Massage News Alert - January 2009
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Dear Bodyworkers,
Happy new year. Hope you have a productive and prosperous new year. This has been the 3rd year we are running our monthly massage news, and is still going. Massage and bodywork therapy continues to be in the news with more positive findings emerging. We never run out of subject after 2 years of continuous monthly news. Massage is also apparently the secret behind French president Nicholas Sarkozy's high energy level, read it here .. sure that Kevin also needs a rub.
This year we will continue to bring you great massage education DVDs and books. To start the year, we got great new books and DVDs on the amazing Fascia for you. First is a Lecture DVD by Dr. Robert Schleip on the latest fascia research. The second is the new edition of Anatomy Trains book by Tom Myers, with brand new full colour and a DVD-ROM, a must for all bodyworkers. And next if you like the gentle type of myofascial release and stretching, we got the new edition of Myofascial Release Manual by Carol Manheim. Finally something to decorate your waiting room, if you have a LCD or plasma in your clinic, and don't know what to play on it, we got one for you. A waiting room DVD from Real Bodywork will lighten up your clinic. Check all of them out.
The next thing that will be coming to Sydney are workshops. First, if you are interested in getting a workshop on Lomi Lomi massage, Carrie Rowell, an international teacher from US, will be coming down under in November 2009. Read more details here http://www.terrarosa.com.au/articles/lomi.htm and register your interest. I have been told that more will come this year, so keep an eye.
This newsletter is our attempt to bring you what's happening in the latest research and news on massage related issues. We sell massage videos and books so the advert is at the end of this page. Archive of our past news can be found at http://www.massage-research.com/blog/ You can search for and comment on articles. We don't just sell DVDs, we provide you with the latest information. Happy reading and stay healthy… from us at www.terrarosa.com.au
Inside this issue:
Childhood Trauma Tied to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Structured Warm-up Exercises May Prevent Up To Half Of Severe Sports Injuries
Acupuncture for headache relief
Massage or music for pain relief in labour
Obesity Increases Lymphedema Risk For Breast Cancer Survivors
Massages revealed as secret behind Nicolas Sarkozy's energy levels
Childhood Trauma Tied to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Children who are traumatized by sexual, physical or psychological abuse are more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome as adults, new research suggests. The study also states that the increased risk for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) might be based in biology. The reason: There appears to be a connection between the nervous system and endocrine system abnormalities, called neuroendocrine dysfunction, in people with CFS who suffered childhood trauma, the researchers said.
“About 60 percent of the people who have CFS have been badly abused as children,” said lead researcher Dr. William C. Reeves, chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Chronic Viral Diseases Branch. “They also have a diminished salivary cortisol response to stress.” The same researchers found similar results in an earlier study of patients in Kansas, Reeves noted. “CFS does involve a diminished response to stress,” he said.
The condition, which is more common in women 40 to 59 years old, is marked by a cluster of debilitating symptoms, including unexplained fatigue, problems sleeping, problems with memory and concentration, and pain. The illness was first recognized in the late 1980s and initially dubbed the “yuppie flu,” causing it to suffer from a credibility problem.
For the study, published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, Reeves’s team collected data on 113 people with CFS and 124 people without the condition. The participants were asked whether they had experienced such childhood trauma as sexual, physical or emotional abuse or emotional and physical neglect.
The researchers also screened the participants for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. They were also tested for saliva levels of the hormone cortisol; low cortisol levels can indicate reduced function of the body’s neuroendocrine stress response system. The researchers found that people who had experienced a childhood trauma were six times more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, compared with non-traumatized individuals.
Among people with CFS who’d suffered childhood trauma, cortisol levels were lower. That was not the case among those with CFS who had not had a childhood trauma. The researchers said this finding indicates that stress early in life might cause a biological susceptibility to CFS. Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on CFS, doesn’t think childhood trauma causes CFS but, rather, might contribute to its development.
“Since a substantial fraction of people with CFS report no childhood abuse, and since none of the control subjects [in the new study] with childhood abuse had CFS, childhood abuse is not the cause of CFS,” Komaroff said. “However, childhood abuse may alter brain chemistry in such a way that people are subsequently more vulnerable to developing CFS.”
In 1990, people were stunned when a Harvard researcher published a report showing that more than one-third of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine. But the trend seems to be softening, and even the definition of what constitutes CAM therapy is becoming somewhat problematic.
