This is where courage, experience, and listening (with my hands) come into play and prove valuable -sometimes beyond medicine.

I began, like always, by touching and assessing the fluidity of the body or lack of it. Keeping mindful of the symptoms, but knowing they were simply the background of something closer, something more tangible. You see, the body will always express an imbalance on any level (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) as a symptom or a group of symptoms in the muscles and soft tissue. Why? Because symptoms are simply a pysical articulation o fsome inner imbalance. In my limited experience of 13 years, it is more frequent than not that symptoms stem from a structural imbalance(s) than from a viral or bacterial illness. It is sad that the treatment of such things isn’t referred more to people who do the type of work I do.

I didn’t touch the head or neck that session, even though at the end of the session those areas remained in pain. What I did do was go to where the body and my hands felt the most structural restrictions. Which happened to be the sacrum and low back, but my hands could tell this wasn’t simple. I worked right along the spine, in deep joint crevices of the sacro-illium, and around the mid-back where both head/neck and shoulders were not feeling connected to the lower spine and pelvis. In about 30 min I can tell by tissue changes whether or not I can help a person. Things were progressing well so I knew I needed to trust the work, my hands, and the healing potential of the body. By the end of the session movement was flowing as I rocked the hips I could see and feel movement through the spine move all the way up to the head. The ribcage was soft again, breathing more complete. I had to trust my clinical experience (backed that up with hundreds of years of knowledge passed from bodyworker to bodyworker through the ages) that the spine reflects itself vertebrae to vertebrae, the top most reflecting the bottom most, the base of the skull reflecting the sacrum – I left him in expert care.

I went for a second session the next day. I went with an open mind but I admit I was slightly haunted with thoughts that I would have to do direct work on the neck. So much was better, the symptoms were gone or at least very, very bearable. The suffering was gone from an observer’s view and that was expressed subjectively. When clients are suffering and tests fail to confirm than get  under the scrupulous knowledge of expert hands. Hands which know they are not perfect and will quickly and humbly bow out of any situation too much to bear.

I am thankful for my teachers, I am thankful for those who have the courage to take a different almost untrodden path, I do hope that people out there read this and come to structural bodyworkers like myself. If you aren’t in my area I will try my best to connect you with someone who maybe qualified closer to you. I was on the other side of the table years ago, this gave me my life back and I truly believe that others need this opportunity. Cutting people off from this type of work is oppression, it is selfish, it is insane.

December 2011
Massage Therapy May Improve Asthma Symptoms in Children

Massage therapy may improve lung function for children with asthma, according to a new study.

Numerous theories exist on how massage therapy may be beneficial, although there is limited research on the mechanism of action. There is promising preliminary evidence that suggests massage therapy may be beneficial to the lung function of children with asthma; however, data are not conclusive.

In a new study, 60 children with asthma were randomly assigned to receive 20 minutes of massage therapy from their parents at home for five weeks in addition to standard asthma care, or to a control group of only standard care. Several lung function tests, including spirometry, which measures the volume of air that can be inhaled or exhaled, forced expiratory flow in one second, which is the speed of air coming out of the lung, were performed on the first and last day of treatment.

The researchers found that at the end of the study, forced expiratory flow was significantly higher for children in the massage therapy group when compared to the control group. There was also a significant improvement in the forced respiratory flow to forced vital capacity (volume of air that can be forced out after full inspiration) ratio. No significant improvements were found for other lung function tests, including the peak expiratory flow.

The authors concluded that massage therapy may improve lung function for children with asthma. However, further well-designed studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

For more information about integrative therapies for asthma, please visit Natural Standard’s Comparative Effectiveness Database.

To comment on this story, please visit Natural Standard’s blog.
References

Abdel Fattah M, Hamdy B. Pulmonary functions of children with asthma improve following massage therapy. J Altern Complement Med. 2011 Nov;17(11):1065-8. View Abstract
Natural Standard: The Authority on Integrative Medicine. www.naturalstandard.com

The information in this brief report is intended for informational purposes only, and is meant to help users better understand health concerns. This information should not be interpreted as specific medical advice. Users should consult with a qualified healthcare provider for specific questions regarding therapies, diagnosis and/or health conditions, prior to making therapeutic decisions. Copyright © 2012 Natural Standard Inc. Commercial distribution or reproduction prohibited.

Welcome to the web site of John Feissel’s homeopathic practice, located in Philadelphia, PA. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to schedule an in-person, telephone, or email consultation, please contact me:

Telephone: 215-375-7183
Email: johnfeissel@msn.com
www.feisselhomeopathy.com

Health and Wellness – The Tri-Valley is Filled With It!

