Now You See Me....

I believe in medicines. Obviously as a vet I should, after all I use them. But I also believe in some (note some) alternative therapies. I used to use acupuncture to treat some animals. And with animals it is hard to see how it can be a placebo effect (although there can be a placebo of the owner perceiving improvement). But with humans "mind over matter" can be important. And it is sometimes to do with fooling the mind into thinking itself better. And there may be no better example than using binoculars to reduce pain. That's right, looking at an injured body part can help reduce pain and swelling. But before any make readers start looking at certain parts of their anatomy and feeling good about themselves, the trick is to look through them from the wrong end. The idea is to make the affected part appear further away and smaller. The brain then sees less "risk" and is effectively less protective of the injury as it is more remote. It really is amazing how easy it is to fool our brain.