Dance for Health!

Efficacy of Biodanza for Treating Women with Fibromyalgia

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of a 3-month Biodanza intervention in women with fibromyalgia (FM).

Design: This was a controlled trial.

Setting/location: The study was conducted at a university research laboratory and social center.
Subjects: The study comprised 59 women with FM recruited from a local association of patients with FM. Participants were allocated to the Biodanza intervention group (n ¼ 27) or usual-care group (n ¼ 32).

Intervention: The Biodanza intervention was carried out once a week for 3 months.

Outcome measures: The outcome measures included the following: Pain threshold, body composition (body–mass index and estimated body fat percentage), physical fitness (30-second chair stand, handgrip strength, chair sit and reach, back scratch, blind flamingo, 8 feet up and go, and 6-minute walk test) and psychologic outcomes (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire [FIQ], Short-Form Health Survey 36, Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale).

Results: We observed a significant interaction effect (group*time) for pain threshold of several tender points (left [L] and right [R] side of the anterior cervical and supraspinatus, trapezius L and lateral epicondyle R, algometer score, tender points count), body fat percentage, and FIQ total score. In the intervention group, post hoc analysis revealed a significant improvement in pain threshold of the anterior cervical R and L and supraspinatus R and L tender points (all p < 0.05), algometer score ( p ¼ 0.008), tender point count ( p ¼ 0.002), body fat percentage
( p ¼ 0.001), and FIQ total score ( p ¼ 0.003).

Conclusions: A 3-month (one session per week) Biodanza intervention shows improvements on pain, body composition, and FM impact in female patients.

Dancing Botanical ~ Burdock

Roots are generally a good food for us to incorporate if we are needing more grounding energy. Burdock (Arctium spp.) will assist the body in opening, moving energy, balancing and finding a deep grounded flow.

Burdock is a wild edible (gobo) as well as herbal medicine. Try the roots roasted with other root vegetables or water-sauteed with carrots.

Medicinally, the roots assist the Liver, Kidneys, Lymph and improve intestinal health. Burdock root contains inulin, a source of fructo-oligosaccharides, (the preferred food for beneficial bacteria) and therefore feeds healthy flora in the colon. Maintaining a proper balance of these guys improves immunity, nutrient absorption and vitamin synthesis.

Move slowly with Burdock. It is deep and powerful medicine.

September Ecstatic Dances

We practice being grounded in a lighter way of being. Too little density and we become ungrounded and spacy. With greater density and increased potential energy we can become stuck and attached. Dancing between the two we find that place of being grounded and free in the presence of change.

Conscious Dance, Mondays in Hilo
Warm-up starts at 7:10pm

Live Drumming on the 26th!

Saturdays, September 3rd & October 1st, 10 am - 2 pm

Dancing Deeper Ongoing Group in Hilo
(next group is January - May, 2012)

In Perpetual Spring

Gardens are also good places to sulk.
You pass beds of spiky voodoo lilies
and trip over the roots
of a sweet gum tree,
in search of medieval
plants whose leaves,
when they drop off
turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they
plop into water.

Suddenly the archetypal
human desire for peace
with every other species
wells up in you.
The lion and the lamb
cuddling up.
The snake and the snail,
kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds,
revives your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.

by Amy Gerstler

In Perpetual Spring

Gardens are also good places to sulk. You pass beds of spiky voodoo lilies and trip over the roots of a sweet gum tree, in search of medieval plants whose leaves, when they drop off turn into birds if they fall on land, and colored carp if they plop into water. Suddenly the archetypal human desire for peace with every other species wells up in you. The lion and the lamb cuddling up. The snake and the snail, kissing. Even the prick of the thistle, queen of the weeds, revives your secret belief in perpetual spring, your faith that for every hurt there is a leaf to cure it. by Amy Gerstler

Dancing Botanical

Power from the Gut

Yellow Dock

Rumex Crispus

I'm sure you've seen this one around on your adventures, growing in compact soils in both urban and rural settings. Yellow dock is one of those medicines we have an abundance of! It serves as both a bitter, stimulating the production of gastrointestinal fluids and enzymes, and an alterative, working to restore balance in many of the body systems. Yellow dock is commonly used in combination with other western herbs for blood building, reducing inflammation, chronic skin conditions, detox and cancer.