6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About

“Sitting in a window seat during a long flight can increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis,” according to The Daily Telegraph. It has long been known that flying is associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a type of serious blood clot in a major vein, but new US guidance has looked at a range of factors that could potentially raise the risk.

Those of you thinking of booking your summer holiday might be interested to know that flying in cramped budget seats, while often annoying, presented no greater risk than flying in business class. And while pricey booze available during a flight can prove wallet-damaging, the guidelines say there was no firm evidence that drinking it could bring on DVT. However, sitting by a window during a long-haul flight was associated with a greater risk because of the limited opportunities for walking around. People’s age, previous DVT and recent operations were among the other factors found to raise DVT risk.

The evidence-based guidelines were produced by the American College of Chest Physicians to address the risk of both DVT after long-haul flights and the potentially fatal lung clots (pulmonary embolisms) that can follow. The guidelines also include recommendations about the best ways for travellers to reduce their risk of DVT.

The guidelines seem to debunk the long-held assumption that a lack of legroom causes DVT. This much-debated phenomenon is often referred to as “economy-class syndrome”.

What is “economy-class syndrome”?

It is long established that inactivity is associated with DVT, and so some people believe that the lack of legroom when flying in economy class can increase the risk of developing a blood clot. This has led to the theoretical phenomenon being dubbed “economy-class syndrome”.

Some have also suggested that dehydration is more common during economy travel and may increase the risk of DVT. However, the existence of this so-called “economy-class syndrome” is controversial and has never been proven.

What is DVT?

Deep vein thrombosis or DVT is when blood clots form in a deep vein. A clot that develops in a vein is also known as ‘venous thrombosis’. DVT most commonly affects the leg veins or deep veins in the pelvis. It can cause pain and swelling in the leg but in some cases there may be no symptoms.

DVT can lead to the potentially life-threatening condition known as a pulmonary embolism. This occurs when a clot breaks off into the bloodstream and travels to the chest, where it blocks one of the blood vessels in the lungs.

Experiencing DVT and pulmonary embolism together is known as venous thromboembolism (VTE), which is a condition that can be life-threatening. Each year more than 25,000 people in England die from VTE contracted in hospital. This is approximately 25 times the number of people who die from MRSA. VTE occurs in hospitals as a result of patients lying sedentary in bed for extended periods following an operation. In recent years the NHS and Department of Health have run a major programme of measures to help reduce the rates of VTE developed in hospitals. For example, many patients are now given a VTE risk assessment when being booked into hospital.

Who is at risk of DVT?

In the UK each year about one person in every 1,000 is affected by DVT. Anyone can develop it but there are certain known risk factors that include:

• increasing age
• pregnancy
• previous venous thromboembolism
• family history of thrombosis
• medical conditions such as cancer and heart failure
• inactivity (for example after an operation or on a long-haul flight)
• being overweight or obese

Where has the advice come from?

The advice comes from new evidence-based guidelines produced by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). The findings were published in the February issue of the medical journal CHEST.

The guidelines are extensive, running over hundreds of pages. They detail both the risk factors for DVT and measures to diagnose and prevent DVT.

What do these guidelines tell us?

The evidence review that informed the guidelines looked at a range of risk factors for the development of DVT in long-distance travellers. These included the use of oral contraceptives, sitting in a window seat, advanced age, dehydration, alcohol intake, pregnancy and sitting in an economy seat compared to business class.

The reviewers conclude that developing DVT or pulmonary embolism from a long-distance flight is generally unlikely, but that the following factors increased people’s risk:

• previous DVT or pulmonary embolism or known ‘thrombophilic disorder’
• cancer
• recent surgery or trauma
• immobility
• advanced age
• oestrogen use, including oral contraceptives
• pregnancy
• sitting in a window seat
• obesity

The finding relating to window seats was discussed further. The study authors suggest that long-distance travellers sitting in a window seat tend to have limited mobility, which is responsible for their increased risk of DVT.

