Treating illnesses with the help of cats
Cat therapy has no contraindications. The company of a cat is a scientifically grounded and effective method of treatment and recovery, open to anyone whatever their standing in society and whatever their means. Cat therapy calls for no particular expense and no special equipment but — most important of all — it rules out mistakes by the doctor.
How to organise the treatment
Many people interested in cat therapy do not know how to organise the treatment properly, how to use their pet for healing, or which illnesses it can help its owner with.
As to using the cat, it has already been said on the previous pages that on no account may a cat be forced into therapy. Treatment can be given only when the animal is ready for it.
Every owner of a furry doctor should also remember that animals cannot help their owner with every illness. If a person in the last stage of cancer turns to their cat for help, for instance, the animal, in relieving the pain and taking on its owner’s negative energy, will soon fall ill itself.
No cat, of course, will be able to cure appendicitis or peritonitis — with these only a surgeon can help. Nor will an animal heal sepsis, cataract, meningitis and many other illnesses. But any cat is able to treat cardiovascular disease, to relieve tiredness and headache, to improve the circulation and to rid its owner of pain in illnesses of the stomach, the intestines and the liver.
Before starting the treatment itself, try to find a common language with your cat. As has been said, these animals are able to communicate with a person by telepathy, so some time before the course of cat therapy begins you should try talking to your pet in your mind. Before feeding the animal, for example, call it silently, sending it the image of its favourite treat. If the cat comes to you at once, the mental contact between owner and pet may be considered established.
And now about organising the treatment. Feeling unwell, the owner should call the cat and try to picture in their mind what they want of it. There is no point, of course, in telling the pet: “Cure my osteochondrosis.” The cat is hardly likely to understand what is being asked of it. But if the owner sends it the image of an ailing spine, the cat will willingly come to their aid.
You need not picture anything at all: you can simply lie down in such a way that it is easy for the cat to look for the ailing part of your body. Cats often find the source of negative energy themselves, without any prompting.
Sometimes a person does not know why, say, their head aches. They put the pain down to overwork, call the cat, and the cat insists on lying on their neck. Later the person finds out that the cat had made an exact diagnosis and that the headaches were caused by osteochondrosis of the cervical spine. That is exactly why one should trust one’s pet.
When a person feels anxious or very tired, they should call the cat, sit it on their lap and stroke it with the palm of the hand for several minutes. After a while the pet’s purring will calm its owner, who will feel considerably better.
For people with disorders of the mind it is important to establish mental contact with their pets, since most cats behave like professional psychotherapists and do everything they can to bring a person peace of mind.
People with mental disorders, incidentally, take the presence of cats without any irritation at all. The furry doctor does nothing out of the ordinary, in fact: it simply comes up to the patient, purrs, lets itself be stroked, licks their hands and face. Cat therapy of this kind is very effective in depression, in neuroses and even in schizophrenia.
If a person is seriously ill — has had a heart attack or a stroke, say, or a major operation — then the company of a cat is simply essential to them. As a rule, such a patient needs to call on the help of a pet for several months for the body to recover fully.
In the opinion of gerontologists, cats are a true elixir of youth for their owners.
The most interesting thing is that the animal always judges unerringly how seriously ill its owner is. With a gravely ill person a cat will never start a game; it will lie beside them for long stretches, purring and giving them a massage with its claws. Often, after the very first session of cat therapy, seriously ill people take a noticeable turn for the better.
Alcohol and drug dependence
A large proportion of the population of our country now suffers from dependence on alcohol and drugs. It has to do both with inherited disposition and with the individual make-up of the person, and also — sad as it is — with the unsettled lives of people who begin to drink or to take drugs out of despair.
Conventional medicine is at present all but powerless against alcoholism and drug addiction: having held out for a while after a course of treatment, the person starts drinking or taking drugs again. That is exactly why alcoholism and drug addiction are held to be incurable illnesses. Although there is coding and other methods of psychological influence, as well as medicines that produce a temporary aversion to alcohol or drugs, in the United States and the countries of Europe the most effective means of fighting dependence on alcohol and drugs is held to be pet therapy.
Treatment
Treating dependence on alcohol and drugs with the help of a cat calls above all for the patient’s own wish to be rid of the ruinous habit. A cat will never treat its owner if the owner does not want it.
A person who has firmly decided to be cured should first go through drug treatment in hospital and only then turn to their pet for help. The pet will do everything in its power to help its beloved owner recover their balance of mind.
As soon as the patient feels the urge to drink or to take drugs, they should call the cat and, stroking it, ask it silently for help.
The animal knows for itself how to treat its owner. It may simply lie at their feet or make a fuss of them, or it may give them a massage with its claws.
In any case the cat will be of substantial help to the sick person, taking all the negative energy from them and calming them.
Arrhythmia
A disturbance of the rate or the order of the heartbeat may follow from cardiovascular disease, from neuroses, from alcohol or nicotine poisoning and so on.
