An ounce of prevention can help fight osteoporosis - STLtoday - Life & Style - Health & Fitne

Some useful advice on exercise and diet to help prevent osteoporosis as you reach and pass through the menopause.

It's important fro younger people as they can do the most to help themselves in later life and although the problem is more common in women it does affect men too.

Diabetes - Intute health and life sciences

Every month this excellent resource produce an extensive directory of websites and databases on a designated Hot Topic, this month the hot topic is diabetes and it's well worth a look.

This will be useful for health professionals, therapists who may treat people with diabetes and sufferers themselves and all the resources listed will be reliable and up to date.

Studies: Surgery No Better for Sciatica

Very interesting results from the US survey about treatment for Sciatica, it seems that the results for people who had surgery was only a little better than those who had non-surgical treatment.

I'm particularly interested in this as Sciatica and herniated disc problems are one of the conditions which Neuroskeletal Realignment are very good at helping. NSRT is a very gentle therapy and therefore completely safe.

I suspect that is this type of non-invasive gentle therapy had been included in this study the results against surgery would have been even stonger.

Help with the menopause - Symptoms and relief

I've been adding pages on specific physical problems to my website and the latest one is on Menopausal Symptoms. Each page includes a brief description of the condition and it's symptoms, conventional medical treatments and complementary therapies and links to other usefuls sites on the subject for further research.

There are a number of supplements and herbal remedies which can provide relief as can Aromatherapy or Reflexology. Both Aromatherapy and Reflexology are also very useful in helping relieve symproms of PMT and other menstrual problems.

Whiplash

I've recently been adding some new information pages to my website covering various specific ailments; each one gives a brief description of the condition with symptoms, conventional treatment options, complementary therapies and then links to some other websites for further information.

This one is covering whiplash which is a condition I've treated very successfully with Neuroskeletal Realignment.

Interestingly two of the clients I've treated didn't realise they had whiplash as they hadn't been involved in car accidents; one had tripped and fallen head first into a garden gate and the other had her head wrenched by somebody messing about in a pub.

How to cope with the misery of backache - Scotsman.com Living

This is an account of the therapies that Alice Hart-Davis has tried with up to 5 stars given depending on how well each worked for her.

Interesting for anyone with a bad back to read but obviously a very personal account, different therapies work for diffectent people.

Obviously Neuroskeletal Realignment isn't one of the therapies she has tried but thats no suprise since it's fairly new in this country and all of the qualified practitioners are based in England.

HRT - women lose out as the debate goes on - FT.com

This article was published back in July, I only just came across it but I think it's still very useful. It's good to see both sides of the issue addressed and the article also offers a couple of very useful websites for follow up.

Firm mattresses may not be best for the back: study - Daily Times Pakistan

At last somebody has done a study of the effect of firm or medium firm mattresses on chronic lower back pain.

As might be expected from a knowledge of anatomy the medium firm users showed a higher improvement in back pain that the firm mattress users. Having said this a very soft or old sagging mattress is going to be far worse for you.

It's a shame that a memory foam mattress wasn't included in the study as these mattresses offer a more consistent support to the body.

3 Herbal Fixes for Back Pain - Health.com

Brief article about three of the herbal remedies which have been found effective in relieving back pain.

These may well be worth a try but do check with your doctor first and I'd also do some reseach myself to make sure they don't interact with any other medicienes I was taking.

Although I'm very much in favour of complementary therapies I do worry that some people equate natural or herbal with safe; Cyanide is natural but nobody would argue that it's therefore safe.

Chocolate works like aspirin to reduce heart attacks study

I really, really, REALLY liked this article. It apprears that there is a chemical in chocolate that works like asprin to reduce blood clotting and therefore heart attacks.

The article does go on to explain that dark chocolate is best as that contacins nore of the cocoa mass and less added fat and sugar.

The shocking statistic is that people who eat a small amount of dark chocolate every day can reduce the risk of dying in a heart attack by almost 50%.

