Welcome! - PaulaBergs.com

Welcome, I am Paula Bergs and I am a massage therapist and educator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I specialize in Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT). I work with individuals in my home office where I have a room set up for massage therapy. I teach anatomy classes and use clay and model skeletons. I also teach NMT nationwide as well as internationally (Ireland & Japan). I teach for the NMT Center based in St Petersburg Florida.

Please feel free to browse my website where you can find information on what NMT is and more about the classes I teach. Also, make sure to check out the “Links” page where I put website links of good resources for your benefit. I have expanded the links page and plan to update more regularly than I have been. If you are interested in NMT training then go to the NMT Center website.

What's new ???

1. A cookbook that everyone should read.

I have been reading and re learning how to prepare food so that it is actually nutritious. Dr Price research of cultures around the world has led to understanding that much of what is taught in our modern day culture should be greatly challenged. Sally Fallon has studied Dr Price's work extensively and has written a cookbook that shows step by step traditional ways of preparing foods that make them very nutritious. It definitely challenges the politically correct understanding of good nutrition. Her cookbook is Nourishing Traditions and in my opinion should be read and followed by everyone who wants to be healthy. Go to this website http://www.pamkilleen.com/Sally_Fallon.htm for an interview with Sally Fallon. This gives a you a great overview of the cookbook and its approach.

When I first received the book, a Christmas present from a client, (thanks Anne), I was overwhelmed because this challenges so much of what I was led to believe. When I read the recipes they required ingredients that needed to be prepared over a 24 -72 hour period. Getting food properly prepared requires thinking ahead to prep the correct ingredients for the recipes. But I decided that I would take one thing at a time and learn as I best as I can and hopefully after a year I will be a new type of cook. And my family's health will be better off .

What I have done so far:

I have been culturing cream. I obtained a starter culture and put it in cream and let it set out for 24 hours. It converts it so that my system seems to be able to handle it even if I have some lactose intolerance. I just save a little bit to start the next batch - like friendship bread.

I have now soaked flour overnight with a little lemon juice before making pancakes. This preparation prepares the flour to release nutrition that normally would not be released if you just mix it up and bake it. pancakes were very good tasting.

This weekend I made 3 fermented vegetables and now am preparing to make some fish and beef stock. I made Japanese sauerkraut, ginger carrots and pickled ginger to go with some of the Japanese dishes that I like to make.

To make stock, if you put vinegar in the stock it will extract all sorts of minerals from the bones. To do this you need to simmer it for much longer then I have done in the past. The biggest challenge is to find the bones. I got them at a oriental grocery store that has a meat department.

My hope is that when I am incorporating many of these foods, I will need very little supplementation and get much nutrition from food that has been prepared correctly. I think this process will be totally worth it. That was my New Years resolution this year and am well on my way.

2. I will no longer teach my Clay Anatomy Classes. After 12-13 years I am ready to move on to other things.

3. I just finished studying Functional Neurology for Massage Therapist and will continue self study and incorporating this new assessment into my practice. A new series will start in September 2010 in Hudson Wisconsin. I will co teach with Barb Jacobson the first 6 classes and Dr Michael Pierce will teach the final 5 classes. Click on the neurology training link for dates and place.

4. I am not a big fan of many of products due to much hype but this one got my attention a year ago and I was impressed that an herbal product actually has peer reviewed clinical research behind it. It continues to be studied by universities around the country for its impact on heart disease, liver problems, diabetes and many other degenerative diseases. I personally have benefited from it as well as family members and clients. The research suggests that most people will benefit in the long term with this product.

PEER REVIEWED STUDIES OF THE BENEFITS OF PROTANDIM

1. PROTANDIM^® OFFERS YOU A BETTER WAY TO FIGHT THE FREE RADICALS THAT CAUSE AGING
The unique blend of phytonutrients in Protandim^® signals your cells to produce powerful antioxidant enzymes, SOD (superoxide dismutase) and CAT (catalase), which work synergistically to neutralize more free radicals than any "consumable" antioxidants.* These special enzymes are "catalytic," which means they are not used up when they fight free radicals. A single daily caplet of Protandim produces enough catalytic antioxidants to destroy millions of free radicals per second, on a continuous basis - 24/7.*

2. PROTANDIM INCREASES GLUTATHIONE ANTI-AGING FACTORS BY 300%
The results of a new peer-reviewed study (Free Radical Biology & Medicine) clearly demonstrate that Protandim produces a 300 percent increase in glutathione, which is a key antioxidant and anti-aging factor. In addition, the study shows that Protandim's synergistic formulation provides thousands of times more antioxidant power than any food or conventional supplements.*

Glutathione is the master antioxidant that our body produces. It tends to decrease in production as we age and is a significant contributor chronic and degenerative conditions as we age when we produce low levels.

3. PROTANDIM PREVENTS SKIN TUMOR FORMATION VIA THE INDUCTION OF SEVERAL PRIMARY ANTIOXIDANT ENZYMES. Peer Reviewed Study from Louisiana State University, “ Protandim®, a Fundamentally New Antioxidant Approach in Chemoprevention Using Mouse Two-Stage Skin Carcinogenesis as a Model,” published in PLoS ONE Journal/.

In the two DMBA+TPA treatment groups, 100% of the mice from the basal diet group developed tumors, and the average number of tumors per mouse in this group was 6.3. Only 66.7% of the mice from the Protandim diet group developed tumors, and the average number of tumors per mouse was 2.7. These results revealed that the Protandim diet reduced tumor incidence by 33% and multiplicity by 57% (p = 0.003). In summary, tumor promoter TPA incites cutaneous proliferation and inflammation mediated at least in part, by oxidative stress. Protandim prevents skin tumor formation via the induction of several primary antioxidant enzymes. As the induction of antioxidant enzymes is a much more potent approach than supplementation with conventional stoichiometric antioxidants, Protandim may be suitable for translational research and may serve as a therapeutic approach for cancer prevention.

4. AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION JOURNAL, CIRCULATION, PUBLISHES NEW

PEER-REVIEWED STUDY INVOLVING PROTANDIM®

Study Concludes that Protandim Preserved Heart Function and Demonstrated Strong

Cardioprotective Effects in an Animal Model of Lung Disease

Osteopontin levels reduced by more than 50%; heart output preserved and cardiac fibrosis prevented in animals. Pulmonary hypertension is a health condition characterized by high blood pressure in the circulation between the heart and lungs and can result in death due to right heart failure. In this study, pulmonary hypertension was induced in the animals through a drug and by creating an oxygen-poor environment (hypoxia). Animals pre-treated with Protandim experienced strong cardioprotective effects. Protandim was shown to protect the heart by increasing the expression of protective genes and by preventing the formation of scar tissue, or fibrosis, in the heart. The study showed that

· Protandim also prevented capillary loss in the heart muscle of the animals, preserving right heart function despite the continuing stress of pressure overload.

· Protandim also prevented the death of heart cells and significantly lowered osteopontin (OPN-1) levels by more than 50%. Osteopontin is a factor that leads to scar tissue formation, a cause of heart failure.

· The researchers in this study described the ability of Protandim to effectively activate the transcription factor Nrf2, a signal to the cell’s DNA to increase expression of a network of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrotic genes.

5. Next study should be published soon.