Advanced Health Clinic: Congratulations to Martha Bray!: "Holistic Family Nurse Practitioner Martha Bray, FNP-BC, APRN, BCIM, of Farmington, UT, has been awarded Diplomat of the College of Whole Med..."
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Body Sense Summer
Are you interested in discovering the important principles of proper stretching.
If so, I encourage you to take a look at
and discover the healing power of touch!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Stretching: Feet: Tennis Ball Plantar Fascia Massage
About the exercise
The plantar fascia is a tissue on the bottom of your foot that runs from your toes to your heel and helps maintain your foot's arch.
Often due to a collapsed arch, overuse and poor footwear, the tissue gets abused. This can lead to a painful condition called plantar fasciitis.
For people with this condition, stretching and massaging the plantar fascia is essential for rehabilitation. The tennis ball plantar fascia massage is one of the best ways to do so.
Amount and frequency
Perform the tennis ball plantar fascia massage as often as possible throughout the day, or as often as your practitioner recommends.
The plantar fascia is a tissue on the bottom of your foot that runs from your toes to your heel and helps maintain your foot's arch.
Often due to a collapsed arch, overuse and poor footwear, the tissue gets abused. This can lead to a painful condition called plantar fasciitis.
For people with this condition, stretching and massaging the plantar fascia is essential for rehabilitation. The tennis ball plantar fascia massage is one of the best ways to do so.
Amount and frequency
Perform the tennis ball plantar fascia massage as often as possible throughout the day, or as often as your practitioner recommends.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Therapeutic Value of Visceral Manipulation
This is a great article published by the Barral Institute:
The Therapeutic Value of Visceral Manipulation
The Therapeutic Value of Visceral Manipulation
Monday, February 28, 2011
BREATH THERAPY
Breath Therapy: A Mind–Body Awareness Approach
for Chronic Low-Back Pain
Contemporary treatment for low-back pain runs the gamut, from the conventional to the alternative, with sufferers seeking relief any way they can. What if it were simply a matter of mindfulness and attention to the breath? In a small pilot study from the Osher Center of Integrative Medicine in San Francisco, California, a research team led by Wolf Mehling, MD, used just such a concept for comparison of breath therapy and physical therapy for treatment of low-back pain. The results showed comparable clinical benefits for both groups, but for breath therapy subjects there also emerged a "new and improved relationship to the body," with accompanying insight into the role of stress in back pain and improved coping skills for most of the group.1
At the heart of breath therapy is the importance of body awareness, or proprioception. "If you have back pain," Mehling says, "the normal situation for a patient is they don't really focus well in the body area where they have lots of pain. They can have difficulty in perceiving subtle sensations that are not pain. The therapist teaches that they can perceive in that pain area the subtle movements that are related to breathing. If you learn those perceptions, that seems to be one of the mechanisms where enhanced body awareness helps in reducing pain."
Breath Therapy
As a mind-body approach, breath therapy integrates body awareness, breathing, meditation, and movement. Mehling says much of what happens during the therapy is not easily visible, "similar to the 'body scan' in meditation or mindfulness-based stress reduction or qi gong. It is a Western method, however," he says, "developed since the 1920s in Germany, where all the other approaches such as Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, eutony, sensory awareness, functional relaxation, autogenic training, bioenergetics, Else Gindler work, etc., have their European roots."
Similar to meditation, breath therapy emphasizes awareness in the present, but also adds hands-on techniques and verbal cues to focus on distinct body areas. For example, with the client lying prone on the table, the therapist places her hands on the sacrum and asks the client to perceive subtle changing movements occurring in that area. "The verbal cues hook the patient's attention to a certain region," Mehling says. With the therapist keeping firm but gentle contact, the client is asked to feel how the movement pushes the hand or to feel the breath movement approaching the hand. The approach can also include stretching at the back, legs, or neck, with the intention of enhancing awareness and allowing for less restricted movement where pain is held.2
"Breath movements happen in the entire body," Mehling says. "The therapy concept is you enhance diaphragmatic breathing in order to promote relaxation. One of the striking things is you really feel, all of a sudden, movement of the breath in a part of the body you never were aware of, for example in the pelvis, the sacrum, or the thighs."
