LIVE life!

Do you need a Doctors or a Therapist?

Over the last few years, there has been a steady increase in people opting for therapeutic remedies to their ailments. This is not by chance! It is because time and time again, people are realizing that what they need may not be another tablet to ease their pain or to get them to better health.

Ever been to the doctor and their first response is ‘take these pills’ or ‘ take these blood thinners’ or they automatically recommend something that actually just puts more money in their pocket? Because you are right back at their office in 2 weeks with no real pain relief.

HERE IS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT SHOCK YOU

“There is more than one way to skin a cat”

As much as doctors have their place and are DEFINITELY important in saving lives, sometimes you might need a massage therapist, a physical therapist or even a natural person-ist (naturopathic doctor) to provide alternative options to prolong life and not take away from it.

Instead of taking all the usual recommended medications like

pain killers for muscle pain or

steroids injection for your knee that keeps rubbing or

tablets for high blood pressure or

even blood thinners for better blood flow,

Seek an opinion from a wellness and health professional who can advise on alternative treatments including massage, so you can build muscles around your joints and increase your overall strength. According to WebMD, ‘Holistic medicine is a form of healing that considers the whole person — body, mind, spirit, and emotions — in the quest for optimal health and wellness. … In this way, if people have imbalances (physical, emotional, or spiritual) in their lives, it can negatively affect their overall health.’

I went to my client last week and he mentioned he was experiencing feelings of anxiety and decided to visit a doctor (natural response right). During his visit, the doctor prescribed pills to ease his anxiety. My client took the medication as prescribed but the side effects included feelings of tiredness and weakness, so he stopped taking the pills after 5 days. He felt his body was experiencing withdrawals (his words not mine) and he felt shaky when trying to walk. He felt that despite these side effects, maybe he should continue the medication because it helped him periodically.

Now I’m not saying massage is the answer for this particular situation but you should seriously consider other more holistic healing methods before putting your body through the trauma of medication. Cancer Research UK cites that ‘Many complementary therapies concentrate on relaxation and reducing stress. They might help to calm your emotions, relieve anxiety, and increase your general sense of health and well being. Many doctors, cancer nurses and researchers are interested in the idea that positive emotions can improve your health.’

Massage is known to calm and relax the mind, help with anxiety, stress and even remove toxins from the body. A therapeutic massage is a great alternative method of treatment for many of the ailments that you usually run to the doctor for. The next time you or your loved one feels any pain or discomfort, give us a call and let’s see if a therapeutic treatment is the alternative answer to your ailment.

Your massage therapist

Nneka

World Diabetes Day!

Today is World Diabetes Day. For the month of November, the Diabetic Association of Trinidad and Tobago have been celebrating and bringing awareness of diabetes to citizens. In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a lot of persons suffering with diabetes and all the complications that come with it. Some of the complications that come with diabetes include kidney failure, lack of circulation, other organs failure, numbness or neuropathy, eye damage and in some cases even Alzheimers.

Regular massage has been known to help people afflicted with diabetes, specifically in improving blood circulation in the body which sends oxygen and nutrients to the cells and in turn helps with the utilization of insulin in the cells. Some persons also experience body pains and this is where massage comes in, to reduce pain, muscle tension, stress and decrease the level of anxiety.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER IF YOU ARE DIABETIC:

1. When you start to experience numbness in the hands or feet or even tightness in the legs that should NOT be when you start to think about doing massages. Massages should be done before, to prevent or delay the effects of diabetes.

2. If you experience any tightness in your legs, a circulation massage pushing the blood back towards the heart to go through the deoxygenated and oxygenated process is recommended. A circulation massage eliminates the darkness that is usually associated with lack of circulation and eases the tightness of the muscles.

3. According to the Mayo Clinic, ‘Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that can occur if you have diabetes. High blood sugar (glucose) can injure nerves throughout your body. Diabetic neuropathy most often damages nerves in your legs and feet.

Depending on the affected nerves, symptoms of diabetic neuropathy can range from pain and numbness in your legs and feet to problems with your digestive system, urinary tract, blood vessels and heart. Some people have mild symptoms. But for others, diabetic neuropathy can be quite painful and disabling.’

If you have any of these symptoms, the use of heat therapy and t.e.n.s machine treatment should help bring back some feelings in the hands and feet.

4. Some research has shown that persons suffering with diabetes have a higher chance of developing Alzheimers. Regular massages that stimulate blood flow to and from the brain may be able to assist with the remembrance part of the brain( hippocampus). Diabetes comes with so many stresses that can often cause you to forget and delay remembrance massages can help a great deal with managing the disease.

