This entry was posted in Sports Massage and tagged circulation, healing, inflammation, laser, pain on October 29, 2021 by Beverly Jacobs.	
This entry was posted in Sports Massage and tagged diarrhea, external oblique, ligament, muscle spasm, sacrum on September 9, 2021 by Beverly Jacobs.	
This entry was posted in Sports Massage on September 8, 2021 by Beverly Jacobs.	
ACL injuries most likely occur in dogs that fit one of two descriptions. The dog is athletic and the ligament snaps when an awkward force is placed on the knee, such as jumping for a Frisbee. Or, the dog is older or overweight and the ligament tears with a more casual movement such as walking down stairs or jumping up on the bed. The latter injury is due to chronic forces which have weakened the joint over time. We find that many of these knees will have some degree of cartilage damage, similar to what is seen in humans.
Most torn ACL cases in humans do occur in athletes. There are several procedures that can be done surgically to get people back on their feet, but even with excellent rehabilitation programs, most human athletes are out of commission for 10-12 months. There are various methods used to surgically repair these knees in our canine patients as well, but the age, size and activity of the dog plays a major role in the decision. Regardless of the method used for correction, there is at least a 6-8 week period of restricted activity to allow for healing, and another 6-8 weeks in which activity is slowly introduced and gradually increased back to normal. Many dogs will benefit from post-op swimming, along with cold laser therapy.
This entry was posted in Sports Massage on June 23, 2019 by Beverly Jacobs.	
Often, people with acute or chronic pain (low back pain, a sore knee, or persistent neck stiffness) will quickly turn to over-the-counter pain medicine for relief. However, the FDA recently issued strict warnings regarding the misuse and overdosing of over-the-counter pain medications due to severe complications such as stomach ulcers, hearing disorders and liver failure. In addition, there is a growing concern among physicians regarding the side effects associated with prescription pain medication.
So how can low-level laser therapy help? Low-level laser therapy (LLLT), or cold laser, is a painless, sterile, non-invasive, drug free modality that is used for a variety of conditions such as acute and chronic pain, post-operative pain, shoulder pain, etc.
Housed within the mitochondria, the cell energy manufacturer, are receptors capable of absorbing distinct parameters of light. Think of these receptors like any drug receptor. When we consume a medication, the compound is absorbed by the body and it locates a particular receptor, based upon its molecular design, and will bind to that receptor. Once the drug binds, a secondary reaction inside the cell takes place.
A similar mechanism is observed when exposing the body to a particular color of light. During a laser treatment, the light will penetrate the skin and is absorbed by this receptor within the mitochondria. Receptor stimulation with light promotes energy production, biochemical reactions, protein and growth factor synthesis, cell growth and proliferation and enhancement of blood and oxygen flow.
The result – more rapid healing and relief – nothing heals faster. What this means to you is that in just a short time you could be pain free and able to resume the activities you enjoy.
This entry was posted in Cold Laser, Injury, Pain Relief and tagged back, knee, mitochondria, neck, pain on April 4, 2019 by Beverly Jacobs.	
Massages feels amazing, especially after a grueling workout—and their benefits aren’t just skin deep. Soft tissue massage is exceptionally good for bone-weary athletes and people with inflammation-related chronic conditions like arthritis and muscular dystrophy, according to research from McMaster University. Vigorous exercise causes small tears in your muscle fibers, and your body’s natural repair process naturally leads to inflammation and soreness.
To see if massage truly aids recovery, the researchers biopsied volunteers’ legs over the course of three sessions—once while at rest, a second time after they’d vigorously exercised on a stationary bike and received a 10-minute massage on one thigh, and a third biopsy two and a half hours after the second to track the repair processes between the massaged and un-massaged legs.
Unsurprisingly, massage reduced the production of cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammation, and stimulated mitochondria—the tiny powerhouses inside your cells that convert glucose into energy for cell function and repair. So make sure to schedule regular massages; your muscles will adapt better to the demands of increased exercise.
This entry was posted in Equine Massage, Human, Injury Prevention, Pain Relief, Performance Enhancing Massage, Sports Massage and tagged arthritis, exercise, inflammation, massage, muscle fibers, soreness on October 21, 2015 by Beverly Jacobs.	
