Sep
5
2023
Since last year, a large number of books are available from the web, including ebay and Amazon.com. Hundreds of thousands of books are published under Alphascipt, Betascript,and Fastbook Publishing. These are scam companies making money by publishing books using Wikipedia as materials. The whole book is made up of wikipedia articles, which are free. They grabbed the articles from a free source and making money out of that. The cover of the book says “High Quality Content by Wikipedia Articles”.
These publishing companies are just examples of thousands of the so called “Print on Demand” books. Meaning that they list the title, and they will only print the book when it is being ordered. Even big companies like Elsevier are now using this Print on Demand method, they don;t need to stock their books anymore.
But what’s worrying are the scam companies that me money out of selling books where the contents are from free materials such as Wikipedia. It is on sale in many of the famous online book sellers including Amazon.com.
Amazon.com has more than 100,000 titles of the scam books by Alphascript, more than 600,000 titles under Betascript, and more than 1000 titles under Fastbook. And each book is sold quite expensive, more than $50 per book!
The Alphascript books (more than 100,000) are all written by FREDERIC P. VANDOME, AGNES F. MCBREWSTER, JOHN MILLER
Betascript books (more than 600,000) are all written by LAMBERT M. TENNOE, MARIAM T. HENSSONOW, SUSAN F. SURHONE
These authors must be so productive that they can write that many books in just 1 year!
So beware! Don’t just buy any thitle without reading the review and exact content.
Update:
We got a letter from a representative from Alphascript requesting us not to mention the word SCAM http://www.massage-research.com/blog/?p=1215 This book by Betascript tells it all:
Sep
5
2023
Auth Method of Therapeutic Massage: A Guide to Using the Forearms
A new DVD just been released showing how to massage without taxing the delicate joints of the hand and increase career longevity. Learn to give a full body massage using the forearms as the primary tool. These techniques can be used for both deep tissue work and light circulatory massage. This DVD teaches simple qi gong exercises for better body mechanics, as well as, how to use body weight to engage tissue, depth of pressure, speed of strokes and developing sensitivity in the forearms.
This 74-minute instructional massage DVD will teach therapists how to give a full-body massage using the forearms as the primary tool. By using the forearms, massage therapists will be able to work deeper and longer with less wear and tear on the more fragile joints of the hands. It covers body mechanics, how to use body weight to engage tissue, depth of pressure, speed of strokes and developing sensitivity in the forearms.
The DVD is available from: http://www.terrarosa.com.au/dvd/auth_method.htm
Sep
5
2023
Osteopathic manipulative treatment and its relationship to autonomic nervous system activity as demonstrated by heart rate variability: a repeated measures study.
Author(s): Henley, Charles E; Ivins, Douglas; Mills, Miriam; Wen, Frances K; Benjamin, Bruce A
Source: Osteopath Med Prim Care Volume: 2 Pages: 7 Published: 2008
BACKGROUND: The relationship between osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) and the autonomic nervous system has long been acknowledged, but is poorly understood. In an effort to define this relationship, cervical myofascial release was used as the OMT technique with heart rate variability (HRV) as a surrogate for autonomic activity. This study quantifies that relationship and demonstrates a cause and effect.
METHODS: Seventeen healthy subjects, nine males and eight females aged 19-50 years from the faculty, staff, and students at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, acted as their own controls and received interventions, administered in separate sessions at least 24 hours apart, of cervical myofascial OMT, touch-only sham OMT, and no-touch control while at a 50-degree head-up tilt. Each group was dichotomized into extremes of autonomic activity using a tilt table. Comparisons were made between measurements taken at tilt and those taken at pre- and post-intervention in the horizontal.The variance of the spectral components of HRV, expressed as frequencies, measured the response to change in position of the subjects. Normalized low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) values, including LF/HF ratio, were calculated and used to determine the effect of position change on HRV.
