Deep Tissue Massage:

Deep tissue massages are meant to “unstick” the fibers of a muscle while helping to release deeply-held tension, remove toxins, relax and soothe the muscles.  This form of massage is both therapeutic and corrective.  This technique focuses on the deeper layers of muscle tissue.  Deep tissue massage’s main goal is to release chronic tension patterns through slow strokes and deep pressure on the contracted areas.  This technique goes along the fibers of the muscles, tendons and fascia.  Deep tissue massage aids in the break up and elimination of scar tissue.  This massage technique focuses on more specific areas and causes temporary soreness the night of the massage.  If done properly, you will feel your best in a day or two.

Why get a Deep Tissue Massage?

Deep tissue massages feel good and is beneficial to your health.  Stressed muscles block oxygen and nutrients which causes inflammation and build-up of toxins in the muscle tissue.  Deep tissue massage helps to loosen muscle tissues, toxins and enhance blood and oxygen to circulate properly.  After this massage, drinking extra water is recommended to flush out the toxins from the body. 

How does Scar Tissue form in the muscles?

The toxic environment we live in poisons our bodies, which is breeding ground for scar tissue and crystallization build-up, which leads to irritation and inflammation.  This in turn, creates more Lactic Acid to build in your muscles and cause more soreness and pain.  Our blood system bathes tissues by bringing oxygen and nutrients to the cells and carbon dioxide and toxins from the cells.  This extra build-up in the muscles, tendons and ligaments increases pain and lack of movement.

When we injure our muscles, scar tissue attaches itself to the tendons and the origin and insertion points.  This “protective device” enables movement of larger muscle groups, which in turn restricts and immobilizes smaller muscle groups.  X-Rays and Ultrasounds do not detect scar tissue and can only be identified by a certified massage therapist.

Phasic Muscles:   by  Lisa Eileen Lentz, LMP, 10/23/06
Phasic Muscles are muscles that fatigue faster than other musculature in the body.  Why is this?  
Phasic Muscles are:   fast-twitch, glycolic metabolism, fast fatigability, low capillary density, low number of spindle cells, and weaken due to dysfunction.

Translation please!
Simply stated, there is less blood flow, and fewer cells indicating a broader and longer base of movement and stretching, if you will congestion.  Because of this, metabollically, the musculature is more likely to be saturated with lactic acid, various proteins that settle in the tissue, and other contributing enzymes. 
Rather than shortening, like Tonic Muscles (slow-twitch, slow fatigability, high capillary density), the Phasic Muscles will actually weaken. (Tonic muscles with shorten or contract rather than weaken)

Some of the Phasic Muscles include:
Mid-Thoracic Erectors (adjacent to the spine in the rib cage area)
Rhomboid Muscles (between the shoulder blades)
Trapezius, Ascending Portion (Between the shoulder blades and approaching the neck)
Trapezius, Horizontal Portion (Along the top of the shoulders to the shoulder joint)
Pecotalis Major, Sternal Portion (along the sternum in the center of the chest)
Triceps Brachaii (the back of the arm above the armpit to above the elbow)
Vastus Medialis (quad)
Vasuts Lateralis (Quad)
Gluteus Medius (Posterior)
Gluteus Maximus (Primary muscle in the hips)
Gluteus Minimus (Supporting hip muscle)
Tibealis Anterior (Front of the calf , big toe side)
Peroneal Group (the small toe side of the calf, runs along the outside of the calf from below the knee  
                            & wraps into the side of the foot)

Phasic Muscles receive less nutrition and enervation than the other musculature in the body, which is why they are easily sprained and injured. 

Here are some easy steps to take to ensure a healthy and balanced body: 
1.  Eat right and on time.   This keeps a good supply of healthy proteins, vitamins and minerals in the body.  When 
     you do not eat on time, over an extended period, the body draws perceives that it is starving and draws nutrition
     from the secondary Phasic Muscles and uses it in the Tonic (primary supporting) Muscles.   Also, since some of 
     the Phasic Muscles are connected to Diabetes and Dibebetic Neuropathy, eating right and on-time will aid in 
     preventing the weakening of this tissue.
 2. Drink lots of water.   Staying well hydrated keeps the body tissue flushed out, thus helping to prevent the        stagnation  and build up of  the enzymes that ultimately create pain, trigger, points, and discomfort.
3.  Have a balanced stretching and exercise routine.  Make sure that you are stetching not only the Tonic Muscles,  but also gently stretching the Phasic Muscles.  
4.  Try a good Contrasting Hydro when you experience Chronic Pain and Soreness.  This is simply
     alternating hot and cold, ending with the same temperature that you started with.  (see aftercare instructions in the
     main menu!).  This is especially helpful with the easily weakened Phasic Muscle.
5.  Check with your Doctor, Physical Therapist, Certified Nutritionist, and your health care providers for
     any helpful ideas and information in keeping your Phasic Muscles as healthy as your Tonic Muscles.
6.  Get a good night's sleep.  This gives the body time to de-compress, and de-stress.
7.  Keith Innes,D.C., suggests that you walk heel-to-toe, with a straight spine, and moving from        your hips.  Making sure that from your head to your feet, that you feel the muscles working together as you walk slowly and mindfully.  Be sure to check in with you Chiropractor as well, they are a goldmine of  helpful treatment and information! 
  
  
Scientific Breakthrough,, Sound Healing destroys Fibroids:

Joan Vann
Tucson Soundings
Tucson, AZ USA

Simon Heather e-mail newsletter:
Machine Destroys Tumours With Noise


Doctors are using a pioneering new technique which destroys tumours using nothing more than loud noise. Using a powerful beam of ultrasound they are able to zap diseased tissue without leaving a scar, writes Sky News Health Correspondent Thomas Moore.


It is being tested on women suffering from fibroids, who would once have had to have a hysterectomy.


The sound is too high pitched for the human ear to hear, and there is no radiation, no toxic chemotherapy, and no scar.


Shirley Coombs had been lined up for a hysterectomy. She has fibroids - benign tumours that grow in the womb and affect one in three women. But with high powered ultrasound doctors will zap the growths and leave her womb intact. She will be able to have children.


"I like the idea of leaving everything intact. I can carry on with my life rather than be laid up for 4 to 6 weeks with a hysterectomy. "


The new zap-while-you- scan technique allows doctors to blast tumours with unprecedented precision.


Patients lie, face down, in an MRI scanner. Doctors outline the tumour on high-resolution images of the body.Then they zap the target, using a dish of water as a lens to focus a beam of ultrasound down to a tiny point. In just one second they heat cells to 55 degrees, and watch the scan as the tissue is destroyed.


For Professor Wladyslaw Gedroyc there are benefits on both sides: "We can treat patients in a single session. They walk in, they walk out. There is no bed stay, there are no scars, and no more unpleasant surgical complications. "


The beam is 10,000 times more powerful than the ultrasound used to scan pregnant women. Yet it's only a few millimetres across, allowing doctors to destroy diseased tissue, without harming healthy cells.


Trials at St Mary's Hospital in London show significant improvements in 80 per cent of women.For now the zapper is the only one of its kind in the country.


But the doctors say their results speak for themselves. And in time patients around the country will have their tumours obliterated using nothing more than the power of sound.