How
often do you lie down in a warm room with a blanket and soft music? The hectic
pace and harsh expectations of our culture push us out of our bodies. We must
make a conscious effort to reclaim our birthright of a whole and integrated being
– body, mind, and spirit.
Regular massage
is part of a good self-care program, along with a healthful diet and regular exercise.
Massage and energy work help to alleviate emotional stress and muscular tension,
stimulate endorphine production, and enhance the immune system. Bodywork teaches
us how to receive, to remember how to relax, to breathe fully and deeply, to be
in our bodies and be fully alive.
The benefits of massage
and energy work are cumulative and are enhanced by receiving on a regular basis,
such as weekly, twice a month, or monthly – as often as the
schedule and budget allow.
Counteracting
the Effects of Touch Deprivation
Studies of infants in orphanages
and hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed the dramatic and
often fatal effects of touch deprivation on the biological and psychological health
of human beings. Similarities between the effects of malnutrition and sensory
deprivation led to the coining of the term "sensory malnutrition," or
"skin starvation." The need for nurturing touch is not limited to infants
and children, but has come to be recognized as a basic need for the continued
health and well-being of adult humans and other mammals.
Regular
sessions of bodywork contribute significantly to health and quality of life for
everyone, but especially for people dealing with difficult transitions, depression,
grief, trauma, and most of the physiological and emotional challenges we all face
sometime in our lives.
Massage: It's real medicine
By Kristyn Kusek Lewis
Health.com
Posted on cnn.com March 8, 2007.
Having your honey rub your back is sweet, but it's tough to compete with
the hands of a pro. A good massage therapist can make you feel like a new
person. And now research suggests massage can ease insomnia, boost
immunity, prevent PMS, and more. Maybe that's why hospitals are making it a
standard therapy.
"All of our surgery patients are offered the treatment -- I call it
'service with a smile' -- and it's a mandatory weekly prescription I
give myself," says Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., director of the Cardiovascular
Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital--Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center and a member of the board at LLuminari, a
health-education company.
Our advice: Enjoy your hands-on time with your sweetie, but set aside
some time for a real massage, too. Here are some feel-good reasons:
Goodbye, pain
It sounds like a no-brainer, but rubdowns are especially effective for
aches like low-back pain. Researchers at the Group Health Center for
Health Studies in Seattle, Washington, found that massage works better
than common treatments including chiropractic therapy and acupuncture.
It's not clear why, but several studies show massage reduces levels of
the stress hormone cortisol while boosting the feel-good hormones
serotonin and dopamine. Those changes slow your heart rate, reduce blood
pressure, and block your nervous system's pain receptors. Massage also
increases blood flow to the muscles, which may help them heal.
A bonus: Massage also seems to ease distress from migraine, labor pain,
and even cancer, as well as the body tenderness seen with fibromyalgia,
says Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the Touch Research Institute at
the University of Miami School of Medicine. Plus, the benefits may last
as long as a year after just a few treatments, says Partap Khalsa,
Ph.D., a chiropractor and a program officer at the National Institutes
of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine,
the agency funding many major studies on massage.
Hello, dreams
Fluctuations in several types of brain waves either relax you or wake
you up. Massage increases delta waves -- those linked with deep sleep --
according to a study at the Touch Research Institute. That's why it's
easy to drift off on the massage table, Field says.
Nice to have you back, brain power
The Touch Research Institute study that connected massage to sleep also
found that a 15-minute chair massage boosted alertness. "Subjects
reported that it felt like a runner's high," Field says. Tests also show
that brain-wave activity stimulated by massage is linked to improved
attention.
Take that, colds
Massage helps ward off bugs by boosting your "natural killer cells," the
immune system's first line of defense against invading illness. "We know
that cortisol destroys natural killer cells," Field says. "Therefore,
since massage decreases cortisol, your immune cells get a boost."
Massage even seems to boost immunity in those people with severely
compromised immune systems, such as breast-cancer patients.
Blues, be gone
Less cortisol and more serotonin and dopamine in your system may also
mean less stress, anxiety, and depression. "We know that the right side
of the frontal lobe of the brain is more active when we're sad, and the
left side's activated when we're happy," Field says. "Our studies have
observed that massage decreases activity in the right lobe and increases
functioning in the left." The well-being people feel after a massage is
a big reason why some hospitals offer it to anxious patients preparing
for surgery and cancer patients going through chemo.
Shove off, PMS
A small study of 24 women with severe PMS found that massage reduced
symptoms such as pain, water retention, and mood swings. Try it with
proven remedies such as exercise (and who-cares-if-they-work solutions
like a little dark chocolate).
Posted on cnn.com, March 8, 2007