Diverse Treatments, Comparable Results
According to Mehling's team, "Recent studies report that patients with chronic low-back pain suffer from a deficit of trunk proprioception." They note that the causal relationship between the two is unclear. "Is lack of proprioception a byproduct of chronic pain following an injury, or is lack of body awareness and proprioception a risk factor for low-back pain, particularly chronic low-back pain?" the team writes. Building on preliminary data that has shown benefits of breath therapy for improved body-awareness as well as improvement in postural control and low-back pain, the research team developed a randomized controlled trial to compare this mind-body approach to a neuromuscular-biomechanical approach. Behind this is the hypothesis that "an improvement in low-back pain could be paralleled by a measurable improvement in proprioception."3 For the control intervention, they chose physical therapy, considered the gold-standard treatment for this condition.4
Initially, thirty-six patients were randomized equally to the two study groups, but the numbers dropped by the posttest measurement date, with fourteen remaining for breath therapy and twelve for physical therapy. The participants were primarily women, with an average age of forty-nine years and an average of one-year history of moderate low-back pain. Both groups began treatment with a one-hour introductory evaluation session, followed by twelve intervention sessions, forty-five minutes each, over a six to eight week period. All sessions took place in the same setting. Therapists for breath therapy and physical therapy treatment came from faculty at the Middendorf Breath Institute in Berkeley, California, and the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitative Science at University of California, respectively. In addition to following the specified treatment protocol for their particular group, the therapists provided instruction to their subjects for a home-based daily exercise program. Subjects were also asked to keep a diary of their experience, including their thoughts and feelings related to the therapy or therapist, and whether or not their thinking had changed in relationship to their body, back, pain, or life in general.5
Measurements taken at baseline and following the treatment course included a pain intensity scale (10 cm VAS), a low-back pain-specific functional disability scale (Roland Morris Scale), and a form measuring functional overall health status (Short Form-36 or SF-36). At the six-month follow-up, a recovery scale was added to these same measurements. Researchers also sought to document changes in whole-body proprioception and body awareness by assessing postural stability with the use of a sensory organization test and various positioning on a static force plate. Both of these tests involve having participants attempt to maintain balance on a platform while conditions related to sensory input vary.6
Outcome measures showed a clinically and statistically significant improvement for both groups, from baseline to end of treatment period, in pain intensity (VAS) and functional overall health status (SF-36). Slight differences emerged in some components of the SF-36, with significant improvement in physical and emotional role for breath therapy and in vitality for the physical therapy group. Breath therapy subjects also showed significant improvement in low-back pain-related functional disability.7
Although anticipated improvements were found in balance measures, the team notes these changes were not clinically or statistically significant. In previous studies with breath therapy, these measures have been administered before and immediately following treatment, showing clinical benefit. But in this study measurements were taken one week following the last session and may indicate, according to the team, that the measured effect is short-term rather than significant in long-term benefit. The lack of correlation of these measures to the clinical outcome casts doubt, they say, on whether these are valid measures for chronic low-back pain research. Self-reports of the home exercise program also showed no correlation to the clinical improvements noted, but the authors point out a limitation in documentation of compliance.8
In terms of numbers, outcome at the six to eight week intervention period showed clinically meaningful improvement for seventy-one percent of the breath therapy subjects and fifty percent of physical therapy subjects (VAS and Roland Morris measurements). At the six-month follow-up, that trend had reversed with more of the breath therapy participants evidencing a relapse or exacerbation of their condition. Improvement scores for the breath therapy group dropped to 40 percent (VAS) and 67 percent (Roland Morris) with the physical therapy group at 45 percent (VAS) and 73 percent (Roland Morris). However, the six-month measurement was a single point in time and was at variance with monthly pain scores over that time period which showed no difference in relapse numbers between the two groups for the cumulative period.9
