Half a million adults in the US face chronic kidney failure and then to find out your brother and only sibling is one of them!
 
My brother Yogesh’s kidneys are failing, the difficult news? The waiting list for a cadaver kidney in Illinois is five years, which means he will have to be on dialysis for that long or more. Because Yogesh is also diabetic and has a slightly enlarged heart, the long-term outcome for someone who has this and is on dialysis, is not very good. Unless Yogesh gets a living kidney donor the odds are against him but a living donor would allow him to live a longer, healthier and a more normal life.
 
My name is Raksha Pathak, sister of Yogesh. Ironically enough, I am also a registered dialysis nurse. I know firsthand that the dialysis treatments; done four hours, three times a week for life take an enormous physical and emotional toll on a person.  I desperately wanted to give Yogesh a kidney and am very distraught to learn that I cannot donate since I suffer from a chronic autoimmune disease. As difficult as this is for me, I am reaching out to family, friends, even strangers with this request as time is of essence!
 
If you are blood type “O” and want to be tested to donate a kidney to my brother then please call Northwestern Memorial Hospital Kidney Donor Advocate Services @ 312.695.8900   Ask for the Donor Transplant Assistant and say, “I want to be a donor for Yogesh Patel.”
If you prefer you can email me at gift4life.yp@gmail.com
 
Yogesh is single, has no children and is the primary caregiver to our fragile 88 year old mother. My brother is a gentle soul and my best friend and I want us to grow old together, so please consider donating.
 
For more information on kidney donation I’m inviting you to watch this video.
If you are unable to donate then please share this letter with your friends. 
 
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating in giving my brother a Gift of Life! 
​

At Vive! Therapeutic Massage, we take the needs of seniors and our older clients very seriously. Whether it is addressing the aches and pains of growing older or helping to maintain your mobility, massage provides skilled touch and therapeutic interventions. As you age, it is important to continue moving your muscles to avoid stiffness and to promote flexibility. Massage provides many benefits for seniors, including improved circulation and decreased inflammation in joints. We see a lot of people before and after knee and hip replacement surgery.  Massage therapy is often complementary to physical therapy. A good therapeutic massage can also be helpful for arthritis, muscle and bone deterioration, tendonitis, bursitis and even respiratory problems. The emotional support and tender loving care provided by our professional therapists can reduce anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness. Regular massage can increase your desire to be active and get the most out of life!

I am very grateful for the support we continually receive from all of our devoted customers. We are constantly looking for ways to improve your experience at Vive!. As a part of that effort, we are excited to announce that we will be open on Sundays starting Sunday May 4th. I am, however,  committed to the family lives of my customers as well as my staff. Because of this, we will be closed on holidays such as Mothers Day and Fathers Day. 

Talking about changes at Vive!, I am also very pleased to announce that 3 outstanding therapists have joined the Vive! team. Hector, Dan and Susan all have fantastic skills in the healing art of massage. They have already been getting rave reviews. Please check out their bio's.

I am also excited about a few other changes we have made recently. They are a bit more subtle, but are just as important to improving your experience at Vive!.

• Additional soundproofing has been added to two rooms to help keep out unwanted noise.
• New massage tables have been installed in the final 3 rooms. Every room is now equipped with some of the best professional tables on the market. Not only are these tables very strong and stable, but each one has electric lift features. People with disabilities will appreciate that we can now lower the table to knee height for easy access. The therapist can then adjust the height of the table as needed for treatment.
• We have upgraded our linens. Better quality sheets are now being used, and of course they are laundered and sanitized to hospital quality standards.
• We have started to stock a variety of self care items, including tools such as trigger point balls, aromatherapy, and pain relief products from BioFreeze.
• Earlier this year we announced that we replaced bottled water with an outstanding filtered water system served in bio-degradable cups. Yes, we are looking out for your health and the environment at the same time.

As you can see, we have been very busy and we have plans for more improvements later in the year. Thanks again for being a Vive! customer. I hope to see you soon.