Many people, without even suspecting that there is a scientific basis for cat therapy, call their animals when they feel their heart pounding, knowing perfectly well that with the cat’s help they will feel considerably better within a few minutes.
Treatment
To treat arrhythmia, stroke the cat for several minutes or let it lie on your chest.
Where the heart rhythm is disturbed, sessions of cat therapy should be held daily for 10–14 days.
As a rule the patient is noticeably better after two or three sessions.
Arthritis
The main forms of arthritis are rheumatoid and infectious arthritis, gout and osteoarthritis. Arthritis in general is a collective name for more than a hundred illnesses.
The symptoms of most of them are stiffness and pain in the joints, which often limits how much the sufferer can move.
In some European countries doctors advise their patients to use a cat to ease the pain of arthritis: the warmth of its body has a good effect on the aching joints.
Treatment
Arthritis is treated with cat therapy as follows. When the joints ache, lay or sit the cat on the painful part of the body for 7–10 minutes. Such sessions should be held every other day for thirty days.
Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis, the hardening of the artery walls, considerably reduces the efficiency of the circulation. The artery walls lose their elasticity, which leads to the forming of clots and to other harmful changes.
Regular cat therapy is known to improve the circulation considerably and to reduce the likelihood of atherosclerosis.
Treatment
To prevent atherosclerosis, stroke the cat daily for 5–7 minutes. If a person already suffers from the illness, they should put the cat to their forehead two or three times a day and let it sleep beside their head.
Insomnia
Insomnia may be caused by chronic disorders of the nervous system or by emotional overexcitement. As a rule doctors prescribe sedatives and sleeping pills for those who suffer from insomnia; before taking them, though, it is worth trying to get rid of the emotional strain with the help of a pet.
Treatment
To treat insomnia with a cat, offer the cat a bedding on the table. The owner should sit down at the table and, with their eyes closed, press the animal to their forehead. Then they should ask one of the family who is nearby to press the cat to their neck.
Sessions of this kind, five minutes long, should be held every other day. The full course of cat therapy is from seven to twenty sessions depending on the patient’s age (the older the person, the more sessions they need).
According to research, people who let cats sleep in their bed never suffer from insomnia.
Illnesses of the liver
The liver stops working properly when a large quantity of harmful substances appears in the body and the organ cannot cope with them. This leads to various illnesses, the commonest of which are hepatitis, liver failure and cirrhosis of the liver.
Treatment
By taking on a person’s negative energy, cats are able to rid them of pain in the region of the liver. To treat various illnesses of the liver, lie on your back and call the cat, which will be sure to sit or lie on your stomach with its head over the right side, below the ribs.
It is best to hold such a session once every two or three days for 20–30 minutes. As a rule people suffering from illnesses of the liver take a noticeable turn for the better after ten sessions of cat therapy.
Bronchitis
The illness is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchi. In acute bronchitis one must stay in bed and, along with taking the medicines the doctor has prescribed, remember that a cat relieves inflammation better than any medicine.
Treatment
With the high temperature that goes with acute bronchitis, lay the cat at your feet, and if it does not want to stay there, stroke it for ten minutes. To treat chronic bronchitis, lay the cat on your chest two or three times a day. Best of all is for the animal to give the patient a massage with its claws. Such sessions relieve fits of coughing and make breathing considerably easier for a person with bronchitis.
High and low blood pressure
Blood pressure that rises regularly leads to hypertension — a narrowing of the small arteries which makes it harder for the blood to move through the vessels. Hypertension often leads to a heart attack or a stroke.
Low blood pressure, which has to do with disturbances of the nervous system and of the neurohormonal regulation of the tone of the vessels, goes with a fall in arterial pressure.
A few years ago special research was carried out in Great Britain into the ability of cats to steady blood pressure.
In one hospital the scientists ran the following experiment. Patients suffering from high and from low blood pressure had their pressure measured, after which cats were brought to them. Twenty minutes later the doctors took a second, control measurement and found that these people’s pressure had returned to normal.
Treatment
To bring blood pressure back to normal it is enough to stroke your pet daily for 3–5 minutes. Sessions of this kind not only steady the pressure but also guard against cardiovascular disease.
Dizziness and headaches
Symptoms such as dizziness and headache may be caused by tiredness, by nervous strain, and also by various illnesses of the internal organs and the nervous system. If headaches and dizziness occur regularly, see a doctor.
Where the trouble comes from tiredness or from physical and nervous strain, and also from cardiovascular disease and osteochondrosis, cat therapy may be used.
Treatment
With dizziness and headache, let the cat settle on your head or on your neck. To do this, lie on your stomach and call the cat, which will settle beside its owner’s head of its own accord.
With osteochondrosis the furry doctor will most likely give the patient a massage of the back or the neck. With pain caused by nervous strain or tiredness it will calm its owner with purring and affection.
With regular headaches, lay the cat on your neck or your head three times a day. The course of cat therapy in this case should be no shorter than 7–10 days.
Depression
In depression a person’s mood is constantly low; they are pursued by feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, inner emptiness, sadness, oppression and so on. In the West depression has been treated successfully with cat therapy for several years now.
