Westwind Reopening After COVID-19

Dear Westwind Clients,

We hope this finds you and your families safe and healthy! We have all been through an unfathomable global and local life-altering period, and we are hoping you will be able to return to Westwind Massage Therapy to help with many of the physical, emotional and mental health issues that you may have, or be, experiencing. Many of you have reached out during this time and we have loved to hear from you! It has been hard to turn you away and we have done our best to help via text or email with possible alternative solutions to your concerns.

While many things have changed, one thing remains the same, our commitment to your health and safety. Infection control has always been a part of our professional practice. Hand washing has always been a mandatory part of our practice to prevent the transfer of bacteria and viruses. To add to this, we will be wearing masks to further protect our clients. Please note: It is mandatory for the safety of everyone to wear a mask to your appointment and throughout the treatment. The clinic will be sanitized between clients and the public spaces will be cleaned multiple times throughout the day. Our clinic follows infection control protocols that are set out by the College of Massage Therapy of Ontario, as mandated by the Ministry of Health.

Some new changes you will see will include:

•We ask that you wash your hands upon entering and leaving the building or use hand sanitizer provided.

•Longer breaks between appointments will also be implemented to promote social distancing.

•We will no longer provide water (so please bring your own if you need some).

•There will not be any magazines and we will no longer hand out free Epsom salts.

•If paying by e-transfer we ask that you do so before your appointment, as they sometimes take a while to process. Alternately we will accept payment via credit card or debit through our tap machine. Cash is accepted at time of appointment, please have exact change.

•All invoices and receipts will be emailed as previously done and will be sent to you by 9pm on the day of your appointment, if payment has been received.

•Please download the COVID-19 prescreening document read, sign and bring to your massage appointment.

•Please arrive for your appointment alone unless you are accompanying a dependant, and enter the building no sooner than 5 minutes before your massage.

•We ask you to not schedule an appointment if you are feeling unwell and if you should become sick before the date of your scheduled appointment that you please cancel the appointment, for the safety of the community and the therapist.

We thank you for your continued support to Westwind Massage Therapy as a local and family owned business. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate through these new and different times of social responsibility.

We can’t wait to see you all very soon, welcoming you back to our practice. We have missed you and our practice of caring for you!

Sincerely,

Deborah Lusher-Yandt, BSc.N, RMT
James Johnson, RMT
Jade Williams, RMT

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Gift Certificates

Give the gift of a massage gift certificate for self-care to someone special this holiday season! Massage is great for stress reduction, pain relief or muscle relaxation!

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Atmospheric Pressure Headaches

The other day I felt a headache come on, due to a change in the weather.

I am not new to these types of headaches, that sit at the back of the head and radiate into the neck, but I started to really think about the way it made me feel and related it to a similar headache; one you get from weaning off of coffee.

So, I began to think well, maybe if I had a coffee (which I don’t drink on a regular basis) this would get rid of the headache, and it did! Then I started to think, as medically minded people do well, then I know that caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, so maybe the low weather pressure system causes too much vasodilation.

I looked into it and found that I was correct in my assumption! A low-pressure system can induce what is referred to as a Spontaneous Induced Hypotension (SIH) headache.

When I was furthering my investigation I actually came across an article that said that coffee / caffeine may help some people with these types of atmospheric low-pressure headaches!

So, the next time this happens, I will be reaching for a cup of java instead of ibuprofen as it never seems to really help!

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Hypertension Month

May is hypertension awareness month, which simply means high blood pressure. High blood pressure can be caused by many things and should be managed by your doctor.

However, there are many things you can do to help reduce your blood pressure like; reducing the salt in your diet, getting exercise and the right amount of sleep.

Along with these recommendations you should also consider getting regular massage for stress reduction. Both physical and mental stress can drive your blood pressure up. Always let your massage therapist know prior to your treatment if you have high blood pressure, as there may be certain precautions or accommodations that they will need to make to your treatment.

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Keeping Active!

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