Wishing you good health,
Geri Balazs

Your immune system works hard to protect you from colds, flu, and other illnesses, so why not give it a little help? Imagine your immune system as the first line of defense against an invading army.  First, the proteins in the bloodstream look for foreign bodies (antigens). Then, the proteins call for reinforcement from phagocytes which devour bacteria and viruses. T cells in the lymphatic system take note of the invasion and increase white blood cells to further fight off the enemy (Build a Better Immune System by Brandi Schlossberg, Massage Magazine, 12/07). When the process is working properly, the germs are flushed out through the lymphatic system and you are not even aware of the battle within. 

How do we keep the system humming? Boost your immunities to bacteria and viruses by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. According to a Harvard Special Health Publication, the immune system requires balance and harmony to function well. The report makes the following recommendations:

• Don’t smoke.
• Eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and low in saturated fat.
• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Control your blood pressure.
• If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation.
• Get adequate sleep.
• Take steps to avoid infection, such as washing your hands frequently and cooking meats thoroughly.
• Get regular medical screening tests for people in your age group and risk category.

(http://www.health.harvard.edu/flu-resource-center/how-to-boost-your-immune-system.htm)
 
Whole foods , adequate protein, and plenty of water to flush out toxins will help keep your body in top form. For additional information, Dr. Jennifer Collins offers many dietary tips on the website www.alternativemedicine.com (http://www.alternativemedicine.com/alternative-medicine/departments/holistic-tips-boost-your-immune-system ).
 
In addition to these common sense recommendations, Schlossberg suggests herbal remedies, vitamin supplements, aromatherapy and massage to keep you feeling your best. Stress is particularly harmful to your defenses, and massage therapy is a great way to combat those debilitating effects. Deep tissue massage slows down the production of cortisol – the stress hormone. The skin’s receptors respond to moderate pressure and your immune system benefits. Essential oils of lavender, sandalwood, tea tree, eucalyptus and rose oil can be incorporated into massage lotions or diffused in to the air to offer additional immune system support. In addition, you might try herbal teas like Yogi Tea’s Echinacea Immune Support or Traditional Medicinal’s Echinacea Plus to stimulate and support the immune system. Schlossberg cites studies that show that even severely compromised immune systems, such as those weakened from HIV and leukemia, benefit from massage through the increase in white blood cells counts.  
  Stay in harmony with your body by eating well, getting enough exercise and sleep, and  helping your immune system do its job of protecting the body from invading bacteria and viruses.  The reward for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including regular massage, is a healthier immune system.

Have you heard of Cupping Therapy? Cupping made the news last year when some opportunistic photographers got some pictures of Jennifer Aniston sporting some big round hickies. These weren't the result of an adventurous tryst, but rather from an ancient form of therapy called Cupping Therapy. To learn more about cupping, check out this video.

Did you know that the National Institute of Health has a branch for studying Complementary and Alternative medicine? The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM for short - don't you love government agencies) has been studying the effectiveness of massage therapy as well as other alternative approaches to health and wellness. They are starting to build up a body of evidence that verifies what many of us already know to be true, that massage therapy can be an effective therapy for people with many conditions. Some of the studies that they have done include the effectiveness of massage for back pain, chronic neck pain, headaches, depression and anxiety, cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis and even HIV/AIDS.  They continue to study the effectiveness of massage for other conditions. If you are interested in learning more about their work, go to: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/massage

Cancer awareness is very critical these days and knowing how to prevent and early detect cancer is a key to maintaining your well being. Mammograms have been the mainstream for detecting any signs of breast cancer. However, there is an additional option that is “radiation free” that is worth exploring called “Thermography”.  As with all health decisions, please consult your medical doctor or homeopathic doctor for what option is best for you.  Being informed about your health and the various ways to stay healthy will serve you the best in the long run.
 