"Relapse rate, as well as responsiveness of treatment for chronic low-back pain, is dependent on psychosocial as much as musculoskeletal, bio-mechanical, and neuro-motor predictors," the authors write. Noting a study limitation in that these factors were not independently assessed, they suggest future studies examine the role of psychosocial, cultural, and functional patient characteristics in regard to responsiveness to the two therapeutic approaches.10
While clinical benefits for the two groups were shown to be comparable, a major difference emerged for breath therapy subjects in regard to their relationship to their body and their chronic pain. As contrasted with few or no entries regarding emotional effects, insights about pain, and coping with stress for those in the physical therapy group, there were "rather rich entries" in the diaries of breath therapy subjects. Examples given by the team include: "Breath therapy has taught me how to relax and be in touch with my own being," "I look at my body a little more friendly and understanding," " ... through breath therapy I am trying to incorporate the painful part into the rest of my body." This qualitative data, the team writes, suggests the breath therapy subjects experienced "a different kind of learning" that improved their relationship to their body, gave them insight into the connection between their stress and pain, and for most, improved their coping skills.11
Toward a Combination Approach
Although the breath therapy and physical therapy interventions differed in their application, both were hands on and administered by highly trained, empathic, and motivated practitioners. In light of the findings that both are of equal benefit, the team suggests two interpretations. It may be that improvement can be found with "any individual, hands-on, highly motivated or empathic attention" regardless of the approach and its orientation. Additionally, with these two methods each providing "equally valuable elements," combining the approaches may prove superior to either approach alone and is suggested for further study.12
"The physical therapists who treated the control group were very qualified, particularly for chronic pain," Mehling says. "They were the very best physical therapists you could get in San Francisco." It was learned that one of the practitioners also incorporated some breath techniques in the treatment, he says, thus introducing an element of body awareness. And as stated in Mehling's published article, physical therapy treatment for chronic pain is adapted to the individual, and it is not uncommon for the therapist to include diaphragmatic breathing and mental imagery education in their approach.13 While it is noted that this may have reduced the chance of finding a difference in benefits between the two groups, it would also seem to bolster the idea that combining a mind-body learning element with physical therapy would only enhance the results.
"There's a big discussion in medicine," Mehling says. "Should you put your attention into the pain or distract yourself? There's a confusion." What is emerging in newer studies, he says, is that it seems to depend on the type of attention. If it's hypervigilance or fear, the answer is no. But if awareness is applied in a meditative way, there can be benefit. "The type of attention seems to be the key. There seems to be a crucial difference between thinking, worrying, mental ruminating about your back pain versus feeling and sensing, deeply exploring your pain in a non-judgmental, embodied, immediate fashion."
Notes
1. Wolf E. Mehling, "Breath Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain," Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 10 (2006), 98.
2. Wolf E. Mehling et al., "Randomized, Controlled Trial of Breath Therapy for Patients with Chronic Low-Back Pain," Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 11, no. 4 (July/Aug 2005): 46.
3. Ibid, 45.
4. Ibid, 50.
5. Ibid, 45-47.
6. Ibid, 46.
7. Ibid, 47-48.
8. Ibid, 49, 51.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid, 51.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid, 50.
13. Ibid.
At the heart of breath therapy is the importance of body awareness, or proprioception. "If you have back pain," Mehling says, "the normal situation for a patient is they don't really focus well in the body area where they have lots of pain. They can have difficulty in perceiving subtle sensations that are not pain. The therapist teaches that they can perceive in that pain area the subtle movements that are related to breathing. If you learn those perceptions, that seems to be one of the mechanisms where enhanced body awareness helps in reducing pain."
Breath Therapy
As a mind-body approach, breath therapy integrates body awareness, breathing, meditation, and movement. Mehling says much of what happens during the therapy is not easily visible, "similar to the 'body scan' in meditation or mindfulness-based stress reduction or qi gong. It is a Western method, however," he says, "developed since the 1920s in Germany, where all the other approaches such as Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, eutony, sensory awareness, functional relaxation, autogenic training, bioenergetics, Else Gindler work, etc., have their European roots."
