Article Archive

Ergonomic Regulations Repealed

News Note

Adding salt to already existing wounds (literally), the House, the Senate and President Bush all voted in March to repeal former-President Clinton’s ergonomic regulations that specifically addressed repetitive stress injury and debilitating ergonomic injuries (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome) affecting nearly 1 million Americans. Former-President Clinton’s ergonomic standard, issued in November 2000, would have protected as many as 500,000 work-related injuries per year and would have covered more than 100 million workers.

Retrain Your Brain

News Note

A new study conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found the brain has the ability to heal itself after a serious stroke (cortical reorganization). Published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, the study reveals the brain’s plasticity with regards to a debilitating attack which often results in damaged and/or malfunctioning limbs. Researchers studied 13 stroke survivors for 2–3 weeks and invoked rehabilitation therapy. The therapy (constraint-induced movement) requires the patient to not use the unaffected, or “good,” limb by restraining it.

Serenity Now

News Note

Researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Center found some alternative therapies can assuage sufferers of migraine headaches. Of the remedies tested (biofeedback training, hypnosis, stress-management therapy and relaxation training), the most effective proved to be an integration of behavioral treatments with drug therapies. These therapies consist of both clinic-based and home-based interventions. The latter approach teaches patients how to develop self-help skills at home.

Moving With T’ai Chi

Regaining Strength, Self-Esteem Despite MS

In August 1977, Angelina Hekking was living on a kibbutz in Israel, exploring new horizons and possibilities for her life. She had been experiencing problems with headaches and strange sensations in her body before leaving her native Holland. During her 2 1/2 years in the kibbutz, the symptoms gradually worsened.

Neuromuscular Reprogramming for Rehab

The Missing Link

The human body is an intelligent living organism constantly re-creating itself in response to stimuli. Some of these stimuli are physical trauma and injury, some are emotional, and others are new and desirable learnings acquired through training or education. In this realm of new and desirable learnings, NeuroMuscular Reprogramming(R) (NMR) can contribute a great deal.

Russian Sports Massage and Swimming Injuries, Part 2

Overuse Leads to Abuse

Last time we discussed various types of injuries which can plague swimmers. Here, the specific Russian Sports Massage treatment for those injuries will be discussed.

The injuries were grouped into overuse, trauma-related and environmental. We also alluded to the fact that even though these injuries occur in swimming, the same injuries can happen in other sports and everyday activities. Therefore, the treatments presented here would also be appropriate for the same conditions found in the general population and other sports.

Centered in Chaos

The Lessons of T’ai Chi and Qigong

T’ai chi and qigong remind us that we are energy by immersing our mind and body in the experience of it each day. This constant immersion reminds us how closely we are linked to all things. This isn’t an illusion. The illusion is that we think we are separate from the world. The rainforest and ocean are the earth’s lungs and thermostats. Without them we perish. So, to feel ‘connected’ to the world is to become real. T’ai chi and qigong help us to become more and more real.

Taking the Waters

A Historical Look at Water Therapy and Spa Culture Over the Ages

Taking the Waters. It’s a phrase that holds mysterious connotations from a simpler, ancient time. Just as with water therapies today, Taking the Waters was, and is, a physical venture into healing, cleansing and rejuvenation. What has been significantly lost from the Taking the Waters experience of old is the integration of domains. Art, socialization, nutrition, honest leisure, discussion, music — these interdisciplinary elements were all part of the spa culture of which Taking the Waters has historically been a part.

Thai Yoga Bodywork

Lotus Palm: The Mindfulness of Touch

Bangkok, Thailand, a city famous for its exotic offerings, is also the site of Wat Pho’s Traditional Medical and Massage School — a center for the teaching, research and practice of the Thai healing tradition. It is a school unlike those seen in North America. At Wat Pho, massage and medicine are taught in a Buddhist temple — the “wat” — adorned with filigreed designs and garden statues of figures in various postures dating back to the 16th century. It is here, in these forms and in this temple, that we find both an ancient art and an age-old philosophy.

The ‘M’ Technique

Physical Hypnotherapy for the Critically Ill

Communicating Through Touch

While working in critical care I realized that communication with my patients was a major problem. Most of them could not express their needs to me because they were intubated (a breathing tube placed down their throat) and therefore could not speak. Almost all of these patients were attached to heart monitors and had many intravenous lines. Sometimes there were so many machines monitoring essential body function it was hard to remember that underneath it all was a person — someone’s loved one.

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