UNTIL he met a reclusive tribe of near-mythical athletes at the bottom of a Mexican canyon, Micah True could never figure out why his running injuries got worse as his running shoes got better. Then, the Tarahumara Indians taught him a lesson that even Nike is now starting to embrace: the best shoe may be no shoe at all.

Mr. True, 53, from Nederland, Colo., wasn’t the only one baffled by the injury mystery. For years kinesiology professors, physical therapists and athletic-shoe designers have been puzzling over the same paradox: if running shoe protection and cushioning have improved, why haven’t injuries among joggers
decreased?

“The technological advancements over the past 30 years have been amazing,” said Dr. Irene Davis, the director of the Running Injury Clinic at the University of Delaware. “We’ve seen tremendous innovations in motion control and cushioning. And yet the remedies don’t seem to defeat the ailments.”

Since the running boom of the 70’s, giants like Nike, Adidas and New Balance have rivaled Silicon Valley for speed of R. & D. rollout, releasing improved products nearly every six months. One shoe, the Adidas 1, even has microprocessors that analyze foot impact and adjust cushioning with each stride. New Balance has a motion-control shoe so finely engineered it costs $199.99. Still, 65 percent to 80 percent of all runners - joggers and elite marathoners alike - are injured in an average year, according to Dr. Davis. Aching Achilles tendons, sore knees, inflamed arches and hobbling plantar fascia pain are as common today as they were when boot camp grunts were jogging in canvas Converse “Chuckies.”

Read the rest of this entry »

If you would like a half price coupon for a full session of either Structural Integration, Acupuncture, an awesome Massage, a foot-detox session with massage, a private Vinyasa Yoga session, or a Personal Trainer sessions please go to my website and send your email and mailing addresses. I will mail you the gift certificates or I can email you a printable version. Don’t wait as this promotion expires at the end of May. This is part of the ongoing launch of the new Center for Structural Wellness in NYC. We also offer sessions of physical therapy, chiropractic, nutrition, colonics, pilates, and Alexander Technique. Please inquire if you have any questions about your structural wellness.

From the April 21st NY Magazine by Adam Sternbergh.

I got a shout-out in the article “You Walk Wrong”. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.

… I consider myself a very accomplished walker. I mean, sure, I have occasional back pain, and okay, when I walk long distances, I feel a grinding pain in my hip that I never used to feel before. And, yes, when I visited Michael Bulger, a structural integrationist near Washington Park with an expertise in “Rolfing,” a kind of deep-tissue massage, and he Rolfed one of my feet, then had me walk around a bit for a before-and-after comparison, I felt, thanks to my un-Rolfed foot, like a pirate walking on a peg leg.

The article goes on to praise the awesome Vivo Barefoot shoe line that I’ve been rocking on my peds for years now. If you want to experience NYC in a new way, try these shoes - you feel every crack, every temperature change, steel grating, pebbles, hypodermic needles, just everything. And with the clever kevlar protection you can stop bullets with a front kick.

Click here for entire article.

This is an interesting page I found on QueryCat doing a basic search on Structural Integration.

Structural Integration is the generic term for the style of bodywork that includes Rolfing. Rolfing is the original form of the work. Only practitioners that have attended the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration are permitted to call themselves “Rolfers”. All forms of structural integration trace their lineage back to Ida P. Rolf. Over time, various people have decided to change the way the method was taught or even alter its basic tenants.

Basically, Rolfing is what Kleenex is to tissues. Rolfers have branded themselves quite well over the years apart from the greater Structural Integration community, but now we are all united under the same roof again with the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI).

The word ‘Rolfing‘ is a nonsense term that I’ve heard Dr. Ida Rolf herself scoffed at. When clients would go to see her they would say, “I’m going to get Rolfed” or “I just got Rolfed” and the word stuck. After all, she originally called the work Postural Dynamics which then morphed into Structural Integration.