March 5, 2012 By Sammy Shrimali
Meet Chris Corrales, CMT
Founder of MedicinEvolution – bodywork beyond massage, in Dublin, California

The Tri-Valley is a not only a beautiful place to live, but it is home to some talented health-and-wellness professionals.
The fact that Chris Corrales works in the business of helping people find ways to relax and live pain-free is no surprise, given his calm, professional, relaxed demeanor. My team had the pleasure of meeting with Chris this week.
Describing the services of his Dublin, Calif., – based MedicinEvolution as a “complete and systematic approach to balancing the body,” Chris said that his methods of holistic body work and massage focus, in great part, on fascia.
Fascia, Chris explained, is connective tissue found in all parts of the body.
“It’s an organ of structure and an organ of support,” he said. “It supports the body from the general structure (of a system) down to the cellular level.”
To use Chris’s analogy, think of fascia as the pith of an orange, which is the soft white substance found throughout the fruit.
Pith is found in abundance as a protective coating under an orange’s skin, just as it is found between each section of the orange and surrounding each pocket of juice. Fascia, he explained, exists in at least as great abundance and in similar patterning throughout the human body.
“There’s superficial fascia surrounding groups of organs, and then there are layers and depths to it, surrounding organs and organ parts,” he said. “But working fascia can be difficult. You can’t just stretch it. You need pressure, heat and intention to release it.”
Intention, he said, is where much of his work as a Rolf practitioner comes into play. He works closely with patients to help them want and learn to move in ways they may not think they are capable, given their pain or discomfort.
“I work with patients who are dealing with everything from cancer to fibromyalgia, to joint pain,” he said. “But I’m working with human beings, and every human being is different and everyone brings different life situations.”
Chris’s practice offers a holistic approach to healing. While he values the importance of working cooperatively with physicians, he believes that long-term use of prescription drugs can lead to other diseases or problems than what those medications were originally prescribed to treat.
“I do massage, but I don’t want anyone to think that is all I do,” he said. “It’s really holistic, alternative medicine.
The Rolf method, in which Chris is specially trained, is the most holistic method in bodywork, he said.
“I focus on accessing the parasympathetic nervous system,” he said, explaining that within the autonomic nervous system are two branches – parasympathetic and sympathetic.
Sympathetic responses, he said, include adrenaline releases, which he describes as toxic.
“The parasympathetic nervous system responses are based on rest and relaxation, and that’s what we aim to access,” he said.
The 10-session Rolf techniques each build on one another and occur in the relaxed setting of Chris’s Dublin office.
He tailors each patient’s program to meet their needs and includes massage methods that address the frontal spine, the neck and many other parts of the body for creating overall structural integration for improved health.
Chris offers his services on sliding-scale fees and is open to discussing modified payment plans for individuals who may not be able to afford the traditional plans.
You can contact Chris for a consultation at 925-922-2246.

by Ruth Werner, LMP, NCTMB

Massage Today August, 2002, Vol. 02, Issue 08

Cerebral Palsy: What Is It?

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a term that refers to many possible injuries to the brain during gestational development, birth, and early infancy. Several different types of CP have been identified, each involving damage to different parts of the brain.

The incidence of CP in the United States is two to four out of every 1,000 live births. Around half a million CP patients live in the U.S. today. In spite of improved prenatal care, the rate of CP in the U.S. has remained unchanged for many years.

Etiology: What Happens?

Cerebral palsy is the result of brain damage, usually to motor areas of the brain, specifically the basal ganglia and/or cerebellum. The damage can be brought about in a number of ways.

• Prenatal causes. Most cases of CP can be traced to problems during pregnancy, often due to maternal illness. Contributing factors include infections with herpes or toxoplasmosis, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, Rh sensitization (the mother essentially has an allergic reaction to the blood type of her unborn child), malnutrition, or abdominal trauma.
• Birth trauma. CP can result if the child experiences anoxia or asphyxia (lack of air from a mechanical blockage) during birth. Respiratory distress and head trauma (often from a difficult presentation or the use of forceps in delivery) may also increase the risk of brain damage.
• Acquired CP. This type of CP is acquired in early infancy. Causes include head trauma (often from car accidents or child abuse: “shaken baby syndrome”), infection with meningitis or encephalitis, vascular problems (brain hemorrhages) or neoplasms in the brain that may lead to brain damage.

Regardless of the cause of brain damage, the child with cerebral palsy will have some impairment of function. The problem could be so minor that only people who know what to look for may see it, or it may be completely debilitating both physically and mentally; it all depends on what part and how much of the brain has been affected.

Types of Cerebral Palsy

CP is classified into four types: spastic, athetoid, ataxic, and mixed.

