Equilibria Therapies Limited
| Equilibria Newsletter | |
| No 1 July 2003 | |
MARTIN BALE MIIST Member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT) Welcome to all my clients past and present. Several of you have suggested that it would be useful and friendly to keep in touch by newsletter, so I’ve bitten the bullet and attempt a quarterly effort. Please let me know if this is an intrusion you don’t want. Email me with ‘delete’ in the subject box info@equilibria4u.co.uk and I’ll take you off the list. I’d appreciate your feedback, too. Why Equilibria?Aequus is a Latin word meaning level, equal, friendly, fair and calm; libra means balance, pair of scales and pound. (Incidentally, our £ sign is L for libra). At some stage the two have joined and become the English word equilibrium, and one meaning is ‘a state in which the energy in our system is evenly distributed wherein forces and influences balance each other.’ Or in other words ‘a nice balance’. I chose this name because, as a massage therapist, my aim is to help you achieve the optimum balance in your mind, body and spirit, and thereby achieve relief from physical pain and dis-ease. Imbalance in any or all three can affect the functioning of your muscles and often the result is pain. Oasis and The Therapist Group
As some of you know, I work from The Oasis Club in Marlow. I belong to a group of bodywork therapists and we rent one of the rooms there. Called The Therapist Group, our members offer a wide range of therapies. Log on to www.thetherapistgroup.co.uk to learn more. Oasis is celebrating its twentieth birthday this year. The club offers a wide range of exercise machines, classes, has a pool, hairdresser, beauty therapist, personal trainers, and more. www.oasis-health-club.co.uk  Natures PulseI also practise from the ‘crystal shop’, Natures Pulse, fast becoming a feature of Marlow. The therapy rooms are named after characters from Arthurian legend and are well fitted out. Here you can find practitioners covering a wide range of therapies plus a charismatic shop, full of crystals, water features and other interesting and unusual gifts. www.naturespulse.co.uk |
Case studiesYou can find these on this web site, under massage and reflexology. Product Review – Ice Power
I succumb to the power of advertising, occasionally. An advert in The Massage World magazine attracted my attention. It was for a gel that lowers body temperature and thereby reduces the symptoms of inflammation. It claimed the cooling effect would last for three hours. So I placed an order for Ice Power gel. The product duly arrived, was put to one side and forgotten. About a month later, I damaged a muscle (quadratus lumborum, extends lower back and side-bends trunk). Time to try out this wonder gel. Well, it did exactly what the Finnish manufacturers said it would do. It immediately reduced the pain and allowed my body to get on with the healing process, minus quite a bit of discomfort. Let me know if you’d like to try it at your next visit. Your questions answeredHere’s a question sometimes
posed by my clients. I am over 50 and my muscles and
joints are beginning to stiffen up. It’s probably due to ageing, but is there
anything I can do to prevent it? Is there worse to come like arthritis and fibromyalgia? We all go through degeneration and decline and the musculoskeletal system can start to degenerate as early as 20 years old for males and 40 years old for females. Muscle fibres shrink and may be replaced with a tough fibrous tissue, leading to a type of muscle wasting called sarcopenia. But stiffness could well be affecting you before this happens. So is musculoskeletal degeneration inevitable? Recent evidence says not. Exercising into our senior years for as long as possible, regardless of when you started, will bring benefits not only to heart and blood pressure but also to our joints and muscles. The risk of osteoporosis, for instance, can be reduced by weight-bearing exercise. The best exercise for maintaining mobility seems to be 'endurance exercise', such as running, swimming and walking (West J Med, 1997; 167:258-64). Nutrition also plays its part. Arthritis occurs when cartilage in joints isn’t renewed. Cartilage isn’t renewed as we get older because we don’t produce enough glucosamine. Glucosamine supplement is readily available. So start looking after your muscles (about 65% of your body mass and a common cause of pain and discomfort) as soon as possible. You need them to stay in good shape for a better chance of staying healthier for longer. 57 Oxford Road Marlow SL7 2NN 01628 472802 07966 024561 Any comments and feedback welcome
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