Archive for the ‘Massage Therapy’ Category

Win a 7-Day Vacation in Thailand

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Ever dreamed of visiting Thailand? I know I have…
Win Thailand Vacation

How would you like a 7 day / 8 night stay at the beautiful, Absolute Sanctuary Resort in Thailand for FREE?

I know, who wouldn’t!

Well, you could be the lucky person who wins this incredible prize. Here’s the details…

UPDATE: due to the super complicated (and pathetic) rules affecting a contest like the one we had planned originally, we were forced to change it. Here are the details for this new contest and how you can win:

Create a video telling others why they should visit our website (www.losethebackpain.com) if they are dealing with any sort of back pain…

We are looking for true, genuine recommendations with compelling reasons why you’re such a big fan of ours. Video needs to be 10 minutes or less and we will be posting a link to the page where you’ll upload your video very soon so keep your eyes peeled for another update.

Below you’ll find a detailed list of everything that is included in this vacation package as well as a video highlighting the resort.

7 Days/8 Nights Detox Holiday Package

We offer a wide range of Detox programs such as our Signature Ultimate Detox, Living Foods Detox & Vegetarian Detox programs to meet individual needs & requirements. Each is a comprehensive & holistic option, encompassing daily colon hydrotherapy sessions, detox drinks, massages, yoga classes & nutritional supplements. Our world class detox center also offers a range of emotional therapies to support you on your journey.

Package includes:

Daily programs:
- 1 x Colon Hydrotherapy per day
- 2-4 x Detox Drinks per day
- 2-4 x Nutritional Supplements per day
- Modified diets ranging from full fasting to light vegetarian meals ( depending on programs)
- 1 x Liver Flush Drink before & after program
- 1 x Coconut Juice per day
- Unlimited Broth Soups
- Initial In-depth Detox Consultation
- Final Detox Consultation with take-home guidelines
- Pool, steam room access
- 1 x Yoga Class per day
- Airport Roundtrip Transfers
- 8 nights accommodation in Superior Pool/Sea view room

Free Bonus:
- 1x 60 min Detox Massage & 2 x 60 min Thai Massage

NOTE:
Prize is valid for accommodation in Superior Pool/Sea view room only
Peak Season surcharge of Bt 1,000 per night applies ( Dec’10, Jan’11, Aug’11)
Prize valid from 1st Sep 2010, – 30th April 2011
You are responsible for your airfare and any other expenses.

Click here to watch a short video overview of the resort

If you’ve been “thinking about” purchasing one of these products, now would be a great time… who knows, you just might be the “lucky one”!

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Jin Shin Jyutsu: The Ancient Japanese Healing Touch

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Joan first experienced back pain in her middle thirties. It began with mild pain sensations in her lower back. These went away after a few days of rest. But the pain came back.

This time, it was worse. Her doctor could find no specific cause of her pain. After prescribing pain-killers, he sent Joan home.

The pain-killers brought little relief, but some uncomfortable side effects. Upset stomach, dizziness, sleepiness during the day, and a feeling of “just not being right” were the most frequent.

She tried other things. Nothing worked.

Then one of her friends told her of a healer who used Jin Shin Jyutsu (jit-soo) on her, leading to immediate pain relief. Thinking she had nothing to lose, Joan agreed to see this healer. After only one session, she felt much better. Her pain lessened greatly, she felt
more relaxed, and more at peace than she had in months. One more session, and her back pain was gone.

This is a typical scenario familiar to healers around the world who use the art of Jin Shin Jyutsu.

What is Jin Shin Jyutsu?

Healers in the Far East have known for centuries that illness is rooted in tension and imbalance. Unreleased body tension causes an imbalance of energies that adds to fatigue and discomfort. When this condition continues, illness and degenerative diseases develop. Over time, healing arts were developed to help restore balance among body energies.

Jin Shin Jyutsu is one of these ancient healing arts widely known and practiced even before the births of Buddha and Moses. Its primary aim is to release deep tension in the body and restore the free flow of energy. With the release of tension and restoration of energy balance, your body can begin healing itself again. Better health, less pain, faster healing, and increased resistance to disease and degeneration are the natural result.