5. Foot care is of paramount importance for anyone with diabetes. You should be cautious with cutting of your toe nails and keeping between toes dry and fungus free. Improper care which can lead to cuts and bruises can be detrimental. Any cuts can take a while to heal because the blood vessels become damaged and the part of the body that repairs itself has slowed down. Getting your nails and feet taken care of by someone who is experienced and uses products safe for diabetics is highly recommended.

At La Touche Royale Spa and Wellness Center we offer services that are specific and safe for diabetics. All our products are diabetic friendly and very gentle so as not to damage or break the skin yet strong enough to remove those hard callus and fungus that are just too hard for you to deal with on your own.

If you or anyone close to you suffers with diabetes, contact us to help manage the disease and live your best life.

So your next step is to call us, schedule a consult and book YOUR MONTHLY MASSAGE or PEDICURE WITH US HERE

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You deserve something special

When most people think about massage they generally think that all massages are created equally. The truth is that every client receives a different type of massage depending on the pain they are experiencing. Massages are generally customised to each client at every visit.

I once had a client ask me if she would be receiving the same massage as a friend of hers who recently did a massage with me.  This is a very common question especially when new clients are referred to by my regular customers. Our bodies are all made up the same, but we experience pain in different ways. In one of the earlier blog posts, I spoke about referral pain where you perceive the pain in one location rather than the stimulus of the pain. So a pain in your shoulder could stem from your heart or even your stomach. This goes for everybody.

One client may come to me for lower back pain and another for head and shoulder pain and thus when I decide what type of massage to offer, I decide it based on the discomfort that you explain to me. I offer a number of different types of massages which include

• Stretch therapy
• Medical Massage Services
• Swedish and Deep Tissue Massage
• Trigger Point Massage
• Cupping Therapy

And a whole heap more that are meant to tackle specific issues you are experiencing.

I had a client tell me just this week, she likes that it’s never a dull moment with me in the techniques I use. And that is highly dependent on what your needs are at that point in time. 

Your massage session is something special for you, so why would you want to have what everyone is getting anyways?

 Let’s relieve you of any pain you may be experiencing.

So your next step is to call us, schedule a consult and book YOUR MONTHLY MASSAGE WITH US HERE

Be sure to like, share and subscribe to our blog, so you never miss one again.

 

Have a cold? Then no massage!

When to book or not book your massage!!!

My 92 year old client called me to cancel her bi-weekly massage appointment because she has the cold. She has been doing massages with me for a while and is aware that doing a massage while you have the cold can make it even worse.

This got me thinking and I wondered how many people really know the do’s and don’ts of doing massages when they are ill.

So let’s talk about booking and doing a massage when you have the cold or the virus.

Massages can stimulate blood flow and help the circulation of white blood cells; which are responsible for fighting off bacteria and viruses in the body. Also, lymphatic drainage massages can expell toxins from your body which can also release your immune system to fight off illnesses.

So massages can actually help with preventing you from becoming ill.

However it’s not advisable to do massages WHEN you have the flu with fever because it can actually make things worst.

When you are ill, your body’s immune system is working hard to fight against the illness or virus and so a massage can create an overload of toxins in your system which can make you feel worst and prolong your fever.

It’s of course also necessary for you to not share your cold with your massage therapist.

In conclusion, massages can actually help prevent you from becoming ill or alleviating the symptoms of the virus. However if you already have the virus then a massage can make it worse and it’s not the best time to book your massage. So get better soon….

AND THEN GET BACK ON SCHEDULE WITH YOUR MONTHLY MASSAGE WITH US HERE

 

How is your Mental Health?

This week we celebrated World Mental Health Day on Thursday 10th October. According to the World Health Organisation– “ World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health.

The Day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide.”

What is MENTAL Health?

“Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”

Why does Mental Health Matter?

Health is important to us as it affects how we think and interact with others

What are Mental Health Disorders?

“Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions – disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behaviour. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating

Many people have mental health concerns from time to time. But a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function” according to the Mayo Clinic

At La Touche Royale Spa and Wellness Centre we understand so well how mental health is connected to your overall well being. We take these things into consideration when we customize any of our massages for our clients because a therapeutic massage can have both internal and external benefits for our clients. 

To commemorate this day, we wanted to share some tips to improve your mental health

1. Seek professional help from a counsellor or support group
2. Develop your mental strength: Express gratitude, surround yourself with positive people and feed your mind enlightening and motivational content
3. Exercise regularly
4. Learn stress management skills: Participate in extracurricular activities or hobbies; pursue your passion; stay active
5. Maintain a healthy diet and adopt healthy sleep patterns
6. Stay clear of drugs and alcohol
7. Make Self-care a priority

And be sure to book your regular monthly massage with us HERE

 

TELL ME EVERRRRYYYTHINGGG

Why is it important to tell your massage therapist everything?

