Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/81195
SOMATIC RESEARCH You will never again be the last one to hear about massage in the headlines. Press. While the printed volumes are costly (each about $40–$80), the summaries can be downloaded as an electronic document for free. Most recently, the alert regarding Promoting Health Literacy to Encourage Prevention and Wellness: Workshop Summary was delivered to my inbox. IOM's Pain in America workshop report is another one I downloaded and reference often. This alert may not offer items that catch your interest very often, but when it does pertain to your massage practice, the information is comprehensive, thought provoking and timely. Go to www.iom.edu to sign up for alerts on the meetings and reports. MedScape and WebMD Many of the daily or weekly summaries require a willingness to slog through lists of news articles that may not pertain to massage just to find a few gems. Opt in to receive weekly news alerts from MedScape and WebMD, and sign up at Sciencedaily.com for daily news on health and medicine. The good news is you can customize the alerts from a long list of conditions and topics and reduce the immaterial articles. Medscape, a division of WebMD, has daily health news, a Week in Review, and Best Evidence weekly, presenting original research articles and research summaries on a list of topics from allergy and critical care to rheumatology and urology. There were no articles on massage therapy in the most recent enewsletter, but there were several articles of peripheral interest: an excellent video on diabetes and the role of health-care providers in treating the chronic condition, not just the acute problem, and a demographic study on opiates and overdose (up 408 percent since 1993 in Caucasians, no increase in other ethnic groups). From the Medscape home page, www.medscape.com, sign up by clicking on the "New Users: Free Registration" link. In addition to receiving newsletters, registration allows access to MedLine searches. Use massage as a search term and read hundreds of archived summaries and research articles on massage therapy. For health newsletters designed for the public, go to the WebMD home page, www.webmd.com, click on the "Home and News" link across the top and scroll down to "WebMD Newsletters" to register. I recommend signing up for the monthly digital magazine and "Complementary & Alternative Health" under the special newsletters, and selecting a couple from the condition specific list, such as arthritis and chronic pain/back pain. There is even a "DailyBite" nutritional newsletter that delivers a recipe every day complete with the nutritional breakdown per serving. These newsletters are great for sharing with your clients. ScienceDaily The Health and Medicine section at Sciencedaily.com offers email alerts for their news and research summaries. Once you find a summary article of interest, you can easily search the archives for articles on similar topics. Look for the email tab under the Health & Medicine News to register. Again, it may be weeks before you get an article on massage, but when you do, it is worth the wait. These are the stories everyone will be talking about, stories published in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio. You will never again be the last one to hear about massage in the headlines. RESEARCH ARTICLES When the urge strikes you to go beyond the news and read the complete research article, there are several sources to consider. First, look for sources that will provide you with the full-text article for free. Otherwise, when opting in to subscription-based journal alerts, a few more steps are required to access the full-text article. Copy the citation and use it to search Google Scholar. If that doesn't produce the article, and the research was conducted at, or the investigators are affiliated with, a university, search the university's repository. If you have access to a university library and the school has a subscription to the journal, you will be Celebrate ABMP's 25th anniversary and you may win a refund on your membership. ABMP.com. 53