A US federal government survey shows only a 2% growth of CAM therapies, such as herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic and acupuncture from 2002 to 2007. The data, from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey of 23,000 adults and 9,500 children, found that about 38% of adults use CAM and about 12% of children, ages 17 and under. The most common CAM therapies are: (1) Natural products that are not vitamins or minerals. The most common of these were fish oil/omega-3/DHA; glucosamine, echinacea, flaxseed oil or pills and ginseng — 17%. (2) Deep breathing — 12% (3) Meditation — 9% (4) Chiropractic — 8% (5) Massage — 8% (6) Others: yoga, 6%; diet-based therapies, 3%; progressive relaxation, 2%; guided imagery, 2%, homeopathic treatment, 1%.
What to make of this? It seems to me Americans are not abandoning conventional Western medicine and are embracing the CAM therapies that research has found to be most useful. For example, fish oil or omega-3 supplements are now widely prescribed in mainstream medicine as evidence shows the substance can cut the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Meditation, massage and yoga are also mainstream practices for dealing with aches, pain and stress. Just this year, the American College of Physicians adopted guidelines for back pain treatment that describe massage, chiropractic and acupuncture as viable treatments. CAM seems to be most popular in areas where mainstream medicine has not had much success, such as in treating chronic pain. In fact, the survey found back pain is the most common reason people turn to CAM therapies.”The top four conditions for which adults use CAM are all related to some form of chronic pain,” Dr. Richard L. Nahin, a co-author of the report, said this morning in a news conference.
The survey also showed that use of the herb echinacea has fallen in popularity which, one can reasonably speculate, is due to scientific data casting doubt on its effectiveness to prevent or ease respiratory illness. Finally, the survey indicated that some of the same people who use CAM therapies say they delay conventional medical care because they can’t afford it. That isn’t a ringing endorsement of CAM.
Read the full report http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats.htm
Structured Warm-up Exercises May Prevent Up To Half Of Severe Sports Injuries
A warm-up programme that focuses on improving strength, balance, core stability and muscular awareness cuts injury in female footballers by a third and severe injuries by almost a half, according to research published on the British Medical Journal website.
In an accompanying editorial, John Brooks an injury expert for the Rugby Football Union, says that people participating in any sport at all levels should adopt a warm-up programme like this to reduce injury. Previous studies investigating the effect of warming up on the risk of injury have focused on key warm-up elements—raising the core temperature, stretching the muscles used, and conducting movement specific exercises—but the effect on injury has been unclear until now.
Torbjørn Soligard and colleagues recruited 1,892 female footballers from Norway between the ages of 13-17; and randomised them to perform either traditional warm-up exercises or the "11+" 20 minute warm-up intervention (837).
The "11+" 20 minute warm-up programme consists of slow and speed running, key exercises to improve strength and balance, and movements that focus on core stability, hip control and knee alignment. The whole programme emphasises the importance of internal muscular awareness.
The researchers reported no significant difference in the number of lower leg injuries between the groups, but substantially fewer severe injuries, overuse injuries and overall injuries were found in the intervention group.
Compliance with the study was boosted by providing coaches and players with a DVD showing all the exercises, posters and exercise cards, and step by step cards. The authors conclude by calling for the programme to be implemented as a key element of coaching, education and training in football.
In the editorial, Brooks points out that one of the most important findings of this study is that teams using the "11+" programme sustained a lower incidence of severe injuries—it is these severe injuries which cause the most absence from sport, interfere with people's lives and place the greatest burden on scarce medical resources.
Not every participant in the study performed the "11+" throughout the season as recommended, so the programme may reduce the injury even more with regular use. Health professionals should encourage anyone involved in sport to participate in similar warm-up programmes, Brooks concludes.
Acupuncture for headache relief
For chronic headaches the best treatment may be one of the oldest: acupuncture. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health accepted acupuncture as a useful alternative treatment for headaches, but warned that there were not enough clinical trials to draw firm conclusions about its efficacy. Now a systematic review of studies through 2007 concludes that acupuncture provides greater relief than either medication or a placebo.
The report, which appears in the December issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia, reviewed 25 randomized controlled trials in adults that lasted more than four weeks. In seven trials comparing acupuncture with medication, researchers found that 62 percent of 479 patients had significant response to acupuncture, and only 45 percent to medicine.
Fourteen of the studies, with a total of 961 patients, compared acupuncture with a placebo, a treatment in which patients were led to believe they were getting acupuncture. Of these, 53 percent found some pain relief with acupuncture, compared with 45 percent who felt better with the placebo. In four studies comparing acupuncture with massage, the massage worked better than acupuncture, but those studies were too small to draw statistically significant conclusions.
“People who get acupuncture prefer it to medication, because of the potential side effects of drugs,” said Dr. Tong J. Gan, a co-author of the review and a professor of anesthesiology at Duke. “This is an alternative treatment that is starting to move into the mainstream.”
