SCENAR Treatment with Terminal Illness

(Note: Jim Freedman bought a Scenar from us in 2006. He has worked with it on his wife and himself over the years, and when in Asheville, would call us up to connect. While here last November, he mentioned his friend Martin, and that he wanted to try treating him with Scenar. I told him of my only experience in seeing Scenar’s effects with another terminally ill individual, which I’m now writing up as a future post, where I witnessed a dramatic improvement in the quality of life during the last months. I told him, it could do no harm, and could possibly improve the quality of his friend’s remaining time. Below are the emails and his thoughts about his experiences in working with Martin.)

I have a good friend Martin who was diagnosed this past summer with multiple myeloma. This is a cancer of the plasma cells located in the bone marrow. There is no cure for this. He was on vacation and experienced excruciating back pain. He was hospitalized and diagnosed. He has numerous tumors growing throughout his body. The myeloma weakened his bones so much he had to have a rod surgically implanted in his leg.

Once back home in Florida he has undergone extensive radiation as well as drug therapies and an operation to infuse spinal cement to help stabilize his lower spine.

I told him I wanted to try and treat him with the scenar. I wondered how much good it might do for someone with this severe a problem.

Martin had become wracked with extreme pain and spent most of his time in bed.

Here are the emails that I sent Penny as I was treating Martin:

Jan 12, 2012  Thursday   1^st Scenar Treatment

The worst problem is the huge amount of pain that he is in. He is on morphine and other pain meds. Today was the first chance that I have had to treat him. I called him and he was reluctant because he was having such a bad pain day. When I assured him there would be no side affects he agreed.

He can only walk with the aid of a walker and of late he has to rely on his arms for support as his legs buckle if he puts weight on them. Most of his pain in his is back and buttocks.

When I saw Martin I was somewhat aghast at seeing him in such bad shape. It took him almost 3-4 minutes to roll over from laying on his back to his side. I treated him with the Scenar for about 30-40 minutes and I really did not expect to see immediate results.

Martin rolled back over with a lot less effort and got out of bed into his walker and was able to walk around (with the walker) but put his weight on his legs and not his arms. He had much less pain after the treatment.

Jan 14 Saturday  2^nd Scenar Treatment

I treated my friend Martin on Thursday and he has had less pain and somewhat better movement since. This afternoon I gave him his second treatment. Read more »

I’m Back With Another SCENAR Story!

This spring has been on steroids. With all the graduations, weddings, putting out a vegetable garden, etc., I’ve been short on time to think about writing, much less had the opportunity to sit down to write. It has felt like being on the receiving end of a fire hose in the face! I have a notebook page full of possible posts that have revealed themselves to me in the melee, without the moments to develop them. Except for a new grandbaby to arrive the end of July, things are now looking like they will mellow just a bit, and I will be able to resume this effort that I have such passion about.

I had a personal experience with the SCENAR that impressed me. After discovering a sizable ants nest in the garden, I boiled a large pot of water to encourage them to take their endeavors elsewhere. In carrying it out to the nest, I accidentally sloshed a wave of the boiling hot water on to the underside of my right forearm and wrist. It was excruciatingly painful. I put the pot down, ran back into the house, and immediately poured cold tap water on it. Even after that, it was so painful that I could barely stand it. Knew I had to get the SCENAR on it, but the idea of anything touching it was appalling.

I decided to turn the sensation level down to low and see if I could stand it. I turned the frequency up as high as it would go (the recommendation for acute injury) and held my breath as I placed it on the worst area (around my wrist where my superheated glove rim had kept the hot water against my skin). Within a couple of seconds, the pain began to ease. Encouraged, I did the same thing over the whole area, picking the SCENAR up and gently putting it down in a grid over the wounded area. After about 20 minutes, the pain and tenderness had been relieved completely, and I went back out to continue with the job. I didn’t think much more about it for the rest of the afternoon. That night, there was still no pain or even tenderness, and some of the redness had gone away. I treated it again, more thoroughly this time. By the next day the deep redness had paled, and much of it was gone. I treated it the second night, and haven’t treated it since. Surprisingly, it never blistered. Now, two weeks later, the skin on my wrist has a pale brown “bracelet” where the wound was the worst . When I think what the experience of healing that kind of burn would have been without SCENAR I’m more convinced than ever that everyone should have one in their home first aid kit.

Penny

Spring Opportunities

This is a glorious spring! So wonderful after the hibernation of winter. Seems like there is “eye candy” everywhere!

