Massage has been proven to build up the immune system.  A study, from Touch Research Institute, finds that massage alters the biochemistry of people improving the body and mind health.  The study shows that human’s cortisol, stress hormone, levels decreased and serotonin increased.   Stress is the culprit of many illnesses, therefore, increasing your dose of healthy touch can make you healthier and even withstand this year’s rampant flu season.  Massage also improves the blood and lymph circulation.  It’s a great way to prevent getting the flu if you haven’t already been attacked by it yet.

If you are just getting over the flu, massages will speed up the recovery period by getting the antibody fluids to circulate.  Who wouldn’t want a little TLC after being in the sick house?

But whatever you do, do not get a massage during the actual infected phase.  Getting the virus to move around in the body will worsen your symptoms and could heighten your fever temperature.  A fever is a good sign that your body is fighting off the virus so during this phase, let your body do it’s job.  You also don’t want to infect other people so stay in bed and rest up.

In addition to massage, here are some other flu fighting actions you can take:

1. Wellness Formula in pill or tincture form.  It contains an array of helpful herbs and vitamins such as Vitamin C, D, Zinc, Selenium, Echinacea, Propolis, Ginger root plus 20 more!  If you have any particular conditions, be sure to talk to your doctor before taking this.
2. Electrolytes such as Emer-gen C.  It’s also packed with Vitamin C!
3. Get enough rest.  Little sleep compromises the immune system.
4. Reduce sugar intake.  Sugar has been proven to destroy the germ-killing ability of white blood cells after ingestion.
5. Reduce alcohol intake.  Alcohol wears down the immune system by hindering the production of white blood cells.
6. Drinking a hot cup of lemon-ginger tea with honey and a dash of cayenne pepper will help break up and stop the overproduction of mucous.
7. Gargling with warm salt water will help kill bacteria and also reduce inflammation if you are getting a sore throat.
8. Be optimistic.  If something is causing you a lot of stress, focus on something good you can get out of the situation.

Keep your environment healthy by passing this information on to people you love and are with everyday!

Whenever I look at a spa menu, I want to get the works.  Fancy names like Chocolate Fantasy, Tropical Super Scrub, and Rainfall Forest make my mouth drop.  But if I was given a choice between a spa treatment and massage, I am definitely choosing a massage.  Then there becomes another problem.  Well, let’s not consider this a problem, but the issue…is what kind of massage/ bodywork am I going to get for myself?

Here’s the list I have to choose from:

Acupressure, Aromatherapy, Ayurvedic, Bowen Therapy, Cranio Sacral, Deep Tissue, Deep Transverse Friction, Lomi Lomi, Hot Stone, Indian Head, Myofascial Release, Lymphatic Drainage, Reflexology, Neuromuscular Therapy, Reiki, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular (PNF) Stretch, Remedial, Rolfing / Structural Integration, Seated, Shiatsu, Sports, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Tuina, Trager, and Trigger Point Therapy.

The list goes on even longer than this.  In school, I learned nineteen types of treatments and have helped and witnessed many people healing from acute and chronic pain.  To help with pain, something deeper, like neuromuscular therapy or deep tissue, might be helpful.  Myofascial Release can be extremely painful, but have long-term effects for the body’s alignment.  Sometimes the muscles can release more tension when a softer approach, such as Swedish massage, is used.  One type of massage that helps one person might not be helpful for another body.  My body responds to many types of treatments but I know people who don’t have the same experience as me.  Without knowing what each is, it’s hard to spend a lot of money for any treatment.

The best way to figure out what you need is, first, to figure why you want a massage.  If you’re lucky, you’ll meet a massage therapist knowledgable in many of these treatments so they can suggest further treatment for your body’s issues.  If you’re not lucky, you can research the different types of bodywork listed above and find some testimonials online.

Living in pain is not necessary and you are not helpless.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to write to me at liza@revivetouch.com

Hope to hear from you.  Stay strong and healthy!

