The International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork is now launced. It is an open access, peer-reviewed publication intended to accommodate the diverse needs of the rapidly-expanding therapeutic massage and bodywork community. Principal sections of the journal span the areas of research, education, and clinical practice.
Have a look http://journals.sfu.ca/ijtmb/index.php/ijtmb/index
Alexander technique lessons in combination with an exercise programme offer long-term effective treatment for chronic back pain, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website. Back pain causes more disability than almost any other condition in Western societies, but very few effective long-term treatments are available to patients.
Previous research shows that the Alexander technique* and massage may help relieve back pain in the short-term, but little is known about the long-term outcomes.
A team of researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Bristol compared the effectiveness of massage, exercise and the Alexander technique for the relief of back pain over one year.
Professor Little and colleagues recruited 579 patients with chronic or recurrent back pain from 64 general practices in the south and west of England. Patients were randomised to receive normal care, massage, six Alexander technique lessons, or 24 Alexander technique lessons. Half of the patients from each of the groups were also prescribed an exercise programme (brisk walking for 30 minutes per day five times a week).
Patients were sent disability questionnaires at three months and one year to record which activities were limited by their back pain. For example, walking more slowly than usual or getting out of the house often.
The authors found that after one year, exercise combined with lessons in the Alexander technique significantly reduced pain and improved functioning whereas massage offered little benefit after three months.
After one year of Alexander technique lessons, patients reported fewer days with back pain over the past four weeks. Patients receiving normal care reported 21 days of back pain, compared to those who received 24 lessons of Alexander technique who experienced 18 fewer days of pain. Those who had six lessons reported 10 fewer days of pain and those having massage said they had seven fewer days of pain.
In addition, patients receiving Alexander technique lessons reported improved quality of life.
Interestingly, six one-to-one lessons in the Alexander technique followed by exercise had nearly as much benefit (72%) as 24 lessons in the Alexander technique alone.
The researchers conclude that: “Massage is helpful in the short term…[but] the Alexander technique retained effectiveness at one year…the results should apply to most patients with chronic or recurrent back pain.”
In an accompanying editorial, Professor Maurits van Tulder from VU University in the Netherlands, says that exercise therapy has also been shown to be effective for chronic lower back pain and calls for further research to compare the Alexander technique with different types of exercise.
*The Alexander technique involves a personalised approach to help patients develop lifelong skills for self care to improve postural tone and muscular coordination. It is an educational technique taught to be practiced by patients on their own and is not a form of exercise.
Dries Hettinga, researcher manager for Back Care, a charity which offers support and advice to people with back pain, said: “There is little evidence available about the effectiveness of the Alexander technique so this research is welcome. “The Alexander technique is something we do recommend and the feedback we have got is good.
“But I would say that it may not be effective for everyone. Back pain is different for each person and you often need a combination of things to help relieve it.”
BMJ-British Medical Journal (2008, August 20). Alexander Technique Offers Long-term Relief For Back Pain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080819213029.htm
One of Dara Torres’ trainers is walking all over me. Literally. I’m lying on my stomach as Steve Sierra concentrates his entire 160 lb. (75 kg) on my glutes and hamstrings. It hurts, but in a good way.
It’s all part of the flexibility- and strength-building regimen that Torres, who is making history as the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics, credits with getting her 41-year-old body in good-enough shape to race athletes half her age. But resistance stretching, as it is called, is not just for the Olympians among us. Its focus on maximizing muscle flexibility has been useful for everyone from injured NBA players to children with cerebral palsy. The exercises may not look like much–they generally require no equipment other than a mat and maybe a towel and some straps–and they may not feel that strenuous, but you know the next day that you’ve had a workout. (The butt-walking component is called mashing, a turbocharged massage that is supposed to release lactic acid from overworked muscles to help speed their recovery.)
Resistance stretching centers on flexing your muscles even as you stretch them; for example, instead of simply releasing a leg lift, resist the urge to let your quad muscles relax on the way down–and fight that urge with both your hamstrings and your quads. Some of these stretching moves can be done alone and others with a partner whom you’d enlist to, say, pull your fist away from you as you work to pull it in during a bicep curl.
How different is resistance stretching from other limbering exercises? Unlike holding a muscle in a passively stretched position, the resistance route actively lengthens muscles through constant movement.
“Resistance stretching goes deep into the joints and grabs more muscle fibers to increase strength and flexibility,” says Sierra’s partner, Anne Tierney. “It takes twice as much force to stretch a muscle as it does to contract it.” I’m not convinced yet, but after the two guide me through a few exercises–they stretch Torres three times a week, often at her home in Parkland, Fla., as well as before and after every race–my muscles do start to feel more energized. I can see why Torres likes to be worked on half an hour before she swims.
