The world’s first “test-tube” meat, a hamburger made from a cow’s stem cells, will be produced this fall, Dutch scientist Mark Post told a major science conference.

Post’s aim is to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle tissue in a laboratory that exactly mimics meat, and eventually replace the entire meat-animal industry.

The ingredients for his first burger are “still in a laboratory phase,” he said, but by fall “we have committed ourselves to make a couple of thousand of small tissues, and then assemble them into a hamburger.”

Post, chair of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said his project is funded with 250,000 euros from an anonymous private investor motivated by “care for the environment, food for the world and interest in life-transforming technologies.”

Post spoke at a symposium titled “The Next Agricultural Revolution” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver.

Speakers said they aim to develop such “meat” products for mass consumption to reduce the environmental and health costs of conventional food production.
Conventional meat and dairy production requires more land, water, plants and disposal of waste products than almost all other human foods, they said.

The global demand for meat is expected to rise by 60 percent by 2050, said American scientist Nicholas Genovese, who organized the symposium.

“But the majority of earth’s pasture lands are already in use,” he said, so conventional livestock producers can only meet the booming demand by further expansion into nature.

The result would be lost biodiversity, more greenhouse and other gases, and an increase in disease, he said.

In 2010 a report by the United Nations Environment Program called for a global vegetarian diet.

“Animal farming is by far the biggest ongoing global catastrophe,” Patrick Brown of the Stanford University School of Medicine told reporters.

“More to the point, it’s incredibly ready to topple … it’s inefficient technology that hasn’t changed fundamentally for millennia,” he said.

“There’s been a blind spot in the science and technology community (of livestock production) as an easy target.”

Brown, who said he is funded by an American venture capital firm and has two start-ups in California, said he will devote the rest of his life to develop products that mimic meat but are made entirely from vegetable sources.

He is working “to develop and commercialize a product that can compete head on with meat and dairy products based on taste and value for the mainstream consumer, for people who are hard-core meat and cheese lovers who can’t imagine ever giving that up, but could be persuaded if they had a product with all taste and value.”

Brown said developing meat from animal cells in a laboratory will still have a high environmental cost, and so he said he will rely only on plant sources.

Both scientists said no companies in the existing meat industry have expressed interest.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/20/test-tube-meat-to-be-available-this-fall-scientist-says/#ixzz1mw4agICI

Many people take painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs when they’re in pain, but researchers at McMaster University in Canada found that getting a massage could do the trick.

That’s because massage affects how some genes work and directly reduces inflammation in muscles. It’s the same result you’d get from taking drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofen. But why try it?

“Anti-inflammatory drugs have side effects,” said Pat Collins, American Massage Therapy Assn. New York President. “With massage therapy the side effect is happiness, contentment and relaxation. It reduces the chemical that actually causes the pain and inflammation and stimulates the mitochondria that help the healing.”

Experts say results vary from person to person, but you could start seeing these benefits and more from massage in just an hour.

“Studies have shown that a one hour massage can heal your body with the equivalent of 8 hours of sleep it is amazing,” said Eddie Smith, Massage Therapist at Body and Soul.

It can even help fight off headaches.

“I see people with migraines, headaches, brain injuries, autistic children, babies with colic and I’ve had babies who have stopped being colicky after the first session,” said Collins.

Experts say that if you’re going to try massage out, you should tell your massage therapist about any medical conditions you have so they can adjust the session to fit your needs.

“You have to be very careful with people who have high blood pressure. They cannot get deep tissue work,” said Smith. “Again because you are working with the blood flow and you don’t want to increase that. Lighter work and stretching is excellent.”

Whether you’re in it for the health benefits or the yummy smelling oils, experts said it doesn’t hurt to try massage out.

Read More: http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/573535/massage-has-same-results-as-aspirin/

While back pain can be debilitating for many who live with it, in most cases it can be treated non-surgically, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.  Exercise and staying fit are among the best treatments, back specialists say.  Lifting objects using the legs while holding objects away from the body is one of the best ways to prevent it.

There are numerous causes for low back pain, ranging from muscle strains to ordinary daily activities that people don’t realize can lead to back problems.  ABC News talked to several experts about some of these lesser-known causes of lower back pain.

