Basics of Proper Hand Washing for Massage Therapists

Availability of new products like antibacterial soap and hand sanitizers clamor for our attention, but plain old soap and water is still the best way to clean your hands. In studies, washing hands with soap and water for 15 seconds (about the time it takes to sing one chorus of "Happy Birthday to You") reduces bacterial counts by 90%. Even people who are conscientious about washing their hands often make the mistake of not drying them properly. Moist and wet hands are more likely to spread germs than dry ones.

Today, almost half of the hand soaps on the market have an antibacterial additives. The question has been whether use of antibacterial soaps will worsen the problem of antibiotic resistance. Even if antibiotic resistance weren’t an issue, results from studies suggest that antibacterial soaps available to consumers don’t add much to hand hygiene. The findings are a useful reminder that antibacterial soaps aren’t the all-purpose germ fighters that many people think they are.

New products in hand hygiene are alcohol-based rubs, sold as hand sanitizers. The big advantage of these cleansers is that you don’t need water or a towel, so you can use them anywhere. Yet alcohol doesn’t kill everything. That’s why it shouldn’t be the only cleaner available in health care settings. To be effective, the rubs need to come into contact with all surfaces of your hands. For that reason, studies have shown that using small amounts is really no better than washing with plain soap and water.

• Spread cleaner over hands.
• Clean back of the hand.
• Clean the fingertips.
• Clean the fingernails.
• Clean the thumbs.
• Clean between the fingers.

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Reflexology for Massage and Physical Therapists

The foundation of reflexology is that different regions of our feet correspond to different areas of the body. Manipulating the specific parts of the feet, the belief is that ailments in other parts of the body can be addressed. This principle has been around for thousands of years in China and elsewhere, where reflexology has long been practiced. More recently, early in the 20th century, American physician Dr. William Fitzgerald mapped out 10 zones of the body and keyed each zone to a region of the foot. The later finding of so-called reflex points led to the use of the term reflexology to describe the managements designed to bring relief.

By gently probing the right foot, specialists of reflexology (they can include massage or physical therapists, podiatrists, and chiropractors) seek to provide relief to the right side of the body, and vice versa for the left foot.

The origin of reflexology is not known for sure. Feet have been molded by evolution to be highly sensitive to impulses, courtesy of the multiple thousands of nerve endings that are present. Advocates of reflexology claim that the all-encompassing innervation of the feet is key to the flow of what is referred to as “vital energy” throughout the body. A ready flow of this energy is beneficial, while blockage in the flow due to injury or illness is not. Reflexology aims to restore the proper energy flow.

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Myrna Bischoff (Paris, France) Massage Training Graduate

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Massage Therapy for Muscle Cramps

Muscular cramps happen most often in legs. The leg muscles are vulnerable to cramping because they're large muscles that do a lot of work. Cramps in the hamstrings and quadriceps are both common, but from my experience I'd say that the most common type of leg cramps is the calf muscle cramp.

There are a few things that contribute to getting muscle cramps. It used to be that lack of salt was the major cause of cramps, but we get so much salt in our diet these days in the form of processed foods so that's probably not the problem. Here are some other more likely contributing factors:

• Lack of potassium can cause muscles to cramp. Potassium helps regulate your muscle's activity and is important for healthy muscle function.
• Electrolyte imbalance can happen easily if you're doing a lot of strenuous activity that makes you sweat and you're not properly replacing lost electrolytes.
• Overwork can also contribute. If you work out too hard or strain lifting too much weight, your muscle could go into spasm.
• Dehydration occurs when you don't drink enough fluids. If your muscles are dehydrated they don't have the lubrication they need to function correctly.

If you weren't sleeping when your cramp occurred, you can do a few things to follow up. Try putting ice on the area. Remember that when you do ice an area you shouldn't apply ice for longer than 15 minutes every hour.

Once you've iced it you can do some petrissage on the area to get the blood flowing properly. When a muscle cramps up it restricts the blood flow to the tissue.

After a good massage be sure to stretch the area. The stretching will also help loosen the muscle tissue even more.

Sometimes the area where the leg cramp was will remain sore even after the cramp has gone away. This happens because some muscle fibers may have been damaged or torn because the cramp was so intense. Getting a massage from a professional therapist will help you deal with that injury.
  

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