Understanding healthcare is very difficult to do. How would you even know if you are thinking about your health the most correct way possible? To tell people to change how they think about healthcare would be like trying to get you to think of yourself seven tall when you are five foot two. You won’t even know where to begin. So let’s start with where you are and then show you where you could be.
Over the last 50 years we have been trained to go to a doctor if we have pain, sick, or injured. If you have pain, great marketing campaigns have trained us to reach for a pain killer or muscle relaxer. If you have colds we reach for medicines. We quickly reach for braces, orthotics, and now even surgery. But what if there was a way to help yourself out of pain without expensive surgery, braces, or pills?
Instead of reaching for pills, stop to think about what is actually causing the pain. Start thinking about your body from an engineering viewpoint. If you have a tower with support wires and one of the wires is shortened, the stress shows up on the other side. The same is true for your body. If a muscle on the left shortens, chances are the stress, or pain, will show up on the other side. Your body is about balance. Every joint in your body has muscles that cross over the joint. The muscle below attaches above the joint, while the muscles above attached below the joint. Therefore when your muscles tighten, the spacing in your joint gets smaller. This can cause joint pain, dislocation of joints, and over time wear out your joints.
Braces and surgery are really only short term fixes. If you are dealing with foot pain, putting in orthotics will stop the pain temporarily, however you are still allowing your body to walk on your feet badly. This will affect your knee later. Surgery is not really the answer either as once you cut something, you can’t really put it back, so again you change the body balance.
We practice medicine as if we think that the bones move the muscles, when actually the muscles move the bones. Most people, and doctors, would say we know that the muscles move the bones. So why do we blame vertebrae for pinched nerves, bulging discs, and even herniated discs, when in fact the muscles are creating the pressure on the discs? If the muscles are tight and creating the pressure, then to put spacers between the vertebrae would seem to increase the pressure which would damage the bone over time. For the short term, you are getting relief by releasing some of the pressure off the discs,but at what cost down the road?
I am not blaming anyone for this misunderstanding of the human body and neither should you. The medical world is only giving us what we ask, a quick fix. So what can you do at this point in your life to change your health?
Start by learning about your body. Ask therapists, doctors, and nurses more detailed questions about your body. if they will not tell, then find someone who will. Read about your body and find out what it needs. We are so busy trying to force our bodies to conform to what we want quickly that our bodies are rebelling. Just give it what it needs. Your body is an amazing healing machine. Oxygen is the real healing element of the human body, yet very few of us actually get enough oxygen.
The food you eat is equally as important. Talk to a dietitian that believes in the healing power of food. Learn what to look for, get tested for what nutrients you are deficient, and decide to change your way of thinking. The only thing that will change your health is you, regardless of how old you are. You are still in control!

