The NAB/FROG Monthly Mail will be taking its own holiday break. We'll see you again in March 2006. With best wishes for a very happy new year!

Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the United States Judo Federation, this volume traces the more than 100-year history of judo practice in America. The authors begin with a comprehensive survey of Japan's classical disciplines, which sets the foundation for understanding what judo is and what it means to the people who practice it. They show how, from its arrival on U.S. shores in the late nineteenth century, judo has built upon the strengths of the two societies it bridges. For martial arts practitioners and others interested in Asian and American cultural history, this thoroughly researched and richly illustrated book is an indispensable resource for understanding judo's ongoing role in the contemporary life of the United States.

Immune system disorders, from cancer and HIV to allergies and infections, are epidemic in contemporary society, and the numbers are rising. In Healing Immune Disorders, author Andrew Gaeddert offers hope for combating both simple and serious immune conditions using Chinese and Western herbs, supplements, diet, and lifestyle approaches. The author's straightforward instructions help sufferers enhance quality of life beyond what conventional wisdom calls possible. The book focuses on natural approaches to improving immune function and treating autoimmune conditions: maximizing digestive health, reducing stress, self-nurturing through positive thoughts, and developing healthy habits. Integrating mainstream with non-Western approaches, combined with focused exercises, says Gaeddert, can trigger improved energy levels, more restful sleep, better digestion, freedom from pain, and more inner peace. While many immune conditions are not curable, they are treatable. Case studies drawn from the author's practice testify to the success of the book's strategies in a real-world setting.

Michael Picucci has survived HIV, heart attacks, cancer, and the loss of many loved ones. Beyond merely coping, he has thrived -- but how? This book explains. Mixing vivid life stories and simple, step-by-step creative ritual exercises, Picucci offers readers a self-empowering path to energetic healing through contact with what he calls "healing resources." These resources are varied but center on a higher power that can be accessed through ritual. Ritual, he explains, allows anyone to tap into the "instinctual brain" that is traumatized by the unnatural demands of modern life, and further into the "shamanistic brain" that opens the way to four important energetic pathways: awakening the felt-senses of the body; resolving emotional traumas; communicating with the instinctive self; and journeying into the "spirit world," the worlds of light, energy, and consciousness. Ritual as Resource shows how to stimulate dormant internal energy to heal and transform the troubled self.

Chinese martial arts masters of the past created special training manuals with text and images -- sometimes appearing in the illustrations themselves -- and these manuals now provide an invaluable glimpse back in time to how various martial arts were practiced. Covering the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Republican Period, this in-depth survey presents 30 masters and their books, placing them in the context of Chinese culture and history. Along with biographical portraits of these masters, the book covers the history of the manuals, Chinese martial arts historians, the history of Taiwanese martial arts, how Chinese martial artists made their livings, the Imperial military exams, the place of the Shaolin Temple in Chinese martial arts history, and much more. Illustrated with hundreds of photographs and drawings from the manuals themselves, the book offers a multifaceted portrait of Chinese martial arts and their place in Chinese culture.

This book describes clinically proven hands-on techniques to decrease the pain and tensions of the myofascial tissues that cover every bodily organ. Included are protocols for lower back pain, respiratory discomfort, spinal dysfunction, headaches and migraines, joint problems, plantar fascitis, and more. Illustrated throughout, this is the fourth volume in the Integrative Manual Therapy series.

This useful text features an extensive discussion of the history, development, and science of Chinese medicine, and a summary of the authors' fact-finding research trip to countries and hospitals that use Chinese herbs in the treatment of cancer. Central to the book is a substantial section of 103 colored botanical plates, constituting an atlas of the most important anticancer plants.

Release Your Pain presents ART (Active Release Techniques) as a new approach to addressing such common repetitive strain injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, knee and shoulder injuries, and back pain. Based on case studies, the book shows how ART locates and breaks down scar tissue and adhesions that cause pain, stiffness, weakness, numbness, and physical dysfunctions associated with repetitive strain injuries. Topics include how and why these injuries occur, which treatments to avoid when possible (including surgery), and how noninvasive methods succeed where others fail. Each chapter includes black-and-white photo sequences of therapy techniques and stretches.