fl1admin, Author at Vitality Therapy

Reflexology and Pain Management – Part 2

In part 1, I explored what pain was, the pain response and briefly explained how reflexology helps manage pain. Much anecdotal evidence shows the benefits of reflexology in pain management and several studies indicate successful treatment outcomes including pain reduction. (See references at end of article). However I would like to focus on one recent study by Dr Carol Samuel and Dr Ivor Ebenezer of University of Portsmouth as this is the first time Reflexology has been scientifically evaluated as a study for acute pain. The results indicate that reflexology may be as effective as pain killers for common conditions such as osteoarthritis, backache and cancer. Participants attended two sessions, in which they were asked to submerge their hand in ice water. In one of the sessions they were given reflexology before they submerged their hand, and in the other session they believed they were receiving pain relief from a Tens machine, which was not actually switched on. The use of the Tens machine is equivalent of a sugar pill in drug trials. The researches found that people felt about 40% less pain, and were able to stand pain for about 45% longer, when they used reflexology as a method of pain relief. So if you are in pain now, by not book a reflexology session. References Booth L (1997) Vertical Reflex therapy: results of a reflexology trail in a Bristol residential home for elderly Khan S, Otter S and Springett K (2006) The effects of reflexology on foot pain and quality of life in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis: a case report, The Foot 16 pg 112-116 Brown CA and Lido C (2008) Reflexology treatment for patients with lower limb amputations and phantom limb pain: an exploratory pilot study, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 14 pg 124-131 Hughes CM, Smyth S and Lowe-Strong A (2008) Reflexology for the treatment of pain in people with multiple sclerosis: a double-blind randomised controlled trail, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 14(1) S1-S109

What can assist you with anxiety?

Like most people there are times when I feel anxious. I appreicate I am luck in that this isn't a permanent state. Based on anetdotal evidence I am aware that there seems to be a rise in our clients feeling anxious. So I wanted to share some latest scientfic evidence of what may be able to assist you. Recently researches in Iran conducted a randomised control trail to compare the effectivness of hand reflexology and acupressure for reducing anxiety in patients with coronary artery diseases undergoing procedures in hospital. One hundred and thirty-five women with coronary artery disease were randomly assigned to three groups, receiving hand reflexology, acupressure or a placebo. For the first group, hand reflexology was performed on each hand for 10 minutes. The acupressure was also performed for 10 minutes on each hand. For the placebo, similar conditions to the intervention groups were created, but a thumb touching method was used without applying acupressure or hand reflexology. The patients were asked to complete a questionnaire to examine the effects of treatments. The results revealed significant changes in anxiety in the hand reflexology and acupressure groups, when compared to the placebo group. Mean anxiety scores reduced similarly with both treatments, indicating that they were equally effective. So if you have been feeling anxious recently why not try a reflexology treatment or a Seated Acupressure Neck & Shoulder massage. To book click here. Reference https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6473738/

Myofascia – part 1

What is Myofasci? Fascia is the main connective tissue of the body. Fascia surrounds every cell, muscle, bone, nerve, blood Bessel in the body, creating a three-dimensional web. This is one continuous network from head to toe. Myofascia is the fascia that surrounds all the muscle. Why it is important? In its normal state fascia is fluid and pliable, allowing full, pain-free movement. However, fascia is vulnerable to trauma from

Accident
Infection
Injury
Surgery
Repetitive Movement
Habitual Poor Posture

Such trauma causes fascia to tighten, solidify and develop restrictions. Over time these myofascial restrictions can lead to

Poor biomechanics
Altered structural alignment
Compromised blood supply
Pain
Reduce flexibility and stability

Are you an eMail Junkie?

Most people now have at least one smartphone, normally a work phone, a blackberry and a personal phone. With our professional and personal inbox's bulging, is constantly checking our email turning us all into unproductive email junkies? An article in this Thursday's Evening Standard called "Supertask me", made me think. Now that we live in a world where we only are without email on a flight (a blissful respite that I am sure we will loose soon) are we all email junkies? Checking your email is a double edged sword. On the one hand if you check it too often then it becomes too frequent an interruption, you feel very busy but checking it too often will adversely impact your productivity. On the other hand we’ve constantly got to be checking it, or risk the wrath of the bosses and co-workers that are trying to communicate with us. If we don’t respond to an email within 5 minutes, we’re seen as lazy or unproductive. As calling a co-worker when you want an urgent response has been replaced by email, the temptation is to constantly check your emails to demonstrate you are at the top of your game. With the amount of email we receive now and need to respond to now, its very easy to feel overwhelmed. In today's world we are all adept at multi-tasking but really this means we are great at switching from one task to another. So how often so you switch from your real work to checking our email? This constant switching requires more mental effort than our actual work. Remember there’s a huge difference between being busy and being productive. So how often should you check your email? There is no accepted norm, and you know your job better than any expert, so take the time to reflect on what will work best for you. Some experts suggest that you don't check your email first thing in a morning or you only check your email first thing in a morning. Personally I think these strategies only work if you are very high up on the food chain. Rod Kurtz of Business Week argues that you ought to be checking your work email five times per day. “Check your inbox only five times daily–first thing in the morning, mid-morning, after lunch, mid-afternoon, and end of day. Or even less if you are capable. This works when you turn off the automatic send/receive function, allowing you up to two hours to focus on your work, rather than to be continually interrupted. It works when you group the sorting of your e-mail, making you more productive and efficient in dealing with it.” With regards to dealing with email, every time you open a new email, ask yourself 3 basic questions: 1. Is this relevant? 2. Can I solve this? 3. Will it take less than 2 minutes of my time to deal with this? - If so deal with it straight away. Make sure that you schedule your email time in such a way that you avoid confusing the being busy with email and real work. If you approach your email with the correct attitude, you can boost your productivity by leaps and bounds and you free yourself from being an email junkie.