You have designed your office to be ergonomically correct but the Carpal Tunnel pain still occurs. Every computer operator has virtually the same aches and pains. The sad part is that all these pains can be stopped by stretching properly. Most stretches are done incorrectly. Usually instructions guide you to hold the stretch for far too long. Forcing muscles to stretch will only cause them to shorten more.
Healthcare specialists may have told you that you need injections, braces, or even surgery. Nothing could be further from the truth! What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome- This is a very mysterious name, but it is a very simple ailment. The cause, we are told, is repetitive movement. But we need our jobs, now what? Well, the pain in the carpal tunnel in your wrists happens due to inflammation of the muscle tendons of the muscles running from your elbow to your fingers. This shows up as pain in your hands. There are 26 muscles in your forearms and hands to allow movement in your hands. By using your fingers to type, text, and even grip things you are fatiguing these muscles, causing them to fill up with lactic acid and inflame. Once they inflame, the tendons running through the carpal tunnel will press on the medial nerve that is also inside the carpal tunnel. Surgery and injections are only temporary fixes, as the inflammation will repeat when you go back to work. Braces will only atrophy your muscles making the problem worse over time. Here are the 5 steps to alleviate your pain.
Step 1- Massage your forearms to soften them up. Work from wrist to elbow. This may hurt, but you will not damage anything. Once they are soft, the inflammation will reduce and help stop the pain in your wrist. Ice will not reduce lactic acid inflammation. You must break it up by hand.
Step 2- Massage the webbing between your thumb and your index finger. For many of you, this may be hard. Your body should be soft everywhere. Yes, no matter if you are male or female. The hardness in the webbing of your hand reduces the movement in the joint at the base of your thumb. The pain in that joint is usually described as arthritis, when in fact it is usually a tight muscle.
Step 3- Stand next to a desk and place your hand palm down with your fingers pointing behind you. Keep your arm straight and lean into your hand. This will be uncomfortable at first, but it will get better. Hold for 2-3 seconds, then release and repeat 10 times. Do both hands, not just the one that hurts.
Step 4- Bend your elbow and form a light fist with your hand. Take your opposite hand and press down on your light fist. Hold for 2-3 seconds and repeat 10 times. You will feel discomfort, or pain, close to your elbow. It is a very different stretch from just bending your wrist. Try it and you will see understand the difference. Remember to do both hands.
Step 5- Stretch each of your fingers. Your fingers should be able to stretch to 90 degrees upwards and downwards. Down each stretch 2-3 seconds and repeat 10 times. You should also separate your fingers by stretching side to side. Your thumb should be stretched from the joint closest to your wrist. This will help stretch the webbing of your hand.
Incorporating these stretches into your daily lives will reduce your hand pain and even stop the pain. If you do not have hand pain, these stretches will prevent you from getting the pain. All
of these stretches should be done 2-3 times per day, especially on days you are on the computer for long periods of time.
I personally do these stretches daily to prevent hand injuries. After 7 years of performing bodywork I do not have the hand pain that many therapists have. For some this pain ends their careers. For more information on these stretches and many other stretches, please visit my website at The Muscle Repair Shop. Butch Phelps is a licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Personal Trainer, and Certified in Active Isolated Stretching. Butch is an author and is available to speak at your events.

Are you dealing with foot pain? Are you wearing orthotics, heel lifts, or even special shoes? Many Americans are wearing objects in their shoes or paying high prices for special shoes and the sad part is many people do not need them. When you understand the anatomy of the feet and how the muscles can make you feel, you will easily see why they hurt.
Let’s start with Plantar Fasciitis, heel pain especially in the morning. In the arch of your foot is a muscle named plantar fascia. It is the spring in your step that allows you to walk. However the palntar fascia does not do this alone. It require help from the 4 calf muscles that attach above your knee, runs down your leg, and into your foot. The 2 middle calf muscles form the achilles tendon, while the inside and outside calf muscles cross under your foot to your toes. Your shin muscles run from your knee down to your toes as well. All of these muscles help the plantar fascia move your body.
Here is where we screw up our feet. When we walk, especially when we are in a hurry, we walk leaning forward or leading with our nose. By walking this way, the pressure is put on the balls of your feet causing the upper calves to tighten. When the upper calves tighten, they pull on the plantar fascia in your arch, which cause it to stay in a contracted state. Now think about this. If the arch is in a contracted state and the calf is in a contracted state and you step down on your heel, the bone in your heel will pinch the muscles going around your heel causing pain in your heel. All orthotics and heel lifts do is allow your foot to remain in the contracted state. In the short term that works, but it will only get worse. Some people sleep in a boot at night and that forces the muscles to an elongated stated which they will react and react by shortening as soon as you take it off. Again this is a short term fix.
Now let’s go back to your shins. While you have been dealing with your heel, your shins have been tightening as well because as you walk, you are leaning forward. All your weight is resting on your shins. This can create shin splints or pain on the lower outside part of your knee. How do you stop the Plantar Fasciitis? Sit on the floor and scoot your hips against the wall to stabilize your back. Some of you may not be able to sit like this and put your knee flat to the floor because your calves are too short. If so you may use a chair and ottoman. Take an 8 foot rope or yoga strap and put it around the ball of your foot. With your knee straight, pull your toes back toward you. You will feel a stretch behind your knee, maybe a little painful at first, but it will subside as it stretches out. Only hold the stretch for 2-3 seconds and repeat 10 times. Rotate your foot inward and repeat 10 times. Next rotate your foot outward and repeat again. Do this for 5-10 days and your Plantar Fasciitis will stop and you can wear normal shoes.
Most of our foot pain has more to do with our shoes and how we walk, then something is wrong with our feet. Look at your foot and then at your shoes. Are your feet developing the shape of your shoes? This can cause Morton’s neuromas, balance issues, hammer toes, and general foot pain. The cure is up to you. You can treat your better or you can keep buying short term fixes. The choice is yours.

