Every massage therapy student should have to read at least one textbook.

I was required to take a minimum of 750 hours of schooling to become a licensed massage therapist in the state of Arizona. Roughly translated, that’s nine months of school four full days a week. Most of the curricula focused on anatomy, pathology, practical application, and ethical considerations. In order to maintain my license,  I need to take 25 hours of continuing education classes every two years.

If I had still been living in San Francisco when I decided to get a license, I could have been granted a “General Practitioner Permit” with 100 hours of training, or an “Advanced Practitioner Permit” with 200 hours of training.  In other words, if I go back to California and prove that I meet those minimum requirements, I would basically be a   General+Advanced-Advanced-Advanced Practitioner.

Somehow, I don’t think I qualify to be considered a massage therapy superhero. I also don’t think that each California school hour is twice as educational as an Arizona school hour.

What’s even more confusing: California, like some other states, doesn’t have set of statewide regulations. Even worse is that some states do have a set of regulations, but they allow their cities to impose separate regulations that therapists must adhere to. If a massage therapist wants to move over to a neighboring city, she might have to change her policy or even take an extra exam. (Of course, if that therapist moves to a different state, she might have to take an extra 900 hours’ worth of classes.)

Certain cities’ regulations are downright offensive. While I was sitting in a Scottsdale, Arizona cadaver lab to learn the ins-and-outs of human anatomy, some California would-be massage therapists were submitting to STD tests in order to become certified. Massage licensing regulations are all over the place (or for some states, nonexistent.)

The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) estimated in 2008 that there were between 265,000 and 300,000 massage therapists and massage therapy students in just the United States. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that the massage therapy field would see a rapid 20 percent increase in employment from 2006-2016.

I think it’s laughable, yet also sad, that such a booming industry hasn’t yet found a way to establish a cohesive set of strict regulations. I don’t necessarily think that massage therapy should be formally standardized across the United States, but I do think that all states should establish their own regulations. I also think that all states should set similar standards.

It just doesn’t seem right to me that, while I provide injury treatments and while therapists in New York are working to obtain 1,000+ hours of training, massage therapists in some parts of the country are still called “masseuses” in the way that strippers are called “exotic dancers.”

Regulating massage therapy will:

1. Help ensure that all clients are safer because all therapists will have been background checked.
2. Ensure that all therapists have met a minimum set of educational requirements so that clients will be able trust who is treating them.
3. Set ethical standards and allow the law to apply appropriate punishments to those who break those standards.
4. Increase the amount of clinical studies performed in regard to massage therapy and encourage insurance companies to cover massage as a result of proven results.
5. Encourage massage therapists across the country to feel more united as a team.

It’s time to get the ball rolling.

If you’re interested in finding out more about regulations in your state or city, check out the following links:
Massage Therapy State Boards and Licensure
Massage Laws and Legislation in the United States and Canada

Some take their coffee black; I take my tea green.

I love green tea. It’s a wonder brew, full of antioxidants that can hunt down free radicals in the body. Research increasingly shows that including green tea in your daily diet can help protect your body against cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular problems, high cholesterol, infection, and a weak immune system. Now you may be able to reap even more benefits of green tea by doing more than drinking a plain cup of it.

Here are some other fun ways to enjoy it:

Boost Your Daily Cup – According to a study at Purdue University, adding citrus juice or vitamin C to your daily brew of green tea can help green tea’s antioxidants stay in your body longer after digestion. So use either some citrus juice (lime is a quite tasty addition) or add some vitamin C to your tea and your body may reap more benefits.

Make a Green Tea Acne Treatment – Green tea acne treatments have become increasingly popular because they contain ingredients known to detoxify, reduce inflammation, swelling, and clear oil build-up. Treatments can be purchased or made at home. To make your own green tea acne treatment, boil some green tea, allow it to cool, and mix it with an egg white. Apply the treatment to a freshly washed face, wait for the mask to dry and harden on your face, and rinse it off with warm water. You can also skip the full green tea acne treatment concoction and apply a warm and wet green tea bag to the areas of your face affected by acne. I can’t personally vouch for it since I haven”t tried it yet. However, green tea in itself is quite mild and shouldn’t do you any harm.

Use Green Tea Shampoo – Most brands of green tea shampoo are quite gentle on the scalp and hair. They are full of antioxidants and vitamins, and they are known to strengthen and thicken hair as well as help repair damaged and dry hair. Brands such as June Jacobs Green Tea and Cucumber Conditioning Shampoo are helpful with hair that has been treated with dye and other chemicals.

Other Green Tea Products – The list of green tea products increases as green tea’s health benefits become well-known. If you’re curious, try some green tea ice cream, green tea toothpaste, green tea dessert bars, green tea-infused chocolates and caramels, and maybe even some green tea mints.

If you know of any other good ones, let me know.

This duck is riddled with quackery.

Foreword: Science wasn’t my favorite subject in school. In fact, sometimes I hated science class. Gathering specimens and making notes, then comparing those notes and making more notes for the sake of ensuring accuracy was exhausting to me. So when I say what I’m about to say, I must preface it by emphasizing that I’m humbled by all of the folks who spend their lives trying to make healthcare legitimate and safe for the masses.

I recently ran across an article entitled “How to Spot a ‘Quacky’ website”. It warned people to steer clear from any website that:

-Generally promotes “alternative,” “complementary,” and/or “integrative” methods of treatment

and/or

-promotes  “nontoxic,” “natural,” “holistic,” or “miraculous” treatments.