Obesity

Overweight and obese adults are more likely to have disc degeneration in their lower back than normal-weight adults, according to a new study published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Disc degeneration occurs when the discs of the spine start to break down, and it sometimes causes low back pain.  While disc degeneration is part of the normal aging process, researchers in China found that among 2,599 Chinese men and women, body mass index (BMI) was significantly higher in people with disc degeneration.

They also found that underweight participants were significantly less likely to have degenerative disc disease.

“When you look at their underweight group compared to other groups, it’s a very compelling observation that there’s a clear association between weight and disc degeneration,” said Dr. Scott Boden, professor of orthopedic surgery and director of the Emory Orthopaedics & Spine Center in Atlanta.

Exactly what that association is, however, is harder to establish.  The authors believe weight gain may cause physical stress on the disc and, in addition, chronic inflammation brought on by the fat cells can lead to disc degeneration.

Sitting

“Sitting is worse than standing.  Sitting for long periods of time puts pressure on your back, especially if you’re not using core muscles to support your back,” said Dr. Nick Shamie, associate professor of spine surgery at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

What’s even worse is sitting and leaning forward to pick up something from the floor, which places the maximum amount of force on the lower back, he added.  Instead of leaning and reaching, Shamie explained the best way to pick something up is to get on the knees, pick it up and keep the object close to the body.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke recommends sitting in a chair with good lower back support.  If sitting for a long time, people should rest their feet on a low stool or stack of books.  But if possible, switch sitting positions and get up and walk around a bit throughout the day.

Mattress Type

Whether a soft mattress or a firm mattress is better for the back is up for debate.  There hasn’t been a lot of research on it, but a 2003 study found that people who slept on medium-firm mattresses reported less back pain.

“If a bed is either too stiff or too soft, it’s likely to cause back problems, but there is a lot of individual variation on that,” said Dr. Richard Deyo, professor of family medicine at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland.  “You need enough support so the spine is not sagging, but you don’t want it so rigid that the spine is forced into an unnatural position.”

High Heels

There’s nothing to definitively link wearing high heels to the increased likelihood of developing back pain, but experts say it does make sense.

“Having the heel elevated changes the posture and probably forces the lower back into more of an extended position, and that can be painful over time,” said Deyo.

But Shamie said wearing high heels is more likely to affect other parts of the body more than the back.

“High heels can put a lot of stress on your feet, but not as much on your lower back,” he said.

Purses and Backpacks

“It makes perfect sense that if you have a heavy backpack, there’s definitely a potential risk for injuring your lower back and other joints,” said Shamie.

In general, he said, maximum weight should be no more than 10 to 15 percent of body weight.

Deyo, however, said the backpack issue has been controversial, and study findings have been conflicting.  Nonetheless, it’s probably wise to get an extremely heavy load off the back if possible.

Read more: http://www.kgoam810.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=116&itemid=29792065

Although many people with backaches and other pains shy away from weight lifting for fear of hurting themselves, studies show that strength training can reduce pain and prevent reinjury. While most research has used traditional weight training exercises, researchers in Denmark set out to study whether a kettlebell workout offered therapeutic benefits to back pain sufferers.

The weights, named for their resemblance to a tea kettle with a looped handle, began showing up in American gyms about 15 years ago and have gained a popular following among exercise buffs looking for a quick full-body workout. Unlike traditional weight training, which typically focuses on lifting exercises, a kettlebell workout requires both swinging and lifting of the weights, which for beginners can be awkward and difficult to control.

In a study published last year, the Danish researchers recruited 40 pharmaceutical workers, mostly middle-aged women with back, shoulder and neck pain, who were randomly assigned to either a regular kettlebell workout or a control group that was simply encouraged to exercise. The first group trained with kettlebells in 20-minute sessions two to three times a week for eight weeks, according to the report, published in The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.

At the end of the study, the kettlebell exercisers reported less pain as well as improved strength in the trunk and core muscles, compared with the control group. Over all, working out with kettlebells reduced lower back pain by 57 percent and cut neck and shoulder pain by 46 percent.

The study’s senior author, Lars L. Andersen, a government researcher in Denmark, noted that workers who spend much of the day sitting are particularly vulnerable to back, shoulder and neck pain because they develop tightness and weak spots along the posterior muscle chain, which includes the muscles running from the lower back down to the glutes, hamstrings and calves. Kettlebell workouts strengthen the posterior muscle chain, and the increased blood flow to the back and leg muscles also may lessen pain by reducing the buildup of lactic acid, the authors wrote.

