Microbiome Series: Part I – What Is The Microbiome? You may have heard about the microbiome in the news or from your friend who drinks kombucha, but what is it, really? And why is it so important? What is a probiotic? Do I actually have a bunch of bacteria living inside of me? Does this…
Pelvic Floor Therapy for Urinary Incontinence One of the top reasons patients seek pelvic floor therapy in my practice is to address urinary incontinence. What Are the Different Types of Incontinence? Urinary incontinence, or the involuntary loss of urine, can be broken down into 3 different categories: urge, stress, and mixed incontinence. Urge incontinence is…
Do you ever feel like you stretch constantly, and yet your aches, pains, and knots keep coming back? Or even get worse? If so, you’re not alone. As a massage therapist who performs bodywork, I hear this story from people all the time. In this article, I want to share my perspective on why stretching…
Top 3 Most Underrated Parts of the Body to Release Tension It’s extremely common for people to experience pain or stiffness in the neck, shoulders, or back, and try to solve it by getting these areas massaged. But often, the place where we feel pain isn’t where the problem is. Neck, shoulder, and back pain…
Sustained Pressure vs. Regular Massage Something I tell all my clients is that when it comes to working with the soft tissues of the body–the muscles and fascia—sustained pressure is the most effective. Whether you’re receiving a massage from a practitioner or doing it on yourself with a foam roller or lacrosse ball, applying pressure…
Pelvic Floor Therapy What is the Pelvic Floor? The pelvic region consists of several bones, ligaments, and muscles that essentially hold the abdominal organs, bladder, uterus, and bowels. The bony pelvis is made up of the sacrum (where your tailbone extends from), ileum, ischium, and pubis. The muscles that attach from the front of the…
Blue Zones: Creating Habits for Health and Longevity Advances in technology, preventive medicine, and our understanding of health have played a part in extending the human lifespan considerably. Currently, the maximum life expectancy in developed nations is approximately 90 years.1 However, we are beginning to take a turn, with longevity decreasing specifically in the United…
Introduction You may say “I want to lose weight” but what I’d like you to mean is “I want to feel better…” …better about your pain, sleep, appetite, body image, or future. Let’s take the focus off of weight. Healthy body, not weight. People often ask me to present a ‘Weight Loss’ talk. I, however,…
What is Inflammation? If you prefer to watch rather than read, click here for my YouTube video about inflammation! You typically hear about inflammation as being bad, like in the case of chronic inflammatory diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, IBS, and cancer. Baseline inflammation, however, is a good thing. Inflammation is an indicator, as…