Here you can find more information on massage, and Jin Shin Jyutsu®,
as well as tips for general health, stretching, and more.
There are also money-saving health tips. Just look at the posts and categories
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Even though this pilot study is from back in 2000, and probably not up to the standards for medical studies, I think the results are very interesting. The patients at Morristown Memorial Hospital all seemed to like the treatments (78% said they were helpful to them), felt different, and were comfortable with their practitioner, but were less interested in continuing treatment, or learning Jin Shin Jyutsu self-help after being released from the hospital. However, a full 85% would “recommend this treatment to others!”
One can only speculate why this is. Maybe it has to do with a general sense of powerlessness around the care during their hospital stay, which is not uncommon. It would be very helpful to conduct more studies, however, they cost a lot of money. Since most of these programs are funded by grants, providing treatments is prioritized over conducting studies.
And yet another recent articler about the benefits of massage, this time from the Huffington Post:
A new study published in Science Translational Medicine found that a short, 10-minute Swedish-style massage session can reduce inflammation, which can help your muscles recover after a hard workout.
“What massage seems to do is … it reduces the inflammatory response as a function of the damage you incurred while you’re exercising,” explained one of the study’s authors Simon Melov, a molecular biologist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
The classic The Touch of Healingis still one of the best books for anyone interested in Jin Shin Jyutsu, and I highly recommend it.
The authors explain the natural life force that runs through the body and demonstrate with case studies, detailed analysis, and more than 30 illustrations, how to integrate this system into one’s life. The key healing points and body flows, known as “Safety Energy Locks,” are presented with step-by-step instructions on how to utilize them for healing and greater self-awareness. Many self-help practices are also offered that address a wide array of common ailments, including headaches, digestive disorders, fatigue, depression, and arthritis along with prescriptive exercises for relief of emotional ailments such as loss of confidence, anxiety, and depression.
This recent article in the WSJ cites research which over the past couple of years has found that massage therapy boosts immune function, helps with back pain, as well as a variety of other tangible health benefits:
A 10-minute massage upped mitochondria production, and reduced proteins associated with inflammation in muscles that had been exercised to exhaustion, a small study last month found.
A full-body massage boosted immune function and lowered heart rate and blood pressure in women with breast cancer undergoing radiation treatment, a 2009 study of 30 participants found.
Children given 20-minute massages by their parents every night for five weeks plus standard asthma treatment had significantly improved lung function compared with those in standard care, a 2011 study of 60 children found.
The title of the article: “Don’t Call It Pampering: Massage Wants to Be Medicine.”
Multi-tasking is not all that it’s cracked up to be. As a parent, I learned to re-focus my attention when I have time to spend with my daughter, to be mindful of this delicious but fleeting time in our lives. Even before her birth, I stopped to eat and read, or do anything while eating. To my surprise, it’s made a huge difference in what, how and how much I eat. Nowadays, I feel dizzy when I attempt to eat and read at the same time, and it reminded me of my training in TCM, how the small intestine is the organ for discernment of what is good for us, and what is not. By multi-tasking, the small intestine gets overwhelmed with information and can’t fully live up to its purpose.
So it was really exciting when I found this article in the NYTimes. Upon looking at it online, I then discovered the video below.
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to the Google campus as part of its Optimize Your Life initiative, which seeks to encourage health, happiness, and balance among employees and recognizes that mindful, meditative practices are critical to mental health.
Despite the fact that the writer chose to use the outdated and slightly offensive term “masseur,” this is a very informative article.
According to this recent article from the Well section of the NYTimes, researchers found that massage reduced the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammation. Massage also stimulated mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside cells that convert glucose into the energy essential for cell function and repair. “The bottom line is that there appears to be a suppression of pathways in inflammation and an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis,” helping the muscle adapt to the demands of increased exercise, said the senior author, Dr. Mark A. Tarnopolsky.
Many people pop an aspirin or Aleve at the first sign of muscle soreness, but Dr. Tarnopolsky suggests that, in the long run, a professional massage may even be a better bargain than a pill. “If someone says “This is free and it might make you feel better, but it may slow down your recovery, do you still want it?” he asked.
“This is important research, because it is the first to show that massage can reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines which may be involved in pain,” said Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School. She was not involved in the study. “We have known from many studies that pain can be reduced by massage based on self-report, but this is the first demonstration that the pain-related pro-inflammatory cytokines can be reduced.” she said.
You have never heard of oil pulling therapy? Neither had I, until about two years ago. My gums would bleed periodically, and my dentist told me I had the “gums of a 50 year old man,” and I therefore needed periodontal care.
However, I soon switched to a more holistic dentist, and the dental hygienist there told me about oil pulling. Despite regular brushing and flossing, 98 percent of the population has some degree of gum disease or tooth decay. As it turns out, all disease starts in the mouth, and therefore, the mouth is a reflection of our health. Recent research has also demonstrated a direct link between oral health and chronic illness. Combining the wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine with modern science, oil pulling could help with conditions such as asthma, diabetes, arthritis, and migraine headaches. The science behind oil pulling is fully documented in the book, with references to medical studies and case histories. Although incredibly powerful, oil pulling therapy is completely safe and simple enough for even a child.
Within 3 months, I went from quarterly dentist visits with periodontal care, to twice a year regular cleanings, and my gums are much healthier and are no longer receding. On top of that, I’ve been saving at least $600 per year! I’m happy, my dentist is happy – I recommend reading this book to anyone. I know it sounds incredible, but it definitely works for me.
In this article in the New York Times’ Vital Signs column, researchers found that volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system.
Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.
The study was published online in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
The lead author, Dr. Mark Hyman Rapaport, chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai, said the findings were “very, very intriguing and very, very exciting — and I’m a skeptic.”
Although exercise is good for you and reduces your cardiovascular risk by a factor of three, too much vigorous exercise, such as marathon running, seems to actually increase your cardiac risk by seven, according to a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010 in Montreal, and may explain a series of recent marathon deaths.
This could be an important lesson to anyone who engages in large amounts of cardio exercise, because as it turns out, excessive cardio may actually be counterproductive. Not only is it possible to over-exercise, but simply focusing on the wrong type of exercise to the exclusion of everything else can actually do you more harm than good.
Long-term endurance athletes were found to suffer diminished function of the right ventricle of the heart after endurance racing, according to this recent study. They also had increased blood levels of cardiac enzymes, which are markers for heart injury, and 12 percent of the athletes had detectable scar tissue on their heart muscle one week post-race. The authors of the study concluded that “Although short-term recovery appears complete, chronic changes may remain in many of the most practiced athletes, the long-term clinical significance of which warrants further study. ”
When exercising, remember that it can be overdone, and that you can push yourself too far. I’d like to invite you to be gentle with yourself and not to judge yourself.
The universe is transformation, life is opinion…take away the opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, “I have been harmed.” Take away the complaint, “I have been harmed,” and the harm is taken away.
Marcus Aurelius(Roman emperor, 26 April 121 – 17 March 180 AD)
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Even though this pilot study is from back in 2000, and probably not up to the standards for medical studies, I think the results are very interesting. The patients at Morristown Memorial Hospital all seemed to like the treatments (78% said they were helpful to them), felt different, and were comfortable with their practitioner, but were less interested in continuing treatment, or learning Jin Shin Jyutsu self-help after being released from the hospital. However, a full 85% would “recommend this treatment to others!”
You have never heard of oil pulling therapy? Neither had I, until about two years ago. My gums would bleed periodically, and my dentist told me I had the “gums of a 50 year old man,” and I therefore needed periodontal care.
