More factors that contribute to muscle cramps

It is very easy right now with the constant news reports about the spread of Coronavirus to flip from being informed and aware to worried about our own health & saftey and that of our friends & family. So right now acknowledge how you feel about the spread of the Coronavirus, whether its anxiety, worried, fear etc.  Often what happens when we get anxious, worried or fearful is that we project that state into our future.  So at this current moment, most us are healthy; our loved ones are well, and life is fine. So, be grateful for the things that are going well in your life right now and focus on the present.  And breath! Two long running studies in the US which collected information from male war veterans and female nurses aged around 60 to 70 years old when they completed optimisim questionaires.  People who had the highest optimism scores had a lifespan about 9% longer than those with the lowest scores.  The most optimistic were in fact no more likely to live to the age of 85. This reseach cannot prove cause and effect.  Both optimisim and lifespace may be influenced by many hereditary, health, lifestyle and personal factors.  People with a good overall standard of health and wellbeing are probably more optimistic about their future.  While researchers attempted to adjust their analysis for these sorts of factors, it's hard to remove their influence fully. Nevertheless the research does highlight that optimists live longer and the importance that mental health and wellbeing can have on physical health. So right now focus on what is going well in your life. Research https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/reason-be-cheerful-optimists-live-longer-study-reports/

I would like to write a series of blog articles on the scientific evidence for massage.  I think it is important to start by stating the obvious that while massage can be studied, not many scientists are interested in studying it and not many massage therapists have scientific training.  This means that massage is woefully under researched.  In addition it is amazingly difficult to find 100 people with the same problem, who need exactly the same massage treatment, so large scale studies are very rare, which means a weakness of most studies is their size. Finally, while, most scientists are interested in how massage works, we don't have to know how something works to know if it works.  I know most of my clients are interested in scientific evidence but equally important is anecdotal evidence, their own opinion and experience of the treatment. What it crystal clear from scientific data and widely agreed upon by massage therapist researchers is that massage

1. Reduces anxiety
2. Reduces depression
3. Reduces stress
4. Reduces high BP

My final swap is nettles for spiralina. Spirulina's deep blue-green color reveals its active ingredient — chlorophyll — clearly. Health.com explains it as one of the oldest life forms on Earth and possibly consumed in Aztec and African diets centuries ago. Today it's touted for its ability to strengthen the immune system, reduce fatigue and combat allergies. Nettles are another plant with chlorophyll that even rivals the amount found in spirulina, but they're often found in ditch banks, forests and riverbanks. It's sometimes called "stinging nettle" because it does just that; if you touch it without wearing gloves, the tiny hairs on every surface sting like a bee due to the presence of formic acid, leaving small red welts. But internally, Bon Appetit asserts, it acts like a tonic:

"Taken over time, nettle will strengthen your circulatory, immune, and endocrine systems to promote peak function. The stronger these systems, the better position our bodies are in to deal with whatever might come our way."

"It has been found to help cure mucus congestion, skin irritations, water retention and diarrhea … stimulate the digestive glands of the stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas and gall bladder. Applied externally, nettle tea … relieves rheumatism in both people and animals, makes a first-class gargle for mouth and throat infections, helps to clear up acne and eczema and promotes the healing of burns."