Hi Friends!
Here's a video from The Alexander Educational Center (TAEC).
Find out what the training course is like, but more importantly, get a sense of the scope of the work. This is where I did the bulk of my training, and also have worked assisting in teacher-training. I highly recommend it!
Hello my friends,
One of my friends asked me how I got my dogs to let me brush their teeth.
This may not appear to have anything to do with Alexander Technique, and of course, in a direct sense, it doesn't. But I would never have had the patience to do this without the skill of patience that I acquired through my Alexander training. It helped me get my dogs trained in such a friendly way that they leap into their bed eagerly awaiting a good tooth-brushing. 
A friend of mine gave me pointers. They involved not end-gaining and lots of patience.
First, I let my puppy sniff the doggy toothpaste from my finger. I bought poultry flavored dog toothpaste; that helped a lot.
He sniffed once or twice and then licked it off my finger.
That was that! I put everything away while he looked around for more.
Continue reading " How to Get Dogs to Let You Brush their Teeth. " »
Hello again!
Thanks so much for stopping by on Valentine's Day. I thought it would be nice to post some news of the heart. Or in this case, the heart, the brain, and the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama and Stanford University are working together to research the connection between compassion and the brain.
The goals include taking this to the next step to gain understanding in ways that can reduce childhood bullying and recidivism. Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, has a project called Operation Respect, with the goal of ending bullying.
On a day that is about love, isn't it nice to know that some people are putting their money where their hearts are?
Here's what came into my Inbox this morning. It's from the e-newsletter, Bottom Line Health. "100-Year-Old Solution to Back Pain -- Alexander Technique Body Movement Method Works Better than Other Therapies for Back Pain, Even a Year Later "
Media/journalists: Dana Ben-Yehuda is the Media Spokesperson for the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Contact her at dbenyehuda(at)comcast(dot)net
Wishing you a happy day!
Dana
Bottom Line's Daily Health News
February 8, 2009
In This Issue...
100-Year-Old Solution to Back Pain
Alexander Technique Body Movement Method Works Better than Other Therapies for Back Pain, Even a Year Later
Special from Bottom Line's Daily Health News
February 9, 2009
If you suffer from chronic back pain, you may want to consider a century-old, non-invasive, drug-free treatment method called the Alexander technique, which reeducates people on how to support and move their bodies. Recently an English study involving 579 patients with back pain put the Alexander technique to the test and demonstrated that it was effective and provided sustainable relief.
THE STUDY
Researchers established four groups of patients -- one took six Alexander technique lessons... another took 24 lessons... a third group had massage therapy only... and the fourth group had what the study team called "normal care." (Normal care was defined as care that would be offered by a general practitioner, and could include pain medications, non-mandatory referral to physiotherapy, etc.) All four groups were further divided in half, with one half walking briskly for 30 minutes a day and the others not exercising at all. Participants answered questionnaires about pain and function improvement at three months and one year. Results: The two Alexander technique groups reported significantly reduced back pain and improved functioning, including after 12 months, while there was little change in the massage and normal care groups. Among those who took just six lessons but who also did brisk walking, improvement was almost as great as those who took 24 lessons but did not exercise.
To find out more about the Alexander technique, I called Hope Gillerman, who has taught classes at physical rehabilitation centers and had a private practice in New York City for more than 25 years. Methods like acupuncture can offer immediate pain relief, notes Gillerman, but people with back pain also need a long-term, self-healing regimen -- and that is what the Alexander technique is. Most back pain comes from incorrect posture, poor body mechanics and excessive muscle tension, which increases when people are fatigued, angry, upset or in one position for a long time. Under duress, tension automatically builds in the back of the neck and the shoulders, pulling the heavy head downward into the spine, which causes compression. The fact that the pain becomes chronic further exacerbates all of these problems, Gillerman points out... since pain is upsetting and stops people from doing things and moving as they normally would, people develop more harmful habits. The Alexander technique can be effective because it addresses and helps to correct not only the cause of the injury, but also those harmful habits brought on by the pain.
HOW IT WORKS
At the heart of the Alexander technique is learning to keep the spine erect and properly supported. Gillerman explains that most people are unstable and "collapsed" through their torso, and hold and move their limbs in a rigid and stiff pattern. Without proper muscular support, the spine compresses, harming joints and tissues.
Here are three ways Gillerman helps her students envision what to do...
Continue reading " Bottom Line's Daily Health News Reports on Alexander Technique for Back Pain " »
Hello friends,
Here's news about MRI scans and low back pain.
Tara Parker-Pope reported on interesting information about low back pain, X-rays and MRIs. In her article, she reports that many people who have back pain undergo diagnostic tests that are not helpful. Sometimes, as a result of these tests, people undergo treatment that may not be necessary. It can be expensive as well as painful.
Ms. Parker-Pope cites a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study showed that 2 out of 3 people scanned with MRI showed evidence of disk problems. It concluded: Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental. Indeed; the people scanned were not in pain.
Ms. Parker-Pope also writes about another study, this one, published in The Lancet.
The report states in part: “Analysis of results from the 6 included studies shows that lumbar imaging for low back pain without features suggestive of a serious underlying condition does not, on average, improve clinical outcomes. This finding particularly applies to patients with acute or subacute, non-specific low back pain evaluated in primary care settings.”
At the same time, most people suffer with back pain at some point in time. According to Tara Parker-Pope’s article, that number is roughly two-thirds of us.
What is a person to do?
A study published in the British Medical Journal on Aug. 19, 2008, shows 86% reduction in number of days in pain per month following 24 lessons in the Alexander Technique. Patients went from 21 days of pain per month down to 3 days of pain.
Check it out: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/aug19_2/a884
Dana Ben-Yehuda