Staying In-Touch Newsletter (Healthy news from Dan & Roxie)

Here it is the middle of July already! Where has 2010 gone? Or should I ask, "What are you going to do with the rest of the year?"

Little if anything ever gets accomplished without a plan. What's your plan to complete 2010 and make it a year of accomplishment? Now, in the heat of summer is as good a time as any to sit with a glass of iced tea or lemonade and take stock. What plans did I have for this year? What have I accomplished so far? What changes do I need to make to get back on course?

Here's a question you may not have thought of. How does it feel to live in my body? Most of us run through life listening to our mind and never stopping to take stock of what our body is trying to tell us. Do you have a nagging ache, maybe in a shoulder or a knee? Do you just brush it aside with, "Oh, it's an old injury I just deal with it (and sometimes grimace as you say it)! Or maybe you have a stiff neck and you say something like, "I must have slept wrong." Maybe you wake up with a back that is so sore it's hard to get out of bed and get moving in the morning, or maybe your feet are so hot and tired and sore at the end of the day that you can't wait to get your shoes off and your feet up. Maybe you say,"I get heartburn every time I eat... ," "I can't sleep at night," or "I'm tired all the time." Believe it or not, these are all messages your body is sending you--are you listening? What is YOUR BODY trying to tell YOU?

Many times your body is crying out for a little R & R, a little stress relief and some TLC. Other times, it may be a more serious cry for help. If you don't check-in and check it out now, you may wish that you had later.

This isn't meant to make you feel uncomfortable but to make you STOP and FEEL what your body is telling you. Then DO something about it!

It has been estimated that upwards of 85% of all illnesses, major and minor, have their beginnings in stress. Massage is a wonderful first line of defense against stress. It helps to calm the central nervous system. A good massage is to your body as running the system defrag is to your computer. (You do defrag your computer don't you?) Oh, and those aches and pains and the stiffness and soreness, those too can be helped with muscle specific massage techniques that Roxie and I apply everyday.

While one 60-minute (or even a 90-minute) massage will help, it's probably not gonna be the magic bullet. There's 168 hours in a week, 1 hour is pretty small portion of it. There's 720 hours in a month. A massage once a month is an even smaller slice of the pie. And in a year there's a whopping 8,760 hours. An annual massage becomes a pretty infinitesimal investment in your well-being.

If you're serious about listening to your body and making a change, we challenge you to try three weekly massages--that's right one massage a week for three weeks--and see what your body's telling you then. You will be amazed at the difference that this investment in your health will make, but don't take my word for it--try it for yourself--feeling is believing!

HOW STRESSED ARE YOU?
Take the First Step in Coping with Stress

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Are you tense much of the time? Do you have frequent headaches, neck or back aches? Or do you have trouble sleeping?

While stress is a given in life and may motivate us to do our best, learning to recognize when it is a problem is vital to feeling well. The effects of stress can creep up on you and are often the result of events or life changes. These changes, both positive and negative, make demands on you. A serious illness or separation in the family will of course increase your stress level. But happy events like marriage or a new child can also tax your physical and emotional resources.

When stress builds

You can feel the effects of stress from one single large event, or as a series of small ones accumulate. Even small stressors in your life such as aches and pains, a daily commute or ever-present background noise, if sustained or combined with other stressors, can take their toll. Research shows that as stress builds, you may become more susceptible to physical illness, mental and emotional problems, and accidental injuries.

Awareness is the first step in coping with stress. Taking this test will give you a moment out of your busy life to tune in to your own stress signals. Although some of the listed symptoms could indicate a medical condition that warrants prompt attention, they are probably simply signs that too much stress may be affecting your sense of well-being.

The stress test

1. Do you have headaches or stomach aches?
2. Do you have pain in your shoulders or arms?
3. Have your eating habits changed? Are you eating more or less than

usual?
4. Do you worry about bad things happening to your loved ones?
5. Is it hard to concentrate?
6. Do you wake up at night thinking about things you have no control

over?
7. Do you lack energy to do the things you enjoy at the end of the day

or on the weekend?
8. Do you often feel tired or apathetic?
9. Are you tense or irritable at work or at home?
10. Have you lost your sense of humor?
11. Are you increasingly forgetful?
12. Do you feel you have lost control over your life?
13. Do your relationships or friendships feel unsatisfying?
14. Has your drinking or smoking increased?
15. Do you find it hard to relax?

How did you do? If you answered yes to more than half of the questions in the box, you may want to take steps now to reduce your stress.

Now what?

Sometimes facing a problem on the job or in a relationship will help decrease tension and anxiety. Even if a problem isn't easily solved, talking about it with a trusted friend or counselor can bring relief from the symptoms of stress.

Making more time to relax may leave you more resilient and less prone to disease and injury. Go for walks in beautiful places and take breaks at work to stretch. Learn relaxation techniques like meditation, yoga or tai chi. Get an extra bodywork session or ask your practitioner to use part of your session to focus on breathing more efficiently, a proven method of reducing tension in the body.

