February « 2012

Archive for February, 2012

Chronic Low Back Pain Patients (CLBP) display altered brain…

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Display Altered Brain Connectivity in the Default Mode Network—An Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) MRI Study

pain biomarkers:

Some people say “pain is all in the mind.” Perhaps it actually is, according to a poster on an imaging biomarker presented at the 2012 AAPM (American Academy of Pain Medicine) Annual Meeting. The researchers, from Harvard Medical School and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, looked at the brains of people with chronic low back pain and discogenic pain along with those of healthy people using arterial spin labeling, a form of MRI that measures blood flow to particular brain regions. Comparing the images showed changes in connectivity between regions of the brain. While this is early work in a small group, the imaging technique may have potential as an objective biomarker for chronic pain. Pain biomarkers are elusive, but could be useful in diagnosis and tracking pain in clinical trials, as well as in helping patients and physicians differentiate chronic pain from psychological symptoms.

Pain in the brain

Posted in Back Pain, Health and Wellness, Massage, Military, Pain Relief, Physical Therapy | No Comments »

How do I protect my child – Internet Access: Right or Privilege

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Is Internet Access an inalienable right for individuals and organizations? Does net access come with responsibilities similar to driving a car, which failure to abide by can result in limiting or denying access entirely? The UN and other countries have called Internet access a basic human right. Is Internet Access a basic human right or a privilege to be earned and maintained by good behavior?

When we were young, a simple lock gave all the protection we needed and passwords were required only to enter childhood forts. Today’s connected world creates new safety risks for kids. But you can change that. Kids need security professionals, like you, to volunteer to teach them how to stay safe online and how to use the Internet in ways that won’t jeopardize their privacy or damage their reputations. A few hours of your time could mean a lifetime of safety to a child.

In the absence of personal relationships, we have no choice but to substitute confidence for trust, compliance for trustworthiness. This progression has enabled society to scale to unprecedented complexity, but has also permitted massive global failures. In a world completely reliant on technology, a cataclysmic disaster is waiting to happen. As menacing computer malfunctions pop up around the world, some with deadly results, the protagonist realizes that there isn’t much time if he hopes to prevent an international catastrophe.

Posted in Health and Wellness, Invention, Kewler Favorites, Managing Business, Marketing, Military, Pain Relief, Programming Code Help, Social Network, Wealth Management | No Comments »

Linking Fibromyalgia to Depression and Anxiety

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Living with fibromyalgia pain can contribute to depression and anxiety. But some experts believe there are other related conditions that could be contributing to your blues.

By Nancy Christie

Medically reviewed by Ed Zimney, MD

Chronic, widespread muscular pain and tenderness, sleep problems and fatigue, morning stiffness and headaches, concentration and digestive irregularities: All of these symptoms can make daily functioning very difficult for those with fibromyalgia. But equally challenging are the depression and anxiety that often accompany the disorder.

Over a lifetime, as many as 62 percent of fibromyalgia patients may experience symptoms of major depressive disorder, and 56 percent may experience some type of anxiety disorder. According to Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., medical director of The Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers, anxiety in people with fibromyalgia often manifests itself as rapid shallow breathing (hyperventilation), while depression may be expressed as a decrease in normal interests.

While it is not unexpected to have an emotional or psychological response to a chronic illness, there may be other physiological reasons that explain why anxiety and depression occur in fibromyalgia patients consistently enough that they are listed as symptoms of the condition. “Biochemically, depression is very different in [people with] fibromyalgia than otherwise,” says Dr. Teitelbaum. “In fibromyalgia, it is often associated with an underactive adrenal function [a low cortisol level], whereas depression [in a non-fibromyalgia population] is associated with a high cortisol level.”

Fibromyalgia: Physical Factors That Can Affect Emotional Health

According to some doctors who routinely treat fibromyalgia, there are a number of factors that appear to increase the likelihood of developing anxiety and/or depression if you have this condition.