Do you know the benefits of drinking tea?

I have to admit that I don't drink tea. I like my herbal teas but lets face it, they don't actually contain any tea. In a morning I like my decaf americano. But having done the research on tea, I may need to change my habits. Prof Feng and his team in collaboration with Essex University and Cambridge have been researching the impact of long term tea drinking habits. They concluded that individuals that drank either green tea,oolong tea or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had better brain health than people who don't drink tea. So what are the other benefits of tea?

Daily consumption of tea reduced the risk of cognitive decline by 50% in older people.
Improves mood.
Protects agains cardiovascular disease.

Reference https://www.aging-us.com/article/102023/text https://jphysiolanthropol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1880-6805-31-28 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jgs.12011 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123419/

Can Sports Massage help prevent sports injuries?

Athletes who are looking to improve performance and increase their competitive edge do so by adopting a training schedule to enhance their skill, strength, stamina, suppleness and speed. The degree to which they develop and utilise these qualities will depend on other factors such as the level of competition, the sport played, and possibly their position in a team. However, no matter which sport, the aim is nearly always to increase the level of training and thereby subject the body to gradual and controlled overuse. This overuse can often create problems and imbalances in the muscles. If these are ignored and allowed to become chronic, they will not only hinder the athlete's rate of improvement, but also in many cases their performance may well suffer and ultimately the athlete may be susceptible to developing more conditions that are serious. Certainly if they are unable to perform at their best, they may be more at risk from other more traumatic forms of injury. So it is essential to treat muscular imbalances early. Whether it is to carry out our normal daily activities or to participate in the majority of sporting activities, it is necessary to have normal range of movement at any given joint(s). It has been suggested that a lack of flexibility can increase the risk of musculoskeletal injuries as reduced muscle flexibility may restrict joint range of movement creating abnormal movement patterns. For example shortened calf muscles may restrict ankle dorsiflexion, causing an altered gait pattern while running or walking. This may produce a compensatory pattern of walking, with a laterally turned out foot, eventually leading to pain in the hip or knee. A sports masseur can determine if the muscular imbalance caused by training has impacted the range of movement of the client by assessing the range of movement. By detecting these muscular imbalances early, before they become more serious and cause pain or impact an athlete’s performance a sports massage can prevent injury. The prevention of injury is the biggest benefit of sports massage.

Is a 15 minute Neck & Shoulder Massage beneficial?

Fifteen minutes is a very short space of time, so I am often asked by potential clients if they will receive any benefits from such a short massage. Well the good news is that you do receive benefits, and its not just me saying that, or the subjective experience of other clients there is scientific evidence too.

In 1996 Shulman, K.R. & Jones, G.E. in the Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, looked at the effectiveness of chair massage in reducing anxiety in an organisation. An on-site chair massage therapy program was provided to reduce anxiety levels of 18 employees in a downsizing organization. 15 control group s participated in break therapy. Subjects’ stress levels were measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, which was administered twice during pretest, post-test, and delayed post-test to achieve stable measures. The study concluded that significant reductions in anxiety levels were found for the massage group. ¹
In 1996 Field, Ironson, Pickens et al. in the International Journal of Neuroscience concluded that chair massage therapy offers benefits in not just alleviating the physiological effects of anxiety, but also in improving mental alertness.²
In 1997 Cady et al. in Perceptual & Motor Skills evaluated the effectiveness of a 15 minute chair massage on reducing stress as indicated by blood pressure. 52 employed participants' blood pressures were measured before and after a 15 minute massage at work. Analysis showed a significant reduction in participants' systolic and diastolic blood pressure after receiving the massage. High Blood pressure is associated with anxiety and stress, this study supports the conclusion that chair massage is relaxing and reduces stress. ³

There is solid scientific evidence of the benefits of a 15 minute seated acupressure massage, so why not book now. References

KR Shulman and GE Jones, 1996, The effectiveness of massage therapy intervention on reducing anxiety in the work place, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science (32), p160 – 173
Field T; lronson G; Scafjdi F; Nawrocki T; Goncalves A; Burman I; Pickens J; Fox N; Schanberg S; Kuhn C, Sep 1996, Massage Therapy Reduces Anxiety and Enhances EEG Pattern of Alertness and Math Computations, The International Journal of Neuroscience, 86 (3-4) p197-205Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00207459608986710
Cady SH and Jones GE, Feb 1997, Massage therapy as a workplace intervention for reduction of stress, Perceptual & Motor Skills, (1) p157- 158Read More: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9132704

Does mindfulness meditation help you if you are depressed?