Although Tierney and Sierra have certified 250 trainers through weekend workshops, you might be hard-pressed to find a class at your local gym. That may have something to do with the fact that stretching has always been deemed the most expendable part of any exercise regimen. “People usually only think about flexibility and stretching when they are older and getting stiff or when they are injured,” says Tierney. “It’s just not considered sexy.” That could change. As doctors urge even us non-Olympians to remain physically active throughout our lives, maybe we’ll start to pay more attention to stretching. After all, look what it does for Torres.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1830408,00.html
For those spa-goers who are tired of Japanese sand baths and who contemplate Moroccan mud body wraps or Javanese exfoliating scrubs with a jaded sigh, there is now the Himalayan Tsangpo Ritual. The latest curiosity to emerge from the world apothecarium is based on sowa rigpa, or Tibetan traditional medicine, and is available at the Chi spas in the Edsa Shangri-La, Manila, and the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. It will also be introduced to spas at the chain’s upcoming properties in the Maldives, New York City, Paris, and Boracay in the Philippines.
Beneficiaries of this procedure are first scrubbed with salt crystals gathered by nomads from the ancient dry beds of the Tethys Sea, located on the Tibetan Plateau at 15,000 feet (4,500 m). The salt is mixed with high-altitude herbs like spikenard that apparently calm the senses. After the scrub comes a slathering of Himalayan mountain mud containing fulvic acids. Known as silagit, it has been used for centuries as an anti-inflammatory agent and to improve circulation. The treatment is completed with a bath and either a head-and-shoulder massage (in Manila) or a full-body massage (in Bangkok). Massages are done to the sound of singing bowls — the standing bells common in Buddhist meditation.
Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1823711,00.html
From The ABC New Inventors,
The SMRT (Self Mobilise Release Technique) Bodyspanner is designed to bring a vast array of massage, stretching and resistance workout functionality to one easily transportable unit
Corey Mouatt is 37, and lives in the Brisbane suburb of St Lucia. As a teenager he hoped to become an AFL player but on his way to the big time when he was brought down by a couple of nasty injuries. So, he quit AFL and went into physiotherapy himself. He graduated from UQ physiotherapy in 1999.
Dirk Harm is 31 and went through UQ at the same time as Corey. He’s a squash player who wanted to be more involved in health and fitness, help people with injuries and reach fitness goals. He’s been involved in the research testing and development of the Body Spanner, and is Corey’s business partner.
Read More details & watch the video http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2331604.htm
For more information about Body Spanner, see http://smrt.com.au/
Bali resident Susan Stein does one of the better things a person can do for their unskilled domestic staff: she teaches them to become something else. It all began casually nine years ago, when the American spa trainer began showing her security guards and gardeners how to give massages to her house guests. She later realized that the skills she was imparting could create better futures for her staff by enabling them to enter the island’s important resort industry. From this came Jari Menari (dancing fingers) — part vocational-training enterprise, part massage center and something Stein calls “my way of giving back to Bali.”
To date, Stein has put around 30 of her household staff through the program. They work in her home (and practice on Stein’s lucky friends) while being trained for up to nine months. But upon graduation, they find work at resorts on the island, stay on at Jari Menari, or work overseas (some have been hired away to work in destinations as diverse as Bermuda and Italy). A few of the best join Stein’s traveling entourage, helping her train staff at five-star resorts around the world.
Visitors are welcome at Jari Menari. For more information, see www.jarimenari.com.
Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1828099,00.html
Researchers testing the long-held theory that therapeutic massage can speed recovery after a sports injury have found early scientific evidence of the healing effects of massage.The scientists have determined that immediate cyclic compression of muscles after intense exercise reduced swelling and muscle damage in a study using animals.
Though they say it’s too soon to apply the results directly to humans in a clinical environment, the researchers consider the findings a strong start toward scientific confirmation of massage’s benefits to athletes after intense eccentric exercise, when muscles contract and lengthen at the same time.
“There is potential that this continuing research will have huge clinical implications,” said Thomas Best, a professor of family medicine at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. “If we can define the mechanism for recovery, the translation of these findings to the clinic will dictate how much massage is needed, for how long, and when it should be performed after exercise.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests massage offers many health benefits, but actual testing of its effects at the cellular level is more difficult than one might think. In this study with rabbits, the researchers used one mechanical device to mimic movements associated with a specific kind of exercise, and a second device to follow the exercise with a simulated consistent massaging motion on the affected muscles. They compared these animals to other animals that performed the exercise movements but did not receive simulated massage. All animals were sedated during the experiments.
