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The Restorative Power of Massage
Life can get hectic and complicated, and your body and mind pay the price. When you find yourself feeling exhausted, drained and burnt out, it’s a perfect time to visit your massage therapist. The effects of the peaceful environment and the power of therapeutic touch is immediately obvious, but you may not be aware of how many unique and powerful ways massage can re-energize and renew your body and spirit. Here are just a few of the reasons massage gives you the boost you need to feel like yourself again.
The Many Restorative Effects of Massage Therapy
1. Massage stimulates blood circulation, which in turn delivers oxygen and nutrients to fatigued tissues; this enhances the body’s power to repair and rebuild itself and hastens the elimination of bodily toxins.
2. Skillful massage serves as a passive substitute for muscle activity. It increases blood supply, relieves painful spasms, breaks up tissue adhesions and encourages muscle tone and elasticity. Massage helps muscle tissue obtain more regenerative power without exhausting it.
3. Waste products, which slow the healing and regeneration of tissues, are removed through lymph circulation. The passive joint movement and pressure over vessels and glands produced by massage encourages the flow of lymphatic fluids.
4. Massage encourages liver and renal activity, which also results in better waste metabolism and elimination of toxins.
Poor sleep quality due to chronic pain or stress can have profound effects on your body’s restorative abilities and your immune system. Massage is proven to relieve pain and encourage better sleep.
5. Mental and emotional fatigue are intimately connected with physical health. When you are under stress, your body responds by producing more of a hormone called cortisol. Excess cortisol in your body increases your blood pressure, suppresses your thyroid, lowers your immune response, decreases your muscle tissue and bone density and causes generalized inflammation. It can also increase blood sugar levels and slow wound healing.
Massage can decrease cortisol levels by as much as 50 percent. At the same time, it increases your body’s production of serotonin and dopamine, which help to stabilize your mood and fight depression. Reduced stress and normal cortisol levels allow your body to more easily restore itself and fight cell damage.
When Is It Time to Renew?
If your body is struggling to restore itself, it will tell you. You’ll probably notice symptoms such as physical and mental exhaustion, poor sleep, slow healing, unusual aches and pains, daytime fatigue and frequent colds. If you schedule regular sessions and tell your massage therapist about your symptoms, he or she can help your body restore itself to health. Continued therapy can play a huge part in optimizing and maintaining your quality of life for years to come.