Anne gives Jack Corbett a Wongamat Beach Thai Massage  at her Nit Noi Bar
 and Massage at Park Beach Condo

Before coming to Thailand for the first time I was seeing a chiropractor two times a week and nearly didn't make the plane because my back was hurting so much that I seriously doubted I could tolerate a trip here.  But the chiropractor performed wonders so I made the plane, came to Pattaya and then I discovered foot massages.

The human foot has a tremendous number of nerve centers and blood vessels that connect to other nerve centers and arteries all over the body.  Now we've all heard about acupuncture and how a skilled practitioner of acupuncture can stick needles into various places in the body to either deaden other parts of the body thus replacing an anesthetic or alleviate pain in parts of the body that are far from where the acupuncturist is placing his needles.  It's the same principle that's put to good use by the woman giving one a foot massage.  In fact, I've seen at numerous massage establishments in Pattaya diagrams of a human foot that show what each part of the food corresponds to at other points of the body.  For example, the big toe might correspond to the back of your neck. 

The masseuse begins with your foot as she manipulates it from the top to the bottom often applying a great deal of force to various pressure points either with her fingers or thumb or with a small cylinder or similar object which allows her to focus a lot of pressure where it needs to be focused.  She will then manipulate each toe in turn and then she will repeat the whole process on the other foot. 

She will then work her way up your body from your ankles, to your calves and finally on your lower and upper thighs.  I immediately found that getting a foot massage once or twice a week totally eliminated my need for a chiropractor.  But when you really think about it, the benefits of getting a foot massage are not limited to the back and neck alone.  While receiving a foot massage you know intuitively that getting regular foot massages are great for maintaining excellent circulation throughout the lower body.  In fact, without seeing any statistics on the subject I'd say that getting regular foot massages might save a man from getting a crippling stroke sometime in his future.

A Thai massage differs from a foot massage in that it involves the manipulation of the entire body.  The masseuse begins with a foot massage so that the person getting the Thai massage gets a lot of the same benefits that one gets from a foot massage although that portion of the massage that is devoted to the feet, legs and thighs is not as concentrated over as long a period of time simply because the masseuse has to move onto other parts of the body after initially ministrating to one's feet.

When receiving a Thai massage you begin by lying down with your face up on a thin mattress.   Your masseuse then starts on your feet and works her way up your body as she massages your hands, fingers, shoulder blades, and chest. She will then direct you to change your position so that you are lying face down. She will then massage the backs of your calves and thighs before focusing her attention on your back.

My main problem is with my lower back.  I have been diagnosed as having a slipped disk.  What this amounts to is that the encroachment of my advancing years has taken its toll on my spine.  There are little pads of cartilage lying between the vertebrae that cushion each vertebrae from the ones lying next to it.  Running throughout the spine are also a lot of nerve endings each of which is cushioned and protected by this cartilage.  But through the course of many years the force of gravity exerts downward pressure upon the spine's  vertebrae and cartilage which flattens and erodes all the pads of cartilage separating the vertebrae from each other.  Finally there cartilage is so thin that the vertebrae wind up moving against each other as well as the nerve endings throughout the spine resulting in acute back pain. 

What the chiropractor does is to widen the space between the vertebrae by  manipulating the spine.   So if we conclude that this works, and there are millions in the U.S. alone who verify that it does, we can conclude that other measures to widen the gap will work also.  Take, for instance, gravity inversion boots.  With gravity inversion boots one essentially hangs himself upside down from a bar like a bat, with the hooks in the boots fastened into the bar so that one's body is suspended in the air with the head pointed downwards without one's expending much energy.  The weight of one's body hanging downwards stretches the spine which tends to stretch the vertebrae apart.  The principle behind the gravity inversion boots seems sound.

While getting a Thai massage the same principle holds true.  One lies on his stomach as the masseuse kneads and manipulates the spine, which I believe flattens the spaces between the vertebrae  apart. 

Although I find foot massages to be nothing short of terrific I prefer the Thai massage since it combines some of the best aspects of the foot massage with the stretching of the vertebrae that results from the direct manipulation of the spine.  And although one can easily find scores of massage establishments in Pattaya that will do an excellent job, I prefer getting my massages at Anne's Nitnoi Bar and massage as I can always be sure of Anne's doing an excellent job while I enjoy the ambience here at  Park Beach.