Hypothyroidism. Antiaging medicine specialist Pamela W. Smith, MD, MPH, director of The Center For Healthy Living and Longevity in Michigan, says, “Ninety-five percent of people with fibro have low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) and 100 percent of them have low adrenal function — and both conditions can cause depression and anxiety.” The thyroid gland produces hormones that help regulate metabolism. Fortunately, hypothyroidism (when the level of certain thyroid hormones produced is below normal) is easy to diagnose. A complete blood test for thyroid levels, including TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and other thyroid hormones, can identify if a problem exists, says Dr. Smith. Once treated with appropriate medication, thyroid function should return to normal, and depression or anxiety should ease as well.

Low cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress. When the adrenals produce an insufficient supply of cortisol, however, it can result in what’s sometimes called “adrenal fatigue;” symptoms include muscle aches and pains, extreme fatigue, anxiety, and elevated levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. According to Dr. Smith, adrenal fatigue can occur when the body is under stress for extended periods of time. “When you are first stressed, cortisol elevates,” she explains. “But if you stay stressed for a long time, the body can’t keep up by making extra cortisol, so it makes just enough to keep you alive.”

Dr. Smith says that low cortisol levels related to stress often do not show up on standard blood tests, and she believes they are best measured by saliva testing. “Many physicians only measure cortisol levels as related to Addison’s disease or Cushing’s disease. They do not look at what happens when the body makes only enough cortisol to stay alive but not to function well (adrenal fatigue),” she explains.

Cortisol levels can be normalized by reducing stress, says Dr. Smith. Techniques Dr. Smith recommends include “prayer, meditation, tai chi, yoga, breathing techniques and massage, [although] herbal therapies, adrenal extracts, and medications may all be necessary to bring cortisol levels back to normal.” she says, adding, “it may take one to two years to fully normalize the body’s stress system.” As cortisol levels are restored, fibromyalgia-related anxiety and depression generally lessen, she notes.

Poor mitochondrial functioning. Mitochondria are the energy-producing parts of the cell that assist in vital body processes like metabolism. When their function is impaired, they can also play a role in the development of depression and anxiety in people with fibromyalgia, says Dr. Smith. She reports that in her patients, supplements such as coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), the amino acid-like compound L-carnitine, NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, which is related to niacin, a B vitamin), D-ribose, and the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid all help to refuel mitochondria. And in some patients, taking these supplements has been helpful in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety related to fibromyalgia.

Vitamin D deficiency. Fibromyalgia has been linked to low levels of vitamin D, which has also been found to occur more frequently in patients with anxiety and depression. Vitamin D deficiency can be offset by supplementation and eating foods enriched with this nutrient, such as fortified orange juice or margarine.

Poor sleep. Insufficient restorative sleep can lead to or aggravate existing anxiety and depression in people with fibromyalgia, and they do not go into the stage of sleep known as REM sleep, says Dr. Smith. This problem may be further compounded by taking antidepressant medication, which can suppress REM sleep in certain people. Other causes of non-restorative sleep in patients with fibromyalgia can include muscular aches and pains and, according to one study, decreased levels of the hormone melatonin.

“There really are metabolic reasons why people with fibromyalgia have the symptoms that they have,” says Dr. Smith. She recommends that people with fibromyalgia undergo testing to determine if an underlying deficiency or a related health condition could be complicating their situation and bringing depression and anxiety to the surface.

Posted in Food, Health and Wellness, Massage, Pain Relief, Physical Therapy | No Comments »

Failures of startups

Friday, February 24th, 2012

There’s no place for your product: “Investors are fond of debating which they care about more: the market or the entrepreneur. The reality is, great entrepreneurs find great markets. Many startups never achieve the elusive product-market fit. Some companies, like Facebook and Zynga, find product-market fit right out of the gate. Or at least they appear to. Others, like Intuit, go along for years until they crack the code.”

Your product sucks: ”Many potentially great companies fail because they deliver bad products. No one sets out to build a bad product. So how do they end up getting built? You can still suffer from product blindness—using your product so much that you work around the difficulties, the friction that prevents mass adoption. Just consider file sharing company Dropbox. There were other file sharing products before Dropbox, but Dropbox kept the product simple and made it easy to use.”