Similar to meditation, breath therapy emphasizes awareness in the present, but also adds hands-on techniques and verbal cues to focus on distinct body areas. For example, with the client lying prone on the table, the therapist places her hands on the sacrum and asks the client to perceive subtle changing movements occurring in that area. "The verbal cues hook the patient's attention to a certain region," Mehling says. With the therapist keeping firm but gentle contact, the client is asked to feel how the movement pushes the hand or to feel the breath movement approaching the hand. The approach can also include stretching at the back, legs, or neck, with the intention of enhancing awareness and allowing for less restricted movement where pain is held.2
"Breath movements happen in the entire body," Mehling says. "The therapy concept is you enhance diaphragmatic breathing in order to promote relaxation. One of the striking things is you really feel, all of a sudden, movement of the breath in a part of the body you never were aware of, for example in the pelvis, the sacrum, or the thighs."
Diverse Treatments, Comparable Results
According to Mehling's team, "Recent studies report that patients with chronic low-back pain suffer from a deficit of trunk proprioception." They note that the causal relationship between the two is unclear. "Is lack of proprioception a byproduct of chronic pain following an injury, or is lack of body awareness and proprioception a risk factor for low-back pain, particularly chronic low-back pain?" the team writes. Building on preliminary data that has shown benefits of breath therapy for improved body-awareness as well as improvement in postural control and low-back pain, the research team developed a randomized controlled trial to compare this mind-body approach to a neuromuscular-biomechanical approach. Behind this is the hypothesis that "an improvement in low-back pain could be paralleled by a measurable improvement in proprioception."3 For the control intervention, they chose physical therapy, considered the gold-standard treatment for this condition.4
Initially, thirty-six patients were randomized equally to the two study groups, but the numbers dropped by the posttest measurement date, with fourteen remaining for breath therapy and twelve for physical therapy. The participants were primarily women, with an average age of forty-nine years and an average of one-year history of moderate low-back pain. Both groups began treatment with a one-hour introductory evaluation session, followed by twelve intervention sessions, forty-five minutes each, over a six to eight week period. All sessions took place in the same setting. Therapists for breath therapy and physical therapy treatment came from faculty at the Middendorf Breath Institute in Berkeley, California, and the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitative Science at University of California, respectively. In addition to following the specified treatment protocol for their particular group, the therapists provided instruction to their subjects for a home-based daily exercise program. Subjects were also asked to keep a diary of their experience, including their thoughts and feelings related to the therapy or therapist, and whether or not their thinking had changed in relationship to their body, back, pain, or life in general.5
Measurements taken at baseline and following the treatment course included a pain intensity scale (10 cm VAS), a low-back pain-specific functional disability scale (Roland Morris Scale), and a form measuring functional overall health status (Short Form-36 or SF-36). At the six-month follow-up, a recovery scale was added to these same measurements. Researchers also sought to document changes in whole-body proprioception and body awareness by assessing postural stability with the use of a sensory organization test and various positioning on a static force plate. Both of these tests involve having participants attempt to maintain balance on a platform while conditions related to sensory input vary.6
Outcome measures showed a clinically and statistically significant improvement for both groups, from baseline to end of treatment period, in pain intensity (VAS) and functional overall health status (SF-36). Slight differences emerged in some components of the SF-36, with significant improvement in physical and emotional role for breath therapy and in vitality for the physical therapy group. Breath therapy subjects also showed significant improvement in low-back pain-related functional disability.7
Although anticipated improvements were found in balance measures, the team notes these changes were not clinically or statistically significant. In previous studies with breath therapy, these measures have been administered before and immediately following treatment, showing clinical benefit. But in this study measurements were taken one week following the last session and may indicate, according to the team, that the measured effect is short-term rather than significant in long-term benefit. The lack of correlation of these measures to the clinical outcome casts doubt, they say, on whether these are valid measures for chronic low-back pain research. Self-reports of the home exercise program also showed no correlation to the clinical improvements noted, but the authors point out a limitation in documentation of compliance.8