The Healing Properties of Touch

By Lee Davy

Every night, just before I shut my eyes on another amazing day, I complete my Thinking Journal. It is my period of reflection, and I always spend a few moments writing down the important moments of the day. My reasons for living. My father works abroad a lot and two days ago he was packing to go to Nigeria for a few months. Just before I went to bed I gave him a kiss on his head. I wrote about it in my journal because my father is not the type of person who likes to be touched. He is your quintessential British mans-man. Outwardly he displayed an awkwardness when my lips touched his grey hair, but I know inside it made him feel wonderful. I vowed to kiss and hug him more often when he returns. I guess he is going to have to get used to it.

Canadian, Sidney Jourard, was a pioneer in the field of self-disclosure and body-awareness. Jourard was a ‘natural’ psychologist and he enjoyed creating curious experiments in and around the topic of many subjects, including human touch. In one such experiment, Jourard observed couples casually touching each other in cafes around the world. The highest rates of touch were in Puerto Rico where couples touched each other a staggering 180-times per hour. Paris were not far behind with 110-touches and then at the lower end of the scale you had the US with just two, and the UK ran in at an impressive zero! I guess my father is not an isolated case!

So if touch is good for you, what does a lack of touch do for you?

In the thirteenth century, the German emperor Frederick II conducted a terrible experiment to determine the origin of language. The emperor isolated a number of newborn children and handed them to nurses who were forbidden to touch or talk to them. All the nurses did was provide food and liquid for the children. The emperor was curious to see what language they would speak, as they grew older, but was left wanting after they all died without a single word leaving their untouched lips.

Touching is good. In fact, it’s more that just good; it is very healthy for you. Your skin is your largest organ in the body so it should come as no surprise that it needs just as much love, care and attention as the other major organs in your body. If we are going to eat well in order to help our liver and exercise to keep the blood pumping through the heart, then we also need to be touched and touched regularly.  As usual healing starts with awareness so next we need to find ways of getting your fair share of fingers and thumbs, without getting a slap across the face.

Hug, kiss and cuddle with those you love, when you get your hair done make sure you have a good shampoo and rinse, hold hands when you walk down the street with your loved one and in your own private time give your partner an all-over body massage. You don’t have to be a professional massage therapist in order to deliver touch, and luckily for you we doubt you will receive too many complaints!

Maybe I will book my father in for an appointment?

Lee Davy is a writer from Ogmore Vale in South Wales. You can follow his views and opinions through his blog at www.needyhelper.com or on Twitter @Chingster23

“I was reaching over for something and I could feel a twinge in my back.  Now, I can barely move it.  Help!”

I don’t know how many times I have heard someone say those words to me, but I know it’s been a lot.

Something that could have prevented the back injury, or other similar injuries, would have been to easily implement a few stretches in the morning.  Now, you don’t need to be an athlete to be stretching everyday.  In fact, if you are moderately moving through the day (and I certainly hope you are!), it’s a good idea to stretch in the mornings and warm your muscles up for the day.  When we stop stretching our muscles, they contract so more injuries are invited to these tight areas.  There are different factors that can cause back stiffness which leads into injuries.  Aging, sitting on long flights or while working, and even cold weather conditions can have an effect on your muscles that you’re not aware of.

 Tell me this stretch doesn’t look good!

Have you ever studied the way a cat moves throughout the day?  I’m guessing if you don’t own a cat, you never have.  The feline creatures can be perceived as some of the laziest animals on earth as they lay around sleeping all day.  But if you have noticed, they are very active animals too.  They spend their day jumping around in trees trying to catch insects and birds.  They use their muscles a lot but why is it that we hardly ever see a cat with a muscle injury?

If you examine a cat getting out of a slumber, they stretch a lot.  And I do mean a lot!  They stretch from the moment they wake up all the way to their food bowl.  They also have no stretching routine.  They just listen to their bodies and stretch  the most vital muscles that they use throughout the day.  There is even a yoga pose called cat pose, which is a great back stretch. (Quicker movements are considered to be better for pre workout warmups)

Next time you wake up to your alarm clock, hang out in bed for a bit and roll around, stretch, flex, and contract any tight areas you have, then stretch again .  Try not to follow a certain form and just intuitively follow your body.  Your body will thank you the day.