However, the review did not find any definitive evidence to support the theory that dehydration, alcohol intake or sitting in an economy seat (compared with sitting in business class) increases the risk of DVT or pulmonary embolism during a long-distance flight. On this basis, they conclude that travelling in economy class does not increase the risk of developing a blood clot, even during long-distance travel. However, they believe that remaining immobile for long periods of time does.

Overall, the study authors say that “symptomatic DVT/PE [pulmonary embolism] is rare in passengers who have returned from long flights”, but that the association between air travel and DVT/PE is strongest for flights longer than 8-10 hours. Furthermore, most of the passengers who do end up developing a DVT/PE after long-distance travel have one or more risk factors.

What can be done to prevent DVT?

For travellers on flights longer than six hours who have an increased risk of DVT the new guidelines recommend:

• Frequent walking about during the flight.
• Calf muscle stretching.
• Sitting in an aisle seat if possible (as you are more likely to get up and move around during the flight).
• Wearing below-the-knee compression stockings that are ‘graduated’, meaning they apply greater pressure lower down the leg. They are designed to put pressure on the lower legs, feet and ankles to increase bloodflow, thereby making it harder for a clot to form.

The guidelines do not recommend compression stockings for long-distance travellers who are not at increased risk of DVT.

The guidelines advise against using blood-thinning aspirin or anticoagulant therapy to prevent DVT or pulmonary embolism for most people. They suggest that anti-clotting medications should be considered on an individual basis only for those at particularly high risk of DVT, as in some cases the risks may outweigh the benefits.

Links To The Headlines

DVT risk raised by sitting in the window seat. The Daily Telegraph, February 7 2012

Dangers of DVT: Why you should avoid the window seat on the plane (even in First Class). Daily Mail, February 7 2012

Links To Science

Bates SM, Jaeschke R, Stevens SM, et al. Diagnosis of DVT : Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis, 9th ed: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines. Chest 2012;141;e351S-e418S. Published online February 7 2012

Press release

American College of Chest Physicians: New DVT Guidelines: No Evidence to Support "Economy Class Syndrome": Oral Contraceptives, Sitting in a Window Seat, Advanced Age, and Pregnancy Increase DVT Risk in Long-distance Travelers. February 7 2012

How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support

Have you submitted your choices for Best in Reiki, Best Intuitive Healers, Best in Chakra Healing, Best in Massage, and other award categories? There is a short window of time left.... so hurry!

Go Here to review all the holistic healing award categories and then click through the various links to make your voice heard. I realize it takes a bit of effort to go through the nomination process, but there are good people and wonderful healers, counting on your support.

Come on readers... SURPRISE ME!

Women concerned about French-made PIP breast implants can find all the latest NHS information about the issue on this page.

Worries about the implants have emerged since news of a major investigation into them in France was widely covered in the media in December 2011.

It is thought that around 40,000 women in the UK have the implants, with about 95% of them having been provided privately for purely cosmetic reasons.

What’s the problem?

The French implants caused global concern after it was revealed they contained industrial silicone rather than medical-grade fillers and that they may be more prone to rupture and leakage.

Initially reports also linked the implants to a rare form of cancer known as ALCL. This cancer link has been now been firmly discounted by medical experts here and in Europe.

What type of implants are involved?

The implants involved are called Poly Implant Prosthèse (PIP) and were made, starting in 2001, by a French company of the same name. Implants made earlier by the firm are not thought to be affected.

In a Medical Device Alert in March 2010, the Medical and Healthcare productucts Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said: " ... most
breast implants manufactured by the company since 2001 have been filled with a silicone gel with a composition different from that approved."

It is reported that the company had started using a cheap type of silicone gel intended for making mattresses. The marketing, distribution and use of the PIP implants was suspended in March 2010.

Do the implants have to be removed early?

Most breast implants need to be removed or replaced after 10-15 years.

An expert committee was set up recently to examine the specific risks associated with PIP implants. It concluded that as yet there was not enough evidence to recommend their early removal. For more details of its findings read the expert review group's report [PDF 159Kb, opens in new window].

