In the August 2005 Scientific American on page 30 is a very interesting article on acupuncture. Those seeing the column's working title "Skeptic" may assume that it it works from a vantage point of wanting to tear everything down, but actually it works from the eminently fair and logical vantage point of tearing things apart well enough to get an idea of if things work, and if so then how. I know that there have been mixed reviews of the use of acupuncture for pain relief among those trying it for ferrets. It would be interesting to know how much of the effect in the animals is the influence of the interaction and attention, and how much may be a real biochemical effect with other causes. Coming to mind is a time decades ago when I worked with primates and some other wild animals when we went to collect two gibbons for transport to a new location. I was warned that they were vicious ones, so Ii began with approaching and self grooming, then very calmly (I had always found back when I worked with dangerous animals that it is important to be dead-calm myself when working with a wild animal, if possible.) and then soothingly grooming the presented arm of one gibbon until the gibbon was thoroughly zoned out with the arm extended and the individual mesmerized, and then I could move aside and the prof could approach and inject the tranquilizer without the gibbon even caring. Then we went on to use the same technique with the second one. But what had the effect? How much traces back to soothing interaction, even without touch? Certainly, it is possible to induce states of extreme calm without touch; that happens in a number of ways all the time from hypnotism. I used to use self-hypnotism for pain control and muscle spasm decades ago, and years ago presurgically -- without pre-surgical tranquilizing -- was able to induce a level of calm with it for myself that the surgeon and anesthesiologist said was greater than they normally saw with tranquilizers despite being worried about the surgery and anesthesia themselves. The same or similar affects have been documented in everything from soothing talk, to prayer in an individual's strongly held religion, to just being with others who are calm, even (in cattle) to better design of the cattle lots and feeding shoots to reduce stress in cattle before they are killed. How much was the effect went beyond those sorts of things and was due to the touch itself? Does touch have an effect similar to that seen in the acupuncture and electrical stimulation studies mentioned below, and if so do those techniques increase it or induce it more easily, or both? Two sections in this month's column intrigued me immensely because they might wind up eventually having use for ferrets depending upon what further study shows and depending upon if a company springs for the tens of millions of dollars of insurance a year needed to cover making and selling of medical equipment for human use, or if one gets to lesser amount and makes such a stimulation box for vet use, should it pain out well enough in controlled veterinary studies. The first section mentions that it was possible in humans to reduce the amount of gas anesthesia used for surgery by 50% using a variant of acupuncture. What makes it even more interesting was that they did not even use needles. Instead they used electrical stimulation of the skin. In another study mentioned in that section of the article when needles were used electrical stimulation through those needles increased the pain control by as much as 100% (no explanation is given as to how this number is reached). The author/researcher, George A. Ulett, who compiled the data for the 2002 text _the Biology of Acupuncture_ hypothesizes that the technique may increase neurochemicals that reduce pain such as beta-endorphins, enkephalin, and dynorphin. In a double blind study reported upon this year sham acupuncture worked as well as real acupuncture in reducing migraines. Klaus Linde et. al. have their article in the May 4th Journal of the American Medical Association. The amount of effect was actually quite large, but what did not matter was where the needles were placed. The beneficial effect was very similar (51% with real acupuncture and 53% with sham acupuncture). Why it worked in both cases is unknown and the subject of further studies, but perhaps on testing the hypotheses of Dr. Ulett more may be either discovered or removed from consideration. If this is a real effect I know that vets would love to be able to reduce the amount of anesthesia used, and would love to have extremely safe alternatives for controlling pain. Take a look at page 30 of the August Sci Am. -- Sukie (not a vet) Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org International Ferret Congress http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 4939]