Category Archives: Uncategorized

1plus1 = 2…………..The old math

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Had a conversation with a friend the other day, about making healthy food choices. My friend finally got frustrated, saying “Everything you eat is bad for you, it’s to complicated figuring out what’s good for you!.”Almost right I said. Not everything is bad for you, almost everything. Eat raw, unprocessed  foods, mostly plant based, organically grown if you can get it. See, simple.

While shopping in the store the other day, passing by isles and isles of non healthy “food” choices, several boxed items caught my attention. How odd, they read….Gluten Free!. All my memories came flooding back of a girlfriend who passed away back in 1998. She had been diagnosed with Celiac Sprue.  A little background information from the US library of medicine on Celiac Sprue.

Back then you were 4 time less likely to develop  Celiac Sprue. In this disease the small intestines are damaged by gluten, a substance found in grains like wheat. Left untreated, it can do you in. Back in the 90′s I rarely saw gluten free products, only in the health food stores, even so just a few items. Now it’s everywhere.

Got my wondering why the 4 fold increase in this disease in such a short period of time?

One article suggested we have better diagnostic abilities! I thought maybe, but not that much better. Then I found this article, from the Wall Street Health Journal. ”Giving up Gluten to lose weight….” The answer is clear, we are consuming more gluten (It’s being used in more products) and to increase wheat yields, the wheat has been changed from what it’s original version to its newer Frankenstein variety, through bio engineering and Hybridization. Why? more money, of coarse.

So, when you have a disease, and you want more of it, just add more of the offending substance, and the result will be more sick people. It’s simple Just do the math.

Body shaking during massage?

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On occasion, a few of my clients have experienced body shaking. There are several reasons for body shaking.The article, “What causes shaking in the body”on the live strong website describes several explanations.

When it happens solely during a massage I believe it is caused by a re-balancing of muscles.

It works something like this: Muscles in the body work in pairs. While one muscle contracts (tightens) It’s paired muscle relaxes or lengthens, this allows the two muscles to work together in harmony. Often, because on injury, anxiety, or chronic overuse the relationship become skewed. That is to say one of the two involved muscles becomes to strong or weak, causing the other muscle to win or lose out in a short of tug of wars.

It can become a struggle, much like a tug of wars game, one side moves the other closer to the mud (middle), but not all the way in. A standoff occurs. A new balance results, but not in the middle.

In massage, when you happen upon such a paired muscle, the therapist’s work on the tight muscle prompts it to relax changing the balance between the two. The struggle is on…..both sides trying to win. The shaking is simply the manifestation of that tussle. When larger areas are involved in the shaking process this is simply paired muscle groups doing the same thing, albeit on a larger scale.

If the massage is effective, the muscles are re- balanced and the “symptoms” dissipate.

 

 

 

Choosing a massage therapist…Male or Female?

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Thought I would throw in my two bits after I visited this issue on another site, About.com Spas, the article titled “Choosing a Massage therapist:Male or Female” This site went on to solicit comments on the subject.Which I encourage you to view.

Sorry to say, but as human beings we have a long way to go in terms of evolution. I have practiced massage for over 20 years. In that time I have experienced so much prejudice as a male therapist. It’s kinda funny, the views some, if not many have, who project their own problems and fears on to the therapist. That’s not to say that some abuses have not taken place. No doubt.

In our society abuse is ever present, in many forms, much of it inflicted by men unto women. As such, men are not trusted with touch and many people cannot accept a man as being nurturing. In my case I avoided much of this perceptual problem by highlighting my service offerings as medical, working on injury, keeping it scientific. Indeed to survive as a Massage therapist, my skills developed along those lines.

For massage to really work well both parties have to feel comfortable. For that to happen there must exist some degree of trust. The bottom line is, be it male of female therapist, the massage can be no better than what both parties bring to the table, so to speak.

Massage for Cancer Patients?

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The prospect of having cancer is not a pleasant one. Our standard treatments while offering some hope for recovery  seemingly have a long way to go. The war on cancer started back in the 60′s when Richard Nixon was our president. Progress has been slow.

While we wait for the cure to work many cancer patients seek relief from all the stresses associated with being sick. Many have turned to massage for some help.

Some are concerned still that perhaps getting a massage will spread their cancer.  If you do a extensive web search, as I have, you will find not much reason for concern. It’s okay to get massage.

However, there are good guidelines to follow. One thing, deep tissue massage, indeed all heavy techniques should be avoided, not so much because it would spread the cancer, but that the person is already quite ill, debilitated, and just handle that much pressure. It what cause distress and more tissue damage. Like throwing gasoline over a fire,  It could be dangerous.  As such, all techniques must be gentle and encourage proper lymph flow. Also, areas receiving radiation must not be massaged, same applies to surgical incisions. 

Finally, It’s always a good idea to ask your doctor.

 

Massage plus Chiropractic adjustment go together in rancho cucamonga

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Massage and Chiropractic go together like peanut butter and chocolate. So you may ask whats your massage doing in my adjustment? Or vice verse. Good question. The answer is they work together.

Ever go camping? Maybe you had to pitch a tent. To make  a tent work you need two components 1. The structure, IE a pole. 2. something to support or hold the structure in place ie the canvas. If the pole is not centered the whole tent can collapse. Or,  the tarp  pulled more in one direction than the other that would also cause a collapse.

Or bones act much the same way a pole would in a tent and the muscles create a dynamic symmetry  through tension that essentially keeps bones in there correct place.

So when something happens to our bodies, say a injury, that balance is upset and needs to be corrected. However, our bodies are a bit more complex than a simple tent, we need to keep that balance going while we are moving around, bending, twisting, etc. We need all the help we can get.

 

 

Being healthy is a process

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Saturday, I received my health plan benefits update, that’s code for less coverage and higher rates. The envelope it arrived in had images of younger people doing sports, also pictures of fruits or vegetables. Got me to thinking.

What does our health plans not cover?  Your Health! If you don’t believe me just go visit your neighborhood hospital. Do you see tons of healthy people? Of course not. That’s because being healthy is not a plan, it’s an activity, it’s the choices we make moment to moment.

Having a life cycle in your living room won’t get you in shape, unless you make the wheels spin. So I made those wheels fly…

Yesterday, I Juiced 10lbs of carrots, 15lbs of celery, 8lbs of apples, and some ginger. That yields me 2-3 days of concentrated nutrients. I feel the energy flowing through my body as I write this post. I feel great and wish the same for you. Right now, what are you doing? Is it adding to your health, in this moment, or is it just another “health plan”