In terms of numbers, outcome at the six to eight week intervention period showed clinically meaningful improvement for seventy-one percent of the breath therapy subjects and fifty percent of physical therapy subjects (VAS and Roland Morris measurements). At the six-month follow-up, that trend had reversed with more of the breath therapy participants evidencing a relapse or exacerbation of their condition. Improvement scores for the breath therapy group dropped to 40 percent (VAS) and 67 percent (Roland Morris) with the physical therapy group at 45 percent (VAS) and 73 percent (Roland Morris). However, the six-month measurement was a single point in time and was at variance with monthly pain scores over that time period which showed no difference in relapse numbers between the two groups for the cumulative period.9
"Relapse rate, as well as responsiveness of treatment for chronic low-back pain, is dependent on psychosocial as much as musculoskeletal, bio-mechanical, and neuro-motor predictors," the authors write. Noting a study limitation in that these factors were not independently assessed, they suggest future studies examine the role of psychosocial, cultural, and functional patient characteristics in regard to responsiveness to the two therapeutic approaches.10
While clinical benefits for the two groups were shown to be comparable, a major difference emerged for breath therapy subjects in regard to their relationship to their body and their chronic pain. As contrasted with few or no entries regarding emotional effects, insights about pain, and coping with stress for those in the physical therapy group, there were "rather rich entries" in the diaries of breath therapy subjects. Examples given by the team include: "Breath therapy has taught me how to relax and be in touch with my own being," "I look at my body a little more friendly and understanding," " ... through breath therapy I am trying to incorporate the painful part into the rest of my body." This qualitative data, the team writes, suggests the breath therapy subjects experienced "a different kind of learning" that improved their relationship to their body, gave them insight into the connection between their stress and pain, and for most, improved their coping skills.11
Toward a Combination Approach
Although the breath therapy and physical therapy interventions differed in their application, both were hands on and administered by highly trained, empathic, and motivated practitioners. In light of the findings that both are of equal benefit, the team suggests two interpretations. It may be that improvement can be found with "any individual, hands-on, highly motivated or empathic attention" regardless of the approach and its orientation. Additionally, with these two methods each providing "equally valuable elements," combining the approaches may prove superior to either approach alone and is suggested for further study.12
"The physical therapists who treated the control group were very qualified, particularly for chronic pain," Mehling says. "They were the very best physical therapists you could get in San Francisco." It was learned that one of the practitioners also incorporated some breath techniques in the treatment, he says, thus introducing an element of body awareness. And as stated in Mehling's published article, physical therapy treatment for chronic pain is adapted to the individual, and it is not uncommon for the therapist to include diaphragmatic breathing and mental imagery education in their approach.13 While it is noted that this may have reduced the chance of finding a difference in benefits between the two groups, it would also seem to bolster the idea that combining a mind-body learning element with physical therapy would only enhance the results.
"There's a big discussion in medicine," Mehling says. "Should you put your attention into the pain or distract yourself? There's a confusion." What is emerging in newer studies, he says, is that it seems to depend on the type of attention. If it's hypervigilance or fear, the answer is no. But if awareness is applied in a meditative way, there can be benefit. "The type of attention seems to be the key. There seems to be a crucial difference between thinking, worrying, mental ruminating about your back pain versus feeling and sensing, deeply exploring your pain in a non-judgmental, embodied, immediate fashion."
Notes
1. Wolf E. Mehling, "Breath Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain," Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 10 (2006), 98.
2. Wolf E. Mehling et al., "Randomized, Controlled Trial of Breath Therapy for Patients with Chronic Low-Back Pain," Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 11, no. 4 (July/Aug 2005): 46.
3. Ibid, 45.
4. Ibid, 50.
5. Ibid, 45-47.
6. Ibid, 46.
7. Ibid, 47-48.
8. Ibid, 49, 51.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid, 51.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid, 50.