This is a reprint from Stone Athletic Medicine:
In July I posted a blog discussing The Overuse of Cryotherapy. The controversy surrounding the topic made it one of the most popular blogs I’ve written. What is surprising to me is that a controversy exists at all. Why, where, and when did this notion of anti-inflammation start? Ice, compression, elevation and NSAIDs are so commonplace that suggesting otherwise is laughable to most. Enter an Athletic Training Room or Physical Therapy Clinic nearly all clients are receiving some type of anti-inflammatory treatment (ice, compression, massage, NSAIDs, biophysical modalities, etc). I evaluated a client the other day and asked what are you doing currently – “Well, I am taking anti-inflammatories and icing.” Why do you want to get rid of inflammation and swelling? I ask this question for both chronic and acute injury!
The Stigma of Inflammation:
Editor in Chief of The Physician and Sports Medicine Journal (Dr. Nick DiNubile) once posed this question: “Seriously, do you honestly believe that your body’s natural inflammatory response is a mistake?” Much like a fever increases body temperature to kill off foreign invaders; inflammation is the first physiological process to the repair and remodeling of tissue. Inflammation, repair, and remodel. You cannot have tissue repair or remodeling without inflammation. In a healthy healing process, a proliferative phase consisting of a mixture of inflammatory cells and fibroblasts naturally follows the inflammatory phase (1). Researchers headed by Lan Zhou, MD, PhD, at the Cleveland Clinic, found that in response to acute muscle injury, inflammatory cells within the damaged muscle conduct phagocytosis, contribute to accumulation of intramuscular macrophages, and produce a high-level of Insulin-like growth factor 1, (IGF-1) which is required for muscle regeneration (3). IGF-1 is a primary mediator of the effects of growth hormone and a stimulator of cell growth and proliferation, and a potent inhibitor of programmed cell death. Similarly, in 2010, Cottrell and O’Conner stated “overwhelmingly, NSAIDs inhibit or delay fracture healing” (2). And you want to stop this critical process of healing by applying ice, because inflammation is “bad”?
The Anecdotal Rationale for Ice:
Somewhere along the line the concept that ice facilitates healing became conventional wisdom. Sorry, that wisdom is wrong. I had someone tell me the other day, “We need to ice, because we need to get the swelling out.” Really? Does ice facilitate movement of fluid out of the injured area? No, it does not. The lymphatic system removes swelling. The Textbook of Medical Physiology says it best: “The lymphatic system is a ‘scavenger’ system that removes excess fluid, protein molecules, debris, and other matter from the tissue spaces. When fluid enters the terminal lymphatic capillaries, any motion in the tissues that intermittently compresses the lymphatic capillaries propels the lymph forward through the lymphatic system, eventually emptying the lymph back into the circulation.” Lymphatic drainage is facilitated by contraction of surrounding muscle and changes in compressive forces that push the fluid back to the cardiovascular system. This is why ankle pumps work so well at removing swelling.
Inflammation is a necessary component in the first phase of phase of the healing process. Swelling is controlled by the body’s internal systems to attain homeostasis. If swelling is accumulated it is not because there is excessive swelling, rather it is because lymphatic drainage is slowed. The thought that ice application increases lymphatic flow to remove debris makes no sense. Gary Reinl, author of “Iced! The Illusionary Treatment option gave me a good analogy. Take two tubes of toothpaste, one is under ice for 20 minutes, the other is warmed to 99 degrees. In which tube will the toothpaste flow fastest? It does not take an advanced physics degree to know that answer.
What might surprise you is that ice actually reverses lymphatic drainage and pushes fluid back to interstitial space. A study published in 1986 (yes, 1986, is old, but this is a foundational study) found when ice is applied to a body part for a prolonged period of time; lymphatic vessels begin to dramatically increase permeability. As lymphatic permeability increases fluid will pour from the lymphatics into the injured area, increasing the amount of local swelling (5). Ice can increase swelling and retard debris removal!