Acupuncture for the Management of Chronic Headache: A Systematic Review (Anesthesia and Analgesia) http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/cgi/content/abstract/107/6/2038
Massage or music for pain relief in labour
A recent clinical trial from UK has found that regular massage with relaxation techniques from late pregnancy to birth is effective as a coping strategy for pain relief in labour. The research is reported in European Journal of Pain November 2008.
This research is an attempt to improve on the research on massage therapy for maternal pain and anxiety in labour, which is currently limited to four small trials. Each trial used different massage techniques, at different frequencies and durations, and relaxation techniques were included in three trials.
Given the need to investigate massage interventions that complement maternal neurophysiological adaptations to labour and birth pain(s), the authors designed a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the effects of a massage programme practised during physiological changes in pain threshold, from late pregnancy to birth, on women’s reported pain, measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) at 90 min following birth. To control for the potential bias of the possible effects of support offered within preparation for the intervention group, the study included 3 arms – intervention (massage programme with relaxation techniques), placebo (music with relaxation techniques) and control (usual care). The placebo offered a non-pharmacological coping strategy, to ensure that use of massage was the only difference between intervention and placebo groups.
The results show that there is a trend towards slightly lower pain in labour scores in the intervention group but these differences were not statistically significant. No differences were found in use of pharmacological analgesia, need for augmentation or mode of delivery. There was a trend towards more positive views of labour preparedness and sense of control in the intervention and placebo groups, compared with the control group.
These findings suggest that regular massage with relaxation techniques from late pregnancy to birth is an acceptable coping strategy that merits a large trial with sufficient power to detect differences in reported pain as a primary outcome measure.
Obesity Increases Lymphedema Risk For Breast Cancer Survivors
In a new study, University of Missouri researchers found that the risk of developing lymphedema is 40 percent to 60 percent higher in women with body mass index (BMI) classified as overweight or obese compared to normal weight women. The researchers recommend increased health education for breast cancer survivors.
“Breast cancer survivors with high BMIs will benefit from education focused on maintaining optimal BMI and lymphedema risk reduction practices,” said Jane Armer, professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing and director of nursing research at the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. “Overweight women have the greatest risk of developing lymphedema and should be monitored closely for changes in symptoms and limb volume, especially those who have cancer treatment to the dominant side or experience post-operation swelling.”
Based on the analysis, lymphedema is a risk for approximately two-thirds of breast cancer survivors in the 30 months after surgery. Breast cancer survivors who develop post-op swelling have a significantly higher risk (40 percent) of developing lymphedema. According to Armer, patients with high BMIs who experience post-op swelling or were affected by cancer on their dominant side have the highest risk of developing lymphedema. MU researchers found that comparing BMI and limb volume measurements can help clinicians better detect lymphedema.
“Diagnosing post-breast cancer lymphedema can be difficult because of inconsistent measurement approaches and standards of measurement reliability and validity,” Armer said. “Pre-op limb volume measurement is an essential reference for post-op volume comparison and detection of post-op swelling. Clinicians should consider using a 5 percent limb volume change (LVC) approach (beyond change in BMI) as a more sensitive estimation of post-breast cancer lymphedema.”
The study, “Post-Op Swelling and Lymphoedema Following Breast Cancer Treatment,” was published in the Journal of Lymphoedema, Vol. 3, No. 2.
Massages revealed as secret behind Nicolas Sarkozy's energy levels
French president Nicolas Sarkozy's energy levels are frequently a subject for discussion. With his international profile sky high and numerous domestic problems to deal with, the French president often appears to be doing the work of ten men, particularly taking into account his passion for jogging, a penchant for late night karaoke singing, and an ex-supermodel wife to please.
Now a new book claims that the secret of "le hyper-president" is a massage rather than caffeine or other artificial stimulants. According to author Patrice Machuret, an "etiopath" – or alternative medicine guru – called Jean-Paul Moureau secretly massages Mr Sarkozy's back and sends him "positive energy waves". This allows the 53-year-old politician to go with almost no sleep and keep up a timetable which last week saw him visit Israel, Egypt and Lebanon in a failed effort to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
Mr Moureau is said to have been treating Mr Sarkozy for 15 years with his special technique of "manual therapy", which he performs at a private clinic in Paris, close to the Elysée Palace. The pair are now close friends, with Moureau offering advise on all kinds of issues, claims the book. The president has a "general revision" session with Moureau before each overseas mission.
Mr Moureau, 60, is said to compare himself with an artist "like Picasso", calling his technique a "unique physical and spiritual method". According to the French Institute of Etiopathy, the practice was pioneered by a Frenchman in the 1960s and is dedicated to pinpointing the real cause of an illness and treating it with manual therapy. It can be effective in treating conditions from migraine to conjunctivitis, says the institute.
