have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke to begin with, any increase in risk caused by these drugs could affect a large number of people.”
As a result of the committee’s research, federal science advisors voted 8-7 to recommend that the most stringent type of warning labels be added to containers of Ritalin and other stimulants used to treat ADHD. The committee’s recommendation suggested that manufacturers should add the same type of “black box” safety warnings already used on drugs that can cause potentially fatal side effects. The committee was just an advisory body and the FDA isn’t required to follow their recommendations, but it usually does. Panel member Dr. Curt Furberg cautioned that it would be “inappropriate, unethical behavior” if the FDA decided not to disclose the uncertainty about ADHD drug safety to physicians and patients. The drugs already have warnings related to possible risks to patients with heart defects, but the FDA’s Dr. Gerald DalPan said prior to the votes that the agency felt “this warning is appropriate given our current knowledge of these drugs.”
Doctors prescribe ADHD medications to about 2 million children and 1 million adults every month, and those numbers are increasing. According to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical information firm, sales of ADHD drugs increased to $3.1 billion in 2004, from $759 million in 2000. The few studies available providing data on longer-term use of ADHD drugs provide very little information on the risks evaluated by the committee. But analysis of the reports of death and injury suggest a possible link between the drugs and cardiovascular conditions. However, because the link is not conclusive, the FDA’s Dr. Kate Gelperin told the panel that the possible link “is really a question we’d like to have answered.”
The Canadian equivalent of the US FDA removed the ADHD drug Adderall XR, a generic version of Ritalin, from their market last year while risk analysis studies were being done. A Canadian panel eventually decided that there was not enough evidence of risk to ban the drug, and the FDA reached a similar conclusion at the same time.
The cost of a prescription drug for male impotence has to certainly be overwhelming for anyone with erectile dysfunction. While you may not be able to stop using a male enhancement as a treatment, perhaps you may wish to consider a less costly alternative with a natural dietary supplement. Erectile dysfunction or male impotence has treatment options and for many men it is necessary to maintain a healthy sexual lifestyle.
Erectile dysfunction or male sexual impotence is a sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis for sexual intercourse. Erectile dysfunction is different from other conditions that interfere with sexual intercourse, such as lack of sexual desire and problems with ejaculation and orgasm. Men are able to ejaculate without an erection; however, erectile dysfunction is regardless of the capability of ejaculation.
It can be examined at different level that comprises psychology and medical reason. If a person is not sexually aroused even when he commits himself, it can be defined as erectile dysfunction. ED is constant inability of generating and maintaining erection hard enough to penetrate. It can occur at any age but ED loves to attack people in there fifties. Everyone faces an occasional stint of ED. As one grows old he can experience the change in erection function. It is natural and nothing to worry about because natural male enhancement has arrived to save men from getting embarrassed in bedroom.
Pfizer introduced oral pill Viagra in 1998 and it created uproar, which is contrary to the reaction generally related with a launch of any usual medication. Since then more then 23 million people have been put it to good use. Different pharmaceutical companies have launched generic version of Viagra and dietary supplements using natural herbs from Asia have also been marketed. They are just as safe and effective as the prescription drug. Doctors worldwide are prescribing generic Viagra to all those suffering from ED. The results have been encouraging and these men have enjoyed their sexual lives as before.
Herbal treatment for natural male enhancement is generally useful and highly-praised. These herbal dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction or male impotence come in easy to use tablets. Most patients can start by taking those 20 minutes before starting any sexually activity and the effect of all the natural male enhancement lasts up to days from a single dose. This does not mean you are erect for that amount of time, but the effects allow you to become erect at will up to four days.
There is no food restriction when it comes of using natural male enhancement, but there is a possibility that it may take a little longer to show its effect if it is taken after a high fat meals like fish, cheeseburger, french-fries etc. One benefit of herbal dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction or male impotence is that you are able to take these natural male enhancement tablets with alcohol. Additionally you will find that there are no side effects as with many of the prescription drugs.
Lets summarize some of the benefits of natural male enhancement over prescription drugs.
1.) You do not need a prescription because they are herbal in nature and not currently regulated by prescription and FDA laws. This also means you do not need to visit a doctor, and can get these types of products online discreetly shipped directly to you.
2.) Some of the common side effects of prescription sexual dysfunction or enhancement products are: headaches, flushing, stomach ache, and changes in vision. Also, these medications are to be approached with much caution since they have been linked to heart attacks.