Links To The Headlines

No Routine Removal For PIP Breast Implants. Sky News, January 6 2012

NHS will remove implants free of charge for their patients but private clinics must pay for operations themselves, Government says. Daily Mail, January 6 2012

Government will pay for women who had breast implants on NHS to have them removed. The Daily Telegraph, January 6 2012

Clinics 'should remove implants'. BBC News, January 6 2012

“We don’t know what causes deadly hospital superbug to spread, admit scientists,” the Daily Mail has reported. “Hospitals may be adopting the wrong strategy for combating a notorious bug on the wards,” it goes on to say. This story is based on new research investigating the transmission of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a hospital-acquired infection that can be fatal.

C. difficile is thought to be spread in hospital through contact with infected patients, but new UK research has found that this may not be the case. The research found that two-thirds of new cases in hospital were not linked to any cases of patients known to be infected. Less than a quarter of the newly infected patients had the same type of C. difficile infection as a patient on their ward who was known to be infected.

This research challenges the assumption that C. difficile is spread on wards through contact with infected patients. It means that current strategies focusing on preventing person-to-person spread may not stop C. difficile transmission.

This research cannot tell us how good hospital prevention strategies are at stopping C. difficile from spreading. People visiting and being admitted to hospital should continue to follow their hospital’s hygiene advice, particularly regarding hand washing and the use of alcohol hand gels.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford, the Medical Research Council, the University of Oxford, Leeds General Infirmary and the University of Leeds. It was funded by several academic institutions including the Oxford NIHR BioMedical Research Centre and the UK CRC Modernising Medical Microbiology Consortium.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Public Library of Science: Medicine.

While the Mail accurately reported the study’s findings, it’s headline and introduction may suggest that current infection-control studies are wrong. In fact, infection control studies are useful for combating most bacterial menaces, and may still have a role in halting C. difficile. The headline may also give the impression that scientists have been withholding information and have had to admit that they were wrong. In reality, this is newly published and impressively comprehensive research.

What kind of research was this?

The researchers point out that C. difficile is a leading hospital-acquired infection that can result from antibiotic treatment. This is because antibiotics can disrupt normal healthy gut bacteria allowing C. difficile to multiply rapidly and produce toxins that cause illness. C. difficile causes gastrointestinal problems including diarrhoea, leading to severe illness and even death, especially in older patients and those who are seriously ill.

Following hospital outbreaks of C. difficile worldwide, greater effort has been put into preventing and controlling infection with the bacteria, and this is thought to have reduced incidence. Yet, to date, say the authors, there have been no robust evaluations of whether such strategies are reducing the spread of infection between individuals. The authors argue that a better understanding of person-to-person spread of C. difficile is crucial to reducing the incidence further.

This population-based study was set up to examine in detail transmission in hospital wards, to give better insight into the nature of person-to-person spread and to improve infection-control measures. In particular, it investigated the proportion of new cases of infection arising from ward-based transmission from infected patients.

What did the research involve?

From September 2007 to March 2010, all patients admitted to Oxfordshire hospitals with persistent diarrhoea, and all patients of 65 or older with any diarrhoea, had stool samples taken for C. difficile testing. The researchers tested the samples using specialised laboratory techniques (enzyme immunoassay and culture). Where C. difficile was identified, they used further tests (called multi-locus sequence typing) to identify the particular strains of C. difficile infection.

Based on the similarities and differences in the strains, the researchers used this “genetic fingerprint” of the bug to investigate how it had spread. This approach was based on the assumption that the same strain found in two people was evidence of direct contact between patients on the ward. They constructed potential “networks” of cases and potential routes of transmission for up to 26 weeks, for each strain of C. difficile they had identified. Their analysis was based on infected patients spending time on the same ward.

In order to show how far C. difficile was spread in a ward from person to person, the researchers traced ward contacts between all pairs of cases with the same strain. To reduce the possible bias caused by the same infection occurring spontaneously in a shared ward without contact, the researchers used patients whose stools had tested negative for C. difficile as controls. They analysed the data using standard statistical methods.

What were the basic results?

The researchers tested 29,299 stool samples for C.difficile from 14,858 patients.