Anxiety; back pain; green tea - Health - Times Online

This is a page with health questions answered, my particular interest was the 2nd question about back pain.

I do a lot of work with clients who have back pain so I'm always on the lookout for other therapies that can help, I wouldn't argue with any of the suggestions and I also wasn't suprised that Neuroskeletal Realignment wasn't included as it's quite new in this country and therefore not very well known.

I'm a reflexologist and it can help with back pain especially if stress is one of the main causes. However for many conditions I would try Neuroskeletal Realignment which together with remedial massage is very successful in relieving back pain.

I was also suprised that the writer didn't stress the benefits of exercise which should be started once the pain levels are reduced sufficiently to allow.

Parents told to massage babies for good night's sleep | the Daily Mail

This is a somewhat obvious piece of research but it's still good to get scientific backing for massage as a good way to help babies sleep.

Neuroskeletal Realignment which I practice is also very helpful for newborn babies who are distressed and who are sleeping badly. This is sometimes caused by birth trauma making the neck misaligned and as little as one or two sessions of Neuroskeletal realignment will often correct this problem.

Ancient medicine useful today

There has been quite a buzz in the news recently about the ability of tumeric to help with arthritis and osteoporosis.

This is one of the better articles I found on the subject.

Prof asks: Why do we eat mindlessly, and what would help us stop? - CNN.com

This is not exactly on topic for reflexologist or massage therapist but I found this article facinating so I wanted to share it.

Brian Wansink at Cornell University does reseach on the hidden factors that prompt you to eat more, for example giving people soup in a magic bowl that never empties to see just how much they will eat before they stop.

Fingertips: When There Is Not Full Disclosure

This interesting and somewhat scary story from a therapist underlines how important it is to tell your therapist about any medical conditions you have, this will protect both f you from this sort of situation.

I'd also say that as a therapist in the UK I'm horrified when people who have had massages with other therapists express suprise that I spend time taking a medical history and assessing their posture before treatment.

Range of motion - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Interesting article on arthritis and what kinds of exercise are best for helping.

I've worked with people who have osteoarthritis and one of the nice thngs is that neuro-skeletal re-alignment is so gentle and effective with this condition.

It doesn't cure the condition of course but does provide enough pain relief to allow people to start this sort of exercise.

BestTreatments :: Conditions :: Thrush, vagina :: Introduction

Nobody ever died of thrush but as any woman who ever had thrush will tell you it's itchy, sore and it can make life feel very hard.

I know this NHS site is called best treatments but I was disappointed that they didn't cover any preventive measures.

The ones I found helped in order of importance:
- Wearing cotton knickers and hand washing them in mild soap instead of detergent
- Not wearing tights or tight trousers
- Taking an pee after you have sex
- Cutting down on yeasty foods and sugar

Public 'confused by painkillers' - BBC NEWS | Health |

Interesting article about a study done about public awareness of painkillers.
I'd approach the results with care as it was commissioned by Panadol but the main finding reported is scary and very believable.
I'd have found it useful if the article had included more information about the different painkillers, how they work, what each is best for and any interactions you should be aware of.

Fingertips: A Personal Insight Into Reiki

Nice to see a personal account of why somebody decided to practice Reiki, I was particularly interested that offering pain relief to a loved one was this lady's motivation.

I'm a level one Reiki, I never bothered going for any higher levels as this works for me, I don't offer Reiki by itself as a therapy but the healing happens automatically when I'm doing Reflexology, Massage or Neuroskeletal Realignment.

Happy Feet: Basic Facts about Orthotics

Interesting little article about orthotics (usually in the form of shoe inserts), these are sometimes specially made for an individual by a specialist but many are bought over the counter and can still be helpful.

Do You Have Back Pain? You Might Have Spondylolisthesis - Associated Content

It's interesting to see an article written by a sufferer and from their point of view instead of from the point of view of the health professional.

This is good little article that explains Spondylolisthesis in an accessible way.