Mindfullness is very trendy right now because it is claimed to help you cope with anxiety and stress and build resilience. But does it help you if you are depressed? This is the question that researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine tried to answer in a recent study. During the study, 31 women most of whom had done nothing to help themselves to deal with their depression in the last 12 months, participated in an mindfullness group. They practicied mindfullness meditation and yoga on average 150 minutes per week. Before starting the study 45% said they had no experience of mediation and 71% said they had never tried yoga. The primary outcome, depression and secondary outcomes (stress, mindfulness, functioning, well-being and depression stigma) were assessed at start of the study and then again at weeks 8 and 16 weeks . The depressive symptoms significantly decreased during the study, in addition the stigma of depression increased from the start of the study to 8 weeks and then significantly decreased between 8 to 16 weeks of the study. A significant decrease in stress and significant increase in mindfulness was found at week 8 and the end of the study when compared to the start of the study. In addition, the women reported increased sense of well-being including self-acceptance and growth. In conclusion mindfulness medication can reduce levels of depression and stress as much as powerful drugs and psychotherapy do. Reference I E Burnett-Zeigler, M D Satyshur, S Hong, A Yang et al, 2016, Mindfulness based stress reduction adapted for depressed disadvantaged women in an urban Federally Qualified Health Centre, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice; 25; 59 - 67 see >> http://www.ctcpjournal.com/article/S1744-3881(16)30072-X/abstract

Heat

Last time, I discussed the use of Cryotherapy to aid healing, today I would like to discuss the use of heat. As many of you will know who have had a full body massage treatment with me, I often incorporate hot stones into my treatment. And some of my readers will have heard me say they should use a wheat bag or cherry stone bag or some other type of hot pack. The simple reason why I do this is that most people I treat have one or more knots. A knot is created when a muscle contracts for a sustained period of time and looses its ability to stretch or relax. A simple "muscle knot" will deprive an area of blood, oxygen, nutrients and a thyroid hormone called T3. When a muscle has been deprived of T3 even for a few minutes it will lose its ability to relax, creating the perfect conditions for inflammation and fibrosis (the creation of adhesions). A reduction in the partial pressure of oxygen (to 55 mm of Hg) due to restriction of blood to an area in that muscle will start the inflammatory process that causes the fibrotic condition (adhesion) to proliferate. In the hands of a skilled massage practitioner the knot and any adhesions are located and ideally removed but at least reduced. With the restoration of normal muscle motion, pain is decreased or eliminated, joint motion improves, and normal or near normal activities can be resumed. So heat is often incorporated into a massage treatment treatment because it

Increases blood supply to an area of the body
It warms up the muscle tissues to allow them to stretch (relax)
It reduces muscle spasm

and all the above help to release muscle knots and relax tense muscles. So the use of heat helps to create that feeling of "looseness" that most of my clients report after having a massage.

Can Tai Chi help relieve chronic neck pain?

Tai Chi is a traditional form of exerise developed in ancient China which combines deep breathing and slow deliberate movements. It has already proved helpful for back pain, rheumatism and psychological disorders, but can it help people with chronic neck pain? A group of 114 people suffering from chronic neck pain performed either Tai Chi or did nothing at all for their neck pain for three months. By the end of the period, those who did the Tai Chi reported significantly less pain and disability, plus overall improvement in their quality of life ompaired with those who did nothing. Tai Chi is also as effective as standard exercises say researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. This means for those people suffering from chronic neck pain there is evidence that Tai Chi help relieve chronic neck pain and is effective as standard exercises. Reference R Launche, C Stumpe, J Fehr, H Cramer et al (2016) The Effects of Tai Chi and Neck Exercises in the Treatment of Chronic Nonspecific Neck Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of Pain Vol 17, Issue 9, 1013-27

About fl1admin

Reflexology and Pain Management – Part 2

What can assist you with anxiety?

Myofascia – part 1

Are you an eMail Junkie?

Do you know the benefits of drinking tea?

Can Sports Massage help prevent sports injuries?

Is a 15 minute Neck & Shoulder Massage beneficial?

Does mindfulness meditation help you if you are depressed?

Heat

Can Tai Chi help relieve chronic neck pain?

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