Re: [MOL] Man's Best Friend -- The Best Medicine

[Carol Foulkes <crfoulkes@Juno.com>]

Miss Joicy,

	Take my dogs and my cat and I'll be an unhappy camper.  I couldn't agree
more with this article.

CIM


On Mon, 04 Sep 2000 18:31:57 -0400 Joicy <joicy@erols.com> writes:
> Man's Best Friend -- The Best Medicine
> 
> Sept. 4, 2000 (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Pets are often used as therapy 
> to help
> the sick and elderly. Yet, separation from a pet may be to blame for
> sickness in some people.
> 
> In an editorial in the most recent issue of the Annals of Internal 
> Medicine,
> John Burnum, M.D., of the University of Alabama sites the cases of 
> two
> hospitalized patients who left the hospital early because they 
> couldn't bear
> to be separated from their pets. In a similar instance, he sites the 
> case of
> a woman who was suffering severe depression and heart problems until 
> her dog
> was brought to the hospital to visit her. Only then did her 
> conditions
> improve. 
> 
> On the other hand, Dr. Burnum shows that the problem can affect the 
> animal
> as well. He sites the case of a dog that refused to eat when his 
> owner was
> in the hospital and dying. After two weeks the dog passed away.
> 
> Dr. Burnum explains separation sickness is a reflection of a close
> attachment between people and their dogs. More than 40 percent of 
> U.S.
> households have dogs as pets. Fifty percent of pet dogs sleep in the
> bedroom, and 50 percent of these sleep on the owners' beds.
> 
> This being said, Dr. Burnum suggests physicians consider the 
> possibility of
> pet separation syndrome whenever a patient is doing poorly and is 
> insistent
> on leaving the hospital.
> 
> Copyright © 2000 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. 
> 
>
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