In keeping with the parasympathetic plethora of enthusiastic blossoming, we at Healing Innovations are offering a new opportunity to experience the SCENAR in a way that is more affordable and efficient. Heretofore, we have offered hour long sessions only, but have found because of our work in other practitioner settings, that half hour sessions are as effective and considerably more affordable for our clients.

So, beginning April 15th we will be offering our clients half hour sessions for $45 per session. If you are a new client, the first evaluation session would need to be an hour at our usual charge of $65. Thereafter, the treatment sessions would be half an hour. If you pay in advance for four sessions you receive a 10% discount which would make the total cost for the four only $162. Usually, within 5 sessions (the total including the initial visit) our clients are experiencing noticeable pain relief.

Mention that you read about this offer on the blog and get the initial evaluation at half price!

Watch your well being blossom this spring and experience how SCENAR can help you stay pain free and active all summer long!

Call 828-337-6854 today to schedule an appointment!

The Benefit of SCENAR in Traumatic Injury – Christina’s Story

I am a Scenar practitioner, and have used this wonderful technology on myself, my family, and hundreds of clients over the past 8 years.  I never had the opportunity to test its capabilities in a situation involving a serious injury with a great deal of pain, however, until I broke my wrist this past December. I knew that Russian practitioners treat injuries with Scenar at athletic events all the time, but I had not experienced this myself.

Sorry if I’m getting too graphic, but my injury involved a whiplash to my left wrist that broke my radius (the large forearm bone) clear through and tore many ligaments.  All I knew at the time, though, was that it hurt so much I thought I would pass out and was deep breathing to keep the pain tolerable.  On a pain scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst imaginable), it was definitely a 10.   Fortunately, I had my Ritm Scenar with me and immediately began treating my wrist while my sister drove to the hospital.  I put the frequency on 350 Hz, turned the power up as high as I could take and held it on the most painful spots as well as stroking all around my wrist.  For the first 15 minutes, I didn’t feel much relief, but noticed the swelling was minimal and the pain wasn’t increasing, as it usually does when swelling begins.

I continued treating myself non-stop and by the time I was checked in and waiting for a doctor, amazingly enough my wrist was actually feeling better.  The whole wrist still felt mangled but the pain was really manageable.  When they asked how bad the pain was, I told them it was a 10 so they would take me seriously.  But I thought to myself: actually, now it feels more like a 4-5!  Wow. The swelling was so minimal  (only about the size of a large egg), that it looked like a minor injury. When I broke a smaller bone in my ankle years before, it had swollen to the size of a melon.

During this entire time I had not taken any kind of medication for pain or inflammation. But after 2 hours of Scenar treatment, not only was the pain way down, but I also felt more clear and relaxed because the pain wasn’t dizzying me and making me tense up anymore.  My sister couldn’t believe how calm and collected I was, and neither could I.  I had to stop using the Scenar while they took x-rays, and the pain started to return.  As soon as I could, I slapped it on again!

Having broken bones before, I knew it was broken from the minute it happened, but judging by the swelling and my composure, none of the hospital staff thought it was broken until the x-rays came back. They told me it was broken almost like they couldn’t believe it. But it was broken pretty badly and they wanted an orthopedic surgeon to set it.  Unfortunately, none were available on Saturday so they put me in a splint, gave me an Rx for pain meds and told me to call an orthopedic doctor on Monday – 2 days away!  I couldn’t believe I was going to have to wait 2 days to have my bone set.

The next 2 days were the most challenging part of the whole ordeal because I couldn’t treat my wrist with the Scenar now that it was in a splint.  I knew I could take pain meds, but I try to stay away from medications as much as possible (ok, I’m a purist).  But I also wanted to keep testing the Scenar, which had so far exceeded all my expectations for reducing pain and inflammation.   I went home, exhausted and daunted at the prospect of having to treat myself constantly for the next two days.  An hour after they put on the splint, the pain was creeping back in.  How was I going to do it?  To make myself feel better, I even thought how lucky I was compared to a pioneer with a broken wrist, with no Scenar or fancy splints bumping along in a wagon for days to find a doctor!

Fortunately, my dear friend and business partner, Penny Bond, came over that afternoon to give me a treatment.  We knew from Scenar training that treating the paired, uninjured limb was the next best thing to directly treating an injury. Our instructors said that treating an uninjured limb is 80% as effective in treating an injury as treating the injured limb.  This is because the nervous system does not distinguish between the nerves of paired limbs, and sends almost as much healing energy to the opposite limb as to the one being treated.  But honestly, I didn’t believe it would help that much.  I just couldn’t see how treating my right arm was going to relieve the intense pain in my left.  Amazingly, it did.  As soon as she started treating my right wrist, my left felt markedly better.

