Therapeutic Massage

Foot Care for Senior Citizens

By the time you reach the golden years of life, your feet have served you well!  Pay them back by adjusting to their needs as you age.

Don’t expect to have the same sized feet throughout your life.  Feet tend to increase in length and width as you age.  This is due to the gradual collapsing of your arches through daily wear and tear.  You may need to re-measure your feet the next time you go shoe shopping to ensure you are still buying shoes that are the right size.  Note: Your two feet won’t necessarily lengthen at the same rate. 

You may also notice that the skin on your feet is thinner than it used to be and that the natural fatty cushioning that exists on the ball of your feet and pads of your toes has decreased.  This thinner skin means that you are more susceptible to injuries on your feet.  Be on the look out for bumps, blisters
, scrapes and bruises that could lead to foot ulcers or infections in your feet.  This is especially important from senior citizens who have diabetes, or who have reduced circulation in their lower extremities.  Poor circulation and neuropathy (damage in your nervous system) may make it difficult for your body to detect and treat infection.  Check your feet for minor injuries everyday, or have someone do it for you.  This kind of proactive care will go a long way when it comes to preventing foot ulcers, infection and amputation.

Gout is another problem that may affect the feet in old age.  It is mainly a concern for men over the age of 50.  Gout occurs when uric acid build-ups in the joints.  It can cause the joints of the foot (and particularly the big toe) to become red, sore and swollen.  For feet that suffer from gout or arthritis, rest and elevate the feet when possible.  Anti-inflammatory drugs may also help to reduce pain and swelling. 

Other foot problems that affect senior citizens include ingrown toenails (the nails tend to become particularly thick and brittle when we age), bunions (usually aggravated by long histories of wearing ill-fitting shoes), corns and calluses.  Invest in athletic or orthopedic shoes that protect your foot from scrapes and bruises.  Look for lace-up shoes that enable you to adjust the size of your shoe to accommodate the swelling of your foot.  Make sure your shoes don’t pinch or cramp the toes.  There is no such thing as a “break-in” period when you buy athletic shoes.  If the shoes hurt, then find another pair!

Foot Care for Senior Citizens / Danielle K. D.

Jane Barron works for OddShoeFinder.com,a free online website that helps people find mismatched footwear.If you are looking for different sized shoes, or information useful to polio survivors, people with diabetes foot problems, and people with foot size differences, visit: www.oddshoefinder.com

Guys: Can Spa Gift Baskets be your Final Solution?

It’s a given that we are now entering the last lap regarding Christmas gift shopping and it’s another given that a good many menfolk out there are woefully unprepared. Guys, this is a fair warning that your charm and boyish good looks won’t amount to much if you don’t look after the ladies in your life. So what’s a way to effectively and efficiently meet this shopping challenge?

There are these magical things called Spa Gift Baskets that could spread the joy of the season this Christmas and even beyond for birthdays and such. Your mother, sister, girlfriend, aunt, wife or any other feminine character within your world would respond with a respect for your showing of care and concern for their well-being. In other words, you’d score a lot of deserved points in your quest for respectability!

Spa Gift Baskets mean the giving of hours of tranquility, relaxation, and renewal. It’s a girlie-girl means of escape from the travail of everyday life. They are the path to an oasis of serenity and peace of mind that is a most certain luxury in stressful times. They are packed with the tools of indulgence that would cleanse and refresh the body and mind of any recipient. You would basically bestow a mini-paradise that would never be forgotten.

How would one find a selection of Spa Gift Baskets to choose from? Take the advice of aGiftBasketParadise.com and go online to find a worthy purveyor of these treasures and choose the one(s) that speak to you in your budget range. Use your typing skills and fill in the billing, shipping, and safe credit card necessary information. Your choice(s) can be drop-shipped to the doorstep of any lucky lady in your life.

So there you go. You now have absolutely no excuse for dropping the ball this Christmas. You must make haste and order pronto to avoid paying more than ground shipping charges for delivery. Go forth now, brothers, and do the right thing. Your good name depends on it!

Guys: Can Spa Gift Baskets be your Final Solution? / Brian Connors

Brian is the owner of Gift Basket Paradise and invites everyone to visit his Spa Gift Baskets webpage at http://www.agiftbasketparadise.com/members/514179/bath_and_spa_gift_baskets.html for Christmas shopping and beyond.

Craniosacral Therapy

Light touch coupled with intent and direction of energy is used to bring the cranial, spinal, and pelvic structured back into balance and to remove blockages that the body’s own physiologic forces have been unable to overcome. One of the hallmarks of craniosacral therapy is the use of a very light touch. The amount of pressure used is seldom more than 1 ounce, and is often more on the order of 5 grams the weight of a nickel. By using such gentle pressure, the therapist assists the client’s body to self-correct and avoids encountering resistance.
An experiential example can facilitate understanding of how light touch decreases resistance. For example, imagine a hard pull on one of your arms. Your immediate reaction is to resist by holding back against the pull. Thus protecting yourself. The use of light touch is a way of not engaging the body’s natural tendency to resist change. Reliance on the inherent self-correcting mechanism of the body is another of the hallmarks of craniosacral therapy. This approach relies on the body’s own wisdom and desire to move toward homeostasis to guide the treatment session. Treatment is a cooperative effort between the therapist who is trying to help the system work more effectively and the person receiving treatment. For this reason, treating the craniosacral system is not only useful for correcting disease, but also for promoting a high level of wellness.

Craniosacral Therapy / Douglas Adams