• Spastic cerebral palsy. This is the most common form of the disorder, accounting for 50 to 80% of all CP patients. Spastic CP means that in some areas of the body muscle tone is so high that the tight muscle’s antagonists have completely let go. This is called the “clasp knife” effect.
• Athetoid cerebral palsy. This variety is less common than spastic CP, accounting for up to 30% of all patients. It involves very weak muscles, and frequent involuntary writhing movements.
• Ataxic cerebral palsy. This rare variety of the disorder involves chronic shaking and tremors, and very poor balance. Fewer than 10% of all CP patients live with ataxic CP.
• Mixed cerebral palsy. Many CP patients live with combinations of the CP forms.

CP may also be classified by what part of the body is affected. These terms are consistent with those used for other CNS disorders: hemiplegic CP means the left or right side is affected; diplegic CP means either two arms or two legs are affected; and quadriplegic CP means all the extremities are affected to some extent.

Types of CP may come and go, or change entirely from one kind to another, as the child grows. CP is not a progressive disorder, however, and if symptoms seem to be getting significantly worse over time, a different kind of CNS dysfunction must be considered.

Signs and Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of CP vary according to the location and extent of brain injury. Damage to the cerebellum produces different symptoms from damage to the frontal lobe, for instance. But some of the most common features of CP include hypertonicity; hypotonicity; poor coordination and voluntary muscle control; unusually weak muscles; random movements; seizure disorders; early hearing and/or vision problems; and progressive muscle contractures. About half of all CP patients have some level of mental retardation, and many are unable to communicate verbally.

Because infants don’t develop voluntary motor skills until they are around six months old, CP may be difficult to diagnose earlier than this point.

Treatment

CP is incurable and irreversible; as such, it is managed, rather than treated, by providing skills and equipment to live as fully and functionally as possible. For some CP patients this could mean using a brace for one foot that is slightly weaker than the other; for others it could mean intensive occupational, physical, and speech therapy for many years.

Medication for CP is occasionally prescribed to help manage seizures, and to reduce muscle spasm. Some surgical interventions have been developed to lengthen contracted muscles, to realign vertebrae that have become distorted by scoliosis, and to alter nerve pathways in the brain to reduce the severity of tremors.

Physical therapy is recommended for people with CP because the process of developing muscle contractures is slow and can be made even slower when muscles and joints are specifically stretched and manipulated to maintain flexibility. Patients may also be encouraged to use and strengthen their weaker limbs. It is important to note the many uses and benefits physical therapy has to offer CP patients, because massage therapy may also be a valuable adjunct in these cases.

What about Massage?

There is no question that massage therapy can have a valuable role in improving the quality of life of a person with CP. Unlike many CNS disorders, a lot of information about bodywork for CP patients is easily available; I’ll list some wonderful sources at the end of this article. Nonetheless, these clients require some special adjustments in the way bodywork is administered, and I’ve had several letters from massage therapists who would like to feel their work is more effective with this population.

The damage for a person who has CP does not begin in the muscle and connective tissues. Although this is where we feel the tightening of the connective tissue wrappings around muscles, the contractures themselves are simply a symptom-a complication of a problem deep in the brain. Therefore, if all we try to do is lengthen the muscles and stretch the fascia, we will run smack into a brick wall: either no progress will happed at all, or symptoms may even be temporarily exacerbated. Most people with CP get best results if bodywork focuses on indirectly affecting muscle tone through craniosacral work, gentle rocking, slow range of motion exercises, and manipulation of the arms and legs that engages the client in ways he or she doesn’t automatically resist-this often means going with the direction of muscle shortening in order to disengage the reflex. Ultimately, the therapist will have to experiment with lots of different approaches, often accompanied by extremely supportive bolstering, in order to find what techniques allow their clients to relax and enjoy their massage.

The benefits of massage to CP patients are undeniable. Parents write of their satisfaction when their child is able to sleep through the night, when postural distortions unbind, when breathing eases, when faces light up with joy because the massage therapist has arrived for a session. Imagine a child who is the object of vast numbers of painful, intrusive, unpleasant, dehumanizing medical procedures (regardless of the supportive intentions behind them). This child is handled rather than touched. Then his massage therapist arrives and arranges him carefully among pillows and bolsters on the table. She cradles his occiput and straightens his neck so he can breathe more easily. She rocks his arms and legs until their tension eases. She plays with his fingers until he realizes he can move them in lots of directions. Nothing she does hurts. What a gift, what a privilege to be invited into such a relationship!

If physical therapy is used to stretch and strengthen skeletal muscles, massage will also be a safe choice. The only caution is that people with very severe CP may not be able to communicate their wants or concerns clearly. If a massage therapist works with a client who cannot speak, other modes of communication, including nonverbal signals, become especially important. It is the responsibility of the massage therapist to make sure that his or her work is welcome and freely accepted at all times.