Today there are 4000+ practitioners attempting to make the world more symmetrical. Here is a list of the schools the IASI deems part of the family:

The Guild for Structural Integration
Core Institute - Structural Integration Program
The Guild for Therapeutic Bodywork, Inc.
Hellerwork®, International
Institut für Strukturelle Körpertherapie
Institute of Structural Medicine
Institute for Structural Integration
International Professional School of Bodywork
International School of Structural Integration
Kinesis, Inc. - KMI
Mana Integrative Therapies
Northwest Center for Structural Integration
The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration
The School of Integrated Therapies – SI Program
Soma Neuromuscular Institute®
Structural Innovations - SI Program

I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of the Rolfers and call my work Bulgering since I integrated visceral manipulation into the basic series and tacked on another 5 sessions.

by Karden Rabin, Licensed Massage Therapist at the Center for Structural Wellness

Oi Vay, My Back!

Most of us have back pain. Because we’re all way to busy, we either learn to live with it or latch ourselves to quick fixes, like pain medication, cortisone injections or a couple of cracks at the chiropractor. None of these, of course, are cures; they just dull or block out the pain for a few hours or days.

In fact, mainstream remedies will never restore a person’s back to health when having to live a modern lifestyle. The human body is not accustomed to asphalt streets, concrete sidewalks, handbags, telephones, driving and most especially, sitting at a computer for hours on end. The demands of modern society keep the back oscillating between up-right and slouching forward. Over time, this creates a destructive pattern of ceaseless back muscle engagement and hyper-stretching. Our over-worked and over-tired back muscles become compromised from such abuse and eventually start manifesting more severe issues, including pathogenic displacement of vertebrae and shoulder blades, postural misalignments, nerve impingement, headaches, migraines and many other issues.

They key to finding lasting relief for back pain is to counter-act this daily pattern of abuse to our backs. But who can do that? Are we all supposed to levitate along sidewalks, lie down in our cars, train our pets to carry our handbags and hire someone to answer our email? Although this would be awesome, it’s highly improbable. So we’re back at square one, trying to find an effective, fast and frequent method to alleviate our back pain that we’ll actually get around to doing.

Fortunately, there are techniques that allow us to achieve this goal and they are especially suited for people who want to relax and need a lazy form of pain relief. In fact, after keeping us upright all day long, what our backs are seeking most is a comfortable position or just plain rest. Their dream therapy is effortlessly relaxing into a back bend. Therefore, the lazy person’s path to back pain relief is the supported bridge position

The Science behind the Supported Bridge: Positional Therapy

Eighty five percent of the pain we experience in our lives is muscular in origin and predominantly from excessive contracture or tightness. Often, the key to pain relief is the release of tight muscles, which is why so many of us receive massage or practice yoga. One of the most powerful therapies dedicated to muscle release is known as Positional Therapy. Discovered by osteopaths, it was determined that if a muscle is placed in a position of passive contraction for 90 seconds, it spontaneously releases its tension.

For example, the upper trapezius muscle (the one between the shoulder and the neck that everyone loves having massaged) helps to raise the shoulder towards the ear. The position of release for the trapezius is to lie down on one’s back, lift an arm over the head, and bend the elbow across the crown of the head. It is imperative that once this position of release is reached, the trapezius muscle be allowed to completely relax. The trapezius must not hold itself in this position of release, but lets gravity do the work. After 90 seconds, the trapezius muscle will release, and it will not only feel better but will have a greater range of motion.

The technique is so simple, passive and effective that people would find it unbelievable if not for their undeniable relief of pain. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a great article I’m reprinting in its entirety from the Smart Skin Care site, an independent research collective that does not sell or endorse any products.

An ideal clinical study is set up something like this. First, find a large uniform pool of candidates and randomly assign them to two groups. Second, change a single variable in a controlled way, e.g. administer a nutrient or a drug to the one group and give a placebo to the other group. Importantly, neither the administering doctors nor the subjects should know who is giving/getting what. After the treatment, analyze the results and make a conclusion whether the difference in the outcome between the groups is likely to be due to random statistical variations or the effect of the treatment. Such a study, especially if repeated by several independent groups of researchers unaffiliated with commercial interests, gives you a decent chance of arriving at the truth about the value of the treatment in question.

Well, I have to disappoint you but conducting such a study to find the best diet to prevent or reduce wrinkles is next to impossible in real life. First, a dietary intervention involves too many variables — it is not practicable to vary every single aspect of a diet separately while keeping everything else constant. Second, long-running, interventional studies are very expensive. It is next to impossible to patent a diet, so such a study would require extremely generous public funding, which is hard to obtain for only a “beauty-threatening” problem like wrinkles. And there are other obstacles too. In other words, don’t hold your breath for a definitive study showing what diet is the best ‘wrinkle cure’.

