Does Massage Help Cancer Patients Feel Better?

Is it okay to have massage when you have cancer?  YES!

Dr. Bernie Siegel MD said the benefits of massage far outweigh any possible danger.  And no ‘danger’ has ever been documented from massage therapy for cancer patients.

In fact, many hospitals now have specially trained oncology (cancer) massage therapists.  As long as you feel like being touched, a massage is appropriate for you.

Here is a guest-written article with more information about the benefits of oncology massage.

Experience the Difference Massage Therapy Can Make for Cancer Patients

If you have gone through endless cancer treatments, there is a good possibility your body feels ravaged and aching.  Massage therapy can help cancer patients to experience relief from sore muscles and aching joints.  In addition to physical relief, massages also offer cancer patients a way to relax and to rejuvenate.

Relaxing and taking time away from busy schedules and on-going treatments for mesothelioma and other forms of cancer is vital to a person’s well being.  Just an hour a week to indulge in a soothing massage can make all the difference in the world for cancer patients of all ages.

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What’s The Best Way To Correct Your Posture When You Are Seated?

Do you start having back pain when you are sitting for a while?   Here are a few quick tips that can help.

Here are some arm movements to do when you are home or work.  They will help relax the muscles around your chest, shoulders, arms and upper back.

Pretend an arm is a windmill.  If you can, rotate your arm in a full (or pretty full) circle.  Go forward and then backward.  Always do a new movement thoughtfully and gently and see how it feels to you.

Noodle is a type of stretching movement to do at home unless you have a private office at work.  It will help you open and stretch your chest muscles.

Also, imagine there are long, strong cords attached to your breastbone and to the crown of your head and they are pulling you up to heaven.

Do you feel that correction to your posture as you imagine those cords pulling straight up?  Your chest lifts and your natural curve returns to your lower back behind your waist.  🙂  Your head moves back over your body where it belongs.

A rolled towel placed behind your waist when you are seated will also help you sit up straighter.

Now you have some nice and easy ways to correct your posture when you are sitting.

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A Good Stretch For Neck And Upper Back Pain

Would you like a good stretch for your neck and upper back pain?  Would it surprise you if I told you the real problem could be the muscles in your chest?

Chest Muscles Cause Pain In Neck & Upper Back

Chest muscles tend to get short and tight and this can cause neck and upper back pain.  So part of the solution to get rid of the pain in your upper back and neck is to stretch the muscles in the front of your chest and the fronts of your arms.

When these chest muscles are tight and short they cause you to have rounded, forward shoulders and that stresses your upper back.

This picture shows the chest muscles that you will target with these stretches.  It’s the pectoralis minor muscle.  There may also be other soft tissues in the chest and arm that will stretch at the same time.

Here are two ways to stretch your chest and arms so you can start getting rid of your neck and upper back pain.

1. Lie on the edge of bed with your shoulder at the edge of the mattress so your arm if free. Only your shoulder should be off the bed; your body should be securely on the bed.

Let your arm gently drop off edge of bed. (One arm at a time.) Pretend your arm is a butterfly wing moving from your leg to your head.

Do this with your palm up if you can.  At least do it with your thumb pointing to the ceiling.

You will feel stretching in various places in your upper, front arm and your chest muscles. It’s okay to wait a bit when you feel something stretching to let it stretch. Gravity helps you stretch when you do it this way.

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What’s the Best Way to Improve Your Posture?

Why do you want to have better posture anyway?
  • You will feel better. You will have less pain.
  • You will function better. Your joints will be in neutral instead of overloaded by poor posture.
  • Your organs will work better.  You will be able to breathe and digest better and your heart won’t be squashed.
  • You will look younger.
What’s the best way to improve your posture?  Here are seven ways:

1.  Remember the old ‘walk with a book on your head’?  This is a variation on that.  Present a string is attached to the crown of your head and is lifting the crown of your head to the sky.

2.  Pretend a string is attached to your breastbone and is pulling you to the sky.

3.  Have you lost the small curve behind your waist?  Stick your butt out a bit to get it back.  (You are supposed to have a small curve behind your waist.)

4.  Get arch supports for your shoes if you have flat or fallen arches.  The arches of your feet are the support structure of your body.  If your arches have collapsed, your posture collapses, too.  You Continue reading “What’s the Best Way to Improve Your Posture?”

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Natural Way To Get Rid Of Muscle Pain In Your Breast

Trigger Point Causes Breast Pain
Do you have pain in your breast that’s in about the same pattern as the deep red in the picture?

All the little red dots indicate a typical area of discomfort but the more solid red indicates an area of more pain.

You have muscles behind your breast tissue in your chest.  You might not have thought of muscles causing your breast pain.  Most people don’t.  Not even most doctors.

Regardless, muscles are responsible for most pain, one way or another.

Do you see the “X“?  That is the location of a trigger point.  A trigger point is an area of extremely irritated soft tissue that causes or “triggers” pain at a distance away from itself.

The X is where you want to focus.  The muscle that harbors the trigger point is on your chest, on the ribs, toward your armpit.

How can you treat the X–the trigger point-to get rid of the muscle pain behind your breast?

You may be able to apply pressure from the outside of your chest.  Just press into the tissue.  It’ll be tender.  Tender means the muscle is “too tight.”

But if you are the one doing the pressing you can easily control the amount of pressure.  You definitely want it to be uncomfortable.

If you don’t feel any discomfort it won’t help.  If it’s too much discomfort, it won’t help as much as if you keep it around a “7” out of  “10.”

That’s the goal whether you do this yourself or have a professional massage therapist or someone else help you.

Alternatively, you can reach behind your chest muscle from the armpit side.  Curl your fingers toward your heart to catch the muscle.  Pull the muscle toward your breastbone.  See if you can get your fingers into a tender place.

This is not a job for people with long fingernails!  Ouch!  🙂

You can help the muscle with the trigger point relax by massaging, pressing or pushing into it where the X is.  Hold the pressure for about 12 seconds.  You can always go back and do it again.

When the muscles on your chest relax, the pain from the trigger point will start to go away.

That’s how you can get rid of the muscle pain behind your breast naturally.

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