• 1,282 (4.4%) samples tested positive for C. difficile 
• 69 different types of C. difficile were identified
• most (66%) C. difficile infections were not linked to other known cases with the same strain
• only 23% of cases sharing the same ward shared the same type of C.difficile

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers found that most new cases of C. difficile infection could not be accounted for by contact with other people with C. difficile on the same ward. They say that this means that they cannot be sure that the infection can be controlled by current strategies based on preventing person-to-person spread. Greater understanding of other routes of transmission is needed to determine what type of interventions will prevent the spread of the infection, they argue.

Conclusion

This research is important because it suggests that the previous assumption that all C.difficile is spread on wards through contact with infected patients may not be entirely correct. As the authors point out, this means that transmission may not be adequately controlled by current strategies, which focus on preventing person-to-person spread. Further study is required to look at how the infection is transmitted.

It’s worth noting that the research concentrated on established cases of Clostridium difficile and the potential transmission between infected patients. As such, it did not look at how far C. difficile may have been stopped from spreading in the wards by current hospital prevention strategies.

Infection control measures in the NHS and private hospitals remain valid because they are largely effective at preventing many forms of infection. People going into hospital should continue to follow the stated hygiene procedures, particularly hand washing.

Links To The Headlines

We don’t know what causes deadly hospital superbug to spread, admit scientists. Daily Mail, February 8 2012

Links To Science

Walker AS, Eyre DW, Wyllie DH, et al. (2012) Characterisation of Clostridium difficile Hospital Ward–Based Transmission Using Extensive Epidemiological Data and Molecular Typing. Public Library of Science Medicine 9: e1001172. Pulished online February 7 2012.

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An 83-year-old woman has been implanted with the world’s first “3D printer-created jaw”. Using cutting-edge laser manufacturing techniques, doctors and metal experts were able to build up layers of titanium to form a custom metal jawbone to exactly fit her face. The metal jawbone was then inserted into her lower jaw, replacing a large section of bone that was destroyed by a chronic infection.

The technique of 3D printing has been used to build prototype products for some time, but in recent years scientists have begun experimenting with the medical possibilities offered by the process. In this case, a specialist metalwork company called Layerwise was able to translate 3D bone scans into a custom jaw. The company had previously used the process to make bone-shaped prostheses and dental implants. To make a full jawbone, the implant team had to overcome a number of challenges, such as how to encourage muscles to attach to the implant and how to incorporate the nerves necessary for normal movement of the jaw.

While 3D printing is still an experimental medical technique, scientists are currently devising ways in which they might use it to produce whole organs, which are either “printed” by sandwiching layer after layer of living cells on top of each other or created by building scaffolds for cells to grow on.

Why did the woman need a new jaw?

The woman had a condition called osteomyelitis, a type of damaging bone infection usually caused by bacteria or, less often, by a fungal infection. It can occur when infections in nearby skin, muscle or tendons spread to a bone, or when an infection spreads from another part of the body through the blood stream. Depending on the nature of the infection and the health of the patient, osteomyelitis can cause permanent damage to bones. The condition can be treated with antibiotics to get rid of the infection and prevent further damage, but sometimes surgery will be needed to remove dead bone tissue from around the site of the infection.

If a section of bone tissue is removed, surgeons can close the space by grafting in bone taken from elsewhere in the body or by inserting specialised filler materials that promote regrowth of the surrounding bone.

In this case, the patient had a progressive, chronic form of osteomyelitis which affected nearly her whole jawbone. This meant that she experienced permanent destructive changes which could not be treated by antibiotics alone. Because of the patient’s age, reconstructive surgery using conventional methods would have been risky. Therefore, her medical team decided to attempt to use a bespoke titanium-based implant to replace nearly her entire lower jaw.

What is 3D printing?

3D printing broadly encompasses a variety of different techniques. All the techniques involve using computers to knit together layers or particles of materials to form a new 3D structure. At present, doctors, scientist and technicians use 3D print technology to build implants out of metals, plastics and ceramics and are experimenting with making 3D structures using synthetic bone materials and even living cells.

It can have several advantages over traditional manufacturing techniques, most notably the ability to create highly accurate bespoke structures such as dental implants. In the case of the new jaw implant, the process offers the option to create a structure that can perfectly fit the dimensions and contours of the patient’s face. Given the complexity involved, using an off-the-shelf implant is not practical.