3.) With a natural product, you can be sure you will gain additional benefits from a male enhancement product, due to the ingredients used. Many of the ingredients play dual roles in enhancing sex, as well as providing additional energy and being a natural “youth” remedy. A lot of men report having a renewed sense of vitality and having desires they may not have felt in months or even years.
4.) Cost. Currently even the cheapest online pharmacies Generic male enhancement offerings are around $160 for just 90 tablets. They can cost much more than this depending on where they are purchased. Many people shy away from online medical pharmacies due to their reputation for diluted or inactive products, so this option is not even advisable.
One thing we would like to remind is to always enjoy safe sex and for those who are suffering from erectile dysfunction or male impotence, enjoy a healthy sexual lifestyle with herbal dietary supplement for natural male enhancement.
Enlarge ImageHonesty on the Internet? Many would take it as a joke of the day. It’s not that internet is full of unscrupulous, diehard cheats. It’s simply the latter who are also in appreciable numbers. This can be more said with substance and hence belief when it comes online pharmacies. There are scores of them, with flowery language and promising stars.
When it comes to drugs, it’s not uncommon that many such pharmacies would not disclose full information about a certain formulation. That would amount to almost saying a lie. But there is one online pharmacy that has earned rare accolades for being transparent to the point of calling spade a spade, no matter what it turns out for its business. At Walgreens it is like entering a bricks and mortar store. It is like asking for a product you need and just like even feeling it.
Customer Respect Group, an independent customer body, vouches for the practices of Walgreens like “customer responsiveness, ease of use and consumer privacy.” After having made a thumping beginning with 1.6 million hits on the launch of their website, they have already gone past close to 12 million hits. On user-friendliness, Walgreens are targeting their online services to different lingual groups. Hence it is the first website to have launched its online operations for spanish-speaking population of the world.
The ease with which one can navigate the site goes through the range of its products, is an experience in itself and is about what an online pharmacy should be like. The purchase is easy too and customer privacy is another point the site scores over a lot among its likes.
The site processes about 20,000 purchases every day, which speaks for its popularity and business integrity. So all your online prescriptions – be it Viagra, Cialis, Phentermine, can be handled with safety.
Author Information:
Antony Virgese is an associated editor to the website: www.i-pharmacy.md – The Online Prescriptions Portal. I-Pharmacy.md is committed to provide visitors with complete information on Viagra, Cialis, Phentermine and all Diet Pills. Your Feedback will be highly appreciated at partner@i-pharmacy.md.
By David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PH.D.
Published by Rodale
February 2004; $23.95US/$34.95CAN; 1-57954-902-0
Americans seek therapy in record numbers and consume more medications than ever before, yet stress, anxiety, and depression continue to rise to epidemic proportions. People can spend years on the psychoanalytic couch without making any progress. And for many psychiatrists, the prescription-writing reflex has become almost automatic, despite the fact that benefits often disappear as soon as drug treatment stops. Standard treatments simply aren’t long-term solutions.
But psychiatrist/neurologist David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., knows that we can cure our emotional pain. He’s seen certain natural methods produce tremendous results in his clinical practice, in that of his peers, and even in war-torn regions where horrific memories can leave deep scars.
Numerous studies in prestigious scientific journals have documented the amazing benefits of these methods on anxiety and depression, but because the mechanisms through which they operate remain poorly understood, they’ve remained largely excluded from mainstream medicine and psychiatry. Dr. Servan-Schreiber explains how each of the natural methods in this ensemble treatment plan can help us escape the therapy/drug trap by working through the body to tap into the emotional brain’s self-healing processes rather than relying on the cognitive process of language.
Weaving fascinating accounts of his first-hand experience and findings together with the research of hundreds of other esteemed scientists, Dr. Servan-Schreiber outlines a program that’s becoming embraced throughout the world as a permanent cure for emotional pain. See how you, too, can tap into The Instinct to Heal.
Author
David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PH.D., is clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and cofounder of the Center for Complementary Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He codirected a National Institutes of Health laboratory for the study of clinical cognitive neuroscience and functional neuroimaging for several years and has published more than 90 scientific monographs. He’s lectured at leading international academic centers, including Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, and Cambridge Universities. One of the original seven members of the United States board of Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières, he served on the board for 9 years and provided medical relief in Kurdistan, Guatemala, India, Tajikistan, and Kosovo. He continues to develop mental health interventions for victims of crises and to train therapists in crisis areas.
