2009 is almost over. . . . Are you wondering how to best use the money in your Flex Account? A brief workshop will be held discussing how Flex Spending Accounts and HSAs can be used to pay for certain kinds of massage therapy treatments. This 30-minute workshop will be held at 6:00pm on Thursday, November 19th at our office at 317 Cherokee Street in downtown Kingsport. Massage and other manual therapies can play an important role in helping you attain short and long term goals of better health and performance. This workshop is perfect for human resources personnel of large or small corporations, or for individuals with key health challenges they’d like to address.

This short workshop will also provide in depth and often surprising ways in which massage and other manual therapies can help with a variety of health challenges. Some conditions that respond particularly well to treatment include chronic and acute pain, neck and back pain, generalized joint pain, headaches, migraines, TMJD/jaw pain, postural problems, pregnancy, carpal tunnel syndrome, and sciatica. It is also great for detoxification. Join us for an evening of education and discussion.

Amber and Paul Vachon are Nationally Certified Massage Therapists, with advanced training in several forms of bodywork as well as medical massage. To reserve a seat, please send an email to paul@ammatn.com or call us at 423-288-2662.

Interview TMJ Expert Amber Vachon

Want to interview an expert, and need an interview in a hurry? Call TMJ Expert Amber Vachon. Regardless of her location, Amber will make herself available for your newspaper or magazine interview, for your radio talk show, or for your television talk show. Amber has spent years studying jaw pain and the temporomandibular joint from a holistic standpoint and has developed a highly effective alternative treatment regimen for jaw pain. As one of the country’s leading TMJ experts, few massage therapists are better attuned to the challenges of TMJD sufferers than Amber. An interview with Amber is filled with valuable educational information for your audience.

Amber’s innovative TMJD manual therapy treatment regimen is gentle and non-invasive, making it a beneficial conservative treatment option. Manual therapy is highly effective in correcting malocclusions and the functional anatomy of the TMJ. Treatment responds to specific TMJ movement disorders by addressing the soft tissue of the TMJ.

Amber’s clinic, Appalachian Medical Massage Associates, serves the greater southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee area, drawing clients primarily from Abingdon, Bristol, Gate City, Greeneville, Jonesborough, Kingsport, Johnson City, Knoxville, and Wise.

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The December edition of the Journal of Perinatology published a great research study performed at a nursing school in Brazil. The study found that in the case of premature babies born at 32 weeks or less, those who received massage were released from the hospital an average of 7 days before their non-massaged counterparts. Neonatal sepsis was also greatly reduced in this group.

No big surprise there. Read more at PubMed.com:
“Massage therapy reduces hospital stay and occurrence of late-onset sepsis in very preterm neonates.” Journal of Perinatology: official journal of the California Perinatal Association 2008 Dec;28(12):815-20. PMID: 18633421

Rotator Cuff Therapy - How to Heal Your Shoulder Naturally Without Surgery

By Matt Olson

Is your shoulder pain getting to the point where you need to do something about it? Unfortunately the pain has not subsided on it’s own. But sure enough, your doctor tells you that your RC has a small tear. Ok, what are your options? Is it possible for the rotator cuff to heal without surgery? There is a possibility you may be able to heal your shoulder naturally, without surgery, if you follow a strict and properly designed rotator cuff therapy program.

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Raj Mehta recovers from DeQuervain’s Tendonitis and avoids hand surgery!  

Thanks for letting us help, Raj! We are also glad that you are sharing your experience with others. . . .

See more testimonials in our Testimonial section.

All of our testimonials are reprinted with permission. If you would like to make your story available to others, please let us know. Contact us at amma@ammatn.com or send us a letter the old-fashioned way.

The practice of various massage techniques can be traced though human history and nearly every culture. Artwork and literature from many civilizations show that nearly all ancient cultures practiced massage in some form. This is shown in cave drawings by out prehistoric ancestors, ancient Chinese books dating back as far as 3000 B.C., medical textbooks by Greek and Roman physicians written in the millennia preceding Christ, Indian and Hindu tradition and literature dating back over three thousand years.

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By Ike Jones

How in the world did the term “jumpers knee” evolve?

Hmmm… lets see now. Because you jump a lot?

You are indeed a genius!

But that’s not the only cause of this very common chronic overuse injury/condition.

We are in the final weeks of the winter sports season and some of the kids, particularly in the sport of basketball, have been battling jumpers knee for a few weeks while others have been battling it for a few years!

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Written by John Groth

We’ve all seen the TV documentary where the scurrying ants are carrying portions of leaves and other vegetation back to their nest. Many loads carried by the ants exceed the ant’s weight. An almost similar scene is repeated every day at schools all across the county, and kids weighted down with overloaded backpacks trudging back and forth to school. Many only have to trudge with the heavy backpack from home to the bus and from the bus into school but the strain on their backs are obvious and could be damaging.

So book reports, various projects and science exams aren’t the only pressures on your kids at school. Wearing and walking with heavy backpacks, especially when wearing them the wrong way can lead to back pain, muscle strain and overall poor posture. In a recent study, almost 60% of students reported chronic back pain related to them.

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