While isolation exercises like curls and presses have their benefits, kettlebell movements recruit multiple muscles and teach the body “to move as one unit,” said J.J. Blea, a certified kettlebell instructor and an owner of Firebellzin Albuquerque, one of the top kettlebell gyms in the country.

Because kettlebells can be difficult to control, it’s important to learn proper form from a certified instructor or a kettlebell class at a gym. The cornerstone of the kettlebell workout requires the exerciser to swing the kettlebell between the legs. In the Danish study, women started with a 17.5-pound kettlebell and men with a 26.5-pound kettlebell.

“When you’re doing a swing, you squeeze your quads, you squeeze your glutes, and you squeeze your abs,” said Mr. Blea. “By squeezing these muscles, you protect your back. It creates power, and it increases strength.”

Kettlebell training is also surprisingly aerobic. A study by the American Council on Exercise found that a 20-minute kettlebell workout burns about 21 calories a minute, the equivalent of running at a six-minute-mile pace.

Read more: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/turning-to-kettlebells-to-ease-back-pain/

Dr. Amerest Anderson, at Pure Health Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Wellness Institute in St. George, says it doesn’t have to be that way.

“Pregnancy doesn’t have to be an uncomfortable experience if you’re thinking outside the box,” Anderson says.

Focusing on maternal and infant chiropractic care, Anderson sees women suffering from a variety of pregnancy-related issues, as well as those just seeking to improve their overall wellness before the baby comes.

Juli Picklesimer was approximately 20 weeks along when she first came to see Anderson, seeking relief from sciatic nerve pain.

“It would be so bad I’d go to sleep and get into a position that was hurting and I couldn’t move,” Picklesimer says. “It was crippling.”

She is now just a few weeks from delivering her baby and she says the treatments have made a world of difference in her third pregnancy.

“I’ve never slept this well during pregnancy,” says Picklesimer, adding that nothing else has helped this much, even physical therapy. “A lot of the aches and pains of pregnancy are just taken away.”

Lauralynn Defngin is planning to have an all-natural birth with the help of a midwife. During one of the birthing classes she was surprised to learn that maternal chiropractic care was an option.

“I didn’t know you could get adjusted while pregnant,” says Defngin, who has since been making regular visits to Anderson’s office to receive overall comfort adjustments through much of her pregnancy.

“It’s kind of a natural high,” she says.

Maternal chiropractic care is not a new concept and Anderson says it should not take the place of gynecological prenatal care. Rather, she believes the two should go hand in hand to meet the overall wellness needs of the patient.

“Statistically women who receive chiropractic care will have 50 percent shorter labor times,” Anderson says.

To continue this article visit: http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20120116/FAMILY/120116003/Chiropractic-care-helps-moms-babies?odyssey=nav%7Chead

This was an epiphany for me. Idleness, it seemed, was not bad. It was noble. It was excessive busyness that caused all the problems!

So I got out of bed and started a magazine called The Idler, in order to remind people of the forgotten, simple pleasures of doing nothing. I even wrote books about it. And, yes, you could say that idleness became my life’s work. So, based on all those years of tough-going research, here are my top tips for people who find it difficult to just be.

1. Banish the guilt.
We are all told that we should be terribly busy, so we can’t laze around without that nagging feeling that we need to be getting stuff done. I rejected my guilt upon learning that Europeans in the Middle Ages felt no shame for lolling about. Their favorite philosopher, Aristotle, had praised the contemplative life, and the monks spent a lot of time just praying and chanting. Guilt for doing nothing is artificially imposed on us by a Calvinistic and Puritanical culture that wants us to work hard. When you understand that it hasn’t always been this way, it becomes easier to shake it off.

2. Choose the right role models. 
Most of the great musicians and poets were idlers. So feed yourself a diet of John Lennon, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and the like. Carrying a slim volume of verse in your purse or pocket can be therapeutic―something from Keats, who wrote of “evenings steep’d in honied indolence,” or Wordsworth, of course. (What could be more idle than wandering lonely as a cloud?) It’s delightful to read a few lines while you’re on a bus or a train, then stare out the window and ponder their meaning.

