The Medicine Of Animals

If human products are considered
unnatural, dogs must be so too.
Dogs did not occur in nature; we
manufactured them out of wolves.
To be our friends.

Some of the latest dog research I've
seen is just incredible. Did you know
that we are now training dogs to sniff
out cancer ? True story.
Just like the singular smell of cadavers,
cancer in humans can be picked up
and signaled by trained dogs.
Pretty neat.

Robert Sapolsky has spent the last
30 years studying the brain science
of stress by observing baboons.
Stress in baboons, he notes, is the
perfect model for human stress because
they spend so little time finding food,
and so much time abusing their
hierarchal subordinates. They're nasty !
Instead of running for their lives
once in a while like a zebra chased
by a lion, baboons are just like us in that
they marinate in stress hormones all
day long. Their health really suffers
for it, especially the low men on the
totem pole. "Zebras don't get ulcers."

One of the latest lab rat studies shows
that eating fatty foods not only drops
your physical performance by 30 percent,
but memory and cognitive function
as well. One theory is that a high-fat
diet can trigger insulin resistance,
which means the body becomes less
efficient at using blood sugar which
is important to brain function. (seems
like I saw something about fatty diets
increasing the risk of Alzheimers...)

A very promising subject of research
is the science of regeneration. A starfish
can regrow a limb; so can a salamander.
Maybe someday we can too.

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese
began emulating the movements of
animals for a variety of reasons: if you
need to attack, tigers are pretty good;
if you need to run away, chickens do
that very well; and if you can stimulate
your endocrine system by shaking
your tail, your health and longevity
will assimilate the deer's.

The snake is famed in Chinese myth
because it could fight off a stork; the
snake's stillness and blinding impulse
speed were two observations said to
have influenced the development
of Tai Chi. This observation of nature
also witnessed water wearing down rock,
wind breaking trees, and the imminent
cycle of the sun, the moon & the stars.

Over thousands of years, the Taoists
observed animals in nature and developed
systems of movement and breathing
that replace chiropractic, physical therapy,
and even higher levels of medicine.

When you see the word
Tai chi
you may find it easier to say the word
Therapy