The Benefits of Massage

By Kim Boomhower, LMBT

Many of us know that massage therapy is a great way to experience relaxation and stress relief in our busy lives, and consider it as an occasional luxury. Not everyone is aware of the many essential health benefits massage offers—making it not an indulgent luxury, but a key player in our wellness practice.

Let’s begin with stress relief. In our culture, stress has become a daily reminder of our busy lives. Because of our fast-paced, high-technology society, we can get bombarded with stress constantly. So much so that it is often overlooked as a root cause of a myriad of health conditions and complaints such as chronic pain, obesity, heart conditions, high blood pressure, infertility, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal disorders, adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue, lowered immune function, migraines…the list goes on and on. This makes self-care tools like massage crucial for stress reduction and prevention of disease. Getting massage on a regular basis can help to significantly reduce stress levels and even help you to better manage and adapt to stress as it happens.

One of the phrases we use in massage is ‘rest and digest’. Our nervous systems are comprised of a sympathetic nervous system and a parasympathetic nervous system. Do you know that ‘fight or flight’ feeling you get when you’re stressed? That’s the sympathetic nervous system. It activates to signal our kidneys to start producing adrenalin to kick our bodies into high gear when it needs to respond to a threat. Our heart rate increases, blood flow decreases and moves away from the limbs, digestion slows and we become hyper alert. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, activates when we’re relaxed—that’s the ‘rest and digest’. Our heart rate slows, blood flow increases, breathing slows and deepens. We produce hormones that improve our digestion, and we have more of a relaxed, but focused awareness. Massage therapy is very effective in activating our body’s parasympathetic response—and its effects are cumulative—so we are able to ‘rest and digest’ more, and ‘fight or flight’ less.

Another great benefit of massage is increasing the body’s circulation. In western medicine, if the body’s blood flow is inhibited, then important nutrients and fresh blood are slow to flow in, and waste products are slow to flow out. In Chinese medicine, this is called qi and blood stagnation, which can lead to pain, low energy, irritability, as well as slow the healing of injuries, and can weaken the body’s immune function, making it more susceptible to illness. Massage is one of the best methods of increasing the body’s circulation of qi, blood, and lymphatic fluids.

If you’re trying to conceive, pregnant, or in your postpartum period, massage is an invaluable self-care tool. Women trying to conceive can increase their fertility by reducing stress, increasing reproductive blood flow, balancing hormones and reducing pelvic adhesions with fertility massage performed by a qualified therapist. Pregnant women can get help alleviating many common pregnancy complaints with massage, such as nausea, low back, sciatic and hip pain, heartburn, fatigue, round ligament pain, and edema. Pregnancy massage is not only good for mom, but babies also benefit from increased blood flow to the placenta and uterus and a stress-free mom. The old saying ‘when mama’s happy, everybody’s happy’ is true! Massage can be a boon in the postpartum period, when the body is dealing with stress, exhaustion, healing from birth, and the physical and emotional demands of a newborn and breastfeeding. Infants also love to be massaged, and a qualified therapist can teach you how to massage your baby to increase nurturing and bonding, immune system functions, decrease colic and digestive upsets.

Even though massage is considered a ‘body therapy’, it can have immense positive effects on those with emotional and mood disorders. Massage can decrease anxiety levels, decrease depression and increase feelings of happiness and optimism by helping to balance brain chemicals like serotonin. For people with a history of abuse or trauma, the safe, nurturing touch experienced in a massage session with an experienced, qualified and sensitive therapist can make a huge difference in self-esteem and body image, as well as cultivate more of a sense of trust and safety in your personal environment and in your own body.

So why aren’t we all getting a regular massage? Let’s start now—and to help, we’re offering a gift certificate special just in time for the holidays: Buy 3, Get 1 Free! Call or stop in and buy 3 gift certificates and get the 4th free! When you purchase them, be sure to specify which massage therapist you’d like to get them from, Kim or Carlota.