Foam Roller Nerd

Yesterday one of my clients called me a “foam roller nerd” after I told her I would be spending the entire day today in a Continuing Education Course for Registered Massage Therapists on Foam Rolling.

I laughed but its true.  Although I would say Fascial Nerd would be my preference!

The foam roller is one of the easiest self care tools to use to release fascia and fascia is how I see the body.  My treatment style (Course of Applied Tensegrity) is centred totally around fascia,  it is in my opinion the most important tissue to focus on to gain the best results from manual therapy.

What is fascia?

“Fascia is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue that provides support and protection for most structures within the human body, including muscle.  This soft tissue can become restricted due to psychogenic disease, overuse, trauma, infectious agents, or inactivity , often resulting in pain, muscle tension and corresponding blood flow”.  (Dowling 2005))

Still wondering what fascia is and what it looks like?   Watch this video by Gil Hedley.               He calls it FUZZ instead of fascia.

WARNING there are cadavers used in this video.

 

The Course of Applied Tensegrity treatment:

Results:
Decrease pain
Improve or restore a sense of general well-being
Increase homeostasis

Stretching, foam rolling or manual therapy (such as Physiotherapy or Massage therapy) are all great ways to treat your fascia.  The Foam Roller is a wonderful tool for self care at home.

Here is video introducing the foam roller:

 

Reference:

DiGiovanna, Eileen, S. Chiowitz, D. Dowling(2005) “Myosfasical (soft Tissue) Techniques: An Osteopathic Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment, 3rd Edition, philadelphia, PA,P.

Taking control of your own health care.

 

This blog has been a year and half in the making.  January 2015 I sat down with my family physician and asked her what her thoughts were on our health care system.  Is she over worked? What can we as individuals/patients do so that we are working more effectively  with our family physicians?  How can we as individuals obtain better overall care?

Why did I  ask my family physician to sit down to lunch with me?

I have family members that have suffered physical pain for years due to misdiagnosis and “falling through the crack’s” of our medical system. Unfortunately they are still suffering chronic pain due to these mistakes. Personally I had a similar experience but far less detrimental when a piece of glass was embedded in my foot and rubbing against one of my metatarsals. I knew something was wrong, had x-rays done and saw my family physician. I was told nothing was wrong and  nothing had showed  up in my x-ray.  He did thankfully send me to a specialist.  On my arrival the original x-ray was pulled out, this was the first time I was seeing the x-ray and there very clearly was a piece of glass nudged up against my metatarsal.  Clearly in my previous appointment the x-ray was never looked at, shortly after I had a minor surgery to remove the glass and went about my life normally.  My experience only took about 6 months to resolve but many people including my family members are still suffering due to  these kinds of mistakes.

It is not one individuals fault that these mistakes happen it is the medical system in general.  We have to remember we are dealing with people who are human, make mistakes and are often overworked.

What can we do personally to make sure we don’t get overlooked?

I have my own opinions of the health care system so instead of just going on a rant and blaming individuals or the system as a whole I decided to go right directly to the those individuals involved in the system.  I asked my family physician Dr. Yam to lunch and she graciously accepted.  It was a quick 30 minute lunch but I was able to glean enough information from her to come up with a plan that I want to share with you on steps to taking control of your own health care.

5 Steps to creating your personal health care plan.

1. Create your own personal file.  Have a file that includes any lab work , X-rays, scans that you may have had in relation to a problem.  I recommend making hard copies of these reports. Yes a bit old school but so much easier for you to hand a few pieces of paper to a physician so that he/she can be undated on your health instantly. This is Dr. Yams suggestion.