To create the implant, the manufacturer Layerwise used a type of 3D printing called “selective laser melting”. During the process, heat-producing lasers are focussed on a bed of metal powder so that particles are precision-fused to form a 3D structure. This process is different from traditional metalwork, in which a shape is created by starting with a solid block and removing metal, similar to sculpting. Instead, the 3D printing process allows a shape to be built by adding tiny, intricate layers of particles, much like building a structure, layer by layer, from microscopic building blocks.

Has it been used medically before?

Doctors have previously used 3D-printed metal implants for dentistry and small bone prostheses, but this was the first time it was used to make a full jawbone. The benefit is that these custom-made prostheses can be modelled and shaped to fit the unique structure of someone’s surrounding bones. The surgeons revealed that surgery to implant the jaw took less than four hours and that the patient could speak and swallow again the day after surgery. This rapid recovery of function is encouraging.

It is likely that this technique will be investigated by other surgical groups, but the current reports relate only to the treatment of a single patient with chronic bone infection. It is not yet known whether it could be successful in wider facial reconstructive surgery, for example following trauma.

What might it be used for in the future?

While there are no guarantees that experimental lab techniques can be turned into usable treatments, medical 3D printing has been a hot topic in the news in recent years.

For example, in November 2011, BBC News reported that a team of scientists from Washington State University had used “a bone-like ceramic powder” to make a bone-like material that acts as a scaffold for new cells to grow on. However, his experimental technique had not been used in people at the time of reporting.

Scientists are also looking at whether it is possible to use 3D printing to create important structures such as heart valves and even whole organs. A variety of systems is being tested in the lab, from creating 3D scaffolds for cells to populate to layering cells themselves.

Much of this cutting-edge technology is years away at the very least, but the possibilities are great and very exciting, as highlighted during a talk by Dr Anthony Atala at last March’s TED conference.

Links To The Headlines

World's first 3D printer-created jaw fitted to 83-year-old. Daily Mail, February 7 2012

Transplant jaw made by 3D printer claimed as a first. BBC News, February 7 2012

3D printer builds new jaw bone for transplant. The Daily Telegraph, February 7 2012

How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]

“Spoon feeding makes babies fatter,” the BBC reported today. According to the broadcaster, babies weaned on pureed food tend to end up fatter than infants whose first tastes are finger foods.

This high-profile news is sure to be of interest to parents. However, the research behind the coverage is not strong enough to support such claims. The study compared information gathered on the diet and BMI of 92 child weaned on finger foods (“baby-led” weaning) and 63 children weaned using spoon-feeding. In total, 10 spoon-fed children were above a healthy weight compared to nine in the baby-led weaning group. However, the reliability of the research is undermined by a number of shortcomings, such as the small number of children studied (just 155), the fact that most children in each group had a normal weight and because the study looked at eating habits at a single point in time, rather than recording them over time.

Overall, the study does not support the various claims in the media that spoon-feeding makes babies fatter or encourages a sweet tooth, or that baby-led weaning makes children healthier. It is possible, for example, that a child’s food preferences might influence how they end up being weaned, or even that the results are due to chance. Examining the issue will require larger studies which look at children’s eating and weight over time.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Nottingham, which also funded the research. The study was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMJ Open.

The study was reported uncritically in most papers, with quotes from independent experts who reportedly supported its findings.

What kind of research was this?

This small cross-sectional study examined the association between weaning method, food preferences and frequency of food consumption. The researchers were also interested in how heavy the children were for their height (body mass index or BMI) and whether they were “picky eaters”. The researchers say that at present, little evidence is available on the possible impact of different weaning methods on food preferences and health, but that baby-led weaning is associated with “reduced maternal anxiety” about feeding and “a maternal feeding style that is low in control”.

This study compared two groups of parents who used different weaning methods for their children and looked at their children’s food preferences and BMI. However, it cannot prove cause and effect, nor can it show that baby-led weaning results in healthier food choices and healthier weight. A more reliable method of assessing this question would be a randomised controlled trial in which parents were randomly allocated one of the two weaning methods to use, and their babies followed over a period of time to see whether weaning method led to differences in dietary preference or BMI. However, such as trial may have ethical and feasibility issues.