Start out your day fresh by drinking a liver cleanse juice.

The liver is the filtration system in our bodies, separating the fat and toxins from the good nutrients that come through the body via the blood stream.  When there are too many toxins or fats in our bodies, the liver has a big job and can be taxed out.  The excess fat starts to clog the liver and cause problems in our bodies such as fatty liver disease or even cirhossis.  If you are someone who consumes a lot of fatty, creamy, fried, and sweet foods, excessive alcohol, smokes a lot, it’s time to consider taking it easy on your liver by cutting down on those foods and alcohol and start eating more healthy.

Eat more lean meats and fish and add more veggies and fruits to your diet.   Avoid or cut down on on refined vegetable oils, peanuts, dairy products, sugar, processed foods, and sugar substitutes.

Another way to implement vegetables is by juicing.  You get lots of the medicinal values from mother nature like all the minerals and vitamins your body needs.

Click the link to watch how we make our juice –  Liver Juice Cleanse

Recipe (1 serving)

1/2 beet

handful parsley, spinach, watercress

cucumber

1/2 – 1 granny smith apple

slice of lemon

chunk of ginger

Other goodies the liver likes:

Pears

Dark, leafy greens – Dandelion greens, Kale, Chard, etc.

Carrots

Cabbage

Red onion

Broccoli

Lime

Juicing is an experiment.  Sometimes you’ll get a batch that you will not love at all!  But don’t stop.  Just keep using different ingredients together until you get YOUR juice.  The juice I made in the video is MY juice and I love it!

Tips for juicing:

• Leave the skin on all the vegetables
• Do use vegetable brush
• Leave the rinds on the lemons.  A good juicer will take it all in.
• Use your pulp for compost and recycling back into the earth.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables to cut your costs

In the video, you saw me using a Waring Juicerator.   These days, there are so many juicers to pick from.  I also own a Dash Juicer and a Vitamix, both which I love.

If you really cannot afford a juicer or you’re traveling a lot or whatever your circumstance may be, you can still help your liver out by starting your day drinking lukewarm water with fresh squeezed lemons.  Lemons will help create and stimulate good bile, the stuff your body needs to break down fats.  Your liver will love you for it.

I highly recommend watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dying.  A man’s path for getting on the health wagon, losing a lot of weight in the process, getting off of medications (not suggested for everyone and needs to consult your doctor), and ultimately living an energized and healthy life.  He said juicing saved his life. (And I believe him!)

Thanks for reading, watching, and contributing to a community dedicated to your health! If you feel this post is helpful, please let us know by sharing and leaving a comment.

To our health!

Getting a massage from someone new is always a gamble.

I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to get a massage, explained in detail to my massage therapist what was bothering me, and they would focus everywhere except the place I was sore.  I agree, in some cases, that it is important to also massage the areas around the specific sore area because the muscles are interconnected.  However, I know what also works for my body and what doesn’t.  Over the years of frustration and feeling not heard by my massage therapists, I decided to be very picky and get referrals and even start going to the massage teachers, not students, at massage schools.  There are a lot of mediocre massage therapists out there especially at the generic chain massage shops.  Not that there aren’t any good ones, but I have just experienced my worst massages in those environments.

I typically enjoy medical, deep tissue massage.  Once in while, I love a great soft massage because that helps me relax my mind.  If you’re like me, I want to tell you that it is OK to ask your massage therapist questions and give her feedback.  Yes, even during the session.  A good massage therapist isn’t just the way they massage, but also the way they communicate with their clients.  It is important that both parties are communicating fluidly so that you can get the most out of your time and money.

Personally, I like to know what training my massage therapist has had.  If I want deep tissue and they tell me they have taken 5 classes of energy work and 1 massage class, I’m probably going to be looking elsewhere at that point.  If they use words like deep tissue, PNF stretching, sports massage, shiatsu, or Thai massage, I am going for it.  The more classes I know they have taken, the more I know they are familiar with their anatomy.   I am not looking to get hurt more, which has happened.  I am looking for salvation from my sore and tired body!