For more information, please visit the author’s website at www.instincttoheal.org or www.writtenvoices.com
Reviews
“David Servan-Schreiber has done a brilliant job of bringing together insights and information of vital importance for well-being. The Instinct to Heal is itself an instrument of healing.”
–Daniel Goleman, PH.D., bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence
“The scientist and physician David Servan-Schreiber has provided a wonderful manual to help reconcile our emotional and rational brains . . . [he] bases his advice about how to improve our lives on a profound understanding of how the human brain works, on a broad synthesis of the latest knowledge in neuropsychology, as well as his own clinical and research experience. The book is deeply satisfying intellectually, yet crystal-clear and user-friendly . . .Written with grace and elegance, this book might well become the most important mental health landmark of this generation.”
–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PH.D., bestselling author of Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, and Creativity
“The Instinct to Heal is a fascinating account of unorthodox approaches to treating the emotional brain and mind. I learned a lot.”
–Joseph LeDoux, PH.D., the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at New York University and author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self
“The Instinct to Heal is an inspiring overview of the internal healing potential that exists within everyone — and that this potential is our birthright and is not dependent on drugs, surgical procedures, or high-tech manipulations . . . The Instinct to Heal will help anyone expand their concepts of health and health care to a more majestic level.”
–Larry Dossey, M.D., bestselling author of Healing Beyond the Body, Reinventing Medicine, and Healing Words
“A brilliant, absorbing synthesis of science, experience, and thought by an internationally known neuroscientist and clinician . . . essential reading for all those who want to understand the frontiers of mind-body health.”
–Michael Lerner, PH.D., author of Choices in Healing
“David Servan-Schreiber is one of those rare scientists who truly listens with his heart and perceives the larger connection.”
–Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., bestselling author of Love is Letting Go of Fear
“This book, the translation of research findings into meaningful clinical insights and practice, bears the unmistakable signature of Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s unique abilities and voice, which echo with humor, wisdom, and compassion . . . David used to talk often about the great masters, such as Erikson, whom he admired specifically for their combination of intellectual prowess, personal depth, and caring disposition. I was able to understand exactly what he meant, for I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to observe, in him, a young example of just such greatness.”
–Jonathan D. Cohen, M.D., PH.D., director of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior at Princeton University
“This book has love on every page.”
–Professor Francine Lecas, chair of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery, Sick Children Hospital, Paris, France
“Dr. Servan-Schreiber is sending an important message to those talking therapists who appear to rely on the rational brain and language as the sole route to our emotions. This timely and comprehensive review opens many doors and may be read with pleasure by a wide audience.”
–Judith S. Schachter, M.D., past president of the American Psychoanalytic Association
“Why is The Instinct to Heal such a success anywhere it has been published? Because people are eager to find new ways to deal with the wear and tear of coping with a stressful social environment; and because this book, written by a traditionally-trained psychiatrist who dares to think untraditionally, offers an alternative that may work, and, by so doing, offers hope.”
–Antonio Damasio, M.D., PH.D., author of Looking For Spinoza, The Feeling of What Happens, and Descartes’ Error
“Servan-Schreiber’s stunning book takes a leap beyond conventional psychiatry and integrates contemporary neuroscience research with a deep understanding of the emotional brain’s innate tendency to heal. He shows how one can ‘reprogram’ the emotional brain so that it adapts to the present, instead of continuing to be stuck in one’s painful past. In this book, he shows that for healing to occur, one needs to not exclusively depend on traditional methods of language and understanding, but directly influence the emotional brain by acting directly on bodily experience.”
–Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine
“The Instinct to Heal is engaging and highly readable, and packed with concrete suggestions about how to relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. Servan-Schreiber’s advice is culled from top-notch scientific journals and his years of clinical and scientific experience. His accounts of patients, along with his easy narrative style, help readers see beyond the research studies he cites.”
–Robin S. Rosenberg, PH.D., clinical psychologist and coauthor of Psychology: The Brain, The Person, The World
Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from the book The Instinct to Heal: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy
by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PH.D.
Published by Rodale; February 2004; $23.95US/$34.95CAN; 1-57954-902-0
Copyright © 2004 David Servan-Schreiber
Animals Can Heal Us, Too
At the hospital where I practiced in Pittsburgh, other physicians often asked my advice before discharging a depressed elderly patient after bypass surgery or hospitalization for a fractured hip. Usually, I was the last person they consulted. The colleagues preceding me had already prescribed a long list of medicines: antiarrhythmic, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antacid. They expected me to carry the ball and add my own “anti” to the list — an antidepressant or anxiolytic (anti-anxiety medication).
