Crypto News: Horsing around

Hi, this is Veronika in Budapest, where I recently read about research into the softest and furriest part of therapy. More on that shortly. But first...

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Being around domestic animals means joy for most humans. Those who keep pets at home or have occasional access to horseback riding, as I do at a friend's ranch on the outskirts of Hungary's capital Budapest, know the feeling of comfort that comes from simply petting a furry friend.

I even used to regularly "rent" my mom's whippet to help me stay calm in my home office environment during the pandemic.

At Semmelweis University, one of Hungary's oldest and most renowned medical institutions, the benevolent presence of animals has long been observed and put to use. Therapy dogs and their trainers spend half a day twice a week at the university's Pediatric Clinic to help relieve the anxiety of ill children.

Children waiting for medical examinations or treatment can "examine" the furry patients, listen to heartbeats or pretend to give them medicine with the guidance of the trainers.

The canine presence and playful interaction helps children relax, release tension and deal with the mental and physical burden of being hospitalized, according to pediatrician and department head Peter Krivacsy. It has also proved especially important for those with special needs, including autism.

Gyorgy Purebl, director of the Institute of Behavioral Sciences at Semmelweis, is another advocate of animal-assisted therapy or AAT, which can also include horses, cats, rabbits and even farm animals.

Purebl says AAT can help in the treatment of stroke patients or people with Parkinson's disease, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Now he and his team, starting this fall, want to prove that animals can positively affect mental health, primarily by studying horses.

Theory and observation suggest that horses tune in to each other's mental state. This means, if one horse senses danger and becomes restless, so do the others. According to the Semmelweis researchers, this emotional transfer also takes place between animals and humans.

"The horses' lower pulse and breathing rate, their higher body temperature and the rhythm of their movement creates a calming effect for humans," Purebl says. "In our new research, we will establish if we can demonstrate this transfer with objective parameters in the horse-therapist-patient relationship by measurable physiological characteristics, such as the participants' changing heart rates during the therapy sessions."

As an occasional equestrian, I have seen how a horse and rider interact not just by commands and moves but via emotions too. A rider who shows presence and self-confidence will find a horse much easier to guide.

Purebl's team intends to find out which party initiates the emotional transfer and how, and in what order, these emotions are conveyed. "This can be the cornerstone of animal-assisted therapy," he says. — Veronika Gulyas

Doctors at some of the largest US teaching hospitals are blowing the whistle on a lucrative practice they say endangers patients: Surgeons scheduling two or even three operations at virtually the same time, leaving during critical portions, then billing Medicare for work they didn't do.

Bloomberg's John Holland has reviewed more than a dozen federal and state lawsuits offering a rare glimpse into a tight-lipped profession. Many include separate allegations of bribery, kickbacks and improper compensation. Some reveal closed-door debates by hospital administrators over the ethics, safety and staggering profits brought by concurrent surgeries.

How to live longer than your parents, according to The Telegraph.

Emotional dry cleaning: Virtual writing workshops help health-care workers make sense of the gut-punches of the pandemic, says STAT.

Fall's vaccine routine didn't have to be this hard, reports The Atlantic.

Ask us anything — well, anything health-related that is! Each week we're picking a reader question and putting it to our network of experts. So get in touch via AskPrognosis@bloomberg.net.