13. Ibid.
Somatic Research
By Shirley Vanderbilt
Originally published in Massage & Bodywork magazine, December/January 2007. Copyright 2007. Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. All rights reserved.Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Benefits of Massage
The Benefits Of MassageWhat exactly are the benefits of receiving massage or bodywork treatments? Useful for all of the conditions listed below and more, massage can:
Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. While eliminating anxiety and pressure altogether in this fast-paced world may be idealistic, massage can, without a doubt, help manage stress. This translates into:
Profound EffectsIn response to massage, specific physiological and chemical changes cascade throughout the body, with profound effects. Research shows that with massage:
Increase the Benefits with Frequent VisitsGetting a massage can do you a world of good. And getting massage frequently can do even more. This is the beauty of bodywork. Taking part in this form of regularly scheduled self-care can play a huge part in how healthy you’ll be and how youthful you’ll remain with each passing year. Budgeting time and money for bodywork at consistent intervals is truly an investment in your health. And remember: just because massage feels like a pampering treat doesn’t mean it is any less therapeutic. Consider massage appointments a necessary piece of your health and wellness plan, and work with your practitioner to establish a treatment schedule that best meets your needs.
- Alleviate low-back pain and improve range of motion.
- Assist with shorter, easier labor for expectant mothers and shorten maternity hospital stays.
- Ease medication dependence.
- Enhance immunity by stimulating lymph flow—the body’s natural defense system.
- Exercise and stretch weak, tight, or atrophied muscles.
- Help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover from, strenuous workouts.
- Improve the condition of the body’s largest organ—the skin.
- Increase joint flexibility.
- Lessen depression and anxiety.
- Promote tissue regeneration, reducing scar tissue and stretch marks.
- Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs, improving circulation.
- Reduce postsurgery adhesions and swelling.
- Reduce spasms and cramping.
- Relax and soften injured, tired, and overused muscles.
- Release endorphins—amino acids that work as the body’s natural painkiller.
- Relieve migraine pain.
Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. While eliminating anxiety and pressure altogether in this fast-paced world may be idealistic, massage can, without a doubt, help manage stress. This translates into:
- Decreased anxiety.
- Enhanced sleep quality.
- Greater energy.
- Improved concentration.
- Increased circulation.
- Reduced fatigue.
Profound EffectsIn response to massage, specific physiological and chemical changes cascade throughout the body, with profound effects. Research shows that with massage:
- Arthritis sufferers note fewer aches and less stiffness and pain.
- Asthmatic children show better pulmonary function and increased peak air flow.
- Burn injury patients report reduced pain, itching, and anxiety.
- High blood pressure patients demonstrate lower diastolic blood pressure, anxiety, and stress hormones.
- Premenstrual syndrome sufferers have decreased water retention and cramping.
- Preterm infants have improved weight gain.
Increase the Benefits with Frequent VisitsGetting a massage can do you a world of good. And getting massage frequently can do even more. This is the beauty of bodywork. Taking part in this form of regularly scheduled self-care can play a huge part in how healthy you’ll be and how youthful you’ll remain with each passing year. Budgeting time and money for bodywork at consistent intervals is truly an investment in your health. And remember: just because massage feels like a pampering treat doesn’t mean it is any less therapeutic. Consider massage appointments a necessary piece of your health and wellness plan, and work with your practitioner to establish a treatment schedule that best meets your needs.
Wellness on Wings
Vacation time is approaching, and with it long and sometimes stressful flights.
But flying doesn't have to be a bad experience. There are plenty of good tips for healthy and comfortable air travel. Here are five from MedAire, a company that provides in-flight emergency medical service, and the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).
Put your spine in an upright and seated position. To prevent back problems related to hours of sitting, ask a flight attendant for pillows or blankets, which the ACA says you can put behind your low back to maintain the natural curve of your spine.
Travel light. Lots of travel-related back problems occur when people lift heavy baggage into overhead compartments. The ACA recommends travelers check any baggage heavier than 10% of their weight and avoid twisting movements when loading baggage into overhead compartments.
Go with the flow. When you're seated, move around to improve blood flow and avoid muscle cramps. Massage your legs and calves, move your knees up and down, shrug your shoulders, stretch your neck and regularly take deep breaths.
Take a stand -- slowly. According to MedAire, some people get lightheaded during travel and others faint when they stand up too quickly. Many cases of fainting on planes occur when people get up to go to the washroom.