Our culture harbors a fear of people who look, or sound, or act differently from ourselves. Seeing or being with someone with CP can raise all kinds of fears or judgments that we never realized were there. Maybe this person can’t speak, or drools, or walks funny, or doesn’t walk at all. Speaking for myself, I will share that it’s especially hard for me to deal with disabilities when they occur in children. And yet, here is a population that so needs the work we do! As long as basic common-sense precautions are respected (don’t overwork numb areas, be sensitive to nonverbal communications, if anything you do makes symptoms worse then stop and try something else) massage can be a central coping mechanism for a child or adult with CP.

What I want to see.
I want to see a better triage process for people seeking health care needs. I want to see an enlightenment and better understanding of alternative and complimentary therapies including diet/nutrition, exercise, etc. I want to see more accurate referrals. Better communication between practitioners and more accessible patient notes and history of treatments and medicines used in order to narrow the chances of prescribing mistakes. A more holistic consideration and application of the causes and root sources of disease. An integrated mind-body approach. Healthier practitioners. A slower pace of patient intake and historical inquiry. Openness to the possibility of how healing may occur. I want the erasure of viewing disease as something to combat and disassociate from to accepting it as a reality and using it as a catalyst to move forward in various human aspects. I want to see people grow and become empowered by their experience of illness, trauma, etc.

The following is a compilation of data gathered by the American Massage Therapy Association® (AMTA®) from U.S. government statistics, surveys of consumers and massage therapists and recent clinical studies on the efficacy of massage.

Who Gets Massage, Where and Why?

According to the 2010 AMTA consumer survey, an average of 18 percent of adult Americans received at least one massage between July 2009 and July 2010, and an average of 28 percent of adult Americans received a massage in the previous five years.6
In July 2010, 25 percent of women and 10 percent of men reported having a massage in the past twelve months.4
Spas are where most people continue to receive massage, with 24 percent of those surveyed in July 2009 saying they had their last massage at a spa.4

While the use of massage decreased in 2010, people still recognize it as an important element in overall health and wellness. 4

Twenty-nine (29) percent of adult Americans who had a massage between July 2009 and July 2010 received it for medical or health reasons.
Of those that have ever had a massage, fifty-four (54) percent say they’ve used massage therapy at least one time for pain relief.
Of the people who had at least one massage in the last five years, 31 percent reported they did so for health conditions such as pain management, injury rehabilitation, migraine control, or overall wellness.
Eighty-six (86) percent agree that massage can be effective in reducing pain.
Eighty-five (85) percent agree that massage can be beneficial to health and wellness.

Consumers are increasingly seeking massage for stress reduction and relaxation.

In July 2010, 40 percent of adult Americans said they had at least one massage in the last five years to reduce stress or relax—up from 22 percent reported in 2007.

Massage and Healthcare
Healthcare providers promoted the benefits of massage to their patients slightly less in 2010.

In July 2010, over thirty-nine million American adults (16 percent) had discussed massage therapy with their doctors or health care providers, compared to 18 percent in 2009.4
Of those 16 percent, 31 percent of their health care providers strongly recommended massage therapy, compared to 35 percent in 2009. While physicians led the way in recommending massage (50 percent vs. 55 percent in 2009), chiropractors (35 percent vs. 48 percent in 2009) and physical therapists (42 percent vs. 40 percent in 2008) also recommended massage therapy when their patients discussed it with them.4
Nearly three quarters of massage therapists (73 percent) indicate they receive referrals from health care professionals, averaging 1.5 referrals per month.

Massage therapists and consumers favor integration of massage into healthcare.

More than half of adult Americans (58 percent) would like to see their insurance cover massage therapy.4
The vast majority of massage therapists (96 percent) believe massage therapy should be considered part of the health care field.5

Massage Therapy Research

The therapeutic benefits of massage continue to be researched and studied. Recent research has shown the effectiveness of massage for the following conditions:

Cancer-related fatigue.11
Low back pain.12
Osteoarthritis of the knee.13
Reducing post-operative pain.14
Boosting the body’s immune system functioning.15
Decreasing the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.16
Lowering blood pressure.17
Reducing headache frequency.18
Easing alcohol withdrawal symptoms.19
Decreasing pain in cancer patients.20

The American Massage Therapy Association® (AMTA®) is the largest non-profit, professional association serving more than 56,000 massage therapists, massage students and massage schools. The association is directed by volunteer leadership and fosters ongoing, direct member-involvement through its 51 chapters. AMTA works to advance the profession through ethics and standards, the promotion of fair and consistent licensing of massage therapists in all states, and public education on the benefits of massage.