You don’t have vision or chops: “There’s the romantic notion of starting something—of being your own boss, running your own show, and building what you want to build. But being a successful entrepreneur means being a visionary—and being able to execute your way to making that vision a reality. ”

You burn too much money on sales and marketing early on: ”For every venture dollar invested, I estimate that more than two-thirds goes into sales and marketing costs and only a third into product development—sometimes less. Spending on sales and marketing too early means no return if customers or users don’t bite. Once you up the burn, it’s hard to go back. So make sure you have product-market fit before ramping sales and marketing.

Only your friends use your product: “So you’ve got a great market and a killer product. A few people have heard of it—the only problem is, they’re all friends of yours. Like the tree falling in the empty forest, thousands of great products have gone unused because no one knew they existed. They’re not just unknown—they’re invisible. How do you get the word out in a crowded market without incinerating cash? Build the best product and generate a lot of buzz around your brand.”

You don’t know how to use others to build scale: “Lots of companies can get a few users or sell a few products. Few can do that at scale, in a repeatable, efficient way. Today’s startups use highly leveraged approaches—freemium, word of mouth, partner strategies, and viral acquisition to drive highly leverage growth. You should too. ”

No one can understand what you’re saying: “Communication can make or break a startup. As I heard an investor once ask an entrepreneur, ‘if you can’t communicate your pitch effectively to us, why should we think you’ll be able to communicate effectively to your team?’ His words stuck in my mind and he was right. Words matter.”  Speaker training is a good idea. “One time an entrepreneur gave a pitch and looked down at the conference table the whole time. Didn’t make eye contact. It was painful.”

Your pitch is too long. “It’s bad when people realize they’re running out of time but they just start speaking faster instead of bumping up a level. They try to fit more in. It all gets lost in details. It’s awkward for everyone and really hurts the pitch.”

Your pitch doesn’t play on emotions. “Many entrepreneurs get in front of people with access to capital but failed to convince their audience to invest. A huge part of pitching comes down to psychology and emotion. Investors are primarily motivated by two things: greed and fear.”

You make excuses: ”Time and again I hear someone say they have a great idea for a company but they just don’t want to give up their current job to pursue their idea. Other times people have great ideas, but aren’t sure how to get going. Starting a company is hard. Yet dozens of people, when I asked why they decided to start something new, gave me the same answer: ‘I realized if I didn’t do it now, I’d never be able to do it’.”

You lack focus: “When I got my first check (actually, it was a wire transfer) from a venture investor some ten years ago, he gave me one piece of advice. ‘Focus wins.’ The advice is as sound today as it was when he gave it to me. In a startup, you could be doing any one of a thousand things. But focus tells you which one thing to do to win.”

There’s a lot of drama: ”A lot of startups fail because they suffer from drag. They go after small markets, build the wrong product, the founders don’t get along, or they make it too hard for users or customers to use their products. These issues create what I refer to as startup drag. Entrepreneurs have to be eternal optimists but with sufficient pragmatism to make their optimism reality. Get too much drag and it’s easy to lose the optimism and confidence that breeds success.”

“This is the last money we’ll ever need”: “Don’t say that. It just sounds naive. But most early stage companies need more money. Investors are in the business of investing money. They want to hear how you’re going to win, how you’re going to be the market leader, not how you won’t need their money.”

Posted in Managing Business, Marketing, Nonprofit, Social Network, Wealth Management | No Comments »

Is 8 hours of sleep normal?

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.

His book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, published four years later, unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern – in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer’s Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.

When segmented sleep was the norm

“He knew this, even in the horror with which he started from his first sleep, and threw up the window to dispel it by the presence of some object, beyond the room, which had not been, as it were, the witness of his dream.” Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1840)
“Don Quixote followed nature, and being satisfied with his first sleep, did not solicit more. As for Sancho, he never wanted a second, for the first lasted him from night to morning.” Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote (1615)
“And at the wakening of your first sleepe You shall have a hott drinke made, And at the wakening of your next sleepe Your sorrowes will have a slake.” Early English ballad, Old Robin of Portingale
The Tiv tribe in Nigeria employ the terms “first sleep” and “second sleep” to refer to specific periods of the night

Source: Roger Ekirch

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night – but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

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Who has said “No” to Facebook? Why?

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Last April, Gamestop Corp. opened a store on Facebook to generate sales among the 3.5 million-plus customers who’d declared themselves “fans” of the video game retailer. Six months later, the store was quietly shuttered.

