Hand & Hand Mobile Massage |

Moving Through Life, Gardening Habits

Tom Saulnier — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:44:59 +0000

Highlights of this issue:

* Moving Through Life – Finding the Pleasure in Exercise
* Cultivating a Gardening Habit
* Vitamin D – The Sunshine Vitamin

Moving Through Life: Finding the Pleasure in Exercise

Sonia Osorio

We’re busier than ever with longer workdays, less leisure time, shorter lunch hours, longer commutes, and more demands than ever before. We may even be in a job that doesn’t fulfill us, yet we spend most of our time there. When the day ends, we have almost no energy left to do what we enjoy. How to find a healthy balance?

Plenty has been written about the therapeutic benefits of exercise. So, why aren’t more people reaping those benefits and moving toward health and well-being? We need to reexamine our notion of what exercise and movement are and consider what we’re moving toward or away from. Then we can begin to ask ourselves other questions: Not just are we fit, but are we physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy? Are we happy? Do we enjoy how we’re moving through life? How can we integrate more healing movement into our days?

Exercise as “Medicine”

We sometimes see more barriers than options to exercise. But what if we reoriented our point of view to notice where the opportunities lie? We can begin by simply redefining exercise (with its sometimes negative connotation of obligation) to movement. Already opportunities arise: How do we want to move in our bodies and in our lives? How can we have fun doing that? How can we move more (or maybe less, if we need to slow down)? How does it feel to be still? How can we make time to move into pleasure, to move with pleasure? Already, the notion of movement takes on a more healing expression. Rather than simply being another item on our to do list, it becomes a way for us to examine our lives, to see where we can move toward health, and use physical activity as a way to support this. …Click here for full publication Summer 2012

Safe Fun in the Sun, Cancer, Vitamin D

Tom Saulnier — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:37:42 +0000

Safe Fun in the Sun

Nutrition Offers UV Shield

Sharron Leonard

Because sunlight activates the synthesis of vitamin D, a nutrient that works with vitamin A to build strong bones and good eyesight it is essential for health. Furthermore, bright light, specifically sunshine, can improve your mood and help ward off depression. But all things in moderation. Overexposure to UV rays can cause potentially extensive damage to the skin, an all-too-common occurrence. “Skin cancer is now considered epidemic throughout the nation”, according to The Centers for Disease Control Prevention. “Over one million residents in the United States are expected to get skin cancer this year more people than the collective total of all who will get cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight causes 90 percent of the skin cancer cases.” And this overexposure may double the risk of melanoma, a type of skin cancer that causes more than 80 percent of skin cancer deaths.

UV rays cause oxidative damage and can actually change the skin’s DNA cellular structure, creating highly unstable and toxic molecules. These are known as free radicals and can lead to malignancies. Sunscreen, adequate coverage and sunglasses have long been recommended to avoid this damage, but diverse studies now suggest some promising supplemental strategies for UV protection from the inside out. Certain nutrients and a low-fat diet have shown specific anti-cancer properties.

…Click here for complete newsletter: Summer 2011-mU

Whiplash: Healing a Pain in the Neck, Arthritis

Tom Saulnier — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:45:20 +0000

IN THIS ISSUE: *Whiplash: Healing a Pain in the Neck * Managing Arthritis * Here Comes the Sun

Whiplash: Healing a Pain in the Neck – by Hope Bentley

Getting rear-ended in traffic. Face-planting at the bottom of a ski slope. Tumbling over the handlebars on your bike. Whiplash comes in many forms and can become a long-term problem if not treated correctly. Fortunately, massage and bodywork can address the ache and discomfort that come with whiplash and prevent chronic pain down the road.

Understanding

Whiplash

The term “whiplash” came into use in 1928. Doctors will sometimes use “hyperextension injury,” to describe it, but “whiplash” is a more visceral account of what has happened to the victim’s neck. The neck itself has made a whip-like motion bending first towards and then away from the point of impact. As the head moves rapidly in one direction, the muscles in the neck receive the message to contract. The momentum of the head can cause strain or sprain to the muscles and ligaments in the neck as the head reaches the end of its movement.

Car accidents are the most common causes of whiplash. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reported that about 20 percent of people who have been in rear-end collisions later report whiplash symptoms. Whether front to back or side to side, whiplash can affect muscles all the way into the victim’s back and arms. The most serious form of whiplash compresses nerves in the neck and cause multiple sprains of the ligaments.

The good news is, serious hyperextension injuries are in the minority, as whiplash usually comes in the less serious version of the injury. “Fortunately, about 95 percent of the time whiplash tends to be more…Click here for complete newsletter: Spring 2008-tax