The Acronym RICE is Bogus:
The acronym RICE is bogus in my opinion. First, Rest is not the answer. Rest does not stimulate tissue repair. In fact rest causes tissue to waste and can cause abnormal gene transcription of collagen tissue. Evidence has shown that tissue loading through exercise or other mechanical means stimulates gene transcription, proteogenesis, and formation of type I collagen fibers (See studies by Karim Khan, Durieux, Mick Joseph, and Craig Denegar). Our body has all types of cells. When a cell is born it has no clue what type of cell it will eventually become. This infancy cell – for lack of a better term – is called a progenitor cell. Progenitor cells can be changed to a specific cell type. Load in tendon tells our body to turn a progenitor cell in to a tenocyte. Load in bone tells a progenitor cell to become an osteocyte. Ever wonder why myositis ossificans (calcification or bone growth in muscle) develops? The direct, repeated trauma turns progenitor cell currently living within muscle to an osteocyte. Subsequently, we develop bone growth within muscle.
The other reason RICE is bogus is obvious; Ice. Ice does nothing to facilitate collagen formation. Ice will not influence progenitor cell development. Ice does not regenerate tissue. Ice does not facilitate healing – it inhibits natural healing process from occurring. Ice does not remove swelling; it increases swelling and lymphatic backflow.
Bottom line, ice and NSAIDs are over utilized. I am not saying never, but I am saying ice is not a magical cure all that fixes everything and is required for healing. It is not the gold standard that it has come to be. My goal with this blog is to get individuals to stop and think before immediately turning to ice and NSAIDs. Is it really the best option? Is it necessary for this injury at this stage? I understand it is not the only form of treatment clinicians use, but ice certainly is the most heavily used. Go ahead, I will wait while you look at your treatment logs.
My goal is to get this trend reversed one clinician and one patient at a time. Have you seen the video discussion between Kelly Starrett, DPT and Gary Reinl? If not I recommend you watch it. It’s fascinating. I am glad to have expert minds like Kelly and Gary in this fight with me.
I ask health care professionals to do one thing, just try it. Pick one client with chronic musculoskeletal pain, skip the ice, skip the NSAIDs and try to use light exercise as a repair stimulus. Then, try skipping the ice on a client with an acute mild injury. The outcomes might surprise you.
This entry was posted in Equine, Human, Injury, Pain Relief, Performance Enhancing Massage, Sports Massage and tagged fracture, healing, ice, inflammation, injury, lymphatic, muscle, NSAID, RICE, swelling on June 8, 2015 by Beverly Jacobs.	
Could Your Horse Do Better at Shows?
If your horse has squeaky clean X-rays and MRI’s, does that mean the horse is pain free? You can ask the same question about your own body. The answer is, of course, no. If you play tennis or ski or ride or dance or even garden, you know you can hurt without being injured. The same goes for your horse. What surrounds the skeleton is of more importance than the skeleton itself. Until fairly recently, the fascia has been largely ignored by most health care professionals, and cannot be seen in standard tests such as X-rays and MRIs.
The body work that I do on horses is meant to alleviate the pain and stress of horse sport. If the body is balanced and symmetrical, then the body can move gracefully, without distortion. This restoration of the body can be done gently and thoroughly with a combination of myofascial release, stress point, and trigger point therapy,
Strains, due to injuries and accidents, get lodged in the body when a horse compensates movement during the healing process. Unless these compensations are fully released and realigned, they eventually become chronic strains that limit coordinated movement and cause pain. Horses need massage just as much, if not more, than any human athlete, since they have to carry someone on their back! The benefits of massage are the same for horse or human, with increased suppleness, better range of motion, and quicker recovery from injury. This therapy is so much more than a relaxation massage. It improves performance and longevity in whatever sport or casual use they are involved in.
My biggest thrill is to help an animal become pain free. They behave and perform differently. Their whole personality and energy can change. And the results of the massage can be long lasting.
This entry was posted in Equine, Equine Massage, Human, Injury, Injury Prevention, Myofascial Release, Pain Relief, Performance Enhancing Massage, Sports Massage, Stress Point Therapy, Structural Integration, Trigger Point Therapy and tagged MRI, skeleton, Xrays on March 13, 2015 by Beverly Jacobs.	