Hot Stone 101

A common menu item for most spas today, hot stone therapy has its roots in many cultures throughout the ages.  Used for over 2500 years for therapeutic purposes, many types of organic stone have been used to treat areas of the human body for various conditions including sore muscles, poor circulation, and curing acute edematous conditions.

The most common type and source for hot stone massage stones is a La Paz mix of basalt stones from the beaches of Mexico to provide the heated and grounding nature of a Hot Stone Massage treatment.  The therapy incorporates the use of the heat and weight of the stones with the classic Swedish technique to provide a lulling, relaxing stimulation of the two main circulatory systems in the body: the capillary blood vessel and lymphatic systems.

Using long, flowing strokes and pressure that creates a wave-like movement toward the center of the body, the bodyworker will encourage dilation of the blood vessels, including capillaries, and detoxification of individual groups of muscle cells, increasing metabolism of the cells’ waste products and diffusion into the catch-all lymphatic and blood vessel systems.

This process is one that occurs over a suggested 80-minute protocol, addressing every area of the body, including some energetic aspects, like the heart chakra and Hara.  The placement of the Hara stone directly over the abdomen encourages stimulation of the energy stored there, thereby drawing energy in or dissipating excess energy, eventually balancing the Hara, a main source of life-energy.

Each stone has a purpose – a place – that is directly related to its size.  The larger areas of the body use larger stones.  The toe stones are very small and used between the toes and address those reflex areas.  The shape of the stone has a lot to do with its utility:  longer, thinner stones are used for specific work, while rounder, thicker stones are used for long-term placement on larger areas of the body.

In the end, the symphony of heat, pressure, and motion, induces a clarifying and subduing environment for the body that results in a physically detoxifying and spiritually grounding massage.

HIPAA On the Horizon

Client safety and confidentiality the intent of HIPAA - improves alternative health care industry

If you’ve ever thought twice about filling out a health questionnaire that your massage or bodywork practitioner has asked you to complete, you are not alone. It is within the scope of a Practitioner to ask questions about your health in order to provide you with the best service possible – safeguarding your state of health, knowing and practicing the contraindications for you and the bodywork you are receiving, and preventing any complications in providing that service. With rising fraud crimes and use of electronic filing systems, it is a valid concern of the Client and Practitioner that information can be misplaced, mishandled, and miscommunicated.

In 2003, the healthcare industry adopted a government standard for getting and keeping your personal health information for purposes of practicing medicine and filing insurance claims. It is named HIPAA: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA has three major purposes:

1. To protect and enhance the rights of consumers by providing them access to their health information and controlling the inappropriate use of that information;
2. To improve the quality of healthcare in the United States by restoring trust in the healthcare system among consumers, healthcare professionals and the multitude of organizations and individuals committed to the delivery of care; and
3. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery by creating a national framework for health privacy protection that builds on efforts by states, health systems, individual organizations and individuals.

Bodyworkers and Clients alike will be satisfied to know that the HIPAA law in place today protects the Protected Health Information (PHI) of the Client in every aspect of the healthcare information-gathering process when insurance claims are filed with companies such as BlueCross and BlueShield.

At this time, compliance is not mandatory for Bodyworkers in the industry of Alternative Healthcare (unless the information is used in an insurance claim situation), but many Information Technology systems are developing in order to accommodate the eventual governmental requirement. If you didn’t know already, currently it is industry-standard to get a written release form from the Client in order for the Practitioner to give or receive health record information from the Client’s doctor.

Look in the near future for your practitioner to have HIPAA information and compliant forms with his or her intake form to assure you that your information is handled with the level of concern and confidentiality it deserves.

National Certification Board Unveils Employer “Center of Excellence” Program

I got the email today, probably along with many certificants who are on the NCBTMB’s e-mailing list! I’d heard from the NCBTMB rep at the IECSC expo back in July (some fun pics!) that they were going to start this program for massage businesses that employ Nationally-Certified MTs, and I was very excited!

The Center of Excellence that the NCB proposes building is a marketing tool that can put a massage business in the lime light of the NCB’s efforts to promote massage therapy businesses that employ ONLY Nationally-Certified massage therapists and bodyworkers.

The NCB is not advertising a cost for this program, at least through the media I’ve received, so I am interested to find out what cost there is/will be. After contacting them, I think the NCB will lay it on whoever’s interested enough to contact them.