Often, however, the cause of depression was clear. The old man or woman had been living alone for years, and was no longer going out very much because of frail health. No longer playing bingo with friends. No longer being visited by their children or grandchildren, who had left for California, Boston, or New York. These men and women were idling away the hours in front of television screens. Would these patients honestly feel like looking after themselves? Even if antidepressants could have done them good, would they have taken them every day? Probably no more than those other pills, already so hard to distinguish from each other and to take as prescribed.
I really did not feel like adding my two-cents’ worth to that confusion. Medicines are not “limbic regulators.” So, summoning up all my courage, I would add my recommendation to the patient’s medical record: “As far as her depression is concerned, the best thing for this patient would be to get a dog (a small one, obviously, to minimize the risk of a fall). If the patient considers that would be too much work, a cat would do, since it does not need to be taken out. And if a cat still seems too much, a bird or a fish. Finally, if the patient still refuses, then a houseplant.”
At the beginning of this campaign, I received slightly irritated calls from the residents in orthopedic or cardiovascular surgery: “We asked you to recommend an antidepressant, not a zoo. What are we going to write on the discharge prescription? There aren’t any household pets at the pharmacy.”
However I answered, my explanations seemed convincing only to myself. My colleagues invariably ended up prescribing an antidepressant themselves, mumbling about how useless psychiatrists really were. They were undoubtedly convinced that they were defending the cause of modern scientific medicine against the ever-threatening, obscuring specter of “old-wives’ remedies.”
I soon realized that my approach was not working and that I was doing damage to my reputation as chief of the psychiatry division of the hospital. Instead of backing down, I prepared a document summing up various scientific studies on the question. From that point on, I attached the document to my recommendations in the patient’s record.
I hoped to inform my colleagues of certain remarkable results with which they didn’t seem to be familiar, such as one study from the American Journal of Cardiology about men and women whose infarctions had been accompanied by dangerous arrhythmias. The patients were tracked for more than a year, and those who had had a household pet faced only one-sixth the likelihood of dying during the year compared to all the others. Or yet another study, in which older people with household pets had much better psychological resistance to life’s difficulties and went a lot less often to the doctor’s. I also called their attention to a study from a group at Harvard showing that simply looking after a plant lowered the mortality rate of residents in a retirement home by 50 percent. I cited research on AIDS patients showing that cat or dog owners were better protected from depression. Finally, I referred to the font of all knowledge in my colleagues’ eyes — the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 1996, it published a study about handicapped people who were virtually unable to move around unaided, very similar to the elderly patients I had been asked to see. This study showed that these people were happier and had greater self-esteem and a distinctly larger network of friends and relations if they had the companionship of a dog. In fact, another study found that the mere presence of an animal by your side makes you “more attractive” to others.
Even stockbrokers feel better if they have a household pet. With one of the most stressful professions imaginable, they are constant victims of market ups and downs over which they have no control, yet they still have to meet their sales targets. It is hardly surprising that a good many of them suffer early from high blood pressure. Karen Allen, Ph.D., from the University of Buffalo, conducted an unconventional study on a group of brokers in her city. Antihypertensive medications brought their blood pressure down below the initial alarming average of 160/100. However, in moments of stress, they still showed sudden peaks of blood pressure above those numbers.
To a randomly selected half of the stockbrokers, Dr. Allen allocated either a dog or a cat. (They had the opportunity to choose one or the other.) Six months later, the results spoke for themselves: Those who had received household pets were no longer reacting to stress in the same way. Not only had their blood pressure stabilized, even in periods of stress, but their performance on stress-inducing tasks — such as rapid mental arithmetic and public speaking — was significantly better. They made fewer mistakes, suggesting that they had more control over their emotions and thus over their concentration. In another study, Dr. Allen was able to show that older women (over 70) who lived alone but with pets had the same blood pressure as women of 25 with active social lives.
My “enclosure” turned out to be effective. After that, nobody ever made the slightest comment. I no longer heard interns snicker behind my back when I left one of my “zoological” recommendations in their patient’s file. On the other hand, alas, I do not think that a single patient ever went home with a cat or without his or her prescription for Prozac. The idea that a loving relationship is in itself a physiological remedy, comparable to taking medication, rests on sound scientific ground — but it simply has not yet taken hold in the medical establishment.
Reprinted from: Instinct to Heal: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D. © 2003, 2004 by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.
For more information, please visit the author’s website at www.instincttoheal.org or www.writtenvoices.com
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