If you feel lightheaded during your flight, sit with your head between your knees or, if you can, lie down. Stay in this position until the feeling passes. If neither of these is an option, squat down as low as you can, provided the seat belt lights are off. Also, stand up slowly and stay by your seat for a moment before walking up the aisle. That way, if you start to feel lightheaded, you can quickly sit back down.
Wet your appetite. Drink lots of water, about one glass for every hour of flight. Airplane cabins are notoriously dry, and get drier as flights drag on
But flying doesn't have to be a bad experience. There are plenty of good tips for healthy and comfortable air travel. Here are five from MedAire, a company that provides in-flight emergency medical service, and the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).
Put your spine in an upright and seated position. To prevent back problems related to hours of sitting, ask a flight attendant for pillows or blankets, which the ACA says you can put behind your low back to maintain the natural curve of your spine.
Travel light. Lots of travel-related back problems occur when people lift heavy baggage into overhead compartments. The ACA recommends travelers check any baggage heavier than 10% of their weight and avoid twisting movements when loading baggage into overhead compartments.
Go with the flow. When you're seated, move around to improve blood flow and avoid muscle cramps. Massage your legs and calves, move your knees up and down, shrug your shoulders, stretch your neck and regularly take deep breaths.
Take a stand -- slowly. According to MedAire, some people get lightheaded during travel and others faint when they stand up too quickly. Many cases of fainting on planes occur when people get up to go to the washroom.
If you feel lightheaded during your flight, sit with your head between your knees or, if you can, lie down. Stay in this position until the feeling passes. If neither of these is an option, squat down as low as you can, provided the seat belt lights are off. Also, stand up slowly and stay by your seat for a moment before walking up the aisle. That way, if you start to feel lightheaded, you can quickly sit back down.
Wet your appetite. Drink lots of water, about one glass for every hour of flight. Airplane cabins are notoriously dry, and get drier as flights drag on
Visceral Manipulation
Life and motion are intertwined. Although we can have motion without life, we cannot have life without motion. Of particular importance are those motions - not ordinarily visible - that take place within the human body. They're linked to many levels of activity, from cellular pulsations to rhythmic contractions of the heart, diaphragm, even the craniosacral system.
The visceral system relies on the interconnected synchronicity between the motions of all the organs and structures of the body. At optimal health, this harmonious relationship remains stable despite the body's endless varieties of motion. But when one organ cannot move in harmony with its viscera due to abnormal tone, adhesions or displacement, it works against the body's other organs and muscular, membranous, fascial and osseous structures. This disharmony creates fixed, abnormal points of tension that the body is forced to move around. And that chronic irritation, in turn, paves the way for postural distortion, neuromuscular dysfunction, and disease processes.
Imagine an adhesion around the lungs. It would create a modified axis that demands abnormal accommodations from nearby body structures. For example, the adhesion could alter rib motion, which could then create imbalanced forces on the vertebral column and, with time, possibly develop a dysfunctional relationship with other structures. This scenario highlights just one of hundreds of possible ramifications of a small dysfunction - magnified by thousands of repetitions each day.
Thanks to the dedicated work of Jean-Pierre Barral, a Physiotherapist (RPT) and Osteopath (DO), healthcare practitioners today can use the rhythmic motions of the visceral system as important therapeutic tools.
Barral's clinical work with the viscera led to his development of a form of manual therapy that focuses on the internal organs, their environment and the potential influence on many structural and physiological dysfunctions. The term he coined for this therapy was Visceral Manipulation.
Visceral Manipulation relies on the palpation of normal and abnormal forces within the body. By using specific techniques, therapists can evaluate how abnormal forces interplay, overlap and affect the normal body forces at work. The goal is to help the body's normal forces remove abnormal effects, whatever their sources. Those effects can be global, encompassing many areas of bodily function.
HOW DOES VISCERAL MANIPULATION HELP YOU?
Visceral Manipulation is used to locate and solve problems throughout the body. It encourages your own natural mechanisms to improve the functioning of your organs, dissipate the negative effects of stress, enhance mobility of the musculoskeletal system through the connective tissue attachments, and influence general metabolism. Today, a wide variety of healthcare professionals perform Visceral Manipulation. Practitioners include osteopathic physicians, allopathic physicians, doctors of chiropractic, doctors of Oriental medicine, naturopathic physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists and other licensed body workers.