More than a healing art, Jin Shin Jyutsu is a philosophy for life. Practitioners recognize there are twenty-six “Safety Energy Locks” (SELs) located along energy pathways which feed life into your body. When one or more of these paths become blocked at an SEL, little or no energy flows to the local area. This energy stagnation leads to an eventual
loss of harmony along the entire energy path resulting in illness and degeneration.

Healers who use Jin Shin Jyutsu use gentle touch to release body energies that have been “dammed up” at an SEL by stress, physical energy, emotional strain, or mental fatigue. The skillful use of touch is applied at several of these SELs at different places on the body in a certain sequence. This gentle pressure releases energy blockages to restore proper energy flow.

Reestablishing proper energy flow throughout your body immediately reduces stress and tension and restores stability to your mind, body, and spirit. The long-term result is increased health and well-being.

What Happens In A Treatment Session?

Because of the gentle, non-invasive nature of Jin Shin Jyutsu, almost anyone can be helped by it. Even those for whom the gentlest massage would be painful can be helped by Jin Shin Jyutsu, making it useful for even young children, the very elderly, and other fragile individuals.

Most treatment sessions last for an hour. You’ll lie on a table, fully clothed. At first, the healer will “listen” to your pulses on each wrist to discover existing harmony and disharmony in your energy system. This and your symptoms help the healer determine the flows that are most needed. Healers then use their hands like “jumper cables,” touching Safety Energy Locks, usually two at a time, in sequence. This restores the flow of your body energy through affected areas. You’ll feel noticeably more relaxed at this time.

Self-help exercises are also taught for you to continue treatment at home, making Jin Shin Jyutsu a long-term and cost effective solution to
pain.

Jin Shin Jyutsu in the Treatment of Pain

Western medical doctors typically lean more toward the use of medications and surgery to treat pain. Seldom do they consider turning to other healing arts to relieve their patients’ suffering.

One of the most immediate benefits of Jin Shin Jyutsu is the reduction in levels of stress. Reducing stress in the body has many positive health benefits, not least of which includes allowing your body to heal faster and feel less pain.

Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that acupressure techniques similar to the specific touch patterns used in Jin Shin Jyutsu are useful in many other ways too, including reduced fatigue, decreased post-operative pain, decreased chronic pain symptoms and increased perception of quality of life.

Perhaps most impressive though are the many testimonials from people who have found Jin Shin Jyutsu to provide pain relief when nothing else worked for them. If you suffer from chronic lower back pain, neck pain, or other ailment, Jin Shin Jyutsu may just give you the pain relief you’ve been looking for.

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Acupressure for Back Pain Relief

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Acupressure for Pain Relief and HealthWestern conventional medicine regularly introduces new drugs and procedures to help patients deal with back pain. Many of these come with side effects potentially much worse than the condition being treated.

Just as disturbing, many of the treatments are less effective than safer methods which have been used for literally thousands of years to eliminate pain and disease. One of those methods is acupressure.

What is acupressure?
Acupressure is based on the same Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles as acupuncture, but uses gentle to firm pressure on pressure points in place of needles. It aims to promote well being by instantly relieving pain, increasing circulation, and promoting relaxation. Practitioners believe it can help eliminate certain disease states and other health conditions in addition to various types of back, neck and sciatic pain.

How does acupressure work?
Acupressure treatment is based on freeing energy flow along lines of energy called meridian channels by manipulating energy points along those lines. It is thought that pain results from either a blockage in energy flow and/or a deficiency of energy in an area. Pressure is used to increase energy in areas affected by the pressure point. Blockages in the energy flow are reduced with a counterclockwise motion over the affected pressure point.

What evidence shows acupressure works?
Acupressure is a system of medicine which predates modern science and is treated with skepticism by some conventional medicine practitioners. Yet millions of people around the world continue to get pain relief and experience improvement in health conditions through acupressure every year.

One recent review of acupuncture’s effects on the brain using MRIs and PET scans show pressure on these energy points affect areas of the brain associated with the symptom being treated. Yet modern medicine remains mystified as to exactly how TCM like acupuncture and acupressure works.

Where can I get acupressure treatment?
Acupressurists can be found in most mid-size or larger cities. Costs typically range from $50-$75 per session. Alternatively, self treatment may be an option for some. A trigger point therapy self treatment kit can be a useful for placing pressure on hard to reach pressure points as well as eliminating painful trigger points.

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Myofascial Trigger Points

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Trigger Point TherapyWhen patients report pain to their doctors, the root cause of pain is rarely diagnosed correctly. Probably because as many as 3 of every 4 instances of pain are directly attributable to tiny contraction knots in muscle tissue most doctors are never trained to recognize called myofascial trigger points.

Although studied since the 1930s, it was President John F. Kennedy’s personal physician, Dr. Janet Travell, who brought widespread attention to trigger points. Using her knowledge of them she was able to successfully treat the future President’s crippling myofascial pain.

How trigger points cause pain
Muscles can only move as millions of microscopic “pumps” in the muscle fiber called sarcomeres contract and interlock (to tighten) or release (to relax). Injury or overworking a muscle area can cause a group of sarcomeres to become over stimulated and unable to release – causing a small knot in that portion of the muscle tissue.

When sarcomeres become stuck in this contracted position, they no longer pump blood through the capillaries in the surrounding area. This results in oxygen starvation and a buildup of waste products. Pain signals are generated from the trigger point to signal an issue… but the pain is often felt far from the actual trigger point. This referred pain is a hallmark of trigger points.

How to stop pain from trigger points
Eliminating trigger points is a matter of first understanding how they refer pain so the original source can be identified. Then, by applying deep sustained pressure to the knotted area the body is able to undergo soft tissue release.

As the trigger point relaxes blood flow is restored allowing re-oxygenation of the area and removal of wastes. This also causes a neurological release, reducing pain signals to the brain.

Massage therapy vs. self therapy for trigger points
Modern day massage therapists use techniques learned from Dr. Travell’s trigger point research. But there are problems with massage therapy in treating trigger points.

Straight from the mouth of a massage therapist, massage can be an expensive temporary fix for trigger points. Even then you may have to wait for days or weeks to get in. And there is no guarantee you’ll even feel better afterwards since aggressive deep tissue massage creates micro-tears in muscles causing some patients even more pain.

Fortunately with a little education most people can successfully treat their own trigger points. Dr. Travell and her long time colleage Dr. David Simons published an excellent medical text on trigger points called Myofascial Pain & Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. Other trigger point self treatment systems put the concepts of trigger point therapy into layman’s terms and provide simple devices to achieve the deep massage needed to relieve trigger point tension, finally making pain relief accessible for just about anybody.

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A Rare Case of Upper Back Surgery

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Upper Back PainUpper back surgery made the news earlier this year when U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln underwent a procedure to remove part of a herniated disc which was pinching a nerve in her back. What is particularly interesting about this surgery, beside the fact it was on a sitting U.S. Senator, is how uncommon the need for upper back surgery actually is.

Surgery for back pain is only performed in about 5% of all cases. And only 1% of all disc herniations occur in the thoracic, or upper back, due to its stability. This is good news for those with upper back pain: odds are high upper back surgery won’t be in your future.

While upper back surgery is still rare, upper back pain itself is becoming more common. Accidents, sports injuries, and other trauma can cause muscle sprains and worse. But an increasingly common cause of upper back pain is related to postural and strength issues, particularly for those who spend much of the day working on computers.

There are a number of natural health avenues one may consider for when dealing with upper back pain issues, including:

Muscle Balance Therapy uses targeted exercise and stretching to strengthen deconditioned muscles and stretch overly tight ones to relieve muscle pain and pressure on the spine.

Massage Therapy by a trained massage therapist can provide relief from upper back and increase joint mobility.

Trigger Point Therapy is used to relieve myofascial pain from irritated muscles, particularly common in the broad upper back and shoulder muscles.

The Alexander Technique, taught in private or group sessions, provides instruction on how to change movement habits to remove muscle restrictions and create more ease of movement. The Alexander Technique is particularly helpful for postural issues such as forward head posture and hunched shoulders.

Remember, except in cases of severe trauma your upper back pain did not happen overnight. It can take time to overcome the underlying causes of pain. But actively working towards better health naturally is almost always a better approach than what should be your last resort: upper back surgery.

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