It’s not 100% the case where people, who take more classes, are better.  Some people are naturally gifted with touch and can follow muscles without having taken a single class but don’t take that chance!

Conclusion 

• Don’t be afraid to interview your massage therapist
• Take responsibility for your needs by communicating with your massage therapist (what they don’t know hurts you)
• It’s important for you to be and feel heard by your massage therapist
• With all the above, you empower yourself and your massage therapist in your session

I woke up with a kink in my neck today so I thought this would be the perfect subject for me to write about.  I massage a lot of people with kinks in their necks.  They wake up feeling this terrible pain that makes them want to pop their heads off.  When someone sees me for neck pain, I recommend the treatment suggestions below.  I focus, not only on the neck area, but also the jaw and upper back.  As your neck muscles are tightening and gripping around your bones, it is important to get them to relax.

What can cause your neck pain?

• Leaning your head forward too long can cause strain in your neck muscles.
• Sleeping on a pillow that doesn’t support your head correctly.
• Activities where you are using your upper body
• Stress causes neck, shoulder, and jaw muscles to tighten up.

Treatments

• Hold your head straight and stretch your neck muscles, slowly, if you are working at the desk or studying.
• For an acute injury, use an ice pack and lay on specific area for 15-20 minutes.  This will cause the inflammation in your neck to go down.
• After the ice pack, use a hot towel and roll it under your neck.   This will help your muscles to relax.
• Use a medicinal balm like Tiger Balm found in Chinese Medicine stores or Supermarkets, health food stores and apply it to your neck as you run continue activities for the day.
• If you also feel it in the shoulder, use a tennis ball or doorway on your back to compress the muscles.
• Don’t forcefully stretch it out as it may cause your muscles to contract more.

If your neck pain is consistent, it’s time to see a doctor to see how serious your neck pain is.

Alternatives:

Chiropractor – sometimes it is a disk out of place and a chiropractor can help you resolve it

Acupuncturist – needles have a magical way of inducing relaxation into muscles.  It also works with the whole body system so anything else related to the neck injury can be worked on as well.

Massage – Relaxing and having someone do the work for you is mighty beneficial.  Let them massage out the kinks for you.  In this case, you would need to find a massage therapist who does therapeutic work as opposed to just relaxation massage.

How many hours do you waste away sitting in a chair and not even thinking of the possibilities of back injury?  This is serious.  Sitting down puts more pressure on the back than compared to standing up.  Many of my clients sit in a chair from 8-20 hours a day and this can cause a lot of compression on the spine.  Two things happen when you sit down for long periods at a time: 1. Sitting down for long periods while working on your computer, playing poker, slouched down watching TV can cause the spinal discs to cram; 2. Your hips also have a hard time to expand and move in this position causing inflexibility in the hips.  Less range of motion in the hips causes more stress on the lower back.  This dangerous combination can be the cause for back injuries and bad posture.

Which posture do you have?

You all have seen the person with a posture on the below right or you ARE that person!  A little secret – your back will not get any better if you continue to do the same thing you are doing now.

To reduce the experience of feeling pain in your back, here are a few tips that can relieve the pressure.

1. Stand up and walk around.

2. Do a forward bend and stretch out the hips and hamstrings.

3. Cross one leg over the other while sitting down and do a forward bend.  This opens up the hips and stretches out the low back.

4. Strengthen your abdominal muscles and back muscles to help keep your posture straight.

5. Use a yoga ball to sit on instead of a standard chair – it helps with mobility in the low back.

6. Do a back bend or wheel pose.  Great ways to strengthen your back and counteracts the effects of bending forward at the desk all day.

5. Take yoga.  It helps tremendously with strengthening your back, abdominal muscles, and opens up the hip flexors.

7. Get massages but choose a massage therapist who understands back pain so you can get the most for what you pay for.  There are so many massage therapists out there who do not know what they are doing.  Let your massage therapist know how your back hurts, since pain can be in various places on your back, and ask them what you can do.

If you’re serious about your health and want to prevent back soreness and injuries, get proactive about stretching your hips and back and be active when you are not sitting. 

A little work can go a long way.