“A physical therapist told me to look into Structural Integration to heal a long time running injury. I had tried several other therapies but they only provided temporary results. Structural Integration keeps my body aligned, preventing injury by not allowing my body to make compensations due to misalignment. It has improved my flexibility and keeps my hips loose, which increases endurance and speed. I have finally gone over a year without any running injuries!” – Lynn Acchione, marathon runner

Lesa sought out Structural Integration after a serious car accident left her unable to ski and in pain. She was back on skis a year later training with the Austrian National Ski team as a ski-racer. Lesa states, “Balance is the key ingredient to good skiing. A skier needs to develop a strong, balanced stance and flexibility that allows them to deal with constant changes in snow conditions, speed, direction, pressure and edging. Structural Integration can help a skier accomplish these attributes.” -Lesa Pensak, Certified ski-racing coach

“After my Structural Integration sessions it was great to experience total effortlessness and lightness, but at the same time feel compact and totally in control. I had increased energy, and skating took less effort. I found I had extra agility. My balance was better when doing turns on the ice.” -Brian Orser, World Champion Figure Skater

Sarah Wills has won eight gold medals in the Paralympics and is the most successful disabled ski-racer in the world. She started receiving Structural Integration sessions as part of her rehabilitation. She states, “Structural Integration enabled me to build more muscle, stretch easier, sit straighter and helped to maximize my workouts. Since skiing deals so much with balance and the forces of gravity, Structural Integration compliments the sport well.” -Sarah Wills, Paralympic Ski Racer

Hunter raced for over 17 years internationally and in the US, achieving over 40 victories throughout his career. In 1996 he retired as a professional cyclist and started Peaks Endurance Coaching. “There was an incredible amount of change in my muscles, they became more supple, less sore and didn’t fatigue as quickly.” says, Hunter. “I recommend Structural Integration to cyclists because it helps them to make changes in their body and ultimately improve their form.” -Hunter Allen, professional cyclist

“Structural Integration has really improved my running. I have become a more efficient runner and have increased my endurance,” Kirk says. “Structural Integration improves breathing capacity, which is critical to a runner. Also, Structural Integration improves alignment and balance of the body. The result is a smoother, less injury prone running form.” -Kirk Apt, Ultra-Marathon trail runner

In the year 2000 Alex was ranked #1 in the world in doubles. Alex has been receiving Structural Integration work for the past two years. He states, “after Structural Integration my body seemed more at ease, my serve was stronger, I had improved range of motion, I had increased agility and I used less energy getting to the ball- it was incredible.” -Alex O’Brien, professional tennis player

Structural Integration has given me a better presence than my competition. My posture has dramatically improved. My stance is firm. Not only has Structural Integration given me a mental advantage, it has increased my breathing capacity, improved my range of motion and I am more flexible. These are all qualities critical to becoming a winner in the Taekwondo sport. -Tim Thackery, US National Taekwondo champion

In 1985, Jean Paul had injured his body while roller skating, ending up with a fractured hip, shattered femur and a fractured wrist. For the next eight years he continued to have constant back pain. He received his first Structural Integration session in fall of 1994 and continued his sessions for six months thereafter. “After my Structural Integration sessions my back pain was gone, I breathed with greater ease and I felt much better. I began to feel like my old self again”
Two years later Jean Paul and his wife continue to return for ‘upkeep sessions’. “We are most thankful for what Structural Integration has done for us. I have referred other colleagues to our SI practitioner and after their treatment their reaction is as positive as mine. Structural Integration should be recognized for the great benefits that it could provide so many people.” -Jean Paul Patenaude

While pain management remains an essential patient right, a generation of health care professionals, patients, and families have learned the hard way how deeply misguided that assertion was. Narcotics – both illegal and legal – are dangerous drugs that can destroy lives and communities.

Millions of Americans struggle with substance abuse. Across the United States, overdoses involving opioid painkillers – a class of drugs with narcotic effects that includes hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone – have skyrocketed in the past decade.

Today, the United States consumes most of the world’s supply of opioid painkillers. By 2010, enough opioid painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month. And every year, nearly 15,000 people die from overdoses involving these drugs… more than from heroin and cocaine combined.

Studies by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and elsewhere show that most of these deaths are not the result of people taking small doses of opioids for a short time. Typically, problems arise when people take large amounts of painkillers or use them over a long period of time.

About 1 in 20 people in the United States age 12 or older reported using opioid painkillers for non-medical purposes in 2010. Some of these people engage in doctor shopping – getting prescriptions for commonly abused drugs from several practitioners in a short time and having the prescriptions filled at several pharmacies. In this way, people can obtain dangerous amounts of a prescription drug rapidly.

