Preventive health care—receiving massage therapy

Preventive health care—receiving massage therapy, exercise and eating well, among other actions—has been shown to stave off illness and disease. Americans might want to turn toward prevention when it comes to their health, as rising health-care costs are shown to put U.S. workers at a disadvantage compared with other countries' citizen, according to a new report. Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers whose companies provide health care for more than 35 million Americans, released the first annual Business Roundtable Health Care Value Comparability Study, in mid-March. The study shows that the costs and performance of the U.S. health care system have put America's companies and workers at a significant competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace, according to a roundtable press release. “Health care costs are one of the top cost pressures facing American businesses today, inhibiting job creation and hurting America's ability to compete in global markets,hpprklrio” said Harold McGraw III, chairman of Business Roundtable and chairman, president and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies. “This study helps us understand the relationship between spending, quality and competitiveness, while enabling us to track progress as we push forward with health care reform," he said. The report combines internationally reported measures covering both spending on, and the performance of, national health care systems to assign a value to the U.S. health care system compared with important global competitors. On a weighted scale, the results show that U.S. workers and employers receive 23 percent less value from our health care system than the average of five leading economic competitors—Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France—and 46 percent less value than the average of emerging competitors Brazil, India and China. The Green Spa Network will host a one-day conference on how to make your spa successful and sustainable. Participants will see how green initiatives conserve resources, raise staff morale, generate untapped marketing opportunities, and position spas to enhance their role as responsible guardians of human and planetary wellbeing. Stress-relief is one of the most well-known benefits of massage therapy; in fact, it's the number-one reason clients seek massage. New research shows that stress pays a key role in aging. The pilot study shows that women who maintain a healthy weight and who have lower perceived stress may be less likely to have chromosome changes associated with aging than obese and stressed women. The pilot study is part of the larger Sister Study, which is looking at the environmental and genetic characteristics of women whose sister had breast cancer to identify factors associated with developing breast cancer. Telomere length is one of the many measures being looked at in the Sister Study. Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes and buffer them against the loss of important genes during cell replication. Over the course of an individual's lifetime, telomeres shorten, gradually becoming so short that they can trigger cell death. Factors such as obesity and perceived stress may shorten telomeres and accelerate the aging process. The researchers also found that the effects of stress may be stronger in older women. They found that among women 55 years and older, those with higher perceived stress had 5 percent shorter telomeres than women with low stress levels. "Together these two studies reinforce the need to start a healthy lifestyle early and maintain it," said Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. "[T] here are things people can do to modify their behavior and live healthier lives, such as maintain a healthy weight and cultivate healthy responses to stress," said Birnbaum. In a national study conducted by Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals in 2008, 58 percent of consumers reported that they sought massage for "relaxation, restoration or stress relief."