2. Go online and sign up for my ehealth  My ehealth will allow you to gain access and keep track of all your lab tests.

3.  Share your results.  If you are ever having tests other than lab work (only lab test results are uploaded to my ehealth) X-rays or scans of any type ask for a copy of the report to also be sent to another one of your other health care practitioners. (Ex. Physiotherapist  or Massage Therapist)  Simply have the fax number or email address added to the intake form when you are checking in for your test.  How information is shared within the medical community has changed so having test results sent to multiple practitioners ensures you will not only have access to a copy but your other practitioners will have access to the results. (This information goes into your personal file.)  This information can be very helpful for your other health care practitioners, what may seem inconsequential to your family physician could be very helpful to a physiotherapist or massage therapist in creating your treatment plan.

4. Ask for another opinion.  No one person can have all the answers and every health care practitioner has different experiences to draw from.  If you don’t feel you are being heard or would just feel  more comfortable with another opinion don’t hesitate.

5. Create your own health care team.  No one physician, health practitioner or specialist will be able to see the entire picture.  These individuals are giving you information that you must be willing to take and put into a larger picture.  I personally have a family physician, massage therapist, physiotherapist, natriopathic physician and kinesiologist; all are crucial in my personal health care plan.

It is your responsibility to create the “big picture” of your health care plan yourself.

5 Tips for Plumper, Healthier Breasts

May of 2010 I signed up for a course with an amazing instructor: Marjorie Haynes RMT. Her course was called “The Skeleton” and in it I learned new ways to treat the Lymphatic System that have forever changed the way I view and treat the body. The style of treatment is called Course of Applied Tensegrity (CoAT)

That course had nothing to do with breast health but rumour had it that  Marjorie Haynes also taught a very simple self breast massage that literally “plumped” up the breasts. This I had to check out, so I booked an appointment and learned the simplest of self breast massages and YES it worked. I did it for a few weeks and then it started to dawn on me there was more to this treatment than just vanity.

Sure, my breasts looked plumper and firmer but I also got rid of the fibrocystic ridge that had formed from years of wearing underwire bras. A cyst I had had for may years reduced in size and tenderness and my PMS tenderness was almost completely gone. I became confused.

How is it that I am an RMT who does self massage treatments on myself, on almost all parts of my body, but it never for one second occurred to me to do a self breast massage? I would occasionally think about doing a “Self Breast Exam” but would end up just poking around and not really looking for anything because I was too afraid to find something. This is ridiculous. They are right in front of me, the easiest part of my body to do self massage on and I had never thought to massage them.  I started to asked other women and my other massage therapy friends if they did self breast massage and it was a unanimous NO.

WHERE MY MISSION BEGINS

A moment of vanity that opened my mind to the possibilities of how women can take better care of themselves.

I then became more interested in breast health in general. Do you know if you Google breast health it is near impossible to find anything related to this topic that doesn’t mention Breast Cancer. REALLY! Health means healthy so let’s remove this idea that whenever we think Breast Health we also automatically think Cancer.

I hope to give women a new perspective on the body: Don’t be afraid to touch yourself! Women can bring back the vitality to the breast tissue with a simple self massage. This treatment can help with breast feeding and most types of breast pain.

5 Introductory Tips on Breast Health Massage

1.Get to know and love your breasts. Spend a few minutes a few times a week exploring your breasts with your hands. This will get you familiar with your own size and shape.
2.Start gently, very little pressure is required to change the vitality of breast tissue.
3.Your Lymphatic System is directly affect by this treatment… do the treatment and see how your energy changes.
4.Do at night just before bedtime to calm down your nervous system to aid in sleeping.
5.Commit to 4 weeks and note the changes.

How to do a self breast massage?  Check out the Luv Your Boobs site.

GO FORTH AND MASSAGE THYSELF.

 

Why Spend More For A Natural Deodorant?

The deodorant dilemma.

Are you anything like me? I am very conscious of what I eat, read labels on cosmetics and household cleaners. I try to live as chemical free as I can but when it comes to my deodorant I will slap on anything that works regardless of what the label says. I will not risk smelling bad even though I know how potentially harmful antiperspirants can be.