I mean things like: if you had recent surgery (cosmetic or medical), broken bones, miscarriages, headaches, sinus issues, blood clots, even things as simple as insomnia should be mentioned.

This is not because we want to be all in your business, but it can influence the effectiveness of your treatment.

On the other hand:
1. We are professionals and adhere to strict client- therapist confidentiality.

2. It’s important for your therapist to have information on your recent surgeries because your flesh normally takes a full year to heal properly. Outward healing may seem fine but inward healing takes a while longer.

3. Even when you think something isn’t related it just may be. Let’s say you did cosmetic surgery on your tummy and didn’t inform your therapist and we proceed to stretch your legs not having all the information; your abdomen WILL BE in pain for the rest of the day/week.

BUT HOW right; seeing that the surgery wasn’t on your legs?

That’s true but you have muscles in your leg that are connected to your hip area, that are connected to your torso, along with lymph fluid that flows and connects throughout the entire body.

This is one of the reasons why we use leg stretches when our clients complain of having backpain; your nerves are also connected. So stretching the leg relieves the pressure on the back.

Surgery usually means than an incision was made into the many layers of your flesh which can cause scar tissue to form in that area and result in pain when manipulated.

An important thing to remember: massages are about pushing, pulling and getting the blood to circulate all over the body.

Pushing too much blood to an unhealed area can cause bleeding in that area.

So even when all you did was a toe nail surgery, we encourage you to tell your therapist so we can manoeuvre around it and administer the best treatment for you.

In our upcoming Massage Therapy 101 workshop which runs for 8 weeks from October 5th – November 23rd, you will learn about how parts of the body are connected.

In 8 weeks you will learn:

• Massage preparation
• Anatomy and Physiology
• Effects of Massage and
• Massage Techniques

Registration is open and a payment plan is available to you. Join us in Massage Therapy 101 

 

No more limitations

There are many different types of massage techniques that can relieve the pain in your body.

I enjoy interacting  with my clients and conversing with them so I can get to the root cause of their ailments. 

In my last blog I identified that pain can  originate from somewhere totally different to where it’s being felt. Which is called “referral pain” and I spoke at length about trigger point massage therapy. 

This week, I want to share on scar tissue massages.

I had a client who; while at work he stretched to reach an object and felt something pull in his shoulder. He did not come to me immediately when he got the injury, but instead he proceeded to treat the area very tenderly. In our local parlance  ‘he baby the shoulder’. His delay in treating his injury caused his muscles to shorten and so he experienced limited rotation and flexibility in his shoulder.

When he finally booked his therapeutic massage and I examined his pain area; I immediately realised that it wasn’t a torn ligament or tendon but his muscles had ‘pulled’ or strained.

Shoulder pain is a common ailment that I see all the time.  Some clients strain their entire rotator cuff muscle group; causing them immense shoulder pain.

After this type of injury; scar tissue can develop in the tissues and muscles as it heals.  So a Scar Tissue Release Massage is what I would recommend to help remodel the scared muscles and connecting tissues.

Scar tissue can be caused by recent surgery or even overworked muscles. Massage can be done as little as 2 weeks after surgery but might not make much of a difference if done more than 2 years after surgery.

Scar tissue can often cause the limb to feel heavy and neurological pain. Patients can experience numbness at times.

Scar tissue release massage can hurt when it’s being done but the softening of the tissues can help with the heaviness and  numbness.

The benefits of having a scar tissue release massage are:

 – it can help you heal faster

– reduce the appearance of scars

– increase blood flow

– you regain feeling in the area

– increase range of motion and flexibility

– decrease the buildup of scar tissue 

Patients normally regain full mobility of the affected area after a full treatment.

In our upcoming Massage Therapy 101 workshop which runs for 8 weeks from October 5th – November 23rd, you will learn about scar tissue massage and how to successfully administer it for your clients.

In 8 weeks you will learn:

• Massage preparation
• Anatomy and Physiology
• Effects of Massage and
• Massage Techniques

Registration is open and a payment plan is available to you. Join us in Massage Therapy 101 

Where is the pain coming from?

Do you know that where you are experiencing pain is usually not where the problem really is?

This pain is known as referral pain because you perceive the pain in one location rather than the stimulus of the pain. So a pain in your shoulder could stem from your heart or even your stomach. Let me give you an example. I had a client who said she was experiencing alot of heel pain, under the feet and side of the heel. When I came in to massage her and did my preliminary checks,  I realised the problem was actually in her hip. She was in an accident 10 yrs ago where she fractured her hip. The damage done to her hip never fully healed and thus turned into chronic pain. She had a trigger point issue.

After an injury or overuse of a muscle, tight areas of the muscle can form. This point can cause immense pain or strain throughout your muscles and other parts of your body. Trigger point release massage applies isolated pressure and release to tender muscle tissue to relieve the pain in other parts of your body(referral pain). 