Alternatively, a prospective study that followed children weaned by the two methods over a period of time would also be preferable to a cross-sectional study, which only looks at weaning methods, children’s food preferences and other factors at one point in time.

What did the research involve?

The researchers recruited the parents of 155 children aged 20-78 months between June 2006 and January 2009. The group that used baby-led weaning were recruited by advertising on the internet while those who used spoon-feeding were recruited from the researchers’ own laboratory database.

All the parents completed a standard questionnaire which asked about:

• their infants’ feeding and weaning style
• their infants’ preferences for 151 foods (with ratings from 1 “loves it” to 5 “hates it”) – the preferences were then analysed by standard food categories, such as carbohydrates, proteins and dairy, and there was also a category for whole meals, such as lasagne
• their frequency of consuming particular foods (with ratings from 1 “more than once a day” to 7 “less than once a month”)
• whether they would classify their children as picky eaters
• the children’s height and weight

The parents’ socioeconomic status was also assessed using validated measures.

The researchers pointed out that because no formal definition of weaning exists, they used the parents’ own reports of weaning styles to divide parents into two groups. To try to verify these self-reported methods, they also questioned some parents in more detail about weaning.

As the baby-led weaning group tended to be younger than the spoon-fed group, the researchers carried out their analyses on food preferences and weaning method using a sub-sample of 74 infants – 37 from the spoon-fed group matched by age to 37 from the baby-led weaning group. They used the whole sample for all other analyses.

What were the basic results?

The general trend in results was as follows:

• Carbohydrates were the most popular food category for the baby-led weaning group, who liked carbohydrates more than the spoon-fed group.
• Sweet foods were most liked by the spoon-fed group.
• Preference and frequency of consumption were not influenced by socioeconomic status, although an increased liking for vegetables was associated with a higher social class.
• Using NHS BMI guidelines, eight children in the spoon-fed group were obese (12.7%) compared to none in the baby-led group. However, nine children in the baby-led weaning group (14.3%) were overweight compared to two in the spoon-fed group (3.2%).
• Three children in the baby-led weaning group were classed as underweight (4.7%) compared to none in the spoon-fed group.
• No difference in picky eating was found between the two groups.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers concluded that “weaning style impacts on food preferences and health in early childhood.” They say their results suggest that the baby-led approach to weaning helps infants learn to regulate their food intake in a way that leads to healthier weight and a preference for healthy foods, such as carbohydrates.

Conclusion

While it was widely reported, this small cross-sectional study proves very little about the possible impact of different weaning methods on children’s food preferences, BMI or other health outcomes. Instead, because of its cross-sectional design, it can provide only a snapshot of all these factors (as reported by parents) at one point in time. It cannot show, for example, that babies who prefer carbohydrates do so because they were weaned on finger foods, as some news sources have reported.

Many factors can affect a child’s food preferences and BMI, including genetic factors, exercise and social and demographic background (which was indicated to a degree by the fact that higher socioeconomic status was associated with higher vegetable intake). Though the study found differences in the BMI status of the children, the small sample size makes it difficult to draw reliable comparisons between the groups. For example, though eight children were obese in the spoon-fed group and none in the baby-led group, this finding could be due to chance. Also, when overweight and obese children were combined, ten children in the spoon-fed and nine in the baby-led groups were overweight or obese. This raises the strong possibility that there would be no real difference in BMI if a much larger group of children were looked at.

With rising rates of childhood obesity, the issue of how best to wean and how this might affect children’s attitudes to food and their long-term health is of concern to parents. However, a large-scale prospective study that follows babies for several years would be a much better way to shed light on the issue.