Relaxation -- your birthright
Body, mind, and life in the fast lane

Remember the last time you were injured, afraid or in an emotional crisis? You probably experienced what's called the "fight-or-flight response." All your systems went on alert. Your emotions were charged, your pulse and blood pressure rose, your muscles tensed. Everything in your system shifted to help you face the emergency.

Stress and your life

Although we may not be in crisis very often, in our busy modern lives we often have too many deadlines, commitments and financial pressures. As pressure builds, you may experience chronic stress and anxiety. Your over stimulated protective fight-or-flight response becomes an internal emergency. If unrelieved, this can exhaust your glands and organs and drain your energy, which can lead to a general undermining of your health.

Relaxation and your body

Fortunately the body has a built-in way of dealing with the effects of stress through the autonomic nervous system. There are two parts of our autonomic nervous system.

The sympathetic branch is responsible for revving you up to "fight or flee." The parasympathetic calms you down, causing the heart rate and blood pressure to fall, the breath to slow, and the internal organs to function more efficiently. These changes are referred to as the "relaxation response," a mechanism we are born with. The relaxation response can be triggered by certain activities like meditation, biofeedback, yoga and bodywork.

Enjoying regular relaxation can slowly reverse the effects of chronic stress and bring you back to emotional, mental, and physical balance, the way you were meant to be.

"What integrative medicine does is reduce your stress, and we know that 85 percent of all illnesses are stress-related.... Approaches such as biofeedback, chiropractic, acupuncture, aromatherapy, music, meditation, massage, yoga enhance your overall well-being as well as decreasing all the cortisols and stressors."

--Singer Naomi Judd after healing from hepatitis C

MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER POINTS

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Massage relieves radiating pain

Imagine this: you feel a deep, spreading pain at your right shoulder. It feels better after a good night's rest, but as your day progresses, the knot-like feeling creeps up on you without invitation. The pain is sometimes very intense and sometimes moderate. And you note that sometimes it travels to different areas of your body.

What are trigger points?

These annoying little knots in our muscles and connective tissues are called myofascial trigger points. The "myo" part of the word means muscle and "fascial" refers to the elastic, connective tissue that runs throughout the body.

There are two basic types of trigger points: active and latent. Latent trigger points don't cause pain except when pressed. When latent trigger points become triggered and awakened by stress or injury, they become active. Active trigger points radiate (or refer) pain from muscle or fascia in a characteristic pattern. For example, trigger points in the shoulders often send pain and tension throughout the shoulders and up into the lower neck. Likewise, trigger points in your buttocks can refer pain down the leg just as in sciatica.

Massage can help

Two doctors, Dr. Janet Travell and Dr. David Simons, revolutionized our understanding of trigger points. They mapped out the entire body and standardized a pain referral pattern for each muscle. Trigger points usually follow these maps, though some people have unusual pain patterns. In either case, deep breathing, stretching, applications of heat or cold, and massage can help.

A case in point

Travell and Simons say that the shoulders are the area most affected by trigger points. The levator scapula muscle connects your shoulder blade to your neck and is responsible for elevating your shoulder blade. It is especially prone to trigger points, and can refer pain to the neck, around the shoulders and down into the mid-back.

Releasing the levator scapula

To help relax this muscle, focus on the shoulder area. Breathe deeply and begin to let go of the tension with each exhale. Then inhale, shrug your shoulders up toward your ears, squeeze, and hold them to the count of three. Release them completely on the exhale. Repeat three to five times, then relax and breathe slowly and deeply.

All the right points
Specific techniques to relieve pain

Myofascial trigger points can keep people from going about the daily activities of life. The good news is massage therapists are trained to prevent and reduce these knots and the pain that accompanies them. One of the most effective treatments that therapeutic massage utilizes with trigger points is called "ischemic compression." After locating the trigger point, the therapist applies direct pressure, producing pain within your comfort level. You may feel the pain locally or you may feel it radiate and travel away from the area being pressed.

Your therapist may instruct you to breathe deeply, consciously relaxing the area being pressed until the pain subsides. Next, the pressure may be slowly increased until the pain returns. This process may be repeated, followed by other massage techniques and hydrotherapy such as moist heat or ice massage.

Many people needlessly suffer pain for years without the knowledge that a few focused sessions in trigger point therapy can resolve their problem. That said, there is an old saying, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always had." Therefore, to ensure that your trigger points stay away, consider adding stretches, moderate exercise and relaxation to your daily habits.

"Research by the acknowledged world experts on pain, Professors P. Wall and R. Melzack, has confirmed that while certainly not the cause of all pain, trigger-point activity is at least a part (often the major part) of almost all chronic pain situations and conditions."
--Leon Chaitow, ND, DO, author of Fibromyalgia and Muscle Pain: Your Self-Treatment

Your body is an amazing creation! The more Roxie and I work with the body through massage, the more we are awed at how the body moves, breaks down and heals. What's really awesome is when we get to have a small part in that healing process!

Don't forget our challenge... 3 massages in 3 weeks. Feel the difference and become a believer. We look forward to seeing you on our tables soon!

Until then... yours for better health,

A Healing Touch Massage