This experience gave me the courage to continue treating myself by laying my right wrist on the Scenar and using electrode patches on my right wrist for the next 2 days.  The pain was worst at night, when I went for hours with no treatment, but I managed to make it until Tuesday morning, when I went in for surgery, without taking any pain medication whatsoever.  I feel that this is nothing short of a miracle.  I only wish that every sports team and every hospital and doctor in our country utilized Scenar technology the way they do in Russia and much of Europe.

Christina Morrison recently joined our Healing Innovations team. She is a certified Scenar practitioner who introduced Penny to the Scenar back in 2004.   She has also practiced massage, energy balancing and movement therapies for over 20 years.  An NC native, she returned last summer from Austin, TX, and is very happy to be back in her beloved mountains. She can be reached at 828-273-7131. (See her interview with Penny, posted below.)

SCENAR Saves the Day…Again

I have just had another “SCENAR recovery story” happen in my own life. I really appreciate how this little device has saved me from my own stupidity so many times…

I was helping my son and daughter in law ready their old home (they just built a new home on their property last year) for renting. In that process, I “wrenched my back” lifting something heavy (dumb and I knew better). By that evening, I was concerned that my ability to help had been waylaid. Both sacroiliac joints in my low back were screaming.

Whenever I have something happen like that I pull out my original SCENAR (a Denas Diadens T). It was the device that changed my life back in 2004. And even though Revenko and Karasev pooh-pooh it as “not a true SCENAR,” it has always worked beautifully for me. What I love about its design (and it is the only SCENAR device with this design) is that the buttons to change the settings are recessed so you can lay on it without changing the power and frequency. So, for hard to reach areas on the back, you can pin it between your back and a couch cushion, or you can lay on it. My Denas has been a sleeping partner for me on many occasions when I have been sick or injured.

So, I went to bed with my trusty healing friend. I would put it on one SI joint, go to sleep, wake up needing to change positions, realize the Denas was still working happily away on the joint, move it to the other side, and go back to sleep. I did this all night. By the next morning, to my delight, I was able to get out of bed with very little pain, and knew I could (with wisdom) continue to work. I worked all day and then did the same thing with the Denas that night. The next morning I woke up feeling normal.

What a blessing it is that I found SCENAR!

TMJ Syndrome

Another very common complaint that SCENAR has great success with is temporomandibular joint syndrome. This condition has earned the nickname of “The Great Imposter” because it produces such a wide variety of symptoms and mimics so many different diseases. It can cause facial and neck pains, difficulty opening the mouth or chewing, earaches and congestion, sinus pain (often diagnosed as infections), headaches, and shoulder pain. Often there is no pain, only dizziness, tinnitus (ear ringing), and/or hearing loss. It is now estimated to affect 20% of the population at various times and is completely overlooked in most. More often than not, the people we treat have unsuccessfully sought help with internal medicine specialists, neurologists, and ear/nose/throat specialists. They are often told there is nothing the specialist can do, or worse, that their symptoms are imaginary.

Dentists are very familiar with this condition, but alas, are seldom consulted because of the symptoms may appear to have nothing to do with the teeth.

The temporomandibular joints are located in front of the ear where the lower jaw (mandible) hinges to the skull. One or both of these joints can get out of adjustment by a blow to the head/jaw, whiplash injury to the neck, dental work, clenching teeth while sleeping, or from opening the jaw to yawn. More often poor bite dynamics cause the trouble. It may develop, for example, when a tooth is lost and adjacent teeth drift, thus moving the lower jaw out of position causing a misalignment of the joint.

Once the joint is affected, the equilibrium of muscles and ligaments that control the movement of the joint are upset. In response the muscles go into spasm with resulting pain. This pain my shoot out a considerable distance radiating from small areas of great sensitivity called “trigger areas” within the muscles. “Trigger areas” in the TMJ muscle system can produce a dull ache or a stabbing pain, not just in the teeth but anywhere in the head, neck, and shoulders.

SCENAR can locate the affected areas in the face, neck, shoulders. Treatment stimulates the release of endorphins and the relaxation effect such that the muscles can relax and the jaw return to alignment. It also reduces the inflammation in the affected tissues. In concert with the treatment process, there is much that an individual can do to relieve TMJ pain. Read about those in the Healing Tips section of the blog.

If you are experiencing these symptoms, contact Healing Innovations at 828-337-6854. SCENAR treatments can help!

Pain Awareness Month

Here we are at September again (where did the summer go?) and National Pain Awareness Month. Those of us who have chronic pain are always aware, but this designation gives organizations devoted to helping those struggling with pain an opportunity to provide information, meetings, and conferences in a focused way.