Links To The Headlines

Giving babies finger food could stop obesity. Sky News, February 7 2012

How giving babies finger food during weaning can stop them growing up fat. Daily Mail, February 7 2012

Spoon feeding 'makes babies fatter'. BBC News, February 7 2012

Baby weight: finger foods better than spoon-feeding, study suggests. The Guardian, February 7 2012

Links To Science

Townsend E, Pitchford NJ. Baby knows best? The impact of weaning style on food preferences and body mass index in early childhood in a case–controlled sample. BMJ Open 2012;2:e000298 (published online)

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Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral

Because of my love of Tarot and divination practices in general I have collected Tarot and Oracle cards for over thirty years. Because of the number of decks on the market to choose from has significantly grown in the past few years, there is no way I can keep up collecting all of them. I actually don't even go shopping for new decks to add to my anymore. Still, new cards keeping their way into my hands... instead of me finding them, they find me. This happens because of my work, new decks are occasionally sent to me from the publishers seeking my review.

Because I'm a visual person/learner I cannot just handle the decks and write a review... pictorials are so much more fun to write!!! Check out my new Pictorial of the Astrology Reading Cards. Also, here is a list of other divination card pictorials I've written.

• Crystal Oversoul Attunements Healing Cards
• Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck
• Teen Angels - Deck of 52 Inspirational Cards
• Reiki Techniques Card Deck
• Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards
• Angels of Atlantis Oracle Cards

Readers are invited to review their favorite oracle and Tarot decks for publication on this site as well.

• Review Your Favorite Oracle Card Deck
• Review Your Favorite Tarot Deck

The 2012 Readers' Choice Awards is underway. Twenty-three different holistic healing categories are being featured in this year's contest... including readers' choices for Best Tarot and Oracle Cards. As of this morning I have received nominations for 24 Tarot Decks and 9 Oracle Card Decks..... only ten decks (five Tarot Cards, five Oracle Decks) will make it as the finalists. The nomination phase ends on February 15.... so hurry to lend your voice to help get your favorite decks a chance for the WIN. You may nominate up to 3 decks in each category.

• Nominate Your Favorite Tarot Cards
• Nominate Your Favorite Oracle Card Decks

Another fun Tarot project I started last year that has not yet caught fire is the Tarot Art Gallery that I am wanting to create featuring reader submitted artworks of the 22 major arcana. I've only received three artist submissions so far.... but I'm hopeful a few more pushes will get readers excited about it. Com' On! Let me see your art!

_{cover art courtesy of Findhorn Press}

New/Updated Articles and Features

• Astrology Reading Cards Pictorial Review

• Healing Doses: Jan 23-29
• Nominate Your Favorite Massage Tool
• Chakras - Healing Stitches
• Reiki and Intuitively Working with Animals
• Carnival of Healing #246
• Seeking Nominations for Best in Chakra Healing

• Sacred Spaces at Home: Sacred Spaces Anywhere & Everywhere
• Healing Tattoos: Spiritual Eye
• Out of Body Experiences: (Recent and Past, Accidental or Unintended OBE)
• Past Life Memories: (Saw Myself in 1963, A French Assassin)
• Inner Child Comforts: Creative Memories
• Pros and Cons of Being an Empath (5 new posts)
• Tips to Guard Against Psychic Vampires: Anger
• Palm Reading Experiences: Palms Read Twice, Different Results

There is still time to submit your nominations for the 2012 Readers' Choice Awards (RCA). Twenty-three Holistic Healing winner badges in total are to be awarded, three of them to the very Best in Chakra Healing.

• Best Chakra Healing Books (nominate your favorites)
• Best Chakra-Centered Facebook Page (nominate your favorites)
• Best Chakra-Centered Twitter Account (nominate your favorites)

Up to five finalists will be chosen from each group based on reader nomination to compete in the voting phase of the RCA beginning Feb. 22.

Here's a look at what the nominations look like as of this posting:

Chakra Books Nominated So Far

• A Children's Guide to Chakras written by Susan Merek
• Chakra Awakening written by Margaret Ann Lembo
• The SevenFold Journey written by Anodea Judith
• Hands of Light written by Barbara Brennan

• The Chakra Collective
• Chakradance
• Chakra Boosters (Chakra Boosters has also been nominated for Best in Healing Tools)
• Let's Talk Chakras
• Chakra Chakra Chakra

• @ChakricTemple
• @modernchakra
• @ChakraDreams
• @Pineal432hz (6th Chakra)

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