Muscle Pains, Kinks, and Stiffness: Float Away Your Muscle Pain

Imagine a warm, watery world where your body floats weightlessly while receiving a healing massage. Welcome to Watsu, a form of aquatic bodywork that can unkink stiff or injured muscles while gently stretching the entire body and offering profound physical and emotional relaxation.

The term Watsu combines the words "water" and "shiatsu," an ancient form of Oriental acupressure. It began developing in 1980, when massage therapist Harold Dull of Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown, Calif., started floating, cradling and massaging his Zen shiatsu students in the warm pool at the springs.

"Watsu is performed in a 4-1/2-foot-deep pool that is heated to 96 degrees (skin temperature), and both practitioner and client wear bathing suits," says Shantam Lanz, a Worldwide Aquatic Bodywork Association (WABA)-certified aquatic bodywork therapist and instructor at the School of Shiatsu & Massage at Harbin Hot Springs.

Move Less, Ache More: Inactivity Linked to Arthritis

We live in a society of drive-thrus and remote controls. It's no wonder that Americans are some of the least active and most obese people in the world. And researchers from the Toronto Western Research Institute have discovered a higher prevalence of arthritis in the U.S. compared to even the Canadian population. They attribute that to the greater levels of obesity and physical inactivity in Americans, particularly women.

Full findings of this study are published in the March issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

Arthritis is the leading cause of physical disability, and one of the most frequently reported chronic conditions in the U.S. and Canada. And Arthritis-Attributable Activity Limitations (AAL) is a common side-effect. Those in mid to late life are particularly vulnerable to these conditions, which are expected to increase in both countries due to the aging baby boomer population. According to a 2005 figure from the National Arthritis Data Workgroup more than 21% of American adults (46 million) have arthritis or another rheumatic condition and over 60% of arthritis patients are women. The 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey reported 15.3% (4.3 million) of Canadians have some form of arthritis, with more women then men affected.

Migraines Associated With Lower Risk of Breast Cancer

SEATTLE –- Women who suffer from migraines may take at least some comfort in a recent, first-of-its-kind study that suggests a history of such headaches is associated with a significantly lower risk of breast cancer. Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center report these findings in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

"We found that, overall, women who had a history of migraines had a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer compared to women who did not have a history of such headaches," said Li, a breast-cancer epidemiologist and associate member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division.