CANING? To reduce pain?

[Guest guest]

I just HAD to pass this one on. What a way to reduce your pain! *OUCH*

Maybe that's what S & M people get out of it?

Dee

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No pain, no cane ! Ask any old-timer how to get your thumb to stop throbbing after you hit it with a hammer and they'll all tell you the same thing: Hit yourself in the head and your thumb will stop hurting instantly. Well now there's an alternative for disease treatment from the former Communist-bloc that takes this principle a step further... Therapeutic caning! According to The Moscow News and other sources (the story's been picked up by a variety of news services), Russian scientists claim that frequent beatings across the buttocks with a stout cane cures everything from depression to lethargy to alcohol and drug addiction. Apparently, it's also quite effective against all manner of psychosomatic illnesses. The reasoning behind this makes sense of a sort: The pain of caning causes the body to release large quantities of endorphins, chemicals that cause happiness, arousal, and euphoria. These chemicals can lift the spirits of those who are down in the dumps or so filled with self-pity and self-loathing that they've spiraled into addiction. And if the endorphins don't make you better, the desire to avoid another caning might snap you out of your funk real quickly, wouldn't you say? The Russians claim that the technique is merely a revival of an identical treatment a group of 19th-century German doctors used to great success. As twisted and humorous as this must seem to you, here's the funniest part: The "practitioners" of this therapy are getting the equivalent of $140 dollars for a standard course of treatment (30 canings). They're either nuts or brilliant. Anyone who has figured out a way to get people to pay them good money to beat them has got a truly remarkable understanding into the human psyche, a la` P.T. Barnum... And they deserve every penny they get. s II, MD