Meet Olena Fosforova, Massage and Bodywork Therapist

Olena Fosforova is a licensed massage and bodywork therapist based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the owner of Olea Inc, where therapists use muscle testing within massage therapy, which is effective in treating various musculoskeletal problems like back pain, carpal tunnel, and headaches. She has a special interest in providing NeuroKinetic Therapy.

1. What drew you to the field of massage therapy?

I was fortunate to be introduced to massage therapy very early in my life. My grandmother, who was both a nurse and a massage therapist (holistic medicine works hand in hand with modern medicine in Eastern Europe), spoiled me with massages even before I could walk. Later in life, I saw how my grandmother's touch carried a great healing power for other people in need.

These experiences instilled in me both the belief that massage is one of life's greatest pleasures, and a desire to help others. I knew I wanted to receive a professional massage therapy education.

2. Are there some common sources of pain experienced by people who seek out massage therapy?

Lower back pain and neck pain are the main ones we see, often in people who are desk workers. But it varies a lot. People who are active have knee and hip problems. People who work in the service industry have a lot of shoulder and wrist issues. That's what makes my job interesting: solving different pain-related difficulties every day.

3. What is NeuroKinetic Therapy?

It is a corrective movement system which addresses the cause of pain: dysfunctional movement patterns stored in the brain. Simply put, this system is based on relationships within your body. Muscle testing is performed to find which functions of the muscular system have been compromised and to help us treat the compensating areas.

4. What benefits have you been seeing in your clients who have experienced NeuroKinetic Therapy?

A lot of times, palpating and the symptoms that clients complain about will give you a wrong picture of where to massage. NeuroKinetic therapy will bring you right to the root of the pain and the number of treatments is significantly minimized. For example, people who had X-rays, MRIs, and doctors' evaluations that didn't help them have come to me to with hope, and we are able to significally relieve pain after one session. People just don't realize that most of the pain they experience outside of the gut area is caused by muscular imbalances.

5. For people who haven't tried massage therapy before and aren't sure if it's right for them, what's your advice?

I always feel sorry for people who spend a lot of the hard-earned money on tests and therapies that don't help. I always recommend that clients see a massage therapist first, to rule out muscular issues. Conditions that a knowledgeable massage therapist can actually help with include but are not limited to: headaches/migraines, neck and back pain, shooting pain down the arm/down the leg, sciatica, tennis elbow/golfer's elbow, tendonitis, pain from bulging disk, carpal tunnel, plantar fasciitis, IT-Band issues, TMJD, spasming/cramping, arthritis pain, breathing problems, range of motion increase, frozen shoulder, and and and! It will be cheaper and less invasive to see a massage therapist for one thing, and if it helps, you saved yourself a lot of pain, time, and money.

Thanks, Olena!

Introducing The ZAP Center Project

The ZAP Center Project is a technology based protocol developed to address the outbreak of significant diseases. The project has just launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund ZAP Centers in Africa (starting in Uganda) where people could receive a series of treatments through what is currently considered to be an "alternative health method." The hope is that through successful treatments documented in medical records in Africa, the use of the method will spread.

The founder and director of the project is Bryan Williams. He has worked in a laboratory setting for over 20 years, and he also has experience working with some of the poorest communities in Africa. He has witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of illnesses like Ebola, Malaria, and West Nile Virus. He hopes to help individuals afflicted by these illnesses by bringing this alternative method of addressing their health care treatment.

The methods of the ZAP Center Project are explained in more detail--and with links to several studies--on the Indiegogo page. In short, the project involves the process of blood electrification/purification as well as the use of colloidal silver, high-intensity pulsed magnetic fields, and ozonated water.

Bryan has spent a lot of time researching this project and is very passionate about it. Check out the Indiegogo site to read more about his ideas about the new ways of responding to devastating diseases.

After checking out the site--if you feel it's a worthwhile cause--please be sure to click on the Facebook and Twitter links, and leave some positive feedback concerning this Project. Here's the link: http://golaunchmachine.com/zap/ .

Meet Tracy Abildskov, Owner of TJ's Biomedical Imaging

Tracy Abildskov is the owner of TJ's Biomedical Imaging. He started as a student and began working around 1991 in the Brain Imaging and Behavior Lab at Brigham Young University. After several years, he developed some skills at illustrating different types of brain damage. In 1997, he started a small business developing interactive 3D presentations to help experts explain to juries the location and extent of brain damage. The visuals are objective, based on many years of science and research. To create the presentations, he uses a variety of imaging modalities like MRI, CT, SPECT & DTI. Radiologist reports and neuropsychologists' reports along with imaging techniques are used to identify the abnormalities seen by the radiologist. Models are then created, rendered, and incorporated into trial exhibits, medical illustrations, interactive 3D presentations, and physical models.

Learn more about the services provided by TJ's Biomedical Imaging and find out how 3D biomedical imaging works by exploring the samples linked here.

1. How do your 3D presentations allow viewers to better understand the way brain damage affects the brain?

After someone get injured in an accident, bones heal, hair grows back, and scars become less apparent. The problem is the brain does not come back as well as it was before the accident. Reserves are used, if not depleted. Abilities, like memory, planning, judgment, problem solving, vision, learning, and language spoken or understood, to name a few, are compromised or lost. Yet on the surface, a person might look fine. What I do is take whatever scans are available to me (MRI, CT, PET, SPECT, DTI or FMRI) and working in conjunction with neuro-psychologists or neuro-radiologists develop accurate, objective, personalized, 3D representations of that person's brain. These graphics then make things easier for the average person to understand what is going on when the expert starts explaining things.

2. Why are 3D exhibits a good way to demonstrate the extent of damage to laypeople such as jurors?

Instead of a generic model that is adapted to everyone, you can see John Smith's brain. You can see where the damage is. It can sometimes be hard for someone who has not been looking at scans for a few years to be able to recognize where the abnormalities are.

In the link below, you can see a simple video showing several co-registered scans. When paused you can see how each slice looks different while still looking at the same part of the brain. These differences are due to changes in the MRI parameters. Each sequence (T1, T2, FLAIR, PD, GRE) tell the neuro-radiologist something unique about the brain.

http://youtu.be/sz0qd5q6FDU

My job, as I see it, is to take all those complicated images, of which there might be thousands, and distill things down to the most relevant pieces of information that the experts can then use the educate judge or jury.

3. When creating exhibits meant for juries, are you generally collaborating with attorneys or doctors or both?

Each specialty (law, psychology, radiology, and rehab) brings a unique perspective when looking at the injured person. I then work with everyone to create demonstrative exhibits that can be used for the benefit for the injured person.

4. What are some other uses of your 3D presentations in addition to courtroom exhibits?

Everyone today is being asked to go faster and faster. Radiologists are asked to look at thousands of images and generate a report in 15 minutes or less. I am trying to expand my service into the medical profession to provide a quick overview on what the radiologist needs to focus on so they can be more accurate in their diagnostic impression. I also want to make things quicker and easier for the rehab specialist as well so they don't waste time on therapies that will be of no value to the injured person. There are so many different areas where this could help, but for right now it mostly used in a courtroom setting.

5. What would you most like our readers to understand about your work?

That there is more to a person than what they see on the surface. If you understand what is going on in the brain, you can better understand why the injured person is having problems.

Thanks, Tracy!