Hands in Demand Professional Massage Therapy, LLC
5448 Balls Bluff Ct.
Woodbridge, VA 22193
703-583-1021
More Complementary Health Articles
Stress and Pain Management: Could Massage Therapy Be Your Solution?
Most of us deal with stress on a daily basis. Your stress could be caused by work, family, environment, society, or a variety of other factors.
While stress is never a good thing for your health, some of us are pretty adept at keeping it under control. But whether we’re good at managing stress or not, we should all be aware of how it affects our health.
The relationship of stress to pain and illness is of interest to anyