Massage For Health

Omega Massage Chairs

2006-09-30T10:34:00.000-06:00

No other home health care product can provide relief from pain and muscle spasms like an Omega massage chair . I have a client that just bought an Omega Massage Chair and they have noticed a reduction in their pain. I also have an Omega Massage Chair at my office and it really helps to warm up the tissue before I work on a client. Buy an Omega Massage Chair at www.massage-chair-relief.com.

Massage for an Outcome.

2006-09-10T10:33:00.000-06:00

Most people are under the impression that massage is mostly just for relaxation. I have to disagree. I have seen many amazing outcomes that make surgery look like childs play. For example, just two months I had a client seek out my services. The doctor wanted to do surgery on her low back for a disc herniation.

I tested her she had a positive straight leg raise on the left leg at 30 degrees and the right at just over 40 degrees. She also had a positve valsalva's test. Which anyone will agree is a pretty grim situation. I thought for a moment to just refer her back to her MD, but she didn't have any of the emergency symptoms like foot drop or problems urinating so I decided to treat her and see what happened.

I did a few more tests before I proceeded including looking for axial spinal reflex activity. The test uncovered a C4 left pattern. C4 left causes a reflexive contracture of the same side psoas major at L5 and lumbar paraspinal muscles bilaterally. Also some contracture of gluteus medius fibers on the left side.

The clients subjective complaints included a pain level of 10/10, difficulty standing, sitting and walking and bending. She even looked pale and had a hard time talking, it looked like she was just struggling with trying to think over the pain.

Within treating 5 muscles and the spinal segment related to her issues, which took approx. 25 minutes, I had her stand to walk around and go through some gentle ROM exercises. Her response was the subjective pain level dropped to a 2/10! After retesting the SLR and valsalva, both tested negative!

A follow up exam 1 week post treatment revealed no relapse and follow up treatment resulted in a complete recovery and no subjective pain! Also ROM tests done before and after show signifcant improvement! Two months later,she still has had no relapse with no further therapy and only a few home care exercises to stablize the cervical spine for C4 left.

The moral of the story? Don't be so quick to go under the knife there are more options out there. Questions? Write a comment and I'll respond.

Wry Neck?

2006-07-06T14:35:00.000-06:00

What is wry neck? The medical name for it is torticollis and it is as painful as it sounds. I know a young mother whose 12 week old baby had it. The baby wouldn't sleep well and couldn't eat very well because of the pain. The baby's doctor said that it was a moderate to severe case and would try conservative measures first like streches, a neck brace and a special helmet. Worst case scenario would be some sort of surgery. The baby was also suffering of acid reflux and had a upper GI. Poor kid!

My wife told me about this lady and her son and I had her bring him in right away. The baby had received alot of physical therapy and the mother was doing the streches everyday, but the baby wasn't making progress. The baby couldn't turn to the left at all and would cry when the mom would force it with the streches. I did a quick assessment and found that the baby had an ASR at C1 on the right causing the traps and SCM muscles to contract and twist the neck. (Another interesting point to note is that a C1ASR will cause a domino effect to happen and cause another ASR at T5 which when aggravated can cause acid reflux.)

I treated the baby for about twenty minutes (he slept through the whole thing). By the time I had finished the baby had more than 90% of his motion to the left! It was amazing! The mother said that the following night he actually slept for 7 hours straight! Previously, he would wake up screaming every 2 hours or so. After the 7 hours he woke up happy, had a good breakfast, didn't spit up and went right back to sleep for 3 more hours!

The mother said "It's like I have a new baby... I can never repay you." The Doctor didn't know what to say... and I just said "I'm glad that I could help. Have a neat story or a question? Please share it.

You don't have carpal tunnel syndrome!

2006-07-05T17:50:00.000-06:00

I find it absolutely disgusting that any one with wrist pain our hand numbness comes to me with a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. What upsets me the most is that these people have been told by their doctor that they have CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome). After a few simple tests it's easy to see that most people don't have CTS. In fact, in my entire experience as a medical massage therapist I have only seen ONE true case of it!

What many people, including doctors don't realize is that there are many spots that can elicit the exact same symptoms. Many are in the chest and neck, a few on the back and several in the elbow/forearm.

The most common is a condition calledthoracic outlet syndrome, which is where the nerve/artery in the neck/chest becomes impinged and refers pain, numbness and tingling down the arms. If you have worse symptoms at night while lying on your side, this one is the most likely culprit. The common medical procedure for this is to remove the 1st rib... OUCH!

Please, do some research and don't just settle for "my Dr told me..." They can be wrong too. In fact, in orthopedics and myofascial pain the average nation-wide statistics says that Medical Doctors only receive an average of 2.1 weeks in this subject, for the whole body! Not to mention if the were a "C" student! If you want a Doctors opinion that's fine but go to someone trained in that like and Orthopedist. Or try massage, some times a visit or two to a massage therapist and you won't need to see a doc. Give it a try.

Shoulder pain? Try massage!

2006-06-29T21:35:00.000-06:00

I have a client that has been coming to me for a few months now. He started coming because he had intense shoulder pain. On a scale from 1 to 10 he was an 11! He had very little range of motion left and was vitually useless at work.

He had previously tried physical therapy and chiropractic. He even tried another massage therapist. Nothing helped. His medical doctor recommended surgery but that not only scared him but he also had no insurance so he would have to pay out of pocket.

That's when he met me. He was refered to me by one of my other clients that highly recommended a medical massage therapist instead of the spa-type massage. We started and intensive treatment protocol and within a relatively short time he started feeling much better. After a few more visits he now full range of motion (even better than me!) and his pain level only reaches only a 1 or 2 out of 10, and that is only on full extention he has no pain with normal range of motion exercises.

What was the difference? Ask a spinal reflex analysis practitioner why we are just a little different.

Massage.. for Low Back Pain!

2006-06-22T16:01:00.000-06:00

As I have said before I am a massage therapist by trade. Now, not the "fluffy" stuff but the down to business medical massage stuff, no oils and lotions here. I've seen many "miracles" using massage but today I had a truly awesome experience.

An older man came into my office today, he was 81 actually, complaining of low back pain. He said that it had plagued him ever since a fall down some stairs several years ago. He had many massages and chiropractic adjustments but nothing ever seemed to help. He also said that he had used herbs with some success. He told me that his son-in-law, one of my clients, had highly recommended my services and that he would give me a try.

After several minutes of evaluation I had concluded that the problem infact was in his neck! C6 on the right and C2 on the left to be exact. These two joints of the spine were irritated and caused a defensive reaction making several muscles of his pelvis/lowback contract to prepare to move away from "danger". So I treated those muscles and also the source of the irritation in the neck and what do you think happened?

He got off of the table and was PAIN FREE! For the first time in years! Even I was stunned that he got results that fast. I've used Spinal Reflex Analysis now for over 7 months and have seen many cases like this one. If this interests you then you can find a practitioner in your area.

First things first!

2006-06-17T18:30:00.000-06:00

Welcome to our blog! We have lots to say about the wonderful world of massage therapy. I am a massage therapist in Utah and have been in practice for quite some time. I have seen lots of techniques come and go and I've been trained in many of them. The modality that I have stuck with is a type of medical massage called Spinal reflex analysis. It is an amazing assessment and treatment system founded by Dr. Frank Jarrell in CO. I will share more about the technique later but for now please feel free to ask any questions about massage. Simply post a comment about your question.