Better Than it Sounds: Get a Lymphatic Drainage Massage (Seriously)
From Organic Authority:
With so many alternative wellness treatments available it’s sometimes hard to keep up. One such treatment, the lymphatic drainage massage, is a technique known for its ability to detoxify the body. But what is it, exactly? Where does the lymphatic “drainage” go? And is it really effective at detoxifying the body as so many enthusiasts claim? Let’s take a closer look at the purpose of a lymphatic drainage massage.
What’s the Lymphatic System?
The lymphatic system is made up of vessels, nodes, and lymph glands. It also contains “sacs” with pores that gather metabolic waste. The tonsils, spleen, and thymus, for example, are all parts of the lymphatic system. However, unlike the heart, the center of the body’s other circulatory system, the lymphatic system doesn’t have its own pump. As a result, it relies on the breath and other movement to drain lymph. For most of us, the body is perfectly capable of draining itself. But sickness, poor diet, lack of physical activity, and other issues can compromise the system, resulting in a need for assisted lymphatic drainage.
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Hands Transcend Technology – Massage Therapy Jobs Predicted to Grow 22% by 2024
From PR Web:
Massage therapy continues, however, to be a robust and profitable profession. The massage therapy profession is expected to grow 22% between 2014 and 2024, much faster than all other jobs. The median pay for massage therapists is $38,000 a year. The profession requires a license in most states and the successful completion of 500 hour or more of vocational training plus passing the national certification exam. Considering that one’s hands will make money over many years, the minimal cost of entering this profession, on average $9,000, is a smart investment in a healthy profitable future.
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Complementary Approaches to Pain Management
Pain management is a battle doctors fight every day. Everyone’s body responds differently to pain and to treatments aimed at relieving that pain. Opioid drugs are overused and often misused by Americans as they search for a way to relieve their pain.
The National Institute of Health’s MedlinePlus Magazine spoke to Dr. Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health (NCCIH), about the research they are doing on complementary approaches to help manage pain. She stated that opioids don’t help people develop personal strategies for pain relief, and that a recent study funded by NCCIH suggests that regular long term yoga may improve the pain people experience.
When asked how the medical community might change in the future as a result of the pain research that is currently going on, she said the following: “Americans do turn to complementary practices for pain management. We know from data that many people living with pain try these various approaches for pain and many use them quite extensively. That includes relaxation techniques like breathing and meditation. It includes chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture. While we recognize that they are helpful to people, we really do not see them as integrated into conventional care yet to improve pain management. The evidence makes it promising, but we aren’t quite there yet.”
Hopefully in the future, complementary treatments for pain management will become more mainstream and be the first therapies used in managing pain.
How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body
The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters of the practice have relied on very small samples of unrepresentative subjects, like isolated Buddhist monks who spend hours meditating every day, or on studies that generally were not randomized and did not include placebo control groups.
To meditate mindfully demands ‘‘an open and receptive, nonjudgmental awareness of your present-moment experience,’’ says J. David Creswell, who led the study and is an associate professor of psychology and the director of the Health and Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. One difficulty of investigating meditation has been the placebo problem. In rigorous studies, some participants receive treatment while others get a placebo: They believe they are getting the same treatment when they are not. But people can usually tell if they are meditating. Dr. Creswell, working with scientists from a number of other universities, managed to fake mindfulness.
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Plan for Today: Workout Habits for Success
Massage therapy is a physically demanding job, especially on our hands and wrists. According to an article published in Arthritis Care & Research, exercise can protect against carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries (RSIs).2 The article discusses a study in which participants who engaged in moderate exercise (such as half-hour walks) three or four times a week showed a 16 percent reduction in risk of developing an RSI. The study demonstrates that regular exercise helps restore overall stability to the musculoskeletal system. As practitioners in a field where carpal tunnel and RSIs are a real possibility, it is encouraging to hear that exercising regularly can help prevent these conditions.
We also spend a lot of our time in forward flexion while pushing and pulling body parts. Strengthening the core muscles (abdominals, back, and glutes) is important to help us maintain proper positioning while working on clients. Strength training, Yoga and Pilates are excellent options for keeping our core muscles strong. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association (AHA) both recommend strength training twice per week. In addition, a stretching routine or tai chi are nice compliments to a core body workout and will help release some of the stress and tension that can build up in our backs and hamstrings from bending over massage tables. While all of the exercises mentioned here can be done at a fitness center, they also can be done at home or in a hotel with the help of a book, DVD, or a smart phone app.
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