Is Over-the-Counter Pain Relief Worth Dying For???

Couldn't help but notice this article in USA Today, which says that a 17-year-old high school runner died from an overdose of a topical cream used for sports pain relief.

EXCUSE ME???? Obviously something's wrong if the stuff you can buy over-the-counter can build up on your body and do you in. And I have to ask: why do athletes keep insisting on drugs/surgery/splints for pain relief when other natural approaches -- like The Rossiter System -- are readily available, FREE and carry no risk of side effects? Why aren't more coaches and trainers interested in approaches that work without risks? If sports medicine doctors who own huge orthopaedic clinics practices are in charge of most athletic teams, what incentive do THEY have to look at alternative approaches?

I am amazed. And saddened.

What the Drug Industry DOESN'T Want you to Know

Have you ever noticed how many TV ads promote drugs directly to YOU...for conditions you didn't even know existed, or for problems that don't even bother you? But now you're wondering....

Critics of the massive pharmaceutical industry are paying attention, too, with several online campaigns to raise public awareness. The first, by the Media Education Foundation, promotes a documentary called "Big Bucks, Big Pharma," which examines the tremendous (and somewhat unchecked) growth of direct-to-consumer advertising, which is a fairly recent phenomenon. There was a time when drug reps and drug companies could market ONLY to doctors....there were no direct-to-the-public TV ads for Viagra and Nexium and Celebrex and Lunesta...and...and...you know the drill. Print ads for drugs appeared only in medical journals/trade publications, and TV was not graced with dancing flowers selling drugs, ladies in the park doing Tai Chi as if that made taking a drug any more sensible, auctioneers getting all teary-eyed over cancer drugs.

You can watch another video, "PHARMED OUT," at YouTube...it features a former Eli Lilly drug rep who talks about the secret side effect that the drug company don't want people on Zyprexa (an anti-psychotic drug) to know about: namely, obesity. The drug makes you fat, and people on Xyprexa are also therefore at higher risk of diabetes. But the drug rep says he and his fellow reps were "instructed to downplay that side effect" and talk up its other positives. The entire clip is about 5 minutes long.

Surgery Sucks...Drugs Suck just as much. Remember that next time you're in pain. Or have restless leg syndrome.

Fascia--the Body's System of SPACE

Every workshop I teach, I remind my student/colleagues the same things: fascia is that body's system of "Space." It's what holds bodies together, gives them shape and form, allows them to move easily and freely.

And when fascia becomes too tight -- like a wetsuit that's two sizes too small -- all sorts of aches and pains set in. The Rossiter System is one of several modalities that loosen and elongate connective tissue -- fascia -- back to its normal, loose pain-free state by adding weight (a partner's foot), warmth (a partner's foot) and movement (you stretch like he!!).

The Ottowa Sun newspaper recently did an interesting piece on the small-but-growing interest in fascia, mostly by people like you and me but not by the medical profession (not just yet anyway). Read it here...and start stretching today!