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What is Reflexology?

Reflexology is a unique method of using the thumb and fingers to stimulate more that 7,200 nerve endings in each foot.  These nerve endings correspond to all parts of the body, including organs and glands.

Origins of Reflexology

Reflexology is no new age trend.  Dr. William Fitzgerald, in his book Zone Therapy, states that “a form of treatment by means of pressure points was known in India and China 5,000 years ago.”  There also appears to be evidence of reflexology being used in Egyptian art around 2330 BC.

What are the Benefits of Reflexology?

Reflexology can relieve stress and tension within the body.  It improves circulation and lymphatic flow, and works to unblock nerve impulse pathways.  These benefits all work toward helping the body to heal itself by restoring balance to the vital energies.

According to Shelly Hess, author of The Professional’s Reflexology Handbook, “Reflexology works to discover how the soft tissue organs and the entire skeletal system are functioning.  Through trained fingers, the Reflexologist can detect early warning signs that the body is struggling and can then help restore the internal system to better balance.”

 What Are Some Specific Conditions Where Reflexology Might Be Helpful?

-Headaches, including migraines
- Arthritis
- High blood pressure
- Backache and sciatica
- Stress
- Allergies and sinus problems
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Constipation
- Insomnia
- Pre-menstrual syndrome
- Menstrual cramps

Who Can Benefit from Reflexology?

People of all ages can benefit from reflexology treatments.  We all suffer from stress at one time or another, and aches and pains are a part of daily life.  Reflexology has a long history of promoting relaxation and healing. Reflexology can be a great treatment by itself or combined with another treatment. Schedule a Soothing a Soothing Foot Massage for 30 or 60 minutes today! 

Pain is a Sign - Your Body is Telling you Something!

Let’s face it, we live in a high stress culture that has constant demands.  Pursuing a career, family life, house chores, holidays, vacation planning the list can go on forever.  Eventually we start to experience headaches, tension and pains throughout our body.  The pain is an indicator or “sign” that something is wrong and the problem wont go away until we take direct action to resolve it.  The pain could leave for a few days or weeks but eventually it returns and keeps nagging us to get help.

Here are a couple of interesting statistics that even surprised us when we researched the numbers.

- 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints.

- Over 50% of lost workdays are stress related which keeps about 1 million people per day from attending work.

- Health care expenditures are nearly 50% greater for workers who report high levels of stress.

Reducing your stress will improve your health.  A balanced lifestyle is important to creating and maintaining your health. Are you ignoring your aches and pains hoping they will go away?  Have you taken some time for yourself to quiet the mind and relax the soul?  Listen to your body and get help reducing your stress today.

Making the Most of Your Massage

How to Prolong the Benefits of Bodywork
by Barbara Hey

A massage works in wonderful ways, easing stress and pain, calming the nervous system, increasing circulation, loosening tight muscles, stimulating internal organs, and enhancing skin. The multiplicity of physiological responses sends a simple, clear message to the mind: Massage feels good. Of course, you want to hold on to that just-had-a-massage feeling — total body relaxation, muscles relaxed and at ease, and fluid movement restored — for as long as possible.

But how long that bliss lasts depends on the state of your body. If you’re suffering from chronic pain or recovering from injury, then it may take more sessions to restore yourself back to health.

If massage is part of your regular health regimen, then it’s more likely the effects will endure. In other words, the effects of massage are cumulative, like any healthy habit. The more often you get a massage, the greater and longer-lasting the benefits.

Massage Frequency
How often you receive massage depends on why you’re seeking massage. In dealing with the general tension of everyday commutes, computer work, and time demands, a monthly massage may be enough to sustain you. On the other hand, if you’re seeking massage for chronic pain, you may need regular treatments every week or two. Or if you’re addressing an acute injury or dealing with high levels of stress, you may need more frequent sessions. Your situation will dictate the optimum time between treatments, and your practitioner will work with you to determine the best course of action.

“You need to consider how you felt before the session and how you felt after, and then look at how long you maintain that,” says Pieter Sommen, the chair of the eastern department in the Swedish Institute School of Massage Therapy in New York.   In general, experts say “regular” is preferable, but how regular depends on your situation. While daily massage would be delightful, practical considerations such as cost, time, and physical need likely determine the frequency of treatments. “It’s best to maintain a schedule,” says Eeris Kallil, CMT, a shiatsu instructor at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy in Colorado. “That way the body becomes conditioned and prepared for session at specific intervals.”  