Last Saturday, October 29,2011, I was reading an article in the New York Times National newspaper when I came an article,”Sports medicine Said to Overuse a Popular Scan.” The article was about the use, or overuse of MRIs on injured athletes and casual exercisers like runners, golfer, tennis players, and bicyclists. Dr Andrews tested his suspicion of the MRI on 31 healthy professional baseball pitchers. All of these pitchers had no injuries and no pain in their pitching shoulder. After he scanned each of the pitchers, the MRI’s showed 90% of them had abnormal shoulder cartilage and 87% had abnormal rotator cuff tendons. How many of us have had MRI’s and was told we needed surgery, when possibly we didn’t. Dr Andrews says,”If you want an excuse to operate on a pitcher’s throwing shoulder, just get an MRI.”
I don’t want to discount MRI’s totally as they are very helpful in finding tumors and distinguishing between competing diagnosis. However, many sports injury related patients expect the scan to the point of disbelief if not used and the doctors who own their own machine can find it very lucrative.
The danger is if a doctor doesn’t understand what he/she is looking at on the scan, a healthy person can be misdiagnosed and given a harmful treatment based on the misdiagnosis.
I am not against scans and tests if they are helpful in the diagnosis. However if these tests are only used to make additional money, protect the doctors from possible lawsuits, or just make the patient feel better then we have some fundamental changes that need to occur.
As a patient, your body will hurt from time to time. If you injure yourself no one can safely stop the pain immediately without some side effects because your body needs the time to heal. The first a patient must take is responsibility for your own health. Watch your weight, exercise regularly, and stay mentally postive will go a long way in reducing your healthcare costs. We need to change our practices as we are praticing medicine the most expensive way.

I was reading the other day that Americans had over 300,000 knees replaced last year. This same author said that the predictions for knee replacements would be 3.4 million by 2030. He believed the reason for such a dramatic increase was all about the technology. Knee and hip replacement have become routine. In fact they are so routine that many people I speak with have just accepted that they will have at least one knee replaced in theirr lifetime. Why? I believe it is because doctors have made it sound so easy to replace the knee instead of rehabbing the knee. So people have decided to not correct things in their life to rehab the nknee back and just wait until it completly goes out, then replace it. This is the most expensive way to practice medicine in the world. It is easier for the doctors, hospitals, and the patients because it requires no effort from the patient and has become a routine surgery for the healthcare staff.
Let’s first take a look at why joints are failing. First, more than 60% of Americans are listed as obese. Our joints were not designed to carry that musch weight. Second, Americans are more sedentary than ever in our history. Third, the Americans who are working out are usually working out wrong. And fourth, our diets are atrocious!
As a perons who has lost 105 ilbs in 18 months, I am well aware of the work it takes to bring your body back. I can tell you that exercise alone will not do it. Diets alone will not do it. Yoga alone will not do it! For you to be successful at losing weight and keeping it off, you must do all 4 steps to better health. Here they are:

1- Strength training- This does not mean go to a gym and kill yourself to have bulging muscles. You want to lift a weight that works your muscles to gain endurance and help your bones. Less weight and more repetitions.
2- Stretching- Don’t run and join a yoga class if you haven’t stretched in years. Try Active Isolated Stretching to lengthen those short muscles, then join any class you want.
3- Massage- I am not talking about a relaxing swedish massage. You will need a deep tissue massage that will probably hurt at first. Your muscles are clogged up from years of little activity.
4- Nutrition- garbage in, garbage out. Eat locally grown foods as mother nature has desigend foods from moru regions that best suits our needs. In other words, if you live in Florida, you cannot eat like you would in Chicago. You will get fat. You need more watery vegetables instead of meat and potatoes.

