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A comprehensive guide to the new science of treating lower back pain
From Vox: By Julia Belluz Millions of back patients are floundering in a medical system that isn’t equipped to help them. They’re pushed toward intrusive, addictive, expensive interventions that often fail or can even harm them, and away from things like yoga or psychotherapy, which actually seem to help. Meanwhile, Americans and their doctors have…
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“Changing Your Story” about how fascial massage works
“More Mental Floss for the Myofascial Release Brain: Changing Your Story” From Myofascial Release Blog. (See also the author’s “Let Your Stories Mature and Grow” and “The Good (and Bad) of a Simpler Narrative“.) By Walter Fritz [Though fascial massage can feel like the most effective treatment for many people, there are a few different…
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We Have Much to Learn from Fascia Research
From Massage Today: By Leon Chaitow Fascia is fashionable. Over the past few years, you may have noticed the increase in conferences, congresses, symposia, workshops, online courses, books and articles that contain the word fascia in their title. Fascia was, for many years, seen as a sort of second-class tissue, a form of supportive wrapping,…
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The Pros and Cons of Massages for Runners
From Runners World: By Kelly Bastone Research finally reveals just what massages can — and can’t — do for runners. There is good reason massage therapists are part of an elite runner’s entourage. And why the lines for a postrace massage seemingly extend for miles. A rubdown — even a deep, intense one — feels…
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Why Ice Delays Recovery
From American Journal of Sports Medicine, and see also “RICE: The End of an Ice Age” at Stone Athletic Medicine: By Gabe Mirkin When I wrote my best-selling Sportsmedicine Book in 1978, I coined the term RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for the treatment of athletic injuries. Ice has been a standard treatment for injuries…
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The Power of Touch
From Psychology Today: by Rick Chillot Touch is the first sense we acquire and the secret weapon in many a successful relationship. Here’s how to regain fluency in your first language. You’re in a crowded subway car on a Tuesday morning, or perhaps on a city bus. Still-sleepy commuters, lulled by vibrations, remain hushed, yet…
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Massage Neurons Discovered
From Nature: Mice have ‘massage neurons’: Nerve cells that detect gentle touch in mice are a hit with cats too. Picture the expression on your cat’s face when you stroke it. What makes it so happy? The answer lies in a particular type of sensory neuron that responds to pleasant stroking, say scientists at the…
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If We Cannot Stretch Fascia, What Are We Doing?
From massage-stlouis.com: By Alice (?) When Ida Rolf began putting her hands and elbows on people’s skin and applying pressure, creating a slow, sustained stretch, she imagined that she was stretching fascial sheets. Generations of manual therapists have followed her thinking, accepting this explanation to account for the changes felt in tissue tension beneath their…
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Fascia Science: Stretching the power of manual therapy
By Greg Lehman. Originally posted at greglehman.ca, now only online at archive.org. See a response by Andreo Spina. Purpose: Fascia is everywhere, provides a fantastic structural support for the body and has the ability to transmit force from force generating muscles. But we as therapists tend to get ahead of ourselves and make statements about…
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How Massage Helps Heal Muscles and Relieve Pain
From Time Magazine by Maia Szalavitz The word massage alone elicits deep relaxation and stress relief, and now a new study sheds light on how deep touch works to ease pain and promote healing in sore muscles. Researchers at McMaster University in Canada found that massage affects the activity of certain genes, directly reducing inflammation…