3. Sketch a flower.
If you are new to idling and feel compelled to be purposefully occupied, sketching a flower at the kitchen table can be an excellent way to bring some divine contemplation into your life. The act of drawing makes you observe the bloom in a way you never have before. All anxieties fly away as you lose yourself in close study. And at the end of it you have a pretty little sketch.

4. Go bumbling.
Bumbling is a nice word that means “wandering around without purpose.” It was indulged in by the poets of 19th-century Paris. They called themselves flâneurs and were said to have taken tortoises around on leads, which gives you an idea of the tempo of their rambles. Children are good bumblers. Try making a deliberate effort to slow down your walking pace. You’ll find yourself coming alive, and you’ll enjoy simply soaking in the day.

5. Play the ukulele.
The ukulele is the sound of not working. My wife hates it for that very reason: The twang of those strings means that I am not doing something useful around the house. I keep my ukulele in the kitchen and play it at odd moments, like while I’m waiting for the kettle to boil.

6. Bring back Sundays. 
Many religions still observe a Sabbath, whether it’s Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. And for a long time secular society embraced Sundays as a day of rest, too. But now Sundays are as busy and stress-filled as any other day. Having a day of rest was a very practical idea: We were excused from all labor and devoted ourselves to pleasure and family. Take that ancient wisdom to heart and declare at least one day of the week as a do-nothing day. Don’t clean the house or do the laundry; don’t get in the car. Stay home and eat chocolate and drink wine. Be kind to yourself.

7. Lie in a field. 
Doing nothing is profoundly healing―to yourself and to the planet. It is precisely our restless activity that has caused the environmental crisis. So do some good by taking a break from “doing” and go and lie on your back in a field. Listen to the birds and smell the grass.

8. Gaze at the clouds.
Don’t have a field nearby? Doing nothing can easily be dignified by calling it “cloud spotting.” It gives a purpose to your dawdling. Go outside and look up at the ever-changing skies and spot the cirrus and the cumulonimbus.

9. Take a nap.
To indulge in a siesta after lunch is the most wonderful luxury: It softens tempers and guards against grumpiness. Yet our culture has decided that naps are for wimps. A nap is acceptable only if it is called a “power nap”―a short doze that is supposed to return you to the office with more energy to kick some ass. But you should nap, not for the profit of a corporation but for your own health. Research has shown that a daily snooze can reduce the risk of heart attack. And just knowing you’re going to sleep after lunch seems to make the morning less stressful. If curling up in your office isn’t an option, go somewhere quiet, like a church or a park bench, and close your eyes for even just five minutes.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/07/10-ways-to-enjoy-doing-nothing/#ixzz1iyd9Ukmo

Garyl Hester of New York City thought he had a sinus infection when he went to the doctor – but he had it all wrong.

“I couldn’t get rid of it, I couldn’t shake it,” said Hester, 48. “So (my doctor) tested me and found out I was allergic to dust mites, which I never knew before.”

Hester said he now has an air purifier in his house and he bought hypoallergenic sheets – and his headache is gone.

New York-based allergist Dr. Jonathan Field said most patients get confused and often do not know what kind of medical condition they are dealing with.

“If they have a fever, if the headache tends to be more extreme or if they lost their sense of smell, then it sounds to me like a sinus infection,” Field said.

If you are prone to sinus infections, try an irrigation rinse to prevent them or get tested for allergies.

Field said colds and sinus infections are often triggered by indoor allergies, such as dust, mold and pet dander.

“Colds tend to be mild, and you have typical symptoms like a running nose, itchy eyes – a little bit of a sore throat and mild muscle aches, but generally you feel well,” Field said.

Cold symptoms should not last longer than a week, he added. Taking zinc at the onset of a cold can decrease the duration of the illness and severity of symptoms.

However, the flu is much worse – symptoms are more pronounced in terms of muscle aches and fatigue, and you will definitely have a fever.

The onset of the flu is very sudden, Field added.

Prescribed medication is the only cure for influenza, which can be deadly. Up to 36,000 Americans die each year from influenza, so if you think you may have it, see a doctor immediately. A flu shot is the best prevention.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/23/how-to-tell-if-its-allergies-cold-or-flu/#ixzz1hq953CTG

While it’s a common belief, your body weight does not always accurately reflect your health.

Your weight tells you nothing about your body’s composition, nor does it indicate where hidden fat might be accumulating.

Over the years, you may lose muscle and gain fat but see little change in your weight.

