I have recently started treating a middle age person with a fantastic history : born in South East Asia, sexually molested  when young. A refugee that made it to the US without anything, no language, no money, no relatives, nothing... Today a thriving CEO and President of a nice-sized computer-science company and an adviser to the...White House. That is what I call a true achiever.Strong spirit and great will power.
The client complains mostly about a stiff neck and back and successfully treated for these conditions by my manual therapy. I must say that having an intelligent client of this  type makes the session all the more rewarding to myself as a therapist.

Jim

Hi all,
As you well know the Triangle in NC has been blessed with many therapists  of all sorts and types.
My practice however is just about the only REAL ZEN SHIATSU clinic in the Triangle. And moreover, we offer so much more in pain relief, treatment and management, through a variety of manual and energetic approaches. We help chronic pain victims daily. Give us the chance to help you as well.

Call Jim at 919-960-9049 - and talk to us, pick our brains with your questions regarding your or friend's condition.

Happy Holidays,

Jim Lev Certified Holistic Therapist
www.shiatsudoc.com

Distal radius fractures, or wrist fractures, are the most common break in kids.  The usual treatment is a short arm cast for four to six weeks.

A new study looked at 92 kids, 43 with wrist fractures who were treated with splints and 49 in casts.  After six weeks they were assessed by doctors who didn't know which treatment they received.

"There were no differences in maintaining fracture stability, complications, and the splint was shown to be superior in terms of family preferences," study authors wrote. 

Patients and parental satisfaction with the splint was higher.  Of the children with casts, 68 percent would have preferred to have the splint and 12 percent of the splint group would have preferred the cast.

"Our results support the growing body of evidence that promote splinting as a suitable alternative to casting for specific distal radius fractures," Dr. Kathy Boutis, physician and associate scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children wrote.

SOURCE: CMAJ, published online September 7, 2010

 , Here's one more reason to make sure your child is getting enough rest: Teenagers who don't get enough sleep eat more fatty foods and snacks.

Researchers found teens who slept less than eight hours on weeknights consumed 2.2 percent more calories from fats and 3 percent fewer calories from carbs compared to teens who slept eight hours or more. They found this link was strongest among girls.  

There was also a link between sleep duration and snacking. For every one-hour increase in sleep duration, the odds of consuming a high amount of calories from snacks dropped by about 21 percent. Teens who slept less than eight hours per weeknight were more also likely to consume food early in the morning, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.

"Altered timing of eating in shorter sleepers also may be a metabolic stress that contributes to metabolic dysfunction," Susan Redline, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was quoted as saying.

The study included 240 teens between ages 16 and 19. Eighteen percent of the participants were obese.

SOURCE: Sleep, September 1, 2010

Black Rice: Your New Source For Antioxidants

White rice is delicious, brown rice is nutritious, so where does that leave black rice? According to a new study, it's better for you than a bowl of berries.
"Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants," Zhimin Xu, Associate Professor at the Department of Food Science at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was quoted as saying.
"If berries are used to boost health, why not black rice and black rice bran? Especially, black rice bran would be a unique and economical material to increase consumption of health promoting antioxidants."
Much like blueberries and blackberries alike, "black rice" is rich in anthocyanin antioxidants, substances that show promise for fighting heart disease, cancer and myriad other diseases. Numerous studies showed that these antioxidants can reduce blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL).  Xu suggests that food manufacturers could use black rice bran to boost the health value of breakfast cereals, beverages, cakes, cookies, and other foods.
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SOURCE: 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society

 Hormone treatments are commonly used for postmenopausal women, but a new study shows even more evidence this therapy increases the risk of breast cancer.

An analysis of the California Teachers Study shows there is a higher need for a risk-benefit discussion before postmenopausal women receive hormone treatments. This study further clarifies the idea that hormone therapy increases the chance of breast cancer. "The benefits of hormone therapy for relief of postmenopausal symptoms among women are clear, but the risks are more complicated than we had previously thought." Tanmai Saxena, M.D./Ph.D. student at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was quoted as saying.

There were 2,857 women analyzed for ten years. The study found that compared to women who did not get treatment, the women who had undergone therapy for more than 15 years had a 19 percent increased chance of breast cancer.

Women who received a combined treatment of estrogen and progestin for more than 15 years had a whopping 83 percent increased chance of breast cancer. The risk was highest among this group.

Breast cancer risk seemed to be correlated to body mass index (BMI). The women with a BMI lower than 30 seemed to be at a greater risk than women above 30, which is considered obese. The women with a BMI lower than 25 were at an even higher risk. Obese women had no increase in breast cancer risk with using the combined treatment.

The risk was confined to tumors that had both estrogen and progestin receptors, and the risk was less for tumors lacking HER2. HER2 is a human epidermal growth factor receptor that causes tumors to grow rapidly.

The findings show that there is a need for further analysis of hormone treatments and its negative effects, and also that the risks, as well as the benefits, need to be made clear to the person receiving treatment. "These results add new evidence that risk does vary by other personal characteristics," Susan Hankinson, Sc.D., professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School was quoted as saying. "However, for now, the public health message remains essentially the same. There is an increased risk of breast cancer from hormone use, and further studies will address the question of how specific that risk is."

Massage therapists and other Body therapists  are reminded once more that during massage, and after obtaining a written consent can be instrumental in the discovery of breast cancer, however  women, in general are the best detectors of suspicious lumps in theirs breasts.

SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers&Prevention, published August 10, 2010

A Dogs Life

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Do you treat your dog like a member of the family? A recent study found that people who think of animals as children tend to have a city background.
A recent study by David Blouin, assistant professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Indiana University South Bend, found that man's best friend might be treated like any other animal depending on where the family lives.
"To think of pets as just another animal is not uncommon in rural areas, which makes sense given the utilitarian relationships people in rural areas are more likely to have with a range of different animals -- from farm to wild animals," Blouin was quoted as saying.
There are myriad factors that can affect the relationship between a family and their pet, especially children.
"If you have kids, you have less time to spend with your pets. That's part of it, but not the whole story. People who think of their pets as children often re-evaluate this thought when they have human children of their own," Blouin said, who discussed his study on Sunday at the American Sociological Association 2010 Annual Meeting.
The study, which involved pet owners in Indiana, found that 93 percent of dog owners and 77 percent of cat owners took their pets to the veterinarian at least once a year.
Many of the pet owners said that their pet's health was a major concern as their animals got older. Several interviewees admitted to spending significant sums of money addressing routine care for their pet's health.
The amount of time spent with pets, as well as veterinarian visits depended heavily on how owner's viewed their pets -- whether as a child, a companion or just an animal.
SOURCE: The American Sociological Association 2010 Annual Meeting

If you think Taco Bell and the Internet have turned your kid's belly into blubber, you're not alone. Studies show up to one-third of all children and teens are now obese. But researchers say they may have found the cure at your local Middle school.

All that energy before the big game may have its roots at recess.

"You just sign up and hang out and play with your friends," Kiera Turner, a student, told Ivanhoe.

Kiera is finally coming out of her shell.

"I got to show more of my athletic side to people," she said.
 
North Carolina researchers say kids who participate in sports at a young age play for life. Their study found 21 percent of sixth grade girls don't get their recommended one-hour daily workout time, and zero percent of eighth grade girls pass that test.

"The intramural sport model has the capacity to get many more kids involved," Jason Bocarro, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism
at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., told Ivanhoe.

"Knowing that a student is comfortable playing sports … really translates into playing sports over a lifetime," Jonathan Casper, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of Parks, Recreation&Tourism at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., added.

Studies show most kids who stop playing sports do so between sixth and eighth grades. Sixty-eight percent of those kids want to play sports but don't have the resources or time. Seventy percent of kids who quit before high school never play again. Kids who don't stay fit often stay that way as adults.

"I have more energy than I would if I was trying out because I'd be so nervous," Kiera told Ivanhoe.

Kiera's chance to play means more athletics, every day. If her peers do the same, the U.S. may curb the 300,000 yearly deaths caused by weight gain.

"I don't like standing still or like being in a closed environment for a long time," Kiera said.

The two-year long study from North Carolina State University researchers Bocarro and Casper also shows kids who play sports have more confidence in social situations. Beyond that, people who play a wide variety of sports as kids are more likely to keep playing those sports as adults.

The study found CAM practices reduced pain as much as 50% for hospitalized patients. The research was conducted by Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis between January 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009. Some "1,837 cardiovascular, medical, surgical, orthopedics, spine, rehabilitation, oncology, and women's health patients" received "non-pharmaceutical services: mind body therapies to elicit the relaxation response, acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy, healing touch, music therapy, aromatherapy, and reflexology."

What's new is the focus of a study of pain reduction and CAM practices on a hospitalized patient population as a whole. "'Earlier studies (which) narrowly focused on whether specific integrative therapies manage pain in either cancer or surgical patients," says Jeffery A. Dusek, Ph.D., research director for the George Institute.'" Reflexology studies of pain among hospitalized patients follow this trend. The fifteen such studies were conducted among cancer and post-surgical patients or pregnant women in labor.

Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff, medical director of the Institute and one of the study's authors notes that "'We struggle to provide effective pain control while trying to avoid the adverse effects of opioid medications, such as respiratory depression, nausea, constipation, dizziness and falls.'"

Jeffery A. Dusek, Ph.D., research director for the George Institute notes, "Our real-world study broadly shows that these therapies effectively reduce pain by over 50 percent across numerous patient populations. Furthermore, they can be clinically implemented in real time, across, and under the operational and financial constraints within an acute care hospital.

"Dusek says future research will focus on defining appropriate intervention doses, duration of pain relief, and developing profiles of which patients are most likely to respond to nonpharmacologic treatments. Reductions in total hospitalization costs, medication use and adverse events will be quantified in future prospective research using the electronic medical record.

"'I think we will find that integrative approaches to pain management during the hospital stay will improve patient satisfaction and outcomes, and we will see cost savings from patients using fewer drugs and experiencing fewer adverse events," said Lori Knutson, RN, BSN, HN-BC, executive director of the George Institute."

It is unclear who provides reflexology services at the hospital. No reflexology studies were cited in the bibliography for this study.

Many medical professionals now realize that some complementary
therapies can be beneficial for people with lung cancer. In fact, many
major cancer centers offer complementary therapies to their patients.
By contrast, use of alternative therapies continues to be discouraged.
Why the difference?  

First, alternative therapies are promoted for use instead of
conventional therapy, while complementary therapies are used alongside
conventional medical treatment for lung cancer. Second, most
alternative therapies are of unproven or no value, whereas some
complementary therapies help control lung cancer symptoms and side
effects from medications as well as reduce emotional distress.  

Not all complementary therapies are recommended, however, and none of
them will slow the growth of cancer or offer a cure for cancer. Here's
a list of those that get the seal of approval from the American
College of Chest Physicians -- and some that don't.  

My advice: Massage, acupuncture, and mind-body therapies can be
effective in relieving the symptoms of lung cancer and some of the
side effects of treatment and are worth considering when used in
conjunction with conventional therapy. But it's important to find a
 practitioner who is trained in treating cancer patients.