Calm-O-Mile: for Teething Babies and Tense Moms

Recently, I've had a several clients with teething troubles. Fairly traumatic troubles. Troubles as in the I-haven't-slept-he's-comfort-nursing-every-hour-I-have-a-migraine-my-shoulders-feel-permenently-bowed-what-was-my-name-again? kind of troubles. It really struck me as ironic how much attention we put into the pregant mother in terms of massage, and so relatively little into the issues of the new mother as affected by her rapidly growing infant. I can help the mother through massage, but the effects of massage will not "stick" well if she does not get proper rest.

Thus one of the favorite teething remedies I've come across which is beneficial for both mothers and teething babies is chamomile. Most of us are most familiar with chamomile as a calming tea, or as part of another relaxing tea like the famous Sleepy Time. But chamomile, an aromatic perennial dating back to the time of the Ancient Egyptians, can actually have many more calming, anti-spasmodic, and anti-inflammatory effects both internally and topically.

Some of my favorite ideas for using chamomile as a teething aid (other than the mother drinking copius amounts herself) come from http://www.familyherbalremedies.com/ and include:

1. Chamomilla Homeopathic: tablets of 6X strength can help babies calm down, sleep better, and wake up happier. Any whole food or health food store should have tablets like these made by trusted companies such as Hyland, etc.

2. Chamomile Tea: especially when frozen into popsicle form (the cold soothes and the herb calms).The website also suggests making the chamomile tea fairly strong, and gives suggestions on water-to-herb ratios.

3. Chamomile Chews: Soak a clean cloth in chamomile tea and give it to baby to chew on for tooth pain.

Most mothers and researchers comment that teething babies are all different, and chamomile might work better for some than others. On the other hand, the delivery method (e.g. cold chew, warm tea) seems to also make a difference, so giving chamomile a try in more than one fashion can definitely be worth the effort!

Pain Relief

What can a simple massage therapist say when a client asks about pain relief?

Obviously, I’m very biased. I’d rather do and use massage techniques to deal with pain and restore circulation.

But what about the chemical type of pain relief? What can I say?

Recommending a product or a drug or nostrum isn’t really what I want to do. I think getting into those areas can present a conflict of interest for therapists – especially when they may also be selling those products.

I can say what I do when I am hurting – that I LOVE topical creams and oils for pain relief.

There are more than a few good things to say about topicals – They go right where the pain is. Topicals don’t take along by-the-by route through your organs and liver on the way to where the problems are. I would like to think that by skipping all those stops on the way that topicals are less toxic and have fewer side effects.

That said, my favorites are arnica, MSM, capsaicin, and Epsom salt lotion. These topicals are generally easy to find in over-the-counter formulas at drugstores and health-food stores, and I’ve used them myself to very good effect.

The formulas I look for have fewest ingredients and I tend toward the most natural – arnica or capsaicin, for instance, in vegetable oil. I’m also partial to formulas that feature one active ingredient as opposed to kitchen-sink collections of things that might relieve pain.

So there they are, my favorite topical formulas that can help with everyday aches and pains. I’m sure other massage therapists have their own favorites – would you like to share?

Jaw Pains

As a massage therapist, I wonder if people who have a hard time sitting at a computer automatically have jaw tension problems. It seems so, at least when I go looking, that I find a consistent correlation between neck and jaw tension.

It’s gotten so that when folks come in with neck tension I ask them if they grind, or if they suspect they might grind their teeth at night, or if they have trouble opening their mouths and yawning.

I suspect that it is not news to many therapists that jaw tension is present along with cervical tension, but I wonder how many of us take it seriously and treat jaw tension in a massage.

Massaging muscles around the jaw takes some patience and finesse, and I must admit I had some horrible experiences with therapists who massaged this area with too much pressure. The massage felt invasive, and later my face, sinuses and connective tissue felt inflamed and compressed.

Taking my own experience to heart, I’ve learned to contact, but not push, muscles such as the masseter and pterygoids. I quickly abandoned the more invasive glove “pincer” work I learned in school in favor of lighter, more persuasive strokes that invite these muscles to relax. I like a combination of tiny circular motions to separate fibers and improve their lymph flow, followed by downward sweeping strokes that encourage spindle lengthening.

As the jaw massage and neck massage knit together, just as the muscles and fascia do, I find that linking the two areas with light, circular massage of the occipital and temporalis can reduce tension in the head and neck. It seems to be a case of less is more.

For home care, I encourage warm compresses on the area in front of the ears and to the jawline, along with yawning that emphasizes inhaling before opening the mouth, followed by a long soft sigh as the mouth stretches. Perhaps if people could sigh a bit more like that at work, all our jaws would be a little less tight.

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Massage Conventions

When was the last time you went to a massage convention?

That was the question on my recent massage professional association survey. It seemed pretty standard, and it got me thinking.

When I went to my 2010 state convention I was struck by how small it was – no students, few exhibitors, - missing faces that I attributed to the economy. A slump, I assumed. Most people can manage to get to Palm Springs, especially for a write-off weekend. Where was everyone?