And in addition to the heavy toll this can take on lives and communities, non-medical use of prescription painkillers costs health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs.

We can do more as a society to help prevent overdoses involving prescription painkillers while making sure patients who need them have access to safe, effective treatment.

Health care providers should prescribe opioid painkillers only under specific conditions, as in the treatment of chronic cancer pain when other treatments have not worked, and in limited quantities.

Providers can also screen patients for risk and history of substance abuse before prescribing opioid painkillers. Drug addiction is a disease of the brain that can be treated.

But health care providers aren’t the whole answer. Insurers and health care institutions must set up systems to identify and take action when providers or patients are using prescription drugs in dangerous ways. Some states have passed laws to rein in rogue pain clinics (“pill mills”) run solely for profit, that attract drug shoppers from other states.

Individuals can help protect themselves and others by doing the following:

– Talk with your provider about alternatives to opioid painkillers.
– Use opioid painkillers only as directed by a health care provider.
– Make sure you are the only one to use your painkillers. Not selling or sharing them with others helps prevent misuse and abuse.
– Store opioid painkillers in a secure place and dispose of them properly.

View this articles comments:

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/24/cdc-director-we-are-not-powerless-against-prescription-drug-overdoses/?hpt=he_c2

The New Drug Crisis: Addiction by Prescription
By Jeffrey Kluger Monday, Sept. 13, 2010

Stephen Lewis for TIME

Update Appended: Sept. 17, 2010

It’s not easy to find a mother who would look back fondly on the time her son had cancer. But Penny (not her real name) does. Penny lives in Boston, and her son got sick when he was just 13. He struggled with the disease for several years — through the battery of tests and the horror of the diagnosis and, worst of all, through the pain that came from the treatment. For that last one, at least, there was help — Oxycontin, a time-released opioid that works for up to 12 hours. It did the job, and more.

The brain loves Oxycontin — the way the drug lights up the limbic system, with cascading effects through the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and prefrontal cortex, leaving pure pleasure in its wake. What the brain loves, it learns to crave. That’s especially so when the alternative is the cruel pain of cancer therapy. By the time Penny’s son was 17, his cancer was licked — but his taste for Oxy wasn’t. When his doctor quit prescribing him the stuff, the boy found the next best — or next available — thing: heroin. Penny soon began spending her Monday nights at meetings of the support group Learn to Cope, a Boston-based organization that counsels families of addicts, particularly those hooked on opioids or heroin. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2009.)

“Penny told the group that she actually misses her son’s cancer,” says Joanne Peterson, the founder of Learn to Cope. “When he had that, everyone was around. When he had that, he had support.”

Penny and her son are not unique. Humans have never lacked for ways to get wasted. The natural world is full of intoxicating leaves and fruits and fungi, and for centuries, science has added to the pharmacopoeia. In the past two decades, that’s been especially true. As the medical community has become more attentive to acute and chronic pain, a bounty of new drugs has rolled off Big Pharma’s production line.

There was fentanyl, a synthetic opioid around since the 1960s that went into wide use as a treatment for cancer pain in the 1990s. That was followed by Oxycodone, a short-acting drug for more routine pain, and after that came Oxycontin, a 12-hour formulation of the same powerful pill. Finally came hydrocodone, sold under numerous brand names, including Vicodin. Essentially the same opioid mixed with acetaminophen, hydrocodone seemed like health food compared with its chemical cousins, and it has been regulated accordingly. The government considers hydrocodone a Schedule III drug — one with a “moderate or low” risk of dependency, as opposed to Schedule II’s, which carry a “severe” risk. Physicians must submit a written prescription for Schedule II drugs; for Schedule III’s, they just phone the pharmacy. (Schedule I substances are drugs like heroin that are never prescribed.) For patients, that wealth of choices spelled danger. (See the most common hospital mishaps.)

“If someone is dying, addiction isn’t a problem,” says Dr. Jim Rathmell, chief of the division of pain medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “But for prescribers, the distinction between a patient who has three or four weeks to live and one who’s 32 and has chronic back pain started to blur.”

The result has hardly been a surprise. Since 1990, there has been a tenfold increase in prescriptions for opioids in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2007, 3.7 million people filled 21 million legal prescriptions for opioid painkillers, and 5.2 million people over the age of 12 reported using prescription painkillers nonmedically in the previous month, according to a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). From 2004 to ’08, emergency-room visits for opioid misuse doubled. At the same time, the drugs have become the stuff of pop culture, gaining cachet in the process. The fictitious Dr. House and Nurse Jackie gobble them like gumdrops, as did the decidedly nonfictional Rush Limbaugh and Heath Ledger. And, like Ledger, some users don’t make it out alive.