In the last few months, I have had another flurry of a specific complaint in those who have sought natural pain relief from SCENAR: low back pain. Treatments with SCENAR have been largely successful in reducing or eliminating this complaint, and part of the treatment is to advise clients on things they can do to help themselves heal and prevent further episodes. In researching low back pain (the internet is full of resources) there is one site I would like to recommend: The National Pain Foundation. They have an online manual about back pain, what causes it, how it can be managed, and common myths about it. Of all the web resources I’ve seen, this is most concise and comprehensive.

In 1983, I injured my back while working as the circulation manager of a local newspaper. I went through physical therapy and attended a “Back School” held by that office. From that experience I took away three tidbits of information that helped me enormously in managing my weakened back as it healed and grew stronger over the next several years. I have not found these techniques anywhere on the web, so wanted to add them to the awareness of things you can do to help yourself, should you have an injury or suffer with recurring back pain episodes.

1) Think about and change the way you get into and out of a car. My physical therapist was convinced that how we get into and out of a car is the number one behavior that predisposes us to back pain. Most of us get into a car by putting our right foot in first and then in a somewhat controlled fall, land ourselves in the seat. Then we bring in the left leg. That landing of our bodies in the car’s seat produces powerful sideways distorting forces on the vertebrae of the low back. We don’t notice it generally, but it happens nonetheless, and can set us up for later back issues. The best way to get into a car is to sit in the car’s seat first and then bring our legs into the car one at a time as we turn our bodies to face forward. Those who have “bad backs” are usually aware of this, as throwing oneself into a car when the back is sore can produce pain. But, the rest of us go our merry way, without awareness, until our backs begin to complain about the abuse.

Read more »

Another Amazing SCENAR Assisted Recovery

A month ago I began working with a woman through the Highlands office of Mountain Air Wellness Center. She came in with neck, hip, and knee pain. We began with her neck, which resolved after one treatment, but that’s not the amazing part. She missed her second appointment a week later because she had been at the ER related to a fall in which she had sprained both ankles. Last week she was able to get to the office for a treatment but could barely walk. Her ankles were still very swollen with deep purple bruises below both of them. She had very high initial reactions in all areas. I used the protocols for acute injury, but realized that treating acute injury must be done several times a day, and I would not be able to see her for a week. So, I loaned her my personal DENAS Diadens-T SCENAR and showed her the basic way to use it. She is a quick study, easily grasping the concepts, and hobbled out of the office with my device.

I saw her again today. She walked almost normally, the swelling was greatly reduced, the bruising was gone, and the pain had localized to the area around her arches. Her initial reactions were much lower and there were fewer asymmetries overall. She had treated her ankles three times a day for the entire week, as well as icing the areas.

So, in a week of daily treatment, she had gone from hobbling to walking, from generalized ankle pain to specific locations with significantly diminished intensity, from generalized swelling of her ankles and feet to only swelling around the ankles themselves, and from severe bruising to no sign of bruising.

The body’s capacity to heal itself never ceases to amaze me! I have to agree with Alexander Karasev (the engineer in the Russian space program who co-lead the development of the SCENAR) that everyone should have a SCENAR in their home first aid kit.

If you sustain an injury and would like to try SCENAR, please call us (828-337-6854) as soon after the injuring event as possible (time is of the essence). We can likely shorten your healing time dramatically.

Things You Can Do For Foot Pain

I have run into another flurry of a certain type of painful situation and it is foot pain. I have written about foot pain previously, but wanted to provide readily available information about things that anyone can do to prevent and relieve foot pain.

Stretching is the single most important thing you can do for foot pain. Tight hamstrings can communicate issues all the way from the sitzbones to the Achilles Tendons. Keeping them stretched and flexible is an important way to maintain the health of the foot. Two easy stretches we have found helpful are:

The Runner’s Stretch – Place your hands about two feet away from each other on a wall while standing about two feet away and leaning into the wall. Step forward with one foot, while leaving the other with the heel on the ground behind you. You are looking for a gentle sensation of stretch, not discomfort in that leg. Krista Kelley at Mission Rehab Services told us that a stretch any shorter than 45 seconds is not worth doing, so count slowly to 45 and then switch the positions of the feet and stretch the other leg. Doing this in the morning and evening will help the hamstrings to not get so tight. Muscles get tight from normal use so slowly that we may fail to recognize the sensation. Doing this exercise will help you become more familiar with the feeling of muscle tension so that you can monitor the status of your hamstrings more accurately and stretch them more effectively, thus preventing issues from arising.

