Flagstaff, Arizona, sits atop the world, especially this year as we work our way nearer the 2008 Olympics in China. Many of the world’s fastest athletes utilize the hypoxic conditions of this high altitude city to produce more red blood cells in which to carry oxygen to their muscles. They train long and hard, get sore, get up, and do it all over again the next morning. Erik Dalton’s Myoskeletal Alignment is the therapy of choice for many training Olympians this year, and I’m honored to play a small part in their success.

This issue of Massage & Bodywork magazine is dedicated to the intangible elements that make clients’ experiences unique. In spa treatments, it is often the special products and the way they are applied to the body that create the subtle nuances of clients’ enjoyment. Think about the rough, yet pleasurable scratch of a dry brush, the smooth all-encompassing warmth of therapeutic mud, the tingly shiver of mint lotion, the delicate flicker of cool mist over a hot forehead, and the rapturous scent of orange blossoms.

According to statistical averages, a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or spinal cord injury will radically change the lives of 116 Americans this hour. Injuries to the central nervous system (CNS) can be devastating to the injured person and his or her loved ones and caregivers. The brain and spinal cord, so carefully protected by the three layers of meninges and the bony shells of the cranium and spinal canal, are extraordinarily vulnerable to damage if those protective layers are breeched by a blood clot, a gunshot wound, a motor vehicle accident, or other trauma.

We know the massage profession has changed drastically in the last 10 years, both in the number of people who utilize massage for health and relaxation purposes and the professional therapists who offer them that service. What has also changed is the number of U.S.