Maintenance
Whether you get a massage weekly, monthly, or just every once in a while, the following habits can maximize and extend the afterglow of treatment. 

Water
One bit of advice you’ll hear over and over again is to drink plenty of water after a massage. Bodywork — no matter the particular modality — releases toxins, such as lactic acid and carbonic acid, that need to be flushed from the body. Massage also promotes circulation, increasing blood flow and oxygen and stimulating the lymphatic system, which helps rid the body of pathogens. After-massage hydration supports these functions, helping to eliminate released impurities, sooner rather than later. 

Stretching
Another helpful habit is stretching between massages to maintain joint mobility, prevent muscles from tightening up again, and keeping the life energy flowing. This may mean doing yoga or whatever specific or full-body stretches suggested by your practitioner. After your massage session, for example, your practitioner may recommend self stretches, designed to keep your energy flowing. “This series of stretches could take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes a day, but really help keep the energy flowing through the body,” says Kallil.

Exercise
Working out can also help maintain the benefits of massage, and this habit should be continually cultivated. However, if you’re receiving massage therapy to help speed muscle strain recovery, you may need to ease up on the exercise for a while and give the body time to heal — particularly if you’re recovering from a strenuous body-pummeling training regimen. “You don’t want to over-work your body,” says Kallil. That is, if running is taking a toll, try something more gentle and meditative such as swimming, walking, or tai chi.  

Body Awareness
After a massage, respect how your body feels. If your body seems to ask for rest, give in to that demand. This may mean backing off the to-do list, taking it easy, moving slower, and perhaps doing less for a while. And don’t allow yourself to get fatigued because it will undermine the effects of massage. Get sufficient sleep to allow the body to absorb the effects and regain vitality. 

Diet
Finally, since you’ve just rid the body of toxins, support the body’s renewed state by adhering to a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables, which will continue the detoxification process. Lay off the espresso and all adrenaline-challenges for a time — which would short-circuit relaxation anyway — and enjoy the calm. The benefits of massage are many, including: increasing circulation, allowing the body to pump more oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, stimulating lymph flow and boosting immunity, relaxing overused or tight muscles, increasing joint mobility and range of motion, reducing recovery time after strenuous workouts or surgery, and relieving back pain and migraines, just to name a few.

Take a multivitamin that contains B vitamins – November 30, 2009

Take a multivitamin that contains B vitamins. The B vitamins folic acid, B6 and B12 are related to cognitive function.

If you swallow your vitamin supplements with your morning coffee, you may be missing out on possible health benefits. Take them with food for the best results. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, requiring the presence of some fat (think good fats, such as the omega-3’s found in flax seed) in the gastrointestinal tract for optimal absorption.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Bodywork Treatment Proves Successful

By Cathy Ulrich

It started as a vague feeling of numbness in her thumb and first two fingers, then progressed slowly to a definite tingling that woke her several nights a week. “It’s not so bad on weekends when I have a chance to rest my arms, but it’s now getting in the way of things I like to do at home,” says Marie, who spends long hours during the work-week typing at her computer keyboard. “I love to knit and cook, and I’ve had to curb these activities, as well. “Diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, Marie displayed the classic symptoms: soreness in her forearms, pain in her hands at the end of a long day at the computer, and a feeling of tightness that had spread from hands and wrists all the way to her elbows. And recently, she’d been getting headaches.

Marie has a couple of different options for treating the problem. “My doctor tells me he can operate, but the surgery isn’t always successful,” she says. “He recommends I try bodywork first.”

Because Marie does the same motion in the same way many times a day over a long period of time, she has literally worn out the tissues involved in that motion. This type of injury — called a repetitive strain injury, or RSI — creates tiny tears in the fibers of the soft tissues of the body. While they don’t immediately cause loss of function, these micro-tears set up conditions for chronic inflammation that will eventually manifest as pain, soreness, tightness, tingling, and burning.

CTS

The hand and wrist combination work together as an amazing, mechanical anatomical wonder. Imagine a set of ropes and pulleys that travel from the elbow through the wrist to the fingertips. The muscles reside in the forearm, moving the fingers via long tendons that run through channels in the wrist. The nerves that send and receive sensory and motor information from the brain run alongside the tendons through these same channels. When bending or straightening a finger, these tendons slide back and forth, just like cables. When continually working at a keyboard and using the same motion in the same position thousands of times a day — like millions of Americans do — the cables begin to wear. And just like threads in a rope, some of the collagen fibers will tear. This process progresses until enough fibers are torn that the body develops inflammation in the tendons and sheaths. Swelling ensues, which pinches the nerves, producing the classic symptoms of tingling, swelling, and even loss of grip strength.