There are pros and cons to this method, but I think the aim for the NCB is to encourage certification processes continue at a rate where jurisdictions rely on the NCE as a benchmark for competency while rewarding the employers and businesses that utilize these same certificants with advertising from an established authority.

No matter your opinions or experience with the NCB (and I have heard varied and sundry accounts!), the aim is to enhance the marketability of a practitioner up to this point, and with the new program, to promote businesses that utilize certified MTs to provide services from that business utilization.

I definitely think that for the new/renewal rates that the NCB charges that this is a step in Certificants and the public getting to see the real value of being NCB-certified!

For more information about these credentials, contact the NCB through their website for more information- and post what you find out so we can get the WHOLE picture as it develops!

Leave a comment about what you see the PROS and CONS to be!

Yoga Today brings health improvement home

Touted as “Free Yoga Delivered Daily,” Yoga Today seems to be a very well-produced and refreshing method of foregoing the DVD cost and repetition of viewing the same guided yoga class over and over.

I happened across this illuminating and beautifully mesmerizing presentation in searching “Sedona” pictures on Google Maps for my upcoming roadtrip to Phoenix for the 2008 AMTA National Convention:  what a great sidetrack!

I hope you find the idea of a professional instructor appearing in your home for a different yoga class every day, located in some exotic and epically panoramic places (like Sedona, AZ, & Jackson, WY), inspiring and worth your time to consider including in your health and wellness program.  -Be Well,

How massage can help Diabetes sufferers live better

Diabetes and Massage

We all can appreciate how bodywork, massage particularly, can be a great way to relieve muscle tension, stress, and increase overall well-being.  But did you realize that with regular bodywork sessions, your overall state of physical health can be affected positively?  When dealing with the effects of diabetes, this method of relief can be effective and long-lasting.

Diabetes Mellitus is a group of related disorders that result in hyperglycemia, or elevated blood sugar levels.  Insulin is required to escort the highly-efficient energy source of glucose to the body’s cells where it can be utilized by the cells for energy throughout the body.  Sometimes the pancreas does not put out enough insulin to escort the glucose to the cells or the cells cannot detect the insulin carrying the glucose.  In both cases, the body has to resort to using other sources of energy if it cannot utilize or find the glucose; first, the body uses fats, then proteins, and finally, its own muscle tissue.   These sources of energy are not clean burning, like the glucose, so they leave behind toxins which are largely responsible for the complications related to diabetes.

The toxins that systematically affect the human body deposit and can create plaques and weakened areas of the arteries, called atherosclerosis, especially in the area of the kidneys (renal glands).  If the body can handle a bodywork session (determined in cooperation with a doctor), removal of toxins, edema, and getting nutrients to the cells and arteries of the body can change the physical response a diabetic patient has in everyday life over a period of time.  Tissue that the bodyworker directly affects must be healthy and resilient in order for the work to be done. 

One complication of the toxin build-up and the inefficient cell activity is peripheral neuropathy, or lack of feeling in the extremities.  Affected extremities can include broad areas of the arms, legs, or the tissue and nerves closest to the surface of the skin.  It is important that these areas are massaged or affected energetically in order to stimulate and reactivate the ability of the nerves to sense light, heat, chemical, and pressure – without the ability of the skin to sense, it or whole other areas of the body can be damaged or injured.  Pressure levels are always at the discretion of the recipient of the bodywork, so clients need to communicate with their bodyworker at all times, physically or verbally.

When getting any type of manipulation bodywork, remember:  ulcers on the skin are common in diabetes patients who have lived with the disease for 10 to 20 years or more – these are areas contraindicated for bodywork.  Also, advanced cases of spinal nerve damage, kidney failure, and infected tissue is contraindicated for physical manipulation of the body’s tissues – however, many forms of energetic work, like Reiki and Acupressure, have been effective in assisting the rebalancing of the body’s systems.

Approximately 625,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, and the causes for the disease can range from heredity to dietary habits involving high levels of carbohydrates.  Identifying the symptoms of frequent urination, excessive thirst and hunger, and depression or fatigue, weight loss, nausea, and vomiting are difficult to relate to being diagnosed with diabetes without seeing a medical doctor for blood and other tests.

For more information on diagnosing or the symptoms of diabetes, please contact the American Diabetes Association online:  http://www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp

For more information on how bodywork can assist a diabetic patient, please contact me for a free consultation.