Articles Of The Week February 10, 2019

February 9, 2019/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jamie Johnston

Whether it’s working too long of hours, compassion fatigue, debt, or any other aspect of life, experiencing burnout is all too common within manual therapy professions. If you’re experiencing this, you’re not alone but there are things you can do to help.

“Beating Burnout” – Eric Ries

We’ve all had them…the challenging patient. But is this the patient, or the culture of care? This is a great post from the patient perspective and it shows us how the words we use can make a difference for both the positive and the negative.

“The Challenging Patient…” – Joletta Belton

We all know how important sleep is but is more sleep something you should recommend to your patients? It might be really difficult for someone to get more sleep with our busy lives, but there may be ways for you to recommend they get better sleep.

“The Sleep Tip You Should Never Give A Client (And Others 5 You Should)” – Mike T. Nelson

All too often when people experience back pain they think it’s necessary to visit the emergency room and many research articles on back pain are directed at ‘primary care’ practitioners and how to deal with it. But, wouldn’t it be better if the public was educated on when visiting the emergency room is really necessary? Well, here’s an article you can share to help educate your patients.

“Severe Back Pain? Only 3 Reasons To Visit The Emergency Room” – Keith Roper

Here is a great resource of books that explore the relationship between the mind and the body. Anyone of them could help us understand various different aspects of the body, which I’m sure we would all be happy to learn more about.

“Ten Books To Help People Understand The Human Body And Its Complexity” – Richard Lebert

Articles Of The Week February 3, 2019

February 1, 2019/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jamie Johnston

First, we start with an AWESOME, free resource from MTDC coach Ben Cormack. He has developed a workbook for our patients living with pain to help them navigate what they are going through. It’s free for you to use and share with your patients, so I suggest you take FULL advantage.

“Living Well With Pain” – Ben Cormack

While this article is directed to our Canadian friends, most of the information will probably apply to most other countries as well. Privacy, Google, and personal information protection should be important to all of us, so there’s some good advice to take heed of.

“RMT Tech Talk: Changes Coming In 2019 That May Affect Massage Therapists” – Jessica Foster

Stem cell research has come a long way and is starting to show some results. If nothing else, this is a feel-good story to share with your patients!

“First Paralyzed Human Treated With Stem Cells Has Now Regained His Upper Body Movement” – Upsworthy

Great to see the medical community is starting to see the folly in unnecessary imaging. This article points out not only how unnecessary this is, but also the cost savings and the numerous problems that can be created by its use.

“JAMA Opinion Piece Slams Our Addiction To ‘Unnecessary’ MRI’s, CT Scans” – Erin Blakemore

While the title should be enough of an explanation, it does pose a VERY important question. Well, some of us are just afraid to ask, or reach out for help, but there is help available, and some new imaging that could help us see changes in those dealing with mental health disorders.

“Why Isn’t Mental Health Universally Identified As A Medical Condition?” – Locker Room Doctor

Love getting hugs? Well, there may be more reasons than you think to hug somebody and it can have a direct benefit on your health!

“3 Surprising Ways Hugging Benefits Your Well Being” – Sebastian Ocklenburg

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE sleep. It’s important when it comes to pain because according to this article, sleep loss amplifies pain-sensing regions of the brain and blocks natural analgesia centers. How many of your patients have pain and difficulty sleeping? Well, the two have an effect on each other and massage can help with sleep, in turn helping reduce pain.

“Sleep Loss Heightens Pain Sensitivity, Dull’s Brains Pain Killing Responses” – Yasmin Anwar

Articles Of The Week January 20, 2019

January 19, 2019/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Pain/by Jamie Johnston

Coming out of college, everything seemed so straightforward! You’ve got a toolbox of techniques and you may even look to specialize in one of them, all the while helping as many patients as you can. Well, things aren’t so straightforward, and the times they are a changing. With it usually taking 17 years for new research to be applied in practice, we need to stay on top of the new and evolving research, along with a strong alliance with those patients.

“Manual Therapists: Have You Lost That Loving Feeling?” – Paul E. Mintken, Jason Rodeghero & Joshua A. Cleland

Patient centred care means different things to different people. Because it has different meanings for different people, there may also be ethical dilemmas surrounding the topic as well. This article delves into some of these topics, while also having you reflect on what this topic means to you.

“‘Patient-Centred’ – What Does It Mean And How Achievable Is It?” – Andreas Laupacis & Jennifer Gibson

Using unstable surfaces for strength training and rehab has been a popular practice for quite some time. However, does it really work? Well, it depends on the patients goals, your scope of practice, and just plain sticking to the basic principles of exercise program design.

“Is Unstable Surface Training A Waste Of Time?” – Nick Ng

He has been at the forefront of pain research over the past number of years and Peter O’Sullivan is always worth listening to. No different with this article, where it shows how he and his team are using ‘Cognitive Functional Therapy’ to treat back pain.