The most comprehensive such study to date was published by researchers from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia in 2001 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. The researchers analyzed the diets of 453 people (aged 70 years and over from Australia, Greece and Sweden) to determine the correlation, if any, between the consumption of certain types of foods and skin wrinkling.

The overall conclusion was that a low-glycemic diet high in varied fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and fish was associated with less skin wrinkling. Specifically, the following food were noted:

Foods associated with less wrinkling

In the Monash study, less skin wrinkling in the elderly was associated with higher intakes of:

Total fat
Mono-unsaturated fat
Olive oil and olives
Fish (especially fatty fish, such as sardines)
Reduced fat milk and milk products, such as yogurt
Eggs
Nuts and legumes (especially lima and broad beans)
Vegetables (especially leafy greens, spinach, eggplant, asparagus, celery, onions, leeks and garlic)
Wholegrain cereals
Fruit and fruit products (especially prunes, cherries, apples and jams)
Tea
Water
Zinc (foods which contain zinc include seafood, lean meat, milk and nuts).

Foods associated with more wrinkling

More skin wrinkling in the elderly was associated with higher intakes of:

Saturated fat
Meat (especially fatty processed meats)
Full fat dairy products (especially unfermented products and ice cream)
Soft drinks and cordials
Cakes, pastries and desserts
Potatoes
Butter
Margarine

This is the follow-up to the original article on structured water. I’ve managed to enlist myself as a dealer to the best structured water filters I could find. I checked out a bunch of filters that purify, alkalize, and structure the water to make it more hydrating and selected what I think generates the best gallons for the buck. It’s called the Jupiter Melody and it retails for $1250 plus shipping costs. Though I am prohibited from offering a discount online I can throw in a free session if you buy one through me. Click on the link to email me for the details. The free session is for either Structural Integration, massage, acupuncture, or personal training. Now back to the new information.

It’s important to move away from bottled water so as to protect the environment, cut down on transportation pollutions and remove the risks of dioxins and other harmful chemicals that leach from the plastic bottles themselves (even Nalgene bottles are at risk). I guestimate that I spend around $1500 a year on bottled water like Fiji and Icelandic H2O. What a waste. I’ve got my new structured and alkaline water filter up running and it tastes oh so good. I really do feel more hydrated and now that the initial costs are absorbed - its free!

Here is a quick list on bottle plastics:

Avoid:
#3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) commonly contains di-2-ehtylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), an endocrine disruptor and probable human carcinogen, as a softener.

#6 Polystyrene (PS) may leach styrene, a possible endocrine disruptor and human carcinogen, into water and food.

#7 Polycarbonate contains the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A, which can leach out as bottles age, are heated or exposed to acidic solutions. Unfortunately, #7 is used in most baby bottles and five-gallon water jugs and in many reusable sports bottles.

Better Plastics

#1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), the most common and easily recycled plastic for bottled water and soft drinks, has also been considered the most safe. However, one 2003 Italian study found that the amount of DEHP in bottled spring water increased after 9 months of storage in a PET bottle.

#2 High Density Polyethylene

#4 Low Density Polyethylene

#5 Polypropylene

This is from Daily Grist:

“Recent studies have shown that polycarbonate plastics, including the kind used in popular Nalgene water bottles, may leach one of their constituent chemicals into water. The chemical in question, bisphenol-A, has been shown to cause chromosomal disorders and endocrine disruption and to have adverse effects on prostate development and tumors, breast tissue development, and sperm count — in rodents. Nalgene says that no health problems have been demonstrated in human beings. Still, John P. Myers, environmental health expert and coauthor of a book on endocrine disruptors, says, “I personally recommend avoiding polycarbonate plastics — don’t let them come into contact with your food or water. I think the science is strong enough to justify precautionary measures today.”