HOW IS VISCERAL MANIPULATION PERFORMED?
Visceral Manipulation is based on the specific placement of soft manual forces to encourage the normal mobility, tone and motion of the viscera and their connective tissues. These gentle manipulations can potentially improve the functioning of individual organs, the systems the organs function within, and the structural integrity of the entire body.
Harmony and health exist when motion is free and excursion is full - when motion is not labored, overexcited, depressed, or conflicting with neighboring structures and their mobility. Therapists using Visceral Manipulation assess the dynamic functional actions as well as the somatic structures that perform individual activities. They also evaluate the quality of the somatic structures and their functions in relation to an overall harmonious pattern, with motion serving as the gauge for determining quality.
Due to the delicate and often highly reactive nature of the visceral tissues, gentle force precisely directed reaps the greatest results. As with other methods of manipulation that affect the body deeply, Visceral Manipulation works only to assist the forces already at work. Because of that, trained therapists can be sure of benefiting the body rather than adding further injury or disorganization.
Massage Therapy
People have been practicing massage as a healing therapy for centuries. Massage is currently the most widely used muscular therapy, with an estimated 100,000 practitioners in the U.S. Today, the term "therapeutic massage" refers to a range of manual therapies involving the manipulation of the soft-tissue structures in the body. In most cases, massage relieves muscle tension, reduces stress, and evokes feelings of calmness. Varieties of massage range from gentle stroking and kneading of muscles and other soft tissues to deeper manual techniques. Some focus on one specific function of the body (see lymphatic massage below). Others, such as trigger point and myotherapy, seek to relieve muscle contraction in a target area. Most practitioners rely on a combination of techniques. Currently, few clinical trials examine the effects of massage. However, practitioners believe that the therapeutic benefits of massage are due, in part, to its ability to affect changes in the musculoskeletal, circulator-lymphatic, and nervous systems.
Lymphatic massage
You use lymphatic massage to stimulate lymphatic circulation, which helps the body eliminate toxins. Lymph stagnation may cause swelling and pain. Although all types of massage stimulate lymph flow, Vodder Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD), developed by Danish physical therapist Emil Vodder in France in the 1930s, focuses on draining excess lymph. In Europe, physicians frequently prescribe MLD for sprains, bruises, and muscular spasms caused by overuse or chronic tension. These physicians recommend it following certain surgeries to shrink swelling. Therapists generally use a very light pulsing touch along the lymph vessels.
Rolfing (structural integration)
Rolfing, developed in the 1940s by biophysicist Ida Rolf, seeks to realign the body so that it conserves energy, releases tension, moves more easily, restructures itself, and functions better neurologically. Rolfers apply pressure to the fascia-connective tissues between layers of muscle-to stretch it, lengthen it, and make it more flexible. Rolfing generally requires a basic series of 10 sessions-usually one per week. Practitioners take 700 hours of graduate-level courses at the Rolf Institute to become certified.
Myofascial release
Myofascial release is based on a whole-body approach; the ultimate objective is to help the patient achieve postural changes and optimal body alignment. Injuries to fascia, or connective tissue, in one area of the body can put tension on adjacent areas-even areas far from the site of the injury. Therapists trained in myofascial release apply gentle, sustained pressure and stretching to injured fascia. Once the therapist identifies the problem area, he or she gently stretches the tissue along the direction of the muscle fibers until he or she feels resistance. The therapist holds this position until the soft tissue releases and repeats this process until all tissues are fully extended.
Trigger point and myotherapy
Trigger-point massage and myotherapy are pain-relief techniques for soothing muscle spasms and cramping. Therapists apply pressure to trigger points-tender areas where muscles have been damaged-and thereby increase blood flow to these areas. Because muscle spasms reduce the blood supply to involved tissues, applying pressure to these trigger points restores this decreased blood supply and soothes the spasms.
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