Such a change in body composition may reflect declining health, especially if you have visceral fat packed in and around your abdominal organs.

Visceral fat is associated with a heightened risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

In fact, a recent report found that women drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day were more likely to develop raised levels of triglycerides and accumulate visceral fat — even if they did not put on weight overall.

According to DrBriffa.com:

“It’s entirely possible for someone to be a ‘healthy’ weight, and have biochemical and physiological evidence of enhanced risk of disease.”

Can You Be Skinny and Still Be in Poor Health?

The short answer is yes.

It’s certainly possible to be thin and unhealthy.

However, overall, there are far more unhealthy overweight people than unhealthy thin people.

The central issue that primes you for poor health is insulin and leptin resistance, which is far more common in overweight individuals than thin.

But regardless of your physical size, measuring your insulin, leptin and cholesterol levels can give you a good indication of whether or not you are “metabolically fit,” and whether you’re headed toward chronic illness, regardless of your weight.

That said, health problems related to excess weight are definitely more common.

The risks of obesity are fairly well-known by now — obese adults tend to have higher rates of high blood pressure, abnormal lipids, cancer and diabetes, for example.

Your body is designed to operate best when it’s at an ideal weight, which varies slightly from person to person. However, carrying around extra pounds will inevitably increase your risk of developing just about every chronic degenerative disease there is, so the idea that you can be overweight and maintain optimal health indefinitely can easily lead you down the wrong path.

How to Measure Your Body Composition

The body mass index (BMI) gauges your weight in relation to height. However, this measurement is rather flawed, particularly for those who are very muscular. These individuals can easily be misclassified as obese (since muscle weighs more than fat) when in fact they’re just carrying a lot of muscle and very little fat. The BMI measurement also does not give you any indication of where the fat is located in your body, and this appears to be more important than the amount of fat when it comes to measuring heart risks.

The easiest and perhaps best way to measure your body composition is to simply measure your waist size. Studies have shown that your waist size is a far more accurate predictor of your heart risks than your BMI, as abdominal fat in particular is strongly associated with heart disease. Your waist size is also a powerful indicator of insulin sensitivity, as studies clearly show that measuring your waist size is one of the most powerful ways to predict your risk for diabetes.

Determining your waist size is easy. With a tape measure, figure the distance around the smallest area of your abdomen below your rib cage and above your belly button. If you’re not sure if you have a healthy waist circumference, a general guide is:

• For men, between 37 and 40 inches is overweight and more than 40 inches is obese
• For women, 31.5 to 34.6 inches is overweight and more than 34.6 inches is obese

For even greater accuracy, you can resort to hydrostatic weighing, where you get weighed under water. This measures the density of your body, which is then used to calculate how much body fat you have.

Another technique that is gaining support by medical and fitness experts is the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). To measure body impedance, an electrical signal is passed through your body. Impedance is greatest in fat tissue, which contains low amounts of water, while fat-free mass, which contains up to 75 percent water, allows the signal to pass through fairly unimpeded. This measurement, along with other factors such as your height, weight, and body type, is then used to calculate your percentage of body fat, fat-free mass and other body composition values.

10 Things You May Not Know about Your Weight

A related article by Prevent Disease lists 10 things you may not know about your weight, but really should. Below are a few of them. (To review previous articles written on these topics, please follow the hyperlinks provided.) For the rest of the list, please see the original article:

• You can change your metabolism:  A study of sets of twins where one was fat and the other thin found that fat cells in heavier twins underwent metabolic changes that make it more difficult to burn fat.  Physical activity can reverse the effect.
• Stress can make you fat: Stressful circumstances can cause cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods. Stress hormones also increase fat storage.
• Sleep more to promote weight loss:  Sleep deprivation upsets your hormone balance, triggering a decrease in leptin (a hormone that helps you feel full) and an increase of ghrelin (a hormone that triggers hunger).
• Sugar is addictive:  Research has determined that foods people like excite the same parts of the brain that are activated in drug addicts.
• Antioxidants are also anti-fat:  Free radicals damage the cells that tell you that you’re full. Get rid of them by eating colorful, antioxidant-rich vegetables.

What’s More Important: Diet or Exercise?

If you could choose between diet or exercise, diet actually has far more influence on developing your ideal lean body mass and overall health than exercise. It accounts for about 80 percent of the health benefits derived from a healthy lifestyle, but of course both are necessary for optimal health. Unfortunately, many are confused on this issue and believe that as long as they’re exercising appropriately, they don’t have to be very careful with their food choices.

