Placebos for Pets?


Book Description

Whether online or in the local pet store, there are a bewildering variety of pet healthcare products and services to choose from. Diets and supplements, ancient herbs and folk remedies, and even high-tech treatments like hyperbaric oxygen tanks and laser therapy. Everything promises to give your pet better health and a longer life, and isn’t that what every pet owner wants? But how do you know if all of these products do what they claim? Are they safe? If they really are miraculous cures, why are so many offered only on the Internet or by a few veterinarians specializing in “alternative medicine?” Brennen McKenzie, a vet with twenty years of experience and the former president of the Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine Association, helps pet owners and veterinary professionals understand the claims and the evidence, allowing them to make better choices for their companions and patients.




Bad Medicine: A Guide to Science-Based Pet Care


Book Description

Whether online or in the local pet store, there is a bewildering variety of pet healthcare products and services to choose from. Diets and supplements, ancient herbs and folk remedies, and even high-tech treatments like hyperbaric oxygen tanks and laser therapy. Everything promises to give your pet better health and a longer life, and isn't that what every pet owner wants? But how do you know if all of these products do what they claim? Are they safe? If they really are miraculous cures, why are so many offered only on the Internet or by a few veterinarians specializing in "alternative medicine?" McKenzie, a vet with twenty years of experience and the former president of the Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine Association, helps pet owners and veterinary professionals understand the claims and the evidence, allowing them to make better choices for their companions and patients.




The Placebo Effect in Clinical Practice


Book Description

The Placebo Effect in Clinical Practice brings together what we know about the mechanisms behind the placebo response, as well as the procedures that promote these responses, in order to provide a focused and concise overview on how current knowledge can be applied in treatment settings.




Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team


Book Description

A practical guide to identifying risks in veterinary patients and tailoring their care accordingly Pet-specific care refers to a practice philosophy that seeks to proactively provide veterinary care to animals throughout their lives, aiming to keep pets healthy and treat them effectively when disease occurs. Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team offers a practical guide for putting the principles of pet-specific care into action. Using this approach, the veterinary team will identify risks to an individual animal, based on their particular circumstances, and respond to these risks with a program of prevention, early detection, and treatment to improve health outcomes in pets and the satisfaction of their owners. The book combines information on medicine and management, presenting specific guidelines for appropriate medical interventions and material on how to improve the financial health of a veterinary practice in the process. Comprehensive in scope, and with expert contributors from around the world, the book covers pet-specific care prospects, hereditary and non-hereditary considerations, customer service implications, hospital and hospital team roles, and practice management aspects of pet-specific care. It also reviews specific risk factors and explains how to use these factors to determine an action plan for veterinary care. This important book: Offers clinical guidance for accurately assessing risks for each patient Shows how to tailor veterinary care to address a patient’s specific risk factors Emphasizes prevention, early detection, and treatment Improves treatment outcomes and provides solutions to keep pets healthy and well Written for veterinarians, technicians and nurses, managers, and customer service representatives, Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team offers a hands-on guide to taking a veterinary practice to the next level of care.




Placebo Effects


Book Description

This is the first book to critically review the mechanisms of placebo effects across all medical conditions, diseases and therapies. It is the definitive text on the placebo effect, and will be essential for researchers and clinicians in all medical specialties.




Feed Your Pet Right


Book Description

Human nutrition expert and author of the critically acclaimed What to Eat, Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., has joined forces with Malden C. Nesheim, Ph.D., a Cornell animal nutrition expert, to write Feed Your Pet Right, the first complete, research-based guide to selecting the best, most healthful foods for your cat or dog. Human nutrition expert and author of the critically acclaimed What to Eat, Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., has joined forces with Malden C. Nesheim, Ph.D., a Cornell animal nutrition expert, to write Feed Your Pet Right, the first complete, research-based guide to selecting the best, most healthful foods for your cat or dog. A comprehensive and objective look at the science behind pet food, it tells a fascinating story while evaluating the range of products available and examining the booming pet food industry and its marketing practices. Drs. Nestle and Nesheim also present the results of their unique research into this sometimes secretive industry. Through conversations with pet food manufacturers and firsthand observations, they reveal how some companies have refused to answer questions or permit visits. The authors also analyze food products, basic ingredients, sources of ingredients, and the optimal ways to feed companion animals. In this engaging narrative, they explain how ethical considerations affect pet food research and product development, how pet foods are regulated, and how companies influence veterinary training and advice. They conclude with specific recommendations for pet owners, the pet food industry, and regulators. A road map to the most nutritious diets for cats and dogs, Feed Your Pet Right is sure to be a reference classic to which all pet owners will turn for years to come.







Placebo Effects


Book Description

One of the most widespread words in medicine is placebo and placebo effect, although it is not always clear what it means exactly. Recent progress in biomedical research has allowed a better clarification of the placebo effect. We know that this is an active psychobiological phenomenon which takes place in the patient's brain and that is capable of influencing both the course of a disease and the response to a therapy. Since publication of the first edition of this book in 2008, there has been an explosion of placebo research, and this new edition brings the topic fully up to date. Throughout, the book emphasizes that there are many placebo effects and critically reviews them in different medical conditions, such as neurological and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, immune and hormonal responses, as well as oncology, surgery, sports medicine and acupuncture. The psychosocial context around the patient is crucial to the placebo effect, for example the doctor's words and attitudes, and throughout this is considered. Exhaustive in its coverage, and written by a world authority in the field, this is the definitive reference text to the placebo effect - one that is essential for researchers and clinicians across a wide range of medical specialities.




Bach Flower Remedies for Animals


Book Description

Animals / Mind Body Spirit Millions of family pets, often otherwise physically fit and healthy, are put to death every year to give human companions peace and rest from their incontinence, unruliness, excessive noisiness, aggression, possessiveness, destructiveness or other inconvenience. A behavior problem often becomes a ‘terminal disease’. Indeed euthanasia for behavior problems is the main cause of death in young animals, and many people regard it as a treatment. The high cost of veterinary attention also results in many animals being discarded or neglected by their owners. The consequent price of animal suffering, and cost of human regrets and need for welfare services, are incalculable.They are also avoidable. Correcting the behavior problem often saves an animal’s life as effectively as surgery or other medical procedures, and greatly reduces the suffering of all concerned. It does not require expensive behavior therapy or extensive behavior modification on the part of the owner. It can be brought about in many cases quite simply and inexpensively through the use of flower essences. This book offers descriptions of each of the 38 Bach Flower Remedies, and their application to the treatment of a range of domestic animals, including horses and farm, wild and zoo animals. It also describes diagnostic symptoms, animal by animal, together with appropriate treatment regimens, illustrated with case material obtained from veterinarians, animal behavior specialists and health practitioners. Other important and helpful areas discussed are: • emotions in animals and their influence on behavior • the emotional bond between animals and humans • the pros and cons of thinking of animals in human terms • the principles of flower remedies and their suitability for usein the treatment of animals. Helen Graham was a Lecturer at Keele University, England, and is the author of several books on psychology and complementary medicine. She breeds Salukis, and lives in rural France with her husband. Gregory Vlamis is a researcher and author of bestseller Bach Flower Remedies to the Rescue. He has been researching the life and work of Dr. Edward Bach since the early 1970s, and divides his time between the USA and Greece.




Talking Cures and Placebo Effects


Book Description

Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have had to defend themselves from a barrage of criticisms throughout their history. In this book David Jopling argues that the changes achieved through therapy are really just functions of placebos that rally the mind's native healing powers. It is a bold new work that delivers yet another blow to Freud and his followers.