“The ‘Mythbusters’ Of Back Pain Believe They Can Treat It – With Words” – Liam Mannix

We published a post earlier this week about when NOT to treat a patients thoracic pain, but when you can, this is a good post. Dean goes through a few different drills and exercises to help increase thoracic rotation, most of which you can do right in your treatment room.

“Cleaning Up Thoracic Rotation” – Dean Somerset

Articles Of The Week January 13, 2019

January 12, 2019/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Pain/by Jamie Johnston

Have you ever been wrong? I have been A LOT! The question is, can you be humble enough to admit it and in turn change? Can you have intellectual humility? Well, an argument is being made that science (and healthcare) need to cultivate more intellectual humility to advance. Part of this is having a balance between our convictions and humility because we need to listen to each other.

“Intellectual Humility: The Importance Of Knowing You Might Be Wrong” – Brian Resnick

Keep in mind this post is satire! However, it makes a great point about fads in our industry. I found it funny and I hope you and your patients do too.

“Ask Dr. Dumb: All About Foam Rolling” – Mark Remy

Written by a doctor this article gives some sound advice about most things ‘fad’ in the health and wellness industry. Much of it could certainly be applied to many of the manual therapy groups boasting huge benefits to their new technique (which I have fallen for and taken courses on in the past). Wellness for us and our patients are meant to be a good thing, not a complicated explanation full of pseudoscience.

“Don’t Fall Prey To The Cult Of Wellness” – Margaret McCartney

Early in my career (and I know I’m not alone) I would always use the pain scale of 0-10, with 0 being nothing and 10 being ‘the worst pain you’ve ever felt’. In the hospital setting, doctors and nurses are saying this system doesn’t work and are trying something new. They’re using words instead and asking is the pain ‘tolerable’, having them describe the pain, talking about function, not feeling.

“Words That Matter When Talking About Pain With Your Doctor” – Patti Neighmond

Unfortunately, mental health doesn’t always get the recognition it needs (although it seems things are getting better). This seems to be an issue in sport, as athletes sometimes think they need to ‘tough it through’ a concussion, or other mental health issues. Well, we know this isn’t the case, so the question arises, if there were a simple test that showed a mental health disorder, would we treat it differently?

“What If There Were A Test That Showed The Signs Of A Mental Health Disorder?” – Dr. Tom Ungar

Articles Of The Week December 30, 2018

December 30, 2018/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Valerie Bobb

New This Week

Our friend Ellie Somers talks training female runners. Do you have clients that don’t seem to be reaching her potential? Here’s some info that may help her out:

3 Common Training Pitfalls Made by Female Runners

It’s the New Year and resolutions and diet crazes abound. If we have a working liver do we really need to detox? A Canadian professor of health law and science policy Timothy Caulfield put some of the most popular detoxes to the test:

The Delusion of Detoxing: There’s no Evidence to Support Holiday Cleanses, Experts Say

The MTDC Year in Review

December: Myofascial Release: An Evolving and Simple Definition

November: How Much Neuroscience Do We Really Need?

October: Altered Skin Colour and Circulation, Result of Massage or Nervous System?

October: Predictive Coding: Why Expectation Matters for Movement and Pain

September: 4 Tissue Loading Progressions to Help with Knee Pain

July: Understanding Depression, Ways to Recognize and Help

May: Where Does the Social Fit in Biopsychosocial?

April: Tissue Loading for Acute Injuries

April: Pathologizing: Our Words Matter

March: It’s Time to Start Building Your Tribe

February: The Difficulty of Challenging Our Beliefs

February: 6 Ways to Develop Leadership as a Massage Therapist

January: Three Reasons It Matters Why a Treatment Works

Articles Of The Week December 9, 2018

December 7, 2018/in Article, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jamie Johnston

We know that pain isn’t always caused by tissue damage (although sometimes it is), but what about traumatic experiences? Is there a link between trauma and pain? It turns out that traumatic experiences can alter the way our mind and bodies function, which is outlined with several different conditions within this post.

“Trauma And Adult Pain – What’s The Connection?” – Joe Tatta

It’s the time of year where people start getting colds and are looking for something that will “boost” their immune system. But is this really possible? and what are these products really doing? It’s a long one, but lots of insight in this post.

“Boost Your Immune System?” – Mark Crislip MD

For any of you who have worked the sidelines in sport, this one is important to you. It’s more than just a fanny pack that gets worn on the bench, it’s a full on first aid kit with medications, tape, scissors, and a host of other things necessary to help athletes get through competition.

“More Than A Fanny Pack” – Jason White

We all know the importance of strength training, but some athletes worry how it will affect their performance, rather than realizing how much it helps. This post goes through some specific exercises runners can do, as well as how to properly progress them.

“How Can Strength Training Help Runners?” – Mike James

We have discussed several times on this blog the importance of tissue loading for healing injuries. A randomized control trial showed that unprotected weight-bearing post ankle surgery had better outcomes and returned to sport quicker than those who didn’t. LOAD THOSE TISSUES!

“Ankle Surgery Patients Should “Get Up And Walk” To A More Functional Life After Surgery” – Danielle. M. Torp

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