Includes information on all three disciplines offered
Massage
Journal News 4-30-02
Long search to find back pain therapy
“For many Americans, finding an effective therapy for back pain is elusive. A new study comparing acupuncture, massage and self -care found that after one year the massage group came out ahead, using the least amount of medications and spending the least amount of money for subsequent medical care, said Daniel C. Cherkin from the Center for Health Studies in Seattle. Acupuncture was relatively ineffective. ‘Therapeutic massage was effective for persistent lower back pain, apparently providing long-lasting benefits,’ he reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.”
Yoga
Yoga Journal October 2010
Back on Track
Free yourself from ordinary back pain by doing these 5 simple poses
each day
Story and sequence by Roger Cole
“So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key–The Eagles
Yes, I’m dating myself here-quoting a 70’s rock band to illustrate a point about yoga. But these lyrics perfectly describe one of the great benefits of a regular yoga practice. Steady practice helps us to identify when our suffering is optional, and it empowers us with the tools to transform that suffering.
One of the most common forms of suffering that arises from living in a modern culture is back pain. But somehow the message that a regular yoga practice can unlock a tight aching back and resolve chronic pain doesn’t seem to have been broadcast to the population at large. A quick internet search on the words “back pain” turn up zero yoga –related results unless you go digging for them. On pages where users ask each other the best way to resolve their back problems, they are advised by other users to see a massage therapist, a chiropractor, or a doctor or to take Motrin. Of course, massage, manipulation and medicine can each help to free up tense back muscles in its own way, but these options don’t give people the tools to cast off their own shackles. And, even though a few insightful respondents do recommend elementary stretches, no one has uttered so much as a tweet about the elephant in the chat room: yoga.
Maybe someone needs to write a hit song about it.
Simple Solution
The message should definitely be more widely circulated, because freeing your entire back from ordinary muscle tension, and the pain it brings, can usually be done by practicing just four simple poses—one forward bend, one pose that combines a side bend with a forward bend, one side bend, and one twist—plus a passive back bend, each day. These poses systematically stretch every muscle in your back, with the exception of a few arm and shoulder muscles. As you practice the sequence of poses on thee pages, you will see that when yoga unlocks the chains that bend the back, it does so with a combination, not a key.
It’s best not to introduce these poses too abruptly. Start by spending a few days loosening your muscles partway with gentle, supported poses that involve similar movements. (For two useful poses, go to www.yogajournal.com/easeintoeffort and www.yogajournal.com/supportedchildspose to find helpful instruction from Jason Crandell and Claudia Cummins)
Use your intuition and an honest assessment of the sensations in your back muscles to gauge when a stronger stretch would feel more like a relief than a threat to them. Then gradually introduce the back-stretch sequence. You can stave off tensions-induced back pain indefinitely by practicing these poses on a regular basis, either on their own or after gentler preparatory poses. When you reach this stage, you should add a fifth pose, the passive back bend shown on pay 75 to balance your practice.”
To see full article descriptions and pictures of five poses, go to your local library and look up, Yoga Journal October 2010 issue or find it at www.yogajournal.com.
You may also contact Karen, (914) 631-4049 for yoga instruction on this sequence and many others to tailor fit your body’s requirements.
Homeopathy
Dr. Julian Whitaker’s Health & Healing
May 1995; Supplement
Homeopathy—New Age, But Not New
By Jan Heimlich, Associate Editor
“What is Homeopathy?”
“Homeopathy is a system of medicine that uses tiny doses of natural substances to stimulate the body’s own healing powers. The term homeopathy comes from the Greek words Homoios (“similar”) and pathos (“suffering” or “sickness).
Homeopathic principles are older than Hippocrates himself, and have remained unchanged since they were formulated by German physician and pharmacologist Samuel Hahnemann in the early 1800’s. Today, it’s practiced world-wide. In France, one-third of family physicians prescribe homeopathic medicines; in Germany, 20%. In great Britain, members of the Royal Family have been homeopathic patients since the time of Queen Victoria. And in India, there are 120 homeopathic medical schools.
Homeopathy was enormously popular in America during the latter half of the 19th century. At a time when allopathic or conventional doctors subjected their patients to bloodletting and leeches and dosed them with a mercury-laden purge, homeopathy was the choice of the elite. (In the movie Little Women, Beth, when stricken with scarlet fever, is given Belladonna, a common homeopathic remedy.)
The advent of “scientific” medicine in the early 1900’s overshadowed homeopathy, but the recent resurgence of natural medicine has brought this age-old form of healing back to the fore. In fact, according to the Chain Drug Review, “Homeopathic medicine is regarded as the single fastest-growing category in drug stores.” Walgreen Company, Thrifty Payless, and Medicine-Shoppe International have introduced homeopathic remedies at some of their outlets, while Eckerd Corp. carries homeopathic remedies in all its 2,000 stores.
To benefit fully from homeopathy, whether you’re treating yourself or family members, you should first understand its principles and how they differ from conventional medicine or allopathy.”
It is however, highly recommended especially for chronic conditions, you seek out a homeopathic practitioner such as myself to review your case more carefully, as it is often times very hard to look objectively at the presenting symptoms.
The Organon of the Medical Art by Samuel Hahnemann M.D. 6th edition; edited and annotated by Wenda Brewster O’Reilly, PhD; based on translation by Steven Decker states:
Paragraph 7
“Thus, in a word, the totality of symptoms must be the most important, indeed the only thing in every case of disease, that the medical-art-practitioner has to discern and to clear away, by means of his art, so that the disease shall be cured and transformed into health.”
Paragraph 83
“This individualizing examination of a disease case, for which I am giving only general instructions here demands nothing of the medical-art practitioner except freedom from bias and healthy senses, attention while observing and fidelity in recording the image of the disease.”
Homeopathic Treatment for Chronic Disease: A 6-Year, University-Hospital Outpatient Observational Study
To cite this article: David S. Spence, Elizabeth A. Thompson and S.J. Barron. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. October 2005, 11(5): 793-798. doi:10.1089/acm.2005.11.793. Published in Volume: 11 Issue 5: November 18, 2005
Conclusions: Homeopathic intervention offered positive health changes to a substantial proportion of a large cohort of patients with a wide range of chronic diseases. Additional observational research, including studies using different designs, is necessary for further research development in homeopathy.
NaturalNews Tuesday, October 05, 2010 by: Tony Isaacs
Nobel Scientist Discovers Scientific Basis of Homeopathy
“At a time when the British Medical Association is calling for an end to national funding for homeopathy and detractors are describing it as “nonsense on stilts”, a Nobel prize-winning scientist has made a discovery that suggests that homeopathy does have a scientific basis after all. In July, Nobel Prize winning French virologist Professor Luc Montagnier shocked fellow Nobel prize-winners and the medical establishment by telling them that he had discovered that water has a memory that continues even after many dilutions.”
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029940_homeopathy_scientist.html#ixzz1Q2ZRyhzN
And this: http://www.extraordinarymedicine.org/
And…http://www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org/
For more information or to make an appointment please call Karen 914-631-4049 or email at
Karen.Diefenbach@gmail.com (all inquiries will be answered through these two means only)