All posts in category Aging

Benefits of Massage for Elders

Research studies have shown that massage therapy can make a huge difference in the lives of seniors in Assisted Living, Retirement or long term care. They may have little physical contact in an ordinary day, and most live with pain or various chronic ailments. Comfort, calm and ease can be communicated simply with a loving, informed touch.

Massage has shown to help reduce high blood pressure, recover from surgery or minor injuries, enhance immunity, relieve pain and reduce the need for pain medications, promote relaxation, improve circulation, stimulate bowels, reduce swelling, and relieve muscle tension and stiffness. These are important for people with such varied conditions as diabetes, heart conditions, memory loss, and post-op from hip surgery. It improves both the quality and length of sleep, allowing someone to be more alert and have better daytime social interactions.

Massage and movement improve joint range of motion, and exercise and stretch muscles. This helps people with arthritis and neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s maintain flexibility and release spasms and cramping, while increasing their motivation for self-care and independence in daily activities.

Many seniors are concerned with modesty, or have trouble lying flat on a table. Massages can be given on a table with the head or knees elevated, or adapted for a person sitting in a chair or bedbound. They can be done fully clothed, or draped to maintain modesty. Licensed massage therapists are skilled at easing achy backs, and tight shoulders, but will only work where the person wants them to—perhaps the neck, hands and feet, or just the low back.

There are psychological benefits, too. Gentle massage, even to the hands, has been shown to decrease agitation and relieve anxiety in people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, and to improve mood.

Rosi Goldsmith, LMT offers a presentation of interest to activity directors and residents on The Benefits of Massage. She also has designed Body Mapping for Elders to be entertaining and educational. Participants increase internal awareness of movement and sensation, improving safety and ease for sit-to-stand movements and walking. And everyone gets a free shoulder massage!

503-708-2911

“Awaken the Body Sense, Overcome Myths of Aging” Workshop Outline

When we live in a state of chronic stress, we hold chronic contractions and the sensory input to our brain from our muscles goes to habitual pathways outside of our conscious control: a withdrawal response (see Thomas Hanna’s Somatics). To regain voluntary control of our muscles requires waking up to that which we have forgotten.

Myths of Aging

Some of the myths of aging, such as inevitable stiffness, inevitable loss of bodily functions, inevitable decline in cognition, activate a feed forward system. Our bodies manifest what we believe. If we believe that aging brings wisdom and grace, we become more resilient.

Kinesthesia

Kinesthesia is the awareness of sensation of movement in muscles and joints. It coordinates with the vestibular system, so you know if you are balanced and able to move freely, or tense and stiff. A kinesthetic awareness brings more fluidity of movement–the muscles begin to soften and lengthen.

Body Mapping

Body Mapping teaches you the location of your bones and joints and their relation to other body parts. An incorrect body map will create distortions in our shape and movements. (previous post Posture and Body Mapping) A correct body map will allow conscious choice to move out of stress.

Overcome Sensory Motor Amnesia with Selective Voluntary Movements and Awareness

The sensory motor system is a feedback loop. If you have amnesia of areas where you have ignored chronic pain, you cannot sense it and then you cannot move it. And the more you can move it, the more you will sense it. When you regain voluntary control over muscles that have been forgotten, you regain a sense of empowerment– you take charge of your body again.

Exercises

The class consists of a series of interactive exercises: live examples of the myths of aging in our lives; moving with kinesthetic awareness; body mapping of the head, neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, pelvis, hips, knees, ankles, feet; finding areas of your body where you have sensory motor amnesia, and regaining sensation, movement, and awareness of how to consciously create your lives and health.

Rosi Goldsmith, LMT
(503) 708-2911
www.integrationmassage.com
www.facebook.com/IntegrationBodyworkMassage

Pitting Edema: Please See a Physician

December of 2008, after six months of massage school, I flew out to the East Coast to help celebrate my brother’s 60th birthday. I was practicing my newly found skills with enthusiasm. My sister-in-law kindly agreed to let me practice on her. Her feet and ankles were pale, swollen and puffy, with a few areas swollen and hard. When I gingerly tested with my finger tips, the impressions stayed, as deep, round, threatening indentations. This is known as “pitting edema”.

When the lymph and circulatory systems cannot reabsorb the fluid that accumulates between cells adequately, it stays in the tissues–warning of possible heart or kidney failure. Circulatory massage, which moves lymph, does not help. It could even hurt, putting the heart under greater stress.

I told my sister-in-law I could not massage her feet and ankles because it looked like pitting edema. I asked if she had regular medical care, and advised her to see a physician. She said she just had “fat feet” and body image issues. Knowing I could not diagnose, I encouraged her to see a doctor or cardiologist. Her answer then and two weeks later: no way. I felt anxious and distressed, concerned for her and my brother.

I checked with my instructors in massage school. They said confidentiality required me not to tell my brother. All I could do was what I had done. Nine months later, she and my brother took a vacation to Ireland. She had some shortness of breath, but they both had a wonderful time. Four nights after they came back, she had a heart attack and died.

I was not surprised, unlike the rest of my family. I shared with them about the pitting edema and her choice not to see a doctor. Sometimes I wonder: did I lack authority as a half-baked massage student, or because I was family? Is there something else I could have done? Not for her. She was very clear. I thank her for leaving me determined to not diminish myself or feel intimidated when I believe someone needs to see a physician: this won’t happen again.

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by Integration Massage on August 22, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Aging, Contraindications, Massage

Tagged 100% responsible, massage contraindication

Posted by Integration Massage on August 22, 2012

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Neuro massage (for your body, nervous system and brain)

Have you had a head, neck, back or foot injury that didn’t heal well, chronic pain, numbness, or a pins and needles sensation? How about emotional and physical problems after a trauma, or issues with concentration, memory, foggy brain? You may be a candidate for neurological massage.

Functional neurology requires the assessment of how you use your body, brain and nervous system, how it functions, rather than a diagnosis of pathology or disease. Movement therapies with functional neurological massage are designed to improve health, as they stimulate nerves to build plasticity, and fire into the brain so it can adapt.

There are many types of sensations your nervous system can register–not just sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, but also the vestibular sense–whether you are upright, how you are oriented in space, whether you are falling down, and the proprioceptive sense–awareness of movement in your muscles and joints. Your body has different sensory nerve signals for pain, vibration and light touch, as well as for deep, sustained pressure. A neurological massage therapist can determine the kinds of touch and movements that will stimulates the nerves that aren’t functioning so well, without overstimulating them, reduce pain signals, improve posture or make it easier to walk.

Sometimes, if you have had emotional trauma or an injury that didn’t heal, neighboring nerves are also affected, and imbalances in your brain become evident later. Neuro massage gently wakes up associated areas of the brain with simple movements and eye exercises. These may feed into other areas of your brain, such the emotional circuitry or areas associated with memory, cognitive functioning, speech or visual perceptions. Neuro massage stays conscious of which parts of your brain are stimulated and monitors whether you are making plastic changes that can be sustained to improve your life.

Rosi Goldsmith, LMT
www.integrationmassage.com
Portland, Oregon

integrationmassage

All posts in category Aging

Benefits of Massage for Elders

“Awaken the Body Sense, Overcome Myths of Aging” Workshop Outline

Pitting Edema: Please See a Physician

Neuro massage (for your body, nervous system and brain)

www.integrationmassage.com

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