In 1990 there were barely 6,000 deaths from accidental drug poisoning in the U.S. By 2007 that number had nearly quintupled, to 27,658. In 15 states and the District of Columbia, unintentional overdoses have, for the first time in modern memory, replaced motor-vehicle incidents as the leading cause of accidental death; and in three more states it’s close to a tie.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2015763,00.html#ixzz1mTFBjGah

Alternative therapy shows promise for faster and more complete healing from concussions

Nathan White has been symptom-free for three months since receiving Bowen Therapy for his concussions.

Concussions have become a significant and growing problem in lacrosse and other sports, at the youth, amateur and professional levels. Players who have concussions suffer from a range of symptoms including headaches, dizziness, nausea and irritability. They can have trouble focusing their mind and often find it difficult to interact with others. It is a frustrating and hopeless feeling, and there is little that the medical establishment can do to help. Most players are told they have to just wait until the symptoms go away. This can be a matter of days, weeks or much longer. But an alternative treatment offers the hope of allowing players to return to the field and, more importantly, to their normal lives, sometimes in a single treatment. After the jump, read the remarkable story of this therapy and what it could mean to players suffering from the traumatic aftermath of concussions.

Bowen Therapy is not well known or understood. It was invented by Tom Bowen in Australia sometime in the 1940s but didn’t make its way to North American until 1989, according to a history of the treatment on the Bowen Therapy International web site. The therapy itself consists of a series of moves in which the practitioner uses their thumb and fingers to roll across muscles and connective tissues. No one seems to be able to give a complete scientific explanation of how it works, but there is ample anecdotal and clinical evidence that it does.

In fact, results achieved through Bowen Therapy can seem almost miraculous; they are often immediate or nearly so and they are long-term. The miraculous nature of the results could actually be a barrier to widespread acceptance, given humans’ sceptical nature and mistrust of things that seem too good to be true. But get ready to put your scepticism aside, because what follows is the story of one lacrosse player who recovered from multiple concussions with two one-hour Bowen treatments and who remains symptom-free months later.

Nathan White is a promising box and field player from Peterborough, Ontario. He has won Under-16 and Under-19 national field championships with Team Ontario and has played parts of two seasons with the Junior Lakers. White has scored 21 goals and 10 assists in 22 career games in junior. The reason he’s played so few games is he has suffered three concussions in the past two years. The first one happened when he was pushed from behind and wound up getting hit in the head with an elbow. The opponent who hit him was a friend from field lacrosse, and White says it wasn’t intentional, but that didn’t make any difference to his symptoms. He suffered headaches, nausea and trouble thinking, and he says it “felt like I had a real tight hat on all the time.”

White says, “I was always taught not to lay on the floor or ice cause it shows you’re hurt. That was the very first time I actually lay on the floor. I was still dazed and confused. I was really worried cause I just knew something was wrong.”

He began to feel better eventually and returned to playing. As is so often the case with head injuries, he didn’t realize until afterwards that it was too early. Shortly after his return he dodged to the net, dove through the crease and hit his head on the floor when he landed. The symptoms returned and stayed longer this time.

This summer White returned to the Lakers and played eight games. In the final one, he was cutting down the middle at Peterborough’s Memorial Centre “and as I shot someone came up with an elbow,” he says.

This time the symptoms returned and weren’t going away. White was finished for the season and had to watch his teammates as they made a strong playoff run, pushing the Orangeville Northmen to overtime of a seventh game in the OLA semi-finals. He says the “tight-hat” feeling remained and he had trouble thinking clearly, even six weeks after the injury. “It’s a real foggy feeling, nothing’s really clear,” White says. “It’s just foggy. That goes with emotions and everything, you’re not really sure how you feel.” He says that he felt the fogginess all the time right after the concussion and then on and off afterwards. “My feelings were as if I was in a snowstorm, i was very uncertain what was next, how i was gonna feel, what was gonna tick me off, what was gonna make me upset, what was gonna happen with lacrosse. It made everything seem so much more overwhelming.”

White’s treatment arose because of a happy accident. I have a friend who is a registered Herbalist. I knew she did Bowen Therapy but I didn’t really know much about it. Then I saw a Facebook status she had posted, saying how it was gratifying to have treated another concussion patient who got off the table after one treatment with all his symptoms resolved, but that it didn’t do much for repeat business.

I had written about the problem of concussions in lacrosse earlier in the year, when Merrick Thompson announced his retirement because of head injury issues. When I saw the Facebook post I almost immediately called my friend, Marianne Beacon, to talk about it.

