Fox Valley Massage Therapy

11/28/2025

Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope your day was blessed with good food and even greater company.

11/24/2025

11/12/2025

On this day and everyday, we honor all of the men and women who sacrificed themselves to protect our country and our freedom. Thank you for your service.

11/09/2025

For my clients, for everyone. I hope you know you are enough and we are all trying every day. ❤️

11/01/2025

Friendly reminder to set your clocks back one hour tonight! 😀

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween!!!

10/29/2025

The more you know! 😀

The way you sleep could be silently shaping your health. Studies now show that sleeping on your left side offers a wide range of benefits, from improved organ function to enhanced cognitive performance. It’s a simple adjustment that may have profound effects on your body and mind.

Sleeping on the left side facilitates lymphatic drainage, allowing the body to flush out toxins and maintain optimal immune function. It also reduces heartburn and acid reflux by preventing stomach contents from rising into the esophagus. Snoring is minimized, creating better airflow and improving sleep quality for both you and your partner.

Organ function is also enhanced. The spleen and liver work more efficiently on the left side, supporting detoxification and blo*d filtration. Blo*d circulation improves, delivering oxygen and nutrients more effectively to vital organs. The heart experiences less pressure, which may promote cardiovascular health over time. Even the brain benefits, enhanced circulation supports cognitive function, alertness, and memory consolidation during sleep.

Researchers emphasize that while other sleeping positions are acceptable, the left-side position aligns the body’s internal systems in a way that encourages detoxification, organ efficiency, and overall wellbeing. It’s a natural, non-invasive way to optimize health while you rest.

Reflecting on this, the science of sleep is clear: small adjustments can produce remarkable outcomes. Sleeping on your left side is more than comfort, it’s a strategy to support your immune system, cardiovascular health, digestion, and mental performance. By simply changing your sleep position, you may be taking a powerful step toward better long-term health.

Sleep is more than rest, it’s restoration. Align your body wisely, and you unlock benefits that ripple through every system, helping you wake up healthier, sharper, and more resilient every day.

10/23/2025

With the change to fall weather, I just started drinking this tea and I can vouch it’s making a difference. For those if us who are sleep challenged, give it a try! 😴💤🛌

Drinking chamomile tea is an incredible way to calm the nervous system and have the deepest sleep of your life due to the presence of its active compound, apigenin, which binds to GABA receptors in the brain. This binding has a sedative effective, reducing anxiety and slowing down the nervous system to encourage drowsiness. Additionally, chamomile contains melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle.

To elaborate on the mechanisms of action:

📑GABA receptor modulation: APIGENIN, a key compound in chamomile, produces sedative effects by affecting GABA receptors. GABA is a neurotransmitter that calms the nervous system.

📑Neurotransmitter pathways: Chamomile influences other neurotransmitter pathways, including those for serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline, which play roles in mood and anxiety.

📑Hypothalamaic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis: Some evidence suggests chamomile can modulate the HPA axis, a system that regulates the body’s stress response, reducing symptoms of anxiety over time.

EVIDENCE IN HUMAN STUDIES:

📑Reduced anxiety symptoms: A randomized, controlled trial found that chamomile extract was significantly more effective than a placebo in reducing overall anxiety symptom scores in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) after just 8 weeks of treatment.

📑Long-term effects: long-term use may lead to even better long-term benefits on psychological well-being and may help prolong the time to relapse of anxiety symptoms.

📑Well-tolerated: Chamomile has general been reported as well-tolerated in studies, with very few mild side effects.

PMID: 38784853, 21132119