The classes were excellent. Education is the main reason I go to and to spend the time and money for a convention. I’m sure there are other reasons for other folks, but that’s why I go. I thought about not going – the last two conventions had some fairly repetitive classes from people who had presented before and I thought the content was a bit thin. Seeing new faces and perspectives got me in the door.

My member survey got me good when it asked about the last time I went to a national convention. Egads, it was 1999.

The meeting was in San Antonio, a destination that required a more expensive airline ticket. The venue was a Hilton, a large hotel that required a hefty outlay despite the “convention” rate. The classes were very good – a great mix of modalities and ideas and techniques. Otherwise the meeting was disappointing in terms of time and money spent. Most exhibitors skipped the venue, and the national leadership was wrestling with something that put a damper on the social events. I recall looking at the bill and thinking if I go again it had better be worth it.

Funny, I hadn’t gone to a national meeting since. Every year for some reason I have bailed. It might be the host city location, the weather, timing, the classes, whatever, I haven’t gotten there.

Do we really need conventions anymore? I can buy my supplies off the web, from the Find Touch store, pretty well ordering what I need in a few minutes. Classes are great, but for many education needs I can do on-line classes. Do I really need to lose the time, pay the expense and go somewhere out of the way to get in a few classes? If I’m going somewhere, what about those courses in Hawaii or Costa Rica? Beats Toronto in November…..

The MRSA Pot

Sometimes when clients come in the door looking for a massage, they seem a little wary.

They look around the office, check out the sheets, stare at the clock before they go in the room. I've gotten questions about whether I use fragrances in my oils or in the laundry soap. They peer at the board certification, the license, and the credentials. They want to know how long I’ve been doing massage.

“About 16 years,” I say. “Someday I’ll get it right.”

It’s the massage, of course, that will convince them. But the details are important. Is the place clean, neat, up to date. Am I wearing jeans and flip-flops? What about washing hands before I start?

Recently a client came in who’d been to me a couple of times in the last few months, looking for some relief of low back pain. She hadn’t seemed to be real picky, but when she first came in, she told me she wanted to get a “real” massage. I’ve heard that phrase before, and I think I know what it means. No cookie-cutter fluffy stuff, just get the pain out of the back and shoulders.
Just for my own edification, of course, I asked her what she meant. “I want you to find and address the problems so I feel better after the massage,” she said.

As I was working out the troubles, she told me what she’d had before. She had a hard time finding a therapist who was able to and willing to work on the problem areas. When she finally found a therapist, she developed a massive infection on her thigh after a massage.

“It was MRSA,” she said.

Angry didn’t begin to describe how she felt. This client, a very experienced nurse, had worked some of the toughest areas of her hospital for more than a decade and never gotten a MRSA infection.

MRSA is a resistant staph infection that can kill people. It’s a bad word in hospitals, because it’s a sign of poor or inadequate hygiene. Every instance has to be investigated and followed up. A MRSA infection in a hospital means people haven’t been paying attention and following the rules.

This client, of course, had prided herself on never having a MRSA incident at work. Now she had an infection pop up after a massage.

She knew her therapist liked to mix oil and lotion in an open bowl and use it as a lubricant, and assumed that mixture was for her massage only. She called and the therapist admitted she used the same mixture on several clients.

In short, the bowl was a “Petri dish.”

Angry doesn’t quite describe how she felt. It wounded her personal pride in her work, her self-image and the problem was so preventable.

Sure, she could have gotten the MRSA from shaving her legs, and the massage just helped propel the infection. But because her therapist wasn’t following good hygiene procedures, it didn’t matter. That’s why we wash hands, use closed containers and don’t stick our paws into open bowls or jars and later use those same vessels and mixtures on multiple clients. It does matter.

Stress Test – Deal with It

We massage therapists often see similarities in our clients, the tight upper traps, the weak glute max, etc. But I must say I’m fascinated by the differences.

Why does one person develop carpal syndrome after three months on a computer, when another person can spend years lifting granite wedges before something goes?

Chief suspect: Stress. It brings it out in us humans, at astoundingly different speeds and with different somatic symptoms. God knows why, and I’m looking forward someday to getting the explanation. I hope it isn’t like the manual that came with my first PC.

Is it something linear and calculable, such as stress times the number of exposures divided by the number of deep breaths and an individual’s underlying sense of optimism or pessimism? [(S x E/1) * DB +/-] Or something like that. I hope not. Math and I don’t get along.

Stress isn’t the only thing, though. It seems as though people under stress have very different ways of dealing with stress and tolerating it. Perhaps the person at the computer has little tolerance for sitting in an office all day, but the granite installer thinks his job is a piece of cake.

Let’s try out a stress test. You and two other passengers are late for your flight, and the airline sits the three of you in the last row of the airplane. On your right sits Ronald Reagan, his heady optimism and faith glowing. You are in the middle seat. To your left, Woody Allen, nervously clutches his good luck charm.

The plane takes off, has some mechanical problem and crashes. All the crew and passengers on board are killed - except the people in the last row.

Ronald Reagan gets up, dusts off his shoulder pads and says “Wow! We almost got killed! What’s for lunch?”

Woody Allen is down for the count, shocked to be alive. “Why did I survive when all these other people were killed? How can I bear this terrible tragedy? I’ll never be the same again!”

Hey, you in the middle seat. How do you deal with it?