Beacon explained the process and gave me a treatment to help with my neck, with which I’d been having trouble since a car accident several weeks earlier. After the treatment, as I was driving home, I turned my head to shoulder check when changing lanes. I was stunned by how freely and how far my head was able to turn. I knew that I wanted to get someone in to be treated by her for concussions, because I sensed how huge the implications were for treating athletes.

I had heard about White’s concussion problems, although they were always discussed in hushed tones and no one was really comfortable talking about it. It’s not something that people in sports want to talk about. Head injuries are really scary because you can’t just go to physio or have surgery and get better. The only approach western medicine really offers is rest, and plenty of it. Tracey Kelusky talked for my previous story about having to avoid using the computer and how he basically missed several months of his young son’s early life because he wasn’t really there. Ken Montour was still not playing a year and a half after suffering a major concussion. More importantly, he hadn’t been able to return to work as an education assistant with special needs children.

If there was something that could help, I wanted to find out about it and spread the word. I contacted White through the Lakers coaching staff and met with him to talk about the treatment and see if he would be interested in trying it. He and his parents were game, so I put them in touch with Beacon. White went to Beacon’s clinic, located just a couple of lacrosse floors’ lengths away from the Memorial Centre, for his first treatment.

In the first session Beacon speaks with the client to learn what issues they are having and determine the course of treatment. Approaches have been developed for dealing with concussions, but she wants to know about an individual’s issues to tailor treatment precisely. White then laid down on a massage-type table, fully clothed, and Beacon proceeded to do Bowen moves on him. The process involves gentle rolls across soft tissue—muscle, connective tissues and fascia. Beacon performs just three or four moves which could be described as similar to plucking a guitar string and then pauses for two minutes.

The pause is a critical element of the therapy, she explains. Bowen works in a similar way to the communication of the nervous system. It works with the brain. Beacon says the therapist is basically convincing the brain to heal the body, not forcing either brain or body to do anything. Because the brain works on a feedback loop, giving it more than four commands at once can overwhelm it and cause it to skip some and only complete others. Therefore, the system only works when the two-minute pauses are included between each set of moves. An entire session lasts about an hour.

After the first treatment, White said he noticed that the tightness in his head was gone, but he felt like he dwelt on what would happen. “I was thinking about it too much, worrying will it work will it work.” He returned for a second treatment a couple of weeks later, after which “it was like night and day. I didn’t dwell I just let it be and it was better right away. No tightness in my head and everything was pretty clear and I wasn’t irritated. I noticed that right away, and then a week into it I realized it was really working, that it wasn’t just a quick fix.”

The second treatment was August 2, more than three months ago, and White continues to be symptom-free. In that time he has helped Ontario to the national Under-19 field gold medal and has felt good while running and lifting weights. He started school at Sir Sandford Fleming College to upgrade and will be heading to Onondaga Community College for two years starting in January.

After that, he has committed to attend Stony Brook University on Long Island, NY,  on a lacrosse scholarship. Being concussion-free is a huge weight off his mind, and he is feeling confident about the future. White is happy to feel like he has his life back, and he is looking forward to playing lacrosse again, instead of worrying that he may never be the player he believes he has the potential to be.

Beacon says Bowen therapy is so effective because it “reminds the body how to heal.” She says she has had patients call to say they want to come in for a follow-up treatment but then call back to say they don’t need it because everything is fine again. With a little help to unlock tensions, the brain and body can remember their innate capacity to heal.

It’s unclear what will happen with subsequent concussions after Bowen therapy, as it is with anyone who recovers and then suffers another blow to the head. Beacon says, though, that she encourages clients to call immediately if they do suffer another head trauma so she can treat it within 24 hours. Addressing it quickly makes a huge difference.

The therapy is, of course, not just for concussions. Beacon has unlocked frozen shoulders and seen a woman with postpartum pain who was taking a bottle of Tylenol per week reduce her intake to just five tablets per week and then eventually to none. The key is that Bowen speeds the healing process and creates a more complete healing.

Beacon is also quick to point out that the Facebook post that led to this story was posted with tongue in cheek. While someone who requires only a single session after a concussion really isn’t great for repeat business, Beacon is a healer. She considers someone who comes in for a treatment or two and doesn’t need to come back a success story. Not all cases resolve this quickly. Concussions that have been lingering for a longer time tend to need more treatment. There are also other conditions that require more attention. Remarkably, often issues that have been the most difficult to treat traditionally will see results in a relatively short time.

She is hoping that word of Bowen Therapy will spread, partly from a business perspective but primarily because she knows there are thousands of people whose lives could be improved if they received the treatment. Beacon primarily practices in Peterborough and offers treatments one day per week in Toronto.

Nathan White’s story is just one example of a person making a full and lasting recovery, but it provides hope that Bowen Therapy could prove to be a revolutionary approach to dealing with concussions in the sports world.