Gamestop has company. Over the past year, Gap Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Nordstrom Inc. have all opened and closed storefronts on Facebook Inc.’s social networking site.

Facebook, which this month filed for an initial public offering, has sought to be a top shopping destination for its 845 million members. The stores’ quick failure shows that the Menlo Park, California-based social network doesn’t drive commerce and casts doubt on its value for retailers, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop,” Mulpuru said in a telephone interview. “But it was like trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”

A year ago, investors hailed so-called F-commerce as the next big thing, speculating that the company had potential to threaten Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and PayPal Inc. Facebook is the most- visited website in the world. Some people thought that persuading visitors to shop would be easy, Mulpuru said.

David Fisch, Facebook’s director of business development, said in June that the site would make shopping online, previously a solitary experience, more social.

Even as some businesses shut storefronts, many companies continue to devote advertising dollars to the social network. Facebook’s sales surged 55 percent to $1.13 billion in the fourth quarter. The company aims to use e-commerce more as a way of getting users to stay longer than as a way to boost revenue

Customers had no incentive to shop at Gamestop (GEM)’s Facebook store rather than the company’s regular website because purchasing online is already convenient, said Ashley Sheetz, who is the Grapevine, Texas-based company’s vice president of marketing and strategy.

Shut Quickly

“We just didn’t get the return on investment we needed from the Facebook market, so we shut it down pretty quickly,” Sheetz said in a telephone interview. “For us, it’s been a way we communicate with customers on deals, not a place to sell.”

Gap, which has 5.6 million Facebook fans from its namesake, Banana Republic and Old Navy pages, opened and discontinued a storefront last year, said Liz Nunan, a company spokeswoman. The San Francisco-based company also discovered customers preferred shopping on its own sites, she said.

“We will continue to evaluate if this is something we want to bring back in the future,” Nunan said in an emailed statement.

Nordstrom tested ways to make shopping “seamless through Facebook” and decided on a broader social media focus, Colin Johnson, a spokesman, said.

J.C. Penney featured assortments in a Facebook “shop” tab beginning in 2010, and took it down in December 2011, Kate Coultas, a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Cracks in Model

Wade Gerten, chief executive officer of social media developer 8thBridge, previously known as Alvenda, opened a Facebook store for the florist 1-800-FLOWERS. Minneapolis-based Gerten went on to develop commerce strategies for Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Diane Von Furstenberg Studio LP and denim-maker Seven for all Mankind.

Cracks in the model showed quickly, Gerten said in a telephone interview. Clients “have taken a different approach,” shutting stores or scaling back their offerings.

“It was basically just another place to shop for all the stuff already available on the retailer websites,” Gerten said. “I give so-called F-commerce an ‘F.’”

Posted in Facebook, Managing Business, Marketing, Social Network | No Comments »

Have you been burned by HOT STONES? Ask for thermalball therapy instead!

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

The following are some common reasons clients have been burned by HOT STONES that massage therapists need to be aware of:

THE CLIENT WASN’T EMPOWERED. Massage therapists need to make sure their hot stone clients actively participate in the session and know they not only can—but absolutely should—let them know if the stones are too hot or they’re uncomfortable. Also, massage therapists can check in with clients, asking the client specifically about the temperature of the stones and if adjustments need to be made.

LACK OF INFORMATION. The importance of a thorough intake form cannot be overstated when talking about working with hot stones, as a variety of conditions are contraindicated. Sometimes, however, clients might not list specific conditions on the form, perhaps not realizing the potential for adverse reactions. Perhaps talk with your clients directly about some of the conditions that are contraindicated as you discuss the treatment plan with them before starting the session.

STONES HEATED IMPROPERLY. Heating stones in any device other than a unit specifically designed for this task is never appropriate. Crockpots, slow cookers, microwave ovens, ovens, heating pads and hot plates, to name a few, aren’t acceptable devices for heating stones—ever. Also, burns can happen when the water is too hot, so be sure you have a thermometer you can calibrate to properly monitor the temperature of the water you’re using to heat your stones.