The Bigger Picture

Can Bodywork Help?  

A recent study conducted at The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine looked at the efficacy of bodywork in treating carpal tunnel syndrome. Researchers found that after the completion of four massage sessions, the participants experienced an improvement in grip strength and a decrease in pain, anxiety, and depression. Participants also showed improvement in specific medical tests used to diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome. This landmark study verifies what bodyworkers have observed clinically for years: Massage — and especially deep tissue techniques, such as Thai massage,  — can reorganize the connective tissue fibers, break up scar tissue, and reduce or eliminate the cause of inflammation. Soft tissue work helps realign these tiny fibers of the tendons and sheaths, and the body can then heal itself — and ease or even eliminate carpal tunnel syndrome.

Bodywork to the entire arm, shoulder, and neck will also free soft tissues where hidden tightness can contribute to the problem. Soft tissue inflammation can travel through the continuous connective tissue framework from fingertips to head and even cause headaches — as was the case with Marie. Massage can restore these tissues to normal function.

Other Considerations
In addition to bodywork, it’s important to evaluate postural habits, work station positioning, and movement patterns. When workers become so focused on their work that they forget their bodies, they tend to maintain positions that contribute to the cause. It’s important to identify several ways and several positions to accomplish the same thing. Moving the mouse from one side to the other, even during the same day, can help prevent fatigue and tissue failure. Wrist rests and keyboard trays are important, and a regular stretching routine is essential.

Finally, along with exercise and good nutrition, include bodywork as part of your regular health maintenance program. Regular massage reduces connective tissue inflammation and prevents scar tissue from forming. Movement education, such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, structural integration, and Trager Approach can help correct postural issues that also contribute to the problem. Bodywork is a treatment of choice to keep carpal tunnel syndrome from slowing you down.

Headaches - The Side Effect You Never Think About! 

You’re probably already know what causes headaches - stress, poor diet, allergies, lack of sleep, etc, etc… 

And whether it’s the numbing pain of a sinus headache or the piercing throb of a migraine who hasn’t experienced the direct effects of a bad headache?   

 Bodywork Improves Quality of Life

Almost 35 million Americans are age 65 or older, and about 2,000 more reach this age every day. As the U.S. demographic shifts to an older population, it’s important to find ways of helping our elders maintain their health and vitality. Massage for seniors is gaining importance as an alternative therapy to increase quality of life, and many massage therapists are getting special training to better serve this growing population.

Seniors’ Special Needs
While similar in technique to other forms of massage, geriatric massage considers the special needs of the elderly. The specialty-trained practitioner knows about positioning for greatest comfort and will often have the client rest in the same position for the entire massage. Mobility challenges may dictate the massage be done in a bed or wheelchair. The therapist may also work both sides of the body at the same time to enhance body awareness, or only work hands and feet, if the client prefers. 

Benefits of Geriatric Massage
A recent study conducted at the Weaver’s Tale Retreat Center in Oregon looked at the effects of massage for elderly clients. The results of the two-year study showed that participants experienced a decrease in breathing rate of 50 percent and an improvement in range of motion, posture, body awareness, skin color, and muscle tone. Furthermore, it is well documented that caring touch benefits emotional well being in seniors — a population at greater risk of suffering from depression.

Ease Stress to Relieve Allergies

Lighten the load on your immune system to scale back symptoms

Stress can bring on asthma attacks, and some experts believe it probably exacerbates nearly every kind of allergy. What does stress have to do with allergies when it’s your immune system’s overreaction to certain allergens that causes the problem?

Stress increases the adrenal gland’s production of cortisol and spurs the sympathetic nervous system to make more epinephrine and norepinephrine. An oversupply of these hormones cuts your immune system’s effectiveness.

Massage Away Tension
Getting a massage is one of the best ways to get stress out of your system. “Research shows that the rhythmic pressure of massage lowers heart rate and blood pressure while improving blood circulation,” says Andrew Weil, MD, director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Massage also carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells and removes waste products such as lactic acid, which causes muscle cramps.  If you are suffering from allergies, get a massage to reduce the suffering so that you can breath again.