While I can’t say that I promote miraculous treatments–and, indeed, I’m also sometimes a bit of a skeptic—I do wholeheartedly promote many holistic therapies relating to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Yet, according to some of these rules, I’m a sort of quack running a “quacky” website.

In this short essay, I plan to a) Examine the reasons why I’m called a quack and b) Explain why I stand wholeheartedly by what I write, whether or not it makes me a quack.

According to the Quackwatch website, science demands that people who make claims must provide substantial proof to back up those claims. That proof must come by way of sound studies, a well-balanced evaluation, and confirmation by other knowledgeable people. However, not all promoters of complementary and alternative medicine stand by the same rules.

Some complementary and alternative treatments rely mostly upon anecdotal evidence and so-called “sloppy” facts such as, “This medicine has been successful for thousands of years.” Also, the placebo effect is so potent that people, not the treatments, could really be the ones healing their own abnormal physiologies just by believing that they are supposed to be cured.

People who adhere to the strict standards of scientific proof assume that this translates to complete quackery. After all, where are the regulations? They don’t want anyone getting ripped off or, worse, killed by peddlers of fake medicine.

So, what do science sticklers propose we do to provide substantial proof? They don’t just want us to come up with studies; they want us to construct sturdy double-blind tests. In a double-blind test, neither the people administering a study nor the study’s participants know who’s getting the real drug/treatment and who’s getting the placebo. Only at the end of the trial, when results are being collected, will the truth be revealed. This brilliant method of research aims to eliminate any sort of bias on either side of the spectrum.

I appreciate the idea of studying and standardizing all medicine in order to make it safe and reliable. Maybe then more insurance companies would cover more of it. However, I have two major concerns with the demands for double-blind tests:

Concern Number One: Double-blind studies aren’t infallible, not even when they’re designed properly (randomized and placebo-controlled.) Firstly, the people willing to participate may not be perfect representatives of a whole population. Additionally, some studies—even double-blind studies—rely on subjective responses. Take anti-depressant medications, for example: In the course of a study, both the participants who take the placebo and the participants who take the actual test drug will need to interpret a questionnaire and then offer a subjective analysis of how depressed they feel. The study could look at literal factors such as presence of chemicals in the brain, but such hard facts don’t necessarily prove that someone is or isn’t feeling depressed.

Concern Number Two: Applying double-blind studies to complementary and alternative medicine is often impossible. How can a practitioner such as an acupuncturist be blinded to the treatment he is offering to study participants? He either knows he’s doing it properly or he knows he’s giving a placebo treatment.

Science has its limits, no matter what it is attempting to etch in stone. That is why facts change. (Remember when Earth was flat and in the center of the Universe?)

Sometimes the subject of study far transcends the capacity of a pen, paper, and microscope. When it comes to the study of love, for example, science gurus examine alleged “love chemicals” that flow in the brain such as serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, and norepinephrine. They investigate areas in the brain that are thought to light up when a person has loving feelings.

Psychologists go to great lengths to organize love into categories such as romantic love and platonic love. American psychologist R.J. Sternberg said that interpersonal love requires a combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment. Some psychology experts even break down love into stages: first lust, then attraction, and finally attachment.

But none of that encapsulates love. No one—not even scientists who live with their eyes glued hard facts—could truthfully say that the love they have for their families and friends can be quantified by science. Love is love.

I’m not suggesting that complementary and alternative medicine or holistic approaches to health are equivalent to love, but some of their components are similar. For example, the idea of body energy (also called Qi and Prana) may not be entirely understood, but I know it exists when I close my eyes and feel it flowing through my body.

Does that make me a quack? If so, I’m proud to be one.

Prenatal massage therapy can help improve your pregnancy.

When you’re pregnant, you deserve a massage.

Your baby is growing at such a rapid pace that your body must quickly change to accommodate him. Since most of your new weight is going to the front of your body, your pelvis pulls forward and adds extra strain to your back, shoulder, and neck muscles. All this added tension is enough of a reason for you to get a weekly massage when you’re pregnant. But then there are the mood swings, the nerve pain, the breast tenderness… the list goes on.

Massage therapists trained in the prenatal massage modality employ techniques that were designed especially for the needs of pregnant women. Plus, a massage table can be set up just for your body. If you can’t find a therapist with a special pregnancy table or a pregnancy pad, you can get a prenatal massage while you lie on your side and hug a pillow. (Pregnant friends have told me that just being able to lie face-down on a pregnancy table was worth what they paid for the massage.)

If everything I’ve mentioned up to this point hasn’t convinced you to get a prenatal massage, consider the following:

1. Prenatal massage therapy can reduce your stress levels and improve your mood. A study conducted by the University of Miami studied the effects of a twice-weekly 20 minute massage on pregnant women. The results were promising. Researchers found that the pregnant women’s stress hormones were lowered and their mood states were improved.
2. Prenatal massage therapy can improve your pregnancy experience and improve your baby’s health. The University of Miami study showed that women who received massages also noticed a dramatic decrease in body pain as a result of the hormone regulation. Moreover, the quality of their sleep was improved and their risk of having any pregnancy-related complications was reduced.

With that in mind, massage isn’t just a luxury when you’re pregnant. If you don’t care about getting a massage for your own health, get one on your baby’s behalf.

Tips:

• Mention prenatal massage gift certificates on your baby shower wish list.
• Join your partner in learning some prenatal massage techniques to save some money.
• Click here to find a massage therapist who specializes in prenatal massage.

Warning:

• Talk to your OB/GYN before you schedule your first massage treatment. Some pre-existing pregnancy complications are contraindications for prenatal massage.