For my client, we started on a trigger point release massage  to work out all the “knots” starting from her hips straight down to her toes. The combination of massages and stretches helped her immediately. 

In our upcoming Massage Therapy 101 workshop which runs for 8 weeks from October 5th – November 23rd, you will learn about trigger points and referral pain and how to successfully identify them. 

In 8 weeks you will learn:

• Massage preparation
• Anatomy and Physiology
• Effects of Massage and 
• Massage Techniques

Registration is open and a payment plan is available to you. Join us in Massage Therapy 101 

 

 

More Stress= No Sleep

Our body exhibits stress in so many ways. This happened to my client a few weeks ago!

I had a wonderful client who died suddenly on me a few weeks ago. Ok ok … not directly on me while I was treating her, but 2 weeks after we did a session. This message surprisingly is not about her, even though it kind of is. It’s actually about her daughter and how it affected her.

I kept in contact with her daughter because I felt very connected to them. She kept saying she was fine and she hasn’t cried but she has cried a little, she said she isn’t sad but  she is sad. She said she was happy that her mother didn’t suffer but also unhappy. All these are reasonable feelings to have in the face of death. The problem was, she had not slept since her mom died!

A week after the funeral she scheduled her massage, LET….ME….TELL….YOU… the tension on her back, neck and shoulders were beyond stressed…even her legs felt the effects of the stress. It was beyond her not feeling sad, it was beyond her not crying and not sleeping. To say it was super hard was an understatement, but we rallied through.

Through her therapeutic massage, I provided relief, relaxation and a listening ear. AND I KNEW at the end of this session she would get some much needed sleep and comfort. So I got into work. Working those connecting rotator cuff muscles all behind the back and under the arms and in the neck. We did some deep stretching to help those muscles return to its regular lengthen state and used some heat as well. The results were immediate!

Before I even left the house she dosed off for a little bit because she was now in a relaxed state. It just goes to show the effects unknown stress or worry or even insomnia has on the body. And massage is, I think, always the answer. Since the second night, she has slept every night.

Stress is not something that you should take lightly. But massage can definitely help. I encourage you whatever the problem, let’s try massage first! Schedule your next session HERE

7 ways to get Carpal Tunnel relief

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the pain you are feeling in your wrist and fingers as you carry about your everyday tasks. It is a progressive condition formed when the median nerve, radiating from the hand to the forearm, experiences compression at the wrist. The median nerve controls the sensations you feel to the palm side of your fingers and sends impulse triggers for your fingers to move. This nerve is surrounded by a carpal tunnel which is a narrow passage with bones, ligaments and tendons. If stress is placed on the median nerve consistently, then your chance of developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome increases.

 

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED?

A tingling in your fingers at night and a weakened grip? Eventually you will notice muscle atrophy of the thenar (thumb) muscles and loss of hand function or clumsiness. Or when you  feel the tingling feeling followed by numbness or sometimes pain in your thumb, index finger or middle finger? The pain may start in the wrist and then gradually increase and extend up to your arm and because of it you cannot grip things properly?

 

Many people do not even realise they have carpal tunnel syndrome because they are not familiar with symptoms.

 

Here are 7 ways to get Carpal Tunnel Relief:

1. Wear night wrist splints and use a stress ball

         The night wrist splints can help relieve the pressure on the nerves and the stress ball can exercise the muscles and strengthen the hands.

Wrist band

Stress Balls

 

2. Avoid sleeping on your hands because that puts more pressure on the nerves and will increase tingling sensation

 

3. Stretch and rotate your hands and wrists regularly. Every part of our body thrives better when it is exercised regularly. Your hands and wrists are no exception especially if your daily activities make your more prone to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

 

4. Take more frequent breaks to rest your hands. Give your nerves time to recuperate and breathe in between activities.

 

5. Avoiding activities that worsen symptoms like repetitive functions that keep putting strains on the same nerves. Professions like hairdressing, landscaping, retail, massage therapist and even dental hygienist are more prone to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome because of the repetitive work they do

 

6. Self massage to manage pain in between therapeutic massage sessions 

 

7. Set up regular therapeutic massage with La Touche Royale Spa and Wellness. A therapeutic massage will get to the root cause of the pain and help you manage the pain you are currently experiencing. 

 

 

There is no reason for you to live in pain, especially since you now know the symptoms to look for. Schedule your monthly massage with La Touche Spa and Wellness and let’s not just help you relieve the pain, but teach you how to do the self massage between therapy and give you the tools like the wrist splints and stress balls.

 

Here are some DIY exercises you can do at home to relieve your carpal tunnel syndrome- EXERCISES