If you lose weight to where you need to be and exercise your body the way it should be, your pain nwill likely stop on its own. However, if you think new joints are the way to go, talk to people who have had them down and look at how much improvement they have had in their lifestyles.

Therapist Recommends Practical Tips to Prevent Injuries While Improving Your Health

SARASOTA, Florida, December 31, 2010 — Every New Years Day millions of Americans resolve to improve their health and fitness, then they usually fail, or worse yet create a horrible injury. Butch Phelps from The Muscle Repair Shop offers some suggestions to help you keep your resolutions and prevent needless injuries that may slow you down. “The Muscle Repair Shop specializes in Active Isolated Stretching, Deep Tissue Massage, and Personal Training. We educate our clients to integrate the most efficient exercise with the best stretching technique to get the most from your body and improve your quality of life. It doesn’t matter your age. We then, educate our clients about the importance of deep tissue massage to keep your muscles working at an optimal level. Use the following suggestions to really succeed at improving your health and remember, You Can Do This! Always check with your physician about your exertion level before beginning any workout program.”
• Strength Training Exercises are a must for everyone. 30 minutes of good strength training exercises, 3 times per week, will be enough for the average person to maintain their strength to do their day to day activities. The older you are the important it becomes to have a regular strength training program that continues to make you stronger. Many seniors I have worked with suffer more from lack of strength than anything else. If you having a hard time getting out of a chair, that is more strength related than age related
• Cardio workouts are the real energy booster. Taking a brisk walk everyday for 30 minute to one hour will help you develop a stronger heart and increased energy to live your life to its fullest. I am not talking about walking and smelling the roses, but an all out walk that will create a sweat. Biking is a great alternative as it is low impact on your joints. Cardio machines can work, but most who ride them like to read or watch TV while riding the machine. This will not work! You must be focused on your health. NO MULTI-TASKING PLEASE!
• Stretching allows you to show off your new strength. Most people, including professionals, still use the old stretching techniques we learned back in high school. Holding a stretch for 20-30 seconds will not fully stretch your muscles and using a stretchy band is a big no-no. Once you hold a stretch for more than 2-3 seconds you engage your muscles stretch reflex which was put there to prevent overstretching your muscle. Once the stretch reflex engages, the muscle starts to contract ending your stretching for that muscle. We suggest you hold the stretch for 2-3 seconds, then repeat 10 times. Use an 8’ rope or yoga strap to assist you. A stretchy band is used for strength training. Stretching all of your muscles every other day will improve your joint functions, take pressure off of your nerves and blood vessels, and improve the health of your discs.
• Deep Tissue Massage should be included in every program. Feel good, relaxing massages are great for stress, but after your workouts your muscles will be filled with lactic acid causing you tenderness and soreness. The only way to clean them out is with a deep tissue massage. By allowing your blood to flow through your muscles, your body can work at a high level.
When you are assessing your body’s fitness, look at your body as an engineer, not as a scientist. For every pain there is a cause and effect. For instance, if your low back hurts when you stand too long, chances are the front of your thighs could be tight, thus pulling you over and increasing the pressure on your low back. Your body is like a tower that is held up by wires. There must be proper tension on each wire to insure the tower stands straight. Your body is no different. Your muscles are your wires to hold you up straight. With the right information everyone can have improved health.
About Butch Phelps
Butch Phelps is a Public Speaker, Licensed Massage therapist, Certified Personal Training, and Certified in Active Isolated Stretching and he has over 6 years experience helping many people to improve their health. Butch lost over 100lbs in 18 months by following the suggestions he has shared above. Butch has published many articles and videos of the stretches that can be seen at www.musclerepairshop.com. The Muscle Repair Shop offers a membership to clients that includes a monthly newsletter, blog, and products to assist in your quest to improve your health. Butch has given speeches to many local organizations about ways to take control of your own health and motivate his audience to follow through.