A Modest Proposal to Rub Out Doctors

photo by Lush.i.ous
I submitted a proposal called "Rub Out Doctors with Your Bare Hands" to ChangeThis.com.

It’s not that I have anything against doctors. I just think if you can maintain your own health without their help you’re better off. The economy is better off, everyone is better off. Even doctors are better off because with spare time on their hands they can improve their golf game, brush up on their bedside manners, and get their own health back on track.

I believe that most illness and injuries can be prevented if you catch them when they’re small with a few simple techniques like massage that are easy to learn and simple to do. I believe it because it works so well for me. And there is some research that supports this thesis.

The folks at ChangeThis.com are holding a contest to see which of 20 proposals gets the most votes. The one that does gets to write a manifesto to illuminate their proposal. If you want to take a look at my proposal it’s copied below. If you’d like to see it turned into a 40 or 50 page article click here and then click on the button: Yes, write this manifesto. You can also check out the other proposals and vote for them. I hope you do.

Rub Out Doctors with Your Bare Hands
Relying on doctors to fix you up after the fact is risky, painful, and stupid. You can prevent most illness and overuse injury by going to a massage therapist twice a week or taking matters into your own hands.

When received two or more times a week, massage revs up your immune system and keeps it firing to reduce your need for scary medical treatments. The future of healthcare belongs to those who seize it.

Massage therapy made the time-tested practice of massage cool again by applying the science of modern medicine. With a few tweaks, you can apply the benefits of massage therapy to yourself. If you’re in touch with your own body, you’re less likely to strain, tear, or break it.

By making massage immediately accessible, self-massage dramatically amplifies the power of massage therapy. At your fingertips, massage is the most powerful preventive medicine available.

Self-massage! It’s not just for one small part of your body anymore.

Surgery and Running Injuries

photo by sean drellinger

I recently got an email from a running buddy I hadn’t seen or heard from in awhile. When I asked how her running was going, she told me “your mouth will drop when you read this but I just had knee surgery, for the sixth time in two years.”

The original diagnosis was a meniscal tear. She may run again, she may not, no one knows.

About five years ago, I had a swollen knee that I believed was due to a bad bike fit. The MD at the HMO who examined my knee hadn’t been practicing long. She referred me to a surgeon. The surgeon examined my knee, diagnosed a meniscal tear, and recommend surgery. I told him I wanted an MRI and a second opinion.

The MRI showed a possible but not definite meniscal tear. The second surgeon also recommended surgery to fix the meniscus. When I pointed out that none of his tests revealed symptoms of a meniscal tear, he said there were indications of meniscal tear. And “besides, he said, “the knee is swollen and once I scope that knee I’ll find something. Out of every 500 knees, maybe one doesn’t need some work.”

I deferred on the surgery and saw a physical therapist who recommended stretching and strengthening exercises which I did. My knee healed. When the problem recurred a couple of years later I discovered a yoga pose that fixed the problem once and for all.

I’m not sure what the moral of this story is or even if there is one. Maybe:

Doctors make mistakes.

or

In the end everyone is there own doctor.

or

Western medicine may result in an expensive way to resolve a simple problem.

Self-Massage is Obvious--But?

photo by doctormike

One of the big challenges I faced writing Self-Massage for Athletes is that a lot of stuff in the book seems fairly obvious. It’s obvious that massage is good for you. That by massaging sore muscles, improving circulation, and releasing trigger points, massage relieves muscle pain, speeds recovery, and prevents injuries. 

It’s obvious that self-massage is easy to learn and that you can apply many of the ideas from modern massage therapy to self-massage and produce an effective therapy at little cost. And because you can enjoy the benefits of massage every day you can probably produce a more powerful affect than seeing a professional massage therapist once a month or even once a week.  It’s clear that with every massage stroke you apply you get instant feedback: which muscles need work and which don’t, how deep to go, and how long to stay.  

It’s also obvious that athletes can learn a lot about their bodies from using self-massage. It’s obvious that by learning and practicing self-massage an athlete will be healthier, fitter, and faster than if he did not. Sure it’s obvious.

But precisely because it’s so obvious, it needs to be written about. Thought about.  Talked about. Because it’s so obvious, it’s easy to dismiss the benefits of self-massage and fall into the habit Americans have of ignoring their bodies until a problem explodes into injury or illness and needs professional care: MRI’s, drugs, surgeries. 

After all, if self-massage were so obvious, why don’t millions of athletes use it to complete a workout? Why don’t they use it to detect muscle weaknesses before they become injuries? Why don’t they use it instead of vitamin I to relieve muscle pain and soreness? Why do really smart people suddenly turn stupid when faced with applying simple massage strokes to their own bodies?  

Because to embrace self-massage you have to be willing to change the status quo. And many successful athletes, coaches, and doctors who are in positions of authority have climbed to the top by embracing the status quo, not by challenging it. 

It’s much easier to do nothing and hope you don’t get injured than to be proactive and try something new and elegant. To glide, press, squeeze, and drum your sore tired muscles back from pain requires effort. To get more in touch with your body and in so doing prevent injuries by catching small problems before they grow into large ones, requires effort. It’s much easier to rely on someone else to fix you when you break, to pop a pill, or employ the latest medical technology than to take matters into your own hands and minimize your chances of injury. 

Pros Do It

Yes, it would be nice to have a personal massage therapist the way high paid athletes do. We envy the superstars of professional sports who can make a call and someone comes over to work all the toxins out. But unless you’re Lance Armstrong, Kobe Bryan, Deena Kastor, Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova, or Derek Jeter that’s not happening for you.

Your Future

Today, your physical world is probably different than it was ten years ago. And it may be very different ten years hence. As we age our bodies tend to deteriorate. In America, they tend to deteriorate quickly. The people who get physically stronger with age are those who pay attention to their health, who are proactive, and willing to take a hands on approach.

So, yes, the basic ideas upon which self-massage are based are obvious. But using them, challenging the status quo, putting them to work—that’s not obvious in any way.