“We tried to mimic Swedish massage because anecdotally, it’s the most popular technique used by athletes,” said Best, who is also co-medical director of the OSU Sports Medicine Center and a team physician for the Department of Athletics. “A review of the research in this area shows that despite the existing anecdotal evidence – we know athletes use massage all the time – researchers don’t know the mechanism of how massage improves recovery after exercise and injury.”
Swedish massage combines long strokes, kneading and friction techniques on muscles and various movements of joints, according to the American Massage Therapy Association.
After the experimental exercise and massage were performed in the study, the researchers compared the muscle tissues of all of the animals, finding that the muscles in animals receiving simulated massage had improved function, less swelling and fewer signs of inflammation than did muscles in the animals that received no massage treatment after exercise.
The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
The research focused on eccentric exercise, which creates a motion similar to the way in which quadriceps in human thighs are exercised during a downhill run. In the study, the scientists focused on the tibialis anterior muscle, located on the front of the shin in humans. The simulated exercise involved continuous flexing and pointing of the toes to exert the muscle during seven sets of 10 cycles, with two minutes of rest between each set.
“It’s hard to describe exactly how the exercise intensity would be matched in a human, but this was considered a significant amount of exercise that would likely cause muscle soreness and possible damage,” Best said.
Immediately following the exercise, the affected muscle was subjected to 30 minutes of simulated massage, called compressive loading. The researchers used mathematical equations to determine the appropriate amount of force to apply to the animal muscle, which was intended to match the force Swedish massage typically places on a patient’s spine. The device used to simulate the stroking motion for the research was designed by Yi Zhao, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Ohio State and a co-author of the study.
“We know biological tissues are sensitive to the magnitude of frequency, duration and load, so we controlled the force, frequency and time spent on massage,” Best said.
The exercise-massage cycle was repeated for four days, after which the animals’ muscle strength and tissue were examined.
The massaged muscles recovered an estimated 60 percent of the strength after the four-day trial, compared to restoration of about 14 percent of strength in muscles that were exercised and then rested.
Similarly, the massaged muscles had fewer damaged muscle fibers and virtually no sign of white blood cells, the presence of which would indicate that the body was working to repair muscle damage, when compared with the rested muscles. The massaged muscles weighed about 8 percent less than the rested muscles, suggesting that the massage helped prevent swelling, Best said.
“One fundamental question is how much of a role does inflammation play in repair to a muscle? Are we preventing inflammation and therefore improving recovery? We haven’t proven that yet,” Best said.
He is collaborating with a variety of experts across the university to continue this line of research, and hopes to cooperate with Ohio State’s Center for Integrative Medicine on future clinic-based work.
“Our goal is to use this model to understand the biological mechanisms of massage as a guide to preclinical trials to test the effects of massage on muscle recovery after exercise,” he said. “A trial in humans could look at optimal indications for massage.
“Ultimately, we could also find out how massage helps not just exercise-induced muscle injury, but swelling and pain associated with other medical conditions, as well.”
Ohio State University (2008, August 12). Massaging Muscles Facilitates Recovery After Exercise. ScienceDaily.
Although ultrasound is one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for one of the most common sport and athletic injuries – skeletal muscle contusions – there’s really no good scientific evidence showing that it treats injured muscles effectively, said Steven Devor, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of sport and exercise sciences at Ohio State University.
Devor and his colleagues used ultrasound to treat contusion injuries inflicted on rats’ gastrocnemius muscles – the main muscle in the calf.
Ultrasound treatment didn’t hasten healing at all, even when compared to injured muscles that weren’t treated with ultrasound.
“It didn’t make one bit of difference in the time it took the treated and non-treated calf muscles to heal,” Devor said. “Millions of people receive ultrasound treatment every year for muscle injuries, with insurance companies usually covering the cost.”
Ultrasound treatments can cost around $50 per 15-minute session.
The study appears in a recent issue of the International Journal of Sports Medicine.
The researchers dropped small weights – about six ounces – onto the gastrocnemius muscles of rats’ right and left hind limbs. The impact created a contusion in each muscle.
“The injury is similar to what might happen to a field hockey player if she was struck in the calf with a hockey stick,” Devor said.
The researchers treated one hind limb on each rat with ultrasound daily for seven days for five minutes per session. Ultrasound waves were transmitted through a small wand that was rubbed along the rats’ limbs. The other limb, used as the control, was left to recover on its own. Rats were sacrificed at various points during the two-month study so that the researchers could evaluate how each gastrocnemius muscle was healing.
