Dead Sea Herbs

What is Acupressure?

Healing touch

Acupressure is an ancient healing art using the fingers and other parts of the body to skillfully press key points, which stimulate the body’s natural self-curing abilities. When these trigger points are pressed, they release muscular tension, and promote circulation of blood, and the body’s life force energy (Qi or Chi or Prana) to aid healing. Acupuncture and acupressure use the same pressure points and meridians, but acupuncture employs needles, while acupressure uses gentle to firm pressure and integrates bodywork therapies, therapeutic touch, somatic work, healing imagery, energy psychology, and massage therapy techniques.

The Chinese scriptures which date back more than 4000 years tell us about treatments with nails to balance body and mind. No one knows for sure when the bed of nails was first used to heal the body and raise consciousness. An approximate estimate is at least several thousand years

Channeling Ki or Chi or Reiki energy through the acupressure points can enable you to tap into Traditional Chinese or Indian Medicine’s tremendous wealth of ancient healing knowledge – that’s point specific.

Advantages of Using Acupressure include relieving pain, balancing the body, and maintaining good health. Acupressure’s healing touch reduces tension, increases circulation, and enables the body to relax deeply. By relieving stress, acupressure therapy strengthens resistance to disease and promotes wellness.  Learn self-acupressure point formulas for various energy imbalances and healing applications.

Shakti acupressure mat

Our modern day acupressure spike mat is designed to relieve pain and stress, and produce relaxation through acupressure therapy. Lying on the 6,200 plastic spikes assembled on the Shakti Mat helps increase blood flow and stimulate nerve endings. The result is an effective tool to resolve tension, relieve pain and provide deep relaxation.

If you haven’t already seen one, tried one, or at least heard about the Shakti mat – be prepared. This mat sold 300.000 pieces last year in Sweden alone. And now the inventor is ready for a world-wide launch.

The Shakti Mat’s distinctive design is reminiscent of the Indian bed of nails, an ancient healing practice used by mystics to achieve deep meditative states. Our Shakti mat combines thousands of years of Indian tradition with modern technology to aid in the healing process and help release emotional, physical and mental blockages.

When you lie on the Shakti Mat, it prompts the body to produce good hormones such as endorphins and oxytocin. Endorphins are normally released during physical movement and exercise, and help support body against pain. Oxytocin helps you relax and allows you to fall asleep more easily.

By Rachelle Holmes of Chicago Breast Augmentation and Chicago Liposuction Center, MetropolitanMDs

Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of health care and treatments on the planet, but it still serves its purposes even today. Now, while inserting dozens of needles into your body doesn’t seem like the most fun way to treat ailments, acupuncture is a tried and true therapeutic practice that has helped people deal with pain for centuries.

By inserting needles into various pressure points around the body, physical pain and stress can be relieved and even treated using acupuncture. For most, it’s funny to think that sticking needles into the pain areas and pressure points of the body would be the answer, but when it comes to people who suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, it might just be that.

New studies have shown that that acupuncture in certain areas of the body releases adenosine, which is a natural pain killer that is usually released after an injury. This allows people who are suffering from constant fibromyalgia to gain some much-needed relief.

By releasing adenosine, pain signals can be blocked from ever reaching the brain thus helping sufferers deal with their pain problems. This brings up a lot of questions about how much acupuncture has to do with adenosine release and if this is the reason that so many benefit from it. Yet, whatever the reason, studies have shown acupuncture to be great at treating the condition and helping the people who suffer from it.

From the fatigue angle, the study also went on to show that adenosine released from acupuncture has a lot to do with the regulation of the sleep cycle. By being able to regulate sleep correctly, chronic fatigue syndrome may be able to be properly treated and even fixed.

Acupuncture paired with the correct medicine can help both constant pain and fatigue, as new studies have gone on to show. This is good news for sufferers of both ailments, and goes to show that this ancient art of health may still have some new tricks to share.

We love to use these packs during winter cold evenings and in summer after exercise. Feels great!

Organic herbal shoulder pack

We use herbal packs every day during winter and occasionally for minor pains in summer.

If you have pain in your back, knee, ankle, or other body part, whom should you turn to for help?
We’re often taught to go to the top of the diagnostic chain, the orthopedist. But the truth is that most orthopedic surgeons, unless they [have some particular interest or specialty], don’t want to see patients unless it’s a surgical case. Otherwise, it’s just evaluating and referring out. A good manual therapist who will refer out when it’s necessary–whether a chiropractor, a physical therapist, or an internist who works with manual therapy–is a good port of entry.

But some of the indications to see an orthopedist [first] include tingling and numbness, an extremity with swelling or redness, edema, or pain in the area that really limits your range of motion. And anything that’s a result of an acute injury should be checked out. You should immediately seek medical help if you have any injury or trauma in the vicinity of the spinal cord, progressive muscle weakness in any part of your body, or a change in your bowel or bladder function. Heat and fever are also symptoms that should make you head to a doctor.]

Are there easy ways to deal with back pain on your own?
You can definitely loosen up the quadriceps, the hamstrings, and the glutes [by self-massage and stretching]. (Check out the New Rules of Stretching.) Unfortunately, the most important thing--the psoas–you cannot self-treat. That’s in the front of the lumbar spine and should be left to the experts. Lotions and ointments are helpful. There are many available but we suggest all natural stuff.

When it comes to building muscle, it’s important to do all that you can to achieve results.  However, when you’re strengthening muscles, faster and more often doesn’t always translate into better results.  To build muscle in the most efficient manner, you want to take breaks in between bodybuilding sessions, allowing your muscle tissue to heal.  If you don’t allow the tissue to heal, it doesn’t grow back stronger and thus you won’t see the results you want.  Another common problem is muscle pain that leads to discomfort and unwillingness to work out.  But you don’t have to take steroids to prevent pain, there are a number of natural herbal supplements that can serve as muscle pain relief. 

You want to monitor your diet closely when bodybuilding.  It’s important to have a diet high in protein but low in fat, so avoid a lot of greasy foods but make sure you also ingest enough meat.