NOT ENOUGH MATERIAL BETWEEN STONES. When using hot stones, massage therapists need to be sure there is some type of material between the stone and the client’s skin. Burns can result if you leave stones that are too hot sitting on the client’s skin. Although this situation may seem obvious, massage therapists need to continually monitor the temperature of their stones, particularly when they’ll be sitting on your client’s skin instead of being used during a massage.

When placing stones, you must remember to use a sheet, towel or clothing between the client’s bare skin & the hot stone.

When placing thermalballs, just put the ball on the skin!

Thermalballs have been engineered to reduce most of the risks associated with hot stones and were specifically designed to offer the finest thermal therapy device available.

Using Thermalballs cold

Hot stone massage and thermalball therapy are popular techniques, but your clients might really benefit from using a combination of heated and cooled thermalball massage therapy. Contast temperature therapy is extremely powerful healing technique. Cold thermalballs can be particularly effective for chronic and acute conditions, such as injuries and inflammation as well as providing a numbing sensation to sensitive nerves. It is a potent pain killer, better than an ice pack when you need to apply specific pressure as well.

Similar to when heating your stones, however, you need to make sure you chill your thermalballs properly. You can place your thermalballs in the freezer or in a bucket of ice.

As with heated thermalballs, you should use a calibrated thermometer to ensure the stones are the right temperature—ranging from room temperature to 25 F.

Cooled thermalballs help remove heat from the body and allow the client to relax the affected area.

Massage therapists might consider using chilled thermalballs for trigger point work, as well as cross-fiber friction.

Using both heated and cooled thermalballs during a massage can be very effective in reducing inflammation and congestion in isolated areas. Between the applications of heated and cooled thermalballs in an isolated area, however, you need to be sure you warm your hands before placing hot objects on your client, as they may still be cold from working with chilled thermalballs. Without warming your hands first, accurately gauging the temperature may be difficult.

After alternating between hot and cold thermalbals in an isolated area, it’s best to end with a cold application to allow the body to continue to reduce any inflammation and congested blood and or lymph in the area, resulting in less pain and stiffness for your clients. This final application of cold thermalballs in an isolated area will be a “heating response” and will support the body to internally heat itself. The results will be long lasting for your client—sometimes for hours after the session has ended.

When to use heated Thermalball massage

There are myriad circumstances where hot thermalball massage makes sense. If you have a client who has a sprain, strain or acute bursitis, for example, thermalball massage can help alleviate the pain associated with these conditions. Someone dealing with a sports injury, like tennis elbow, knee pain, carpal tunnel etc… might also benefit. Common ailments, such as headache and bruises, can also be helped. Using both hands on a large (Mega) thermalball will allow you to apply temperature and pressure to larger areas such as the back.

Again, having a good understanding of a client’s health and the basics of hydrotherapy, however, are absolutely necessary when designing a thermal therapy treatment plan. If a client has a condition that might benefit from hot thermalball massage therapy but is suffering from an ailment that contraindicates heated thermalball massage, err on the side of caution when developing a treatment plan. In this case, protocol dictates “less time, less temperature.”

Contraindications & Considerations

As with all techniques and modalities, hot and cold thermal therapy isn’t going to appeal to every client. And, as is also the case with most every massage therapy modality, there are clients who shouldn’t receive hot thermalball treatments.

FOLLOWING ARE SOME CONDITIONS WHERE HOT STONE THERAPY WOULD BE CONTRAINDICATED:

This list is not exhaustive, and massage therapists need to take a client’s full health history as presented during the intake into account before performing hot and cold stone massage.

DIABETES
CANCER
AUTOIMMUNE DYSFUNCTIONS
EPILEPSY
NEUROPATHY
HEART DISEASE
SKIN CONDITIONS
RECENT SURGERIES
PREGNANCY – although many client love to use the larger thermalball cold for the back aches.

Posted in Health and Wellness, Invention, Kewler Favorites, Massage, Pain Relief, Physical Therapy | No Comments »

Archive for February, 2012

Display Altered Brain Connectivity in the Default Mode Network—An Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) MRI Study

When segmented sleep was the norm

Thermalballs have been engineered to reduce most of the risks associated with hot stones and were specifically designed to offer the finest thermal therapy device available.

When to use heated Thermalball massage

Contraindications & Considerations

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