Bladerunner

 

It’s minus 10 degrees.  The snow is soft, pristine and the air bitterly cold. The Huskies are brought out from their personalised Lillipution houses – one by one, ethereal puffs of warm breath rising into the cold air. The handlers hold the dogs’ collars tightly, lifting their front legs slightly off the ground. They do a comical kangaroo hop on strong back legs to the waiting sleds. Eyes wild, they twist their heads, craning, coiled-spring alert.  In a rapid show of respect from the pack, the narrow path is cleared as each dog is frog-hopped past.  Speedy… Luna… Mti… Popil…Amber…Nanuk….  Lucky… Tumi…Fire, and last, his white chest swathed casually in a thick black coat … Sky.

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Electro-convulsive therapy – a bad rep?

Electro-convulsive therapy

Electric shock treatment of any nature has an image issue – courtesy of Josef Mengele’s horrific experiments in the holocaust where high-voltage electric shocks were administered under the guise of testing endurance; the SANDF 1970s aversion therapy to ‘cure’ homosexuals and death-row prisoners being led to the electric chair, strapped down and then fried in front of an audience. Then came the early attempts at electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as shock therapy. Medications, like insulin, were first used to induce seizures in 1938. Insulin causes a sudden drop in glucose, which causes the brain to develop seizures as a sign of distress. That’s because blood glucose is the only ‘fuel’ the brain can use for its energy needs, if deprived of glucose.

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