Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Have Unresolved Back or Shoulder Pain?

Structural Massage may be the answer. Proper functioning muscles are crucial for everything we do in life from sitting down in a chair to executing an intricate gymnastics
routine. Structural muscle re-education is a massage technique that is designed to restore proper muscle function and imbalances that result from injury and promotes the body’s ability to carry out these tasks. Structural massage tends to be a quicker, more permanent solution to a myriad of muscle and joint problems.  

The movement of every joint in the body is controlled and supported by many surrounding muscles.  Each of these muscles plays an important role in creating smooth biomechanical movements.    However, emotional, nutritional, and physical stresses or injuries can interrupt the neurological message from the brain that tells individual muscles to contract. As a result, one or more muscles are left unable to contract at their full potential. Surrounding muscles are forced to work overtime and the stability of the joint is compromised.  The body is then more prone to injuries, muscle spasms, pain, motion restrictions, etc.  These muscle and joint dysfunctions can also set the body up for a tendency to develop osteoarthritis. It may be surprising how many conditions muscle activation applies to. Structural massage may resolve headaches, TMJ pain, numbness, tingling, sciatica, and much more.

Your Structural Massage therapist will identify instabilities of the body through an initial assessment. After that, your therapist will create a plan to help you find relief.

There are a few individuals that take a little longer to respond to the treatment and may notice a difference in a few hours to a few days. Either way, the body can then start to heal. Whether you are a professional athlete, businessman, or stay at home mom; Structural massage may be the answer to help you get your life back. 

To schedule your Structural Massage session, contact us at Advanced Health Clinic 

Thursday, February 1, 2018

How Organs Can Contribute to Pain and Dysfunction

Your body is made up of many interrelated parts such as muscles, bones, nerves, a thin connective tissue called fascia, as well as the internal organs (viscera). Did you know your organs are in perpetual motion? When you breathe, walk and stretch, your organs move in
your chest and abdomen. For example, when you take a breath, your kidneys move one inch; and with deep inhalation, they move 4 inches. In a day, they move a little over ½ mile. That's around 19,000 miles in a lifetime In addition your liver moves the length of a football field 6 times in the course of the day. That is a lot of movement! When you are healthy, all the structures move with a very rhythmic, fluid-type movement. Optimum health relies on a harmonious relationship between the motions of the organs and other structures of the body.

There are many reasons for an organ to lose its mobility: physical traumas, surgeries, sedentary lifestyle, infections, pollution, bad diet, poor posture and pregnancy/delivery. When an organ is no longer freely mobile but is fixed to another structure, the body is forced to compensate. This disharmony creates fixed, abnormal points of tension and the chronic irritation that gives way to functional and structural problems throughout the body – musculoskeletal, vascular, nervous, urinary, respiratory and digestive, to name a few.

Imagine scar tissue around the lungs. Because of the pull of the adhesion, with every breath, the movement patterns of the nearby structures would be altered. This could shift rib motion creating pulls on the spine. These restrictions might then show up as mid-back and neck pain, as well as limited motion in the shoulder. This scenario highlights just one of hundreds of possible ramifications of a small dysfunction - magnified by thousands of repetitions each day. This also explains how pain can often be far removed from the actual cause.

This is where Visceral Therapy can help. Contact us at AdvancedHealthClinic for more information.