It’s been quite a few months since the Cambridge meeting of the top fascia researchers the world has ever known - and the scant group did not disappoint us. Connective tissue is the most pervasive organ in the human body yet it remains left out of most research parties. Fascia (including the covering and invaginations of muscles, bones, nerves, organs, tendons and ligaments) supports our structure through tension and integrity yet has only failed to support when it comes time to dole out the grant money. Drug development is paramount but there is a new field coming up to meet the demands of the people. Thanks to Dr. Tom Findley for coordinating this massive achievement at Harvard Medical.

SCIENCE Magazine, “the world’s leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary,” has an excellent write up about the recent First International Fascia Research Congress in its November 23, 2007 issue (vol. 318, pp. 1234-5).

David Grimm’s article is titled “Cell Biology Meets Rolfing — A diverse group of researchers wants to create a new discipline from scratch by bringing together experts in fascia and deep-tissue massage.”

“The meeting, held here [in Boston] last month, would be the first dedicated to the soft part of the body’s connective tissue system — an important but medically neglected organ. It would bring together top scientists from fields as diverse as cell biology and biophysics, but it would also include alternative medicine practitioners…”

This conference was a first venture within the field of the human fasciae to bring together scientists and clinicians. Thomas Findley, MD PhD, the Executive Director of the conference,

“Practitioners want to know the science behind what they’re doing…and scientists want to see clinical applications of their work.”

Partap Khalsa, DC PhD, program officer with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) stated,

“You need people who can do good basic science and clinicians who can inform them about their experiences…It’s the only way to advance the field.”

Here is the article: Science article

The International Association of Structural Integrators bi-annual conference followed the symposium and brought together the whose who in Structural Integration. Look for the 2009 conference to bring it all home again, this time in Italy. Also in Europe -the next Fascia Congress will be in Amsterdam. Arrivederci and tot ziens!

The picture above is a scanned image from Paul Pitchford’s “Healing With Whole Foods”- the best tome on nutrition. I left some text to read so you get his point.

The organs in the body are building from a low point energetically until they peak for 2 or so hours half way through the day and then discharge back to their low - completing a 24-hour journey. This is important because the timing is staggered allowing each organ to complete it’s peak 2 hours after the next. The Chinese clock represents 12 organs in the pie chart, a very spiritual number having to do with control and ruling. Using this chart you can get a glimpse at a deficiency or problem in the organ if you notice something recurring at a similar time each day. Do you wake up every night at 3:30am? Your body might be telling you something is wrong with your lungs. Being aware of the emotional counterpart to each organ, tells us even more about what’s happening inside of us. If you suffered recent grief or are generally drowning in sorrow, this tells you even more about the health of your lungs. From Squidoo Health,

“The seven emotions are thought to correlate with the five Yin organs: joy with heart, anger with the liver, sadness and grief with the lungs, pensiveness and over thinking with the spleen, and fear or fright with the kidneys.”

I like to include the stomach to worry and the gall bladder to bitterness to complete the thorax as a structural whole; the liver, gallbladder, stomach and spleen are all connected to each other and the diaphragm- the arch support for the pericardium, heart and lungs. This is a more complete chart on the organs and emotions by Dr. Bruce and Joan Dewe.

This is from a western study adhering to stringent scientific methodologies on PubMed by Wang et al, 2006:

“Circadian rhythms are about-daily variations of physiological functions that are found in every living organism on earth ranging from bacteria to mammals. These daily rhythms are generated through the integration of the oscillatory expression of multiple circadian clock genes. In mammals, circadian rhythms are regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Neurons in the SCN generate self-sustained daily oscillations of gene expression and electrical activity with a period close to 24 hours. The SCN keeps the circadian rhythms of different peripheral organs synchronized to each other as well as to the environmental light-dark cycle. Although every mammalian cell is believed to express circadian clock genes, cells outside the SCN cannot maintain self-sustained circadian oscillation in the absence of the SCN.”

And more simply put:

“Every physiological function in the human body exhibits some form of circadian rhythmicity. Under pathological conditions, however, circadian rhythmicity may be disrupted.”

The body is designed to help us help ourselves by communicating with us when something is amiss. Due to our disassociated lifestyles it’s hard for us to hear these whispers. I hope these Western and Eastern views can integrate and help us understand more about what is going on inside before irrevocable damage is done. For more information, see your local acupuncturist or contact Heather Trujillo, L.Ac at acupuncture@centerforsw.com.