Thermography is a suggested screening tool for breast health. It can be used as an alternative to, or in addition to, mammography. Thermography is very safe—it’s even safe for pregnant and nursing women! It’s merely an image of the heat of your body. With thermography, there is no radiation exposure. Thermography is not invasive and requires no physical contact with the technician.  You are positioned in front of a Thermal Imaging Camera and digital pictures are taken. The procedure lasts from 5 to 15 minutes. The results are analyzed for heat patterns and available to you within a couple of days. Dr. Christiane  Northrup, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, is a well-known advocate for thermography as an accurate and reliable method of breast screening.
 
The website http://www.thermologyonline.org/ is a great source of information for understanding how thermography works.  Thermography measures body temperature to detect inflammation and has been shown to pick up abnormalities in the breast many years before a lesion would likely show up in a mammogram. Tumors generally have an increase in blood supply which translates into increased heat in the surrounding tissues. Inflammation is often present in precancerous and cancerous cells and can be detected by the infrared hotspots during thermography. It is especially useful in detection of breast abnormality and may be more effective than mammography in early detection of cancer cells.
 
Some experts believe that thermographs have the ability to detect the chemical and blood vessel changes in pre-cancerous as well as cancerous breast tissue 8 to 10 years before it can be detected by other methods. With thermography as a screening tool, breast cell anomalies can be detected long before mammography can detect cancer, allowing you to implement lifestyle changes that can improve the health of your breasts proactively instead of waiting for a cancer diagnosis later. The chart below shows the growth rate of cancer cells and when anomalies are detected by both thermography and mammography.

Proper hydration is very important, especially after getting a massage. Deep tissue massage in particular releases toxins trapped in the muscular system which eventually will be flushed by the body through the lymphatic system. Proper hydration after massage helps to properly flush the system of these toxins.

Vive! is committed to your health as well as the environment. In the past, Vive! has always provided bottled water to our clients. We have now found a healthier and more ecologically friendly option than bottled water. We have installed a water filtration system which supplies healthier purified water. This will save thousands of water bottles each year as well as eliminate the environmental carbon impact of transporting the water.

Environmentally Friendly Cups

No more environmentally unfriendly bottles. We are now using to-go cups manufactured by ECO Products. The cups, lids and straws are all made of 100% renewable plant based plastics. This material is also ASTM certified to be 100% compostable. We hope you will agree that this is a far better alternative to plastic water bottles. 

We selected an eight stage filtration system from Crystal Quest which removes a wide variety of contaminants and unwanted chemicals from the drinking water. Vive! specifically chose a system that includes a filter for removing fluoride from the water. Fluoridation of the water supply has become a controversial subject. If you wish to read more on the subject, we suggest an article about water quality written by Dr. Mercola.  He is an acknowledged author, researcher and expert in the preventative health field, focusing on Osteopathic Medicine.

We elected not to use a reverse osmosis system since the municipal water system already provides some basic water filtration. Reverse osmosis systems are particularly helpful to those people whose water is supplied by well systems. While these systems are excellent at removing contaminants from the water, they tend to waste a lot of water and also tend to remove many beneficial minerals from the water. Click on READ MORE if you want to learn more about the 8 stage water filtering process supplied by Crystal Quest. 

It seems that with every big snowfall, the news is littered with snow shoveling victims. Heavy snow like the weather event we are having now can be much more dangerous than most people realize. Here are a few tips for staying safe.

• Take your time. Take frequent rest breaks. There is no need to rush.
• When using a shovel, take smaller scoops of snow.
• Lift with your legs, not your back. Lift the shovel with the blade as close to your body as possible.
• Even using a snow blower can be strenuous. Let the machine do as much of the work as possible. Take frequent breaks.
• Don't be too proud to ask for help. Maybe the neighbor kids would appreciate the chance to earn a couple of dollars.
• If you do manage to strain yourself, call for an appointment at Vive! for a massage tune up.

Of course, Massage therapy can help you recover from the muscle aches and muscle strains caused by shoveling.