The diminutive Mr Sarkozy, who is known to suffer from headaches and who has a slight limp because one leg is shorter than the other, has even advised his ministers to see Mr Moreau with their own ailments It is also likely that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the supermodel-turned-pop-singer, who became Mr Sarkozy's third wife a year ago approves, as she is a great believer in alternative medicine. Details of Mr Moureau's influence on Mr Sarkozy are contained in 'L'Enfant terrible: la vie à l'Elysée sous Sarkozy' ('The Terrible Child – life at the Elysée Palace under Sarkozy') which come out in France this week.
This DVD provides a lecture on the recent scientific discoveries of fascia. Get informed with the latest scientific exploration of fascia and its manipulation. Rather than being a mere passive packing organ, it has become increasingly clear that the fascia plays an important role in myofascial force generation, in tissue stiffness regulation, in pain generation and in proprioception. Robert Schleip an international expert on fascial research as well as a highly experienced bodyworker presents this lecture in a DVD format.
Waiting Room DVD - The benefits of massage
Educate your clients while they wait in your clinic with this looping promotional DVD! This 12 minutes loop is beautifully filmed and discusses the benefits of massage, and the latest research on massage. It includes a subtitled version so you can play it silently if you choose. Presented in a widescreen format to fit modern flat-screen televisions. A must for a professional clinic. EXTRAS: This DVD also includes 3 short videos: Mastering Massage (7 min.), Fascia (3 min.), The Nervous System (3 min.) PLUS 90 minutes of sample clips from 27 of the Real Bodywork massage DVDs, which can also play in a loop. Total: 127 mins.
Another great Yoga DVD from real Bodywork, Explore deep relaxation, rejuvenation and healing by experiencing restorative yoga. In this style of yoga, each pose is held for several minutes supported by blankets, allowing the nervous system to completely quiet and return to a state of balance, while gently stretching and opening the body. A total of over 4 hours of yoga practice!
Moss Arnold, originator of Chi-Reflexology, guides you through the practical techniques he has developed which form the basis of Chi-Reflexology. The DVD is an easy to follow, step-by-step guide to these techniques. The techniques covered include Chi-Reflexology Relaxation Techniques, Chi-Reflexology (Acupressure in Reflexology) techniques, Balancing Organ Chi Sequence, Balance Organ Chi, Meridian Chi and Integration sequence, and Balancing Meridian. Produce in Australia
3 series of DVDs on QiGong by Simon Blow. From Beginner, Intermediate to Advanced. Qigong is the ancient art of longevity developed over 7000 years ago in China. Qigong is a conscious practice where each individual takes personal responsibility to balance and harmonize their vital energy - reducing stress, increasing health and vitality as well as developing spiritual perception and awareness. Qigong literally is working with the energy of life. Produce in Australia
The famous Anatomy Trains is now available in a brand new second edition, includes numerous updates including important new findings in recent fascial research, photos of the Anatomy Trains myofascial meridians dissected, new appendices on Structural Integration protocols based on the Anatomy Trains concept, and a comparison of the myofascial meridians with the meridians of acupuncture. The entire book is now in full color, including all new artwork. The new edition also benefits from new web links and includes an interactive DVD-ROM with animations of the Anatomy Trains lines, fascial release techniques, and dissection videos.
The Myofascial Release Manual - 4th Edition
The Myofascial Release Manual is now available in a completely updated and comprehensive Fourth Edition. The "bible" of gentle myofascial release and stretch, continuing the tradition that started over 20 years ago and with a new focus on the current terminology regarding each technique. Carol J. Manheim has taken years of knowledge and expertise and incorporated them with the actual intent and result of the myofascial release treatment techniques to bring to the pages essential information for clinician in search of basic information or wanting to refine more experienced skills of these manual therapy techniques.
Craniosacral Therapy What it is, how it Works
This book provides a broad introduction to this therapy by way of short pieces written by a number of well-known practitioners or experts. In addition to pioneer John E. Upledger, contributors include Richard Grossinger (Planet Medicine), Don Ash (Lessons from the Sessions), Don Cohen (An Introduction to Craniosacral Therapy), and Bill Gottlieb (Alternative Cures). Each selection covers a different aspect of CST: what it is, what it does, how it heals, what the practitioner does during a CST session, CST’s relationship to cranial osteopathy and other healing therapies, as well as other topics of interest to the beginner.
Equine Structural Integration Manual by Jim Pascucci, presents Equine Myofascial Release (MFR) for the horse owner or therapist with little experience as well as an essential reference for the professional equine body therapy practitioner. This manual presents a logical series of techniques for bringing more structural order to your and your client's horses. This manual is rich in illustrations of Equine Myofascial Release Techniques for the: Head, Forelimb, Shoulders, Rear and mouth.