RESULTS: Predominantly parasympathetic responses were observed with subjects in the horizontal position, while a 50-degree tilt provided a significantly different measure of maximum sympathetic tone (p < 0.001). Heart rate changed in all subjects with change in position; respirations remained constant. When OMT was performed in a sympathetic environment (tilt), a vagal response was produced that was strong enough to overcome the sympathetic tone. There was no HRV difference between sham and control in either the horizontal or tilt positions.
CONCLUSION: The vagal response produced by the myofascial release procedure in the maximally stimulated sympathetic environment could only have come from the application of the OMT. This demonstrates the association between OMT and the autonomic nervous system. The lack of significance between control and sham in all positions indicates that HRV may be a useful method of developing sham controls in future studies of OMT.
Sep
5
2023
Myofascial force transmission via extramuscular pathways occurs between antagonistic muscles
Author(s): Huijing PA (Huijing, Peter A.)1,2, Baan GC (Baan, Guus C.)1
Source: CELLS TISSUES ORGANS Volume: 188 Issue: 4 Pages: 400-414 Published: 2008
Most often muscles (as organs) are viewed as independent actuators. To test if this is true for antagonistic muscles, force was measured simultaneously at: (1) the proximal and distal tendons of the extensor digitorum muscle (EDL) to quantify any proximo-distal force differences, as an indicator of myofascial force transmission, (2) at the distal tendons of the whole antagonistic peroneal muscle group (PER) to test if effects of EDL length changes are present and (3) at the proximal end of the tibia to test if myofascially transmitted force is exerted there. EDL length was manipulated either at the proximal or distal tendons. This way equal EDL lengths are attained at two different positions of the muscle with respect to the tibia and antagonistic muscles. Despite its relatively small size, lengthening of the EDL changed forces exerted on the tibia and forces exerted by its antagonistic muscle group. Apart from its extramuscular myofascial connections, EDL has no connections to either the tibia or these antagonistic muscles. Proximal EDL lengthening increased distal muscular forces (active PER Delta F approximate to +1.7%), but decreased tibial forces (passive from 0.3 to 0N; active Delta F approximate to -5%). Therefore, it is concluded that these antagonistic muscles do not act independently, because of myofascial force transmission between them. Such a decrease in tibial force indicates release of pre-strained connections. Distal EDL lengthening had opposite effects (tripling passive force exerted on tibia; active PER force Delta F approximate to -3.6%). It is concluded that the length and relative position of the EDL is a co-determinant of passive and active force exerted at tendons of nearby antagonistic muscle groups.
These results necessitate a new view of the locomotor apparatus, which needs to take into account the high interdependence of muscles and muscle fibres as force generators, as well as proximo-distal force differences and serial and parallel distributions of sarcomere lengths that are consequences of such interaction. If this is done properly, the effects of integrating a muscle fibre, muscle or muscle group into higher levels of organisation of the body will be evident.
Sep
5
2023
Smokers suffer more chronic back pain. This was the result of the analysis of a questionnaire performed by Monique Zimmermann-Stenzel and her colleagues and published in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International
In 2003, the Robert Koch Institute interviewed more than 8000 private persons in the course of a telephone health survey in Germany. This included questions on social and demographic themes, as well as health and life style. On the basis of the collected data, the authors examined whether there was an association between smoking and chronic back pain.
Their evaluation showed that smokers or former smokers suffer chronic back pain much more often than do non-smokers. The number of years the subjects had been smoking or had smoked was decisive. Subjects who had consumed tobacco for more than 16 years had a two-fold greater probability of suffering chronic back pain than subjects who had smoked for less than 10 years. The probability of back pain was further multiplied for subjects who had smoked for longer than 26 years. On the other hand, the frequency with which the subjects consumed tobacco and the quantities smoked did not play a role.
However, the authors pointed out that tobacco consumption does not necessarily cause chronic back pain. It is just as possible that people with chronic back pain smoke to alleviate the pain. The exact association between smoking and back pain will have to be clarified in appropriate studies. These could offer additional possibilities to prevent chronic back pain or smoking motivated by this.
(Dtsch Arztebl Int, 2008; 105[24]: 441-8) http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/pdf.asp?id=60552
