Manage Stress with Massage at ClinicalBodywork.com

Manage Stress with Massage

The following article was published in my Fall 2004 newsletter. To be added to my mailing list, please contact me. Other newsletters are posted on the Newsletters Page.

RECEIVING MASSAGE COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

Sound too dramatic? Consider this: Chronic stress has been connected to every leading cause of death, including heart disease and cancer. Stress related problems account for 75 to 90% of visits to primary care physicians.

Stress has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, muscle pain, acid reflux, impotence, irritable bowel syndrome, the list goes on and on. It causes changes to the immune system, leaving the body vulnerable to illness, infection and disease. It also affects mental health and can lead to depression.

Chronic stress is dangerous to your physical and mental health. What does it do to your body that’s so harmful?

A shot of adrenaline is part of a cascade of physical preparations to give you a heightened alertness and response to danger. But you cannot respond to stressful or threatening situations the way your body prepares you to. Consider a stressful situation at work.

When your boss, employee or customer is a real jerk, your body reacts the same way as it would to the physical threat of a hungry lion. Really! When your computer crashes and you lose that huge spreadsheet, your body is readied for “fight or flight”. Your bloodstream is full of hormones and neuro-transmitters to prime you for battle. But you can neither run for your life, club the computer to death nor punch your boss in the nose.

If this stress response becomes chronic – if you are living with stress because of your job situation or a loved one’s illness for example – it can lead to all sorts of breakdown.

It is critical for your physical and mental health that your stress is managed. A good stress management program should include massage therapy.

Studies have shown that massage relieves stress. This may seem intuitive to you, having experienced how relaxing massage can be. But it’s important to note that in these studies, people not only scored their stress levels lower, but their levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) were also lower after massage. Tests have shown increased serotonin and dopamine, decreased depression and pain. Research has also shown that massage boosts the immune system.

Massage research is now turning from the effects of massage therapy to its mechanisms – how massage does what it does. I believe what they’ll find is this: that massage directly affects the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest & digest” system), which calms the sympathetic nervous system (the “fight or flight” system), thereby thwarting the stress response and averting its potential dangers. I believe that these benefits of massage occur as a direct result of the powerful effect of massage on stress.

Chronic stress is serious business. Protect yourself from its harmful effects. Make massage therapy part of your stress management program.

For more information about massage research, visit the Touch Research Institute, the Massage Therapy Foundation or the American Massage Therapy Association's Massage Information Center.

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