Treatment
To treat depression it is enough to play with the cat for 15–20 minutes. It is also useful to talk to your pet, to stroke it and to let it stay beside you all the time.
Toothache
Toothache is most often a sign of decay or of gum disease, so with such symptoms one should see a dentist for treatment. If that is for some reason not possible in the near future, a cat can help relieve acute toothache.
Treatment
To relieve acute toothache, lie down and call the cat. It will settle at once beside the cheek on the side of the aching tooth. Within a few minutes a person suffering from severe toothache will feel relief.
Stroke
A stroke is a haemorrhage in the brain. The illness comes on suddenly and can be fatal within the first hours after the haemorrhage. As a rule a stroke brings paralysis of the limbs and disturbance of speech. In the United States there are specialists who treat stroke patients with cat therapy. Several years ago American scientists showed that in people who hold regular sessions of cat therapy after a stroke, movement and speech return quickly.
Treatment
With paralysis of the limbs and disturbance of speech, patients should not refuse the help of a cat alongside the medicines the doctor has prescribed. The cat will come to the sick person of its own accord and do what it thinks fit.
As a rule, with paralysis of the limbs the cat regularly massages the patient’s arms and legs with its claws. The animal also helps its owner cope with the depression that often follows a grave illness.
Colitis
The illness is an inflammation of the large intestine and occurs mainly in middle-aged and elderly people. Colitis may take an acute or a chronic form.
Most patients with acute colitis have to be taken into hospital, since attacks of the illness bring severe pain and diarrhoea, which lead to exhaustion and dehydration.
Chronic colitis may be treated with cat therapy.
Treatment
A cat helps well with the pain that comes and goes in people with chronic colitis. It is enough for the owner to lay their pet on their stomach for ten minutes twice a day.
By taking on the negative energy that arises when the inflammation flares up, the cat relieves the person’s pain effectively.
Neuralgia
Neuralgia arises from a disorder of the nerve plexuses or of individual nerves and goes with attacks of pain. The illness may follow a chill, influenza or an injury. The symptoms of neuralgia appear quite often in women during menstruation.
In severe cases of neuralgia the patient is prescribed medicines. In the countries of Europe and America cat therapy has been used for several years now to relieve neuralgic pain.
Treatment
To relieve pain of a neuralgic kind, a person must trust their cat completely. Having settled comfortably on the bed, the owner should call the animal, which will find the ailing part of the body itself and rid them of the unpleasant sensations.
Nephritis and pyelonephritis
Nephritis and pyelonephritis are inflammatory illnesses of the kidneys. In the first the glomeruli of the kidney are affected, in the second the tissue of the kidneys and of the urinary tract.
People suffering from chronic inflammation of the kidneys must have their treatment under a doctor’s supervision. A household cat, however, can make the patient considerably more comfortable.
According to research carried out in the United States in 1999, patients with chronic inflammation of the kidneys who use cat therapy recover faster than those treated with medicines.
Treatment
To treat chronic inflammation of the kidneys, offer the cat your lower back to lie on twice a day. The session should last 10–15 minutes. The course of treatment is thirty days.
Chronic fatigue syndrome
The state in which, with everything going well and health otherwise normal, a person feels empty and worn out is called chronic fatigue syndrome. People suffering from it lose the wish to work, to enjoy themselves and even to think. They lose their interest in life, the people they love irritate them, and remarks from those who wish them ill throw them into a rage.
Most people who feel chronically tired fall into apathy or remain constantly irritated. As a rule no medicines bring them relief. They simply want the people around them to leave them in peace and not to keep them from their depressed state. A few days of proper rest or a holiday may be enough to give a tired person back the joy of life. But if the state lasts longer than five or six months and goes with a raised temperature, swollen lymph nodes, muscular weakness, aching joints and constant dizziness, then one can say with confidence that the person has the commonest illness of the twenty-first century — chronic fatigue syndrome. It has now been shown that chronic fatigue syndrome can be cured with the help of pets, and with cat therapy in particular.
Treatment
Doctors have observed that cats deal best of all with chronic fatigue syndrome, helping their owner recover their balance of mind and be rid of physical strain.
A person who feels constantly tired needs to spend time with their cat several times a day: to play with it, feed it, talk to it, stroke it, and also to let it carry out its various healing procedures, the chief of which is taking on negative energy.
Sciatica
Sciatica is a disorder of the roots of the spinal nerves. The main symptoms of the illness are severe pain along the affected nerve roots. Treatment for sciatica must, of course, be prescribed by a doctor. But the patient should not refuse a cat’s help.
Treatment
Long-haired cats are best for treating sciatica. The owner should lie on their stomach and call their pet, which will at once take up a comfortable position on their back.
The cat will most likely first give the patient a massage of the lower back with its claws and then settle comfortably on it, warming it with its body.
Belts made of cat hair, incidentally, are an excellent remedy for sciatica.
Information taken from D. V. Nesterov’s book “Cat Therapy. The Furry Medicine”