Blog
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Bacteria and Your Health
The New York Post recently published an article on the bacteria’s influence on health. It outlines the research at the American Gut Project, a study that aims to map out the bacteria involved in our digestive system the same way that the Human Genome Project mapped out our genetic code. Some of the things they…
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Chinese Medicine in Nicaragua
Leon is Nicaragua’s showpiece to the world. A stroll down its cobbled streets takes you back to its glory days when the Spanish empire was one of the richest, most powerful in the world. The Spanish came, saw, and refused to leave until they had decimated the indigenous population and plundered their wealth of minerals…
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Working as a Massage Therapist in Guatemala
Odds are that at some point in your life, you have stumbled upon a place that seemed perfect, representing some version of paradise. Perhaps it was the climate, the sea, the ocean, or the people that you met, but the place inspired in you a longing to linger. San Pedro de Laguna, Guatemala sits on…
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Hand Pain: A Case Study
Hand Pain: A Case Study Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala has many Spanish language schools and has a reputation in the country as the place you go if you are serious about learning Spanish. The cost of study is quite surprising: U$60 for one week of intensive one on one Spanish classes (4 hours/day, 5 days/week, 20…
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Massage in Juayua, Ruta de las Flores, El Salvador
The tiny mountain town of Juayua (pronounced hoo-wah-YOO-wah… kind of like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman) has a little something for everyone. There’s the mountain town itself which has a perfect climate, never too hot or too cold. The mountain air is cool and crisp at night and far from sweltering during the…
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The Situation in Alberta
We might forget how lucky we are with the state of massage therapy in Ontario. We are provincially regulated with one college and one massage therapists association. There is one required minimum of training hours and one set of practical exams. The homogeneity of the industry is a real plus. We know that when we…
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Get Rid Of Neck and Shoulder Pain With These Exercises
The lower trapezius muscle helps to pull the shoulder blades back and down. It directly counteracts the pulling of the pectoralis minor muscle, which tries to pull the shoulder blades forward into a slouch. Unfortunately, we are usually stronger in our pectoralis minor chest muscle than we are in our lower trapezius back muscle, resulting…
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Body Scan Images of Two People: One is 120 lbs, and the Other is 250 lbs
The picture is pretty surprising and gives insight into obesity. You may notice that the skeletons are roughly the same size. Believe it or not, our skeletons do not gain or lose very much mass depending on our weight. You might also notice that the muscle mass even though slightly larger on the obese subject…
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The Benefits of Yoga
Yoga can be key to helping you recover from an injury, undo years of bad postural habits, or relieve your stress. Like few other exercises, yoga has the ability to get you focussing on breath, willing chronically tight muscles to loosen. It creates a mind body awareness of how you are positioned and starts a…
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Yoga For Better Posture
Even if you have had horrible posture for most of your life, you can still change it by taking the right steps today. Yoga can be a valuable tool in correcting a long career of bad posture. The following video shows a simple exercise that strengthens all of your erector muscles (the muscles that run…
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Gluteus Medius Exercises to help IT Band Pain
The gluteus medius muscle is located in the upper part of the glutes, just below the hip bone (iliac crest). The gluteus medius muscle is very important in stabilizing our hips during exercise or sport. It is weak in most people and this weakness can be a major source of problems in the lower back,…