The researchers compared a variety of markers in the muscle tissue from the ultrasound treated and non-treated legs of each rat, including muscle mass, protein concentration and muscle fiber cross-section. Cross-section simply refers to the amount of force a muscle can exert – the greater the cross-section a muscle possesses, the more force it can produce.
A comparison of these markers led the researchers to conclude that the muscles treated with ultrasound healed at the same rate as the muscles that were left to heal naturally.
While Devor doesn’t discount that ultrasound treatment may feel good, he worries that treating a sports-related muscle injury with ultrasound may give an athlete a false sense of security.
“Because the injured muscle feels better after ultrasound treatment, an athlete may be tempted to get back in the game before the skeletal muscle injury is really healed,” Devor said. “This puts him at risk for more significant re-injury if the muscle isn’t completely healed.
“I’m supportive of the placebo effect – massaging an injury may make the person feel better,” he continued. “But in this case, ultrasound treatment didn’t have any physiological effect. Medical practitioners who administer this treatment regularly need to ask more questions about its effectiveness in treating injured skeletal muscle.”
The results from this study may readily translate to human muscular injuries, as the structure of skeletal muscle tissue is the same across species.
“Our skeletal muscle tissue is the same as what’s in a rat, dog, cat, etc.,” Devor said. “The difference is that the tissue is exposed to diverse hormonal environments.”
He and his colleagues are continuing to study ultrasound therapy – they’re currently looking at the effect that different types of ultrasound have on skeletal muscle contusion injuries.
In the meantime, Devor’s best advice is that injured athletes let muscles heal as Mother Nature intended – on their own time.
Ohio State University (2004, April 13). Ultrasound Treatment For Hurt Muscles May Feel Good, But Doesn’t Promote Healing, Study Suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 17, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2004/04/040412234906.htm
Adding protein to a sports drink won’t make you race faster, suggests findings from researchers at McMaster University.
“Sports drinks improve performance during prolonged exercise because of two key ingredients: carbohydrate, which provides fuel for working muscles, and sodium, which helps to maintain fluid balance,” says Martin Gibala, an associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster. “Research also supports the practice of consuming protein after exercise to promote muscle recovery. However, the alleged benefit of consuming protein during exercise is controversial.”
The study, which is published in the August edition of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, found that adding protein to a carbohydrate-electrolyte sports drink did not improve cycling time trial performance compared to the sports drink alone.
The research was conducted on 10 trained cyclists who performed a simulated 80 km bicycle race on three occasions. During exercise, the subjects were given a sports drink, a sports drink supplemented with protein, or a placebo drink that provided no energy. The drinks were similarly flavored and neither the subjects nor the researchers knew what drink was consumed during a given test. The study found that the sports drink improved performance compared to the placebo drink - confirming prior research - but there was no additional benefit of protein supplementation.
“Previous studies that suggested protein was beneficial used ‘ride to exhaustion’ tests that do not resemble normal athletic competition. In addition, the subjects in those studies received less than the optimal recommended amount of carbohydrate,” says Gibala. “Our study shows that protein confers no performance benefit during ‘real life’ exercise when athletes consume sufficient amounts of a sports drink.”
The study, which was funded by Gatorade, comes at a time when the sports drink industry is under pressure to create new products by adding ingredients that might further enhance performance. Some companies have heavily marketed protein-laced sports drinks as the next magic bullet, but Gibala’s research disputes such claims.
“Eating a little protein after exercise is important to help repair damaged muscles and promote training adaptations,” says Gibala, “but no compelling evidence suggests that endurance athletes need protein during exercise.”
McMaster University (2006, August 3). Protein-added Sports Drinks Don’t Boost Performance During Exercise, Study Finds. ScienceDaily.
Frankincense may help reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis, according to a study of 70 patients.
An enriched extract of the “Indian Frankincense” herb Boswellia serrata was used in the randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. Patients who took the herbal remedy showed significant improvement in as little as seven days. The compound caused no major adverse effects and is safe for human consumption and long-term use, according to the study authors.
The findings were published in the July 29 edition of Arthritis Research & Therapy.
The extract used in the study was enriched with 30 percent AKBA (3-O-acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid), which is believed to be the most active ingredient in the B. serrata plant.
“AKBA has anti-inflammatory properties, and we have shown that B. serrata enriched with AKBA can be an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee,” study leader Siba Raychaudhuri, a faculty member of the University of California, Davis, said.
“The high incidence of adverse effects associated with currently available medications has created great interest in the search for an effective and safe alternative treatment,” Raychaudhuri said.
B. serrata has been used for thousands of years in traditional Indian medicine. This is the first study to examine the effect of an enriched extract of the plant.