In the past I had tried many brands of natural deodorants but always wound up using some version of Secret. The natural brands could not hold up to my life style, I work closely with clients all day and just cannot risk smelling bad. For a brief time I rotated the natural deodorants in hopes that they keep working. I would use the crystal for about 2 weeks, then start adding lavender essential oils to try to keep it working, then use something totally different for the next week. As you can see this is very time consuming, frustrating and expensive.

While researching natural deodorants for the The new Luv Your Boobs website myself and my business partner Jenny Beech learned 2 things:

First- Read labels.

There are certain chemicals in deodorants that you want to avoid (they are listed below) also I am suspect whether there is full disclosure on what is put on labels. Most commercial deodorants are full of “fillers”, these are added to make the deodorant easier to pour into a container therefore easier to use and cheaper and quicker to make.

Second- it has to work.

Natural does not mean effective. We failed in finding a natural deodorant that we both thought was effective and could stand up to a regular day at work. After much frustration we Googled “recipe for natural deodorant” took the first recipe that popped up, altered it slightly based on comments and magically made our first deodorant. After using it for several weeks and it kept working I started to tell everyone. Gave the recipe away over and over, gave away samples and really encouraged my clients to make it at home.  They all loved it but said “I won’t make it myself, can you just make it and I’ll buy it from you?”

Silk deodorant comes to life!

So we did! Luv Your Boobs never intended to make deodorant, we started purely to educate women on breast health and make bras. It was a little like falling down the rabbit hole and now I suddenly have 200 pounds of baking soda and corn starch in my dining room and we have a “cooking” session once a month.

The bad news

Listed below are the top controversial ingredients in your commercial deodorant:

Aluminum -active ingredient in antipersperants to stop sweat glands from producing sweat.  Linked to Alzheimer’s?

Parabens -a common preservative that mimics estrogen in the body. Elevated estrogen levels are linked to increased risk for breast cancer.

Propyolene glycol – used to stop products from drying out, was originally created as an anti-freeze- NEED I SAY MORE!

TEA and DEA (triethanolamine and diethanolamine).  Once absorbed into our body causes allergic reactions and can lead to liver and    kidney damage.  Both are known carcinogens.

For more information on what each of the ingredients in your current deodorant are and how they affect your body visit Skin Deep or Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

Why should we worry about putting these chemicals on our skin?

Let’s start with where we apply deodorant.  Under the arm!

The axilla (armpit area) has many lymph nodes that are directly linked to breast tissue. Our skin is permeable so what we put on our skin can absorb into our body tissue. Taxing the axillary lymph nodes with external toxins can cause a congestion of lymphatic drainage and a stagnation of toxins in the breast tissue.

50% of breast cancer is found in the upper outer quadrant of the breast, closest to where you place deodorant.  So why risk it?

The benefits of SILK deodorant.

Our product is made from 3 simple ingredients that you can find in your kitchen:  Virgin coconut oil, baking soda and corn starch.  All edible, all natural and you can pronounce all of them.

We can proudly say our natural deodorant was never tested on any animals, unless you count all our friends who offered up their armpits to help bring it to life.

How to use our deodorant.

KEEP IT IN THE FRIDGE. Beware virgin coconut oil is one of the main ingredients and will melt at temperaters above 36 degrees celsius (97 degrees fahrenheit).  If this happens just sit upright in cool place and the deodorant will reset and work perfectly fine once hardened.

To be honest our deodorant like other natural deodorants can be  a little finicky until you get used to it. The key to ours is use very little – LIGHTLY rub on, only a few swipes is needed. If you press too hard or use too much you will risk getting it on your clothing (it will brush off easily leaving no trace) or crumble. If it crumbles just gently push back into the container, the heat of your hand will  remould the product. If applied properly our deodorant can last up to six months.

Finickiness  is a small price to pay for peace of mind!  Know what goes on your skin, goes into your body and feel better knowing.

I hope you enjoy our “Silk” deodorant.

I would love to hear your feedback.