The Hamstring Stretch – While laying in the bed, before arising, use a towel or strap and loop it under the ball of the foot. Holding an end of the towel in each hand, gently raise the leg while using the towel to keep the foot at a 90 degree ankle to the leg. Raise the leg until you feel a gentle stretch, not pain. Hold for 45 seconds, bring the leg gently down to the bed, and do the stretch on the other leg. Over time you will be able to raise the leg higher and higher as the hamstring is re-educated to be relaxed rather than tight. This will prevent the discomfort and possible micro damage to the tendons that can occur when getting out of bed when hamstrings have tightened up during sleep.

Things you can do to improve the health of your feet:

Massage - In the evening, while relaxing, deeply rub and massage your feet in a conscious way from the tips of the toes to the backs of the heels. Let it be your intention to touch every single inch of skin on the bottom of your foot. When you find areas that are tender, press into them and hold. In just a few minutes the tenderness will dissipate and the area will relax. This can also be a good way to improve your overall health through Reflexology.

Strengthen the Muscles of the Foot - The muscles in the feet need exercise and strengthening, just like any other muscle in the body. However, shoes are not conducive to exercising foot muscles. Take off your shoes and socks and while sitting in a comfortable position, imagine (or use real ones if you’d like) that you are picking up marbles with your toes. This strengthens the muscles in the arch which tend to flatten as our foot muscles weaken with age and wearing shoes.

Strengthen the Muscles of the Ankle and Top of Foot – How many of us have sat on the beach and almost unconsciously (because it feels so good), moved our feet back and forth from side to side in the sand, digging a little trough. This motion strengthens the muscles in the ankles and top of the foot to provide better stability for walking. You don’t need sand to do this. Sit in a comfortable position and imagine doing this little activity as if you were at the beach, moving your feet against the floor back and forth from side to side. If you vividly imagine you are at the beach digging the comforting little trenches with your feet, your body will not know that you are not, and other benefits such as shoulder and neck relaxation can be experienced as well.

Our feet are probably the most ignored area of the body. They carry our weight and do whatever we ask for most of our lives without complaint. As we age, our inattention to caring for our feet can take its toll. Notice your feet. Appreciate how hard they work for you. Do kinds things for them like massage or hot soaks. Become friends with your feet. They will love you for it!

What a SCENAR Session is Like

The first session is where many important things happen. First, I have you fill out some paper work so I know what is going on and start to formulate an idea of where to begin. Once we have talked about what issues you bring to the table, I can create an initial treatment plan. I discuss the plan I think will work with you and show you the SCENAR and how it works.

Let’s suppose you have pain in your neck and shoulders (many, many people do). I place the device on an area proximal to where we will work and bring up the sensation level until you feel a buzzing or tingling. The SCENAR will work regardless of whether or not you feel it, but feeling it helps you track not only where I am working, but also other places in your body where the sensation may travel. This tells me other areas to work that may have a healing impact.

Then I begin to stroke your neck and shoulders with the instrument. I am looking for places where the skin turns red and/or the device “drags” over an area. These are called “sticky” places and they indicate  what are called “asymmetries,” which is the way your body tells me where to work. There is a difference in the skin impedance between an area that is unhealthy and an area that is healthy, and the SCENAR picks that up.

When I determine where the asymmetries are, I focus on them and narrow down, through stroking, to what is called the “smallest asymmetry” in an area. Once found, I hold the device there until it gives me a signal that the healing chemicals (neuropeptides) have arrived at the spot. When they do, they immediately begin the process of healing, and the skin impedance changes. The device is looking for this and when it happens, there is a series of bells that tell us that the first “dose” of neuropeptides has arrived at the spot. The body’s healing attention is refocused on the area.

From there I look for other areas and treat them in the same way. There are typically several areas involved in neck and shoulder pain in the neck, upper back, shoulder, clavicle area in the front of the neck, and the muscles involved there.  I continue to treat any area that shows distress (asymmetries).

Usually, when I have treated all that I have found, you will feel substantial release from pain, more freedom of movement, and a sense of well being overall. Often this is most noticeable the next morning after the treatment.

Generally, after a SCENAR treatment, you will leave with a sense of relief from pain and an over all sense of well being in your body. The parasympathetic system is activated, so you will likely also feel a sense of relaxation.

It is important to drink water after a session because as the body heals it releases toxins from the tissues and you will want to wash them out of your system as efficiently as possible.

Chronic conditions may require 5 to 10 treatments.  Acute situations require fewer sessions which must done more frequently.

SCENAR is effective with any kind of injury, post surgery, and chronic conditions. If you have pain, call us at 828-337-6854. Mention this post for a 20% discount on the first session.