This simply is not true.

If you want to lose weight, your first action item should be to drastically reduce or eliminate all forms of sugar from your diet, particularly fructose. Fructose is a major contributor to:

• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure
• Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
• Depletion of vitamins and minerals
• Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout

You’ll also want to cut out most grains, including organic ones, as they break down into sugar in your body. The easiest way to avoid both fructose and grains is to stop buying processed foods, and focus on a diet of fresh whole foods, cooked from scratch instead.

The reason why fructose and grain-avoidance is so important for optimal health and weight is because these are the primary contributors to insulin resistance, which not only hampers your ability to lose weight, but also gives rise to virtually every chronic disease we know of.

Read more:http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/17/10-things-about-your-weight.aspx?e_cid=20111217_DNL_art_1

Seattle researchers recruited 401 patients, mostly middle-aged, female and white, all of whom had chronic low back pain.

Those who received a series of either relaxation massage or structural massage were better able to work and be active for up to a year than those getting “usual medical care,” which included painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants or physical therapy, the researchers found.

Lead study author Daniel Cherkin, director of Group Health Research Institute, said he had expected structural massage, which manipulates specific pain-related back muscles and ligaments, would prove superior to relaxation or so-called Swedish massage, which aims to promote a feeling of body-wide relaxation.

Structural massage, which focuses on soft-tissue abnormalities, requires more training and may be more likely to be paid for by health insurance plans, which may equate it with physical therapy, said Cherkin.

“I thought structural massage would have been at least a little better, and that’s not the case,” Cherkin said. “If you’re having continuing problems with back pain even after trying usual medical care, massage may be a good thing to do. I think the results are pretty strong.”

The study, funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is published in the July 5 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: structural massage, relaxation massage or usual care. Those in the massage groups were given hour-long massage treatments weekly for 10 weeks.

At 10 weeks, more than one-third of those who received either type of massage said their back pain was much better or gone, compared to only one in 25 patients who received usual care, the study said. Those in the massage groups were also twice as likely in that period to have spent fewer days in bed, used less anti-inflammatory medication and engaged in more activity than the standard care group.

Six months out, both types of massage were still linked to improved function, Cherkin said, but after one year, pain and function was almost equal in all three groups.

Noting that most Americans will experience low back pain during their lifetime, Cherkin said another benefit of massage is its relative safety.

“Maybe one of 10 patients felt pain during or after massage, but most of those thought it was a ‘good pain,’” he said. “A good massage therapist will be in tune with the patient and will ask what hurts.”

One of the study’s weaknesses was that those who were assigned to usual care knew that others were receiving massage therapy and may have been disappointed to be excluded, tainting their reported improvement, said Dr. Robert Duarte, director of the Pain and Headache Treatment Center at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Manhasset, N.Y.

“I think massage therapy can be useful for patients with back pain, but more as a . . . supplemental therapy,” Duarte added.

Read more: http://news.health.com/2011/07/05/massage-beats-meds-for-lower-back-pain-study-says/

New research indicates that massage therapy benefits preterm infants’ brain electrical activity.

The investigators set out to test the hypothesis that massage determines changes in EEG spectral activity, a highly sensitive index of brain maturation, in preterm infants, according to an abstract published on www.pubmed.gov.

Infants were randomly allocated to a massage or comparison group, the abstract noted, and intervention consisted of standard care only (comparison group) or standard care plus infant massage (massage group).

“Massage was started at around 10 days after birth and was provided for 12 days during a two-week period,” stated the abstract. “EEG was performed at around one and four weeks, i.e. before and after intervention.

“The modification in global EEG spectral power between the two assessments was significantly different for the two groups, especially for the delta band activity; the spectral power did not change in massaged infants although, not surprisingly, it decreased significantly in the comparison group, as shown by previous studies,” the abstract noted.

“We propose that massage intervention affects the maturation of brain electrical activity and favors a process more similar to that observed in utero in term infants,” the investigators noted.

“The effects of preterm infant massage on brain electrical activity” was published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology. (2011 Sep;53 Suppl 4:46-51. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2011.04065.x.)

Read More: http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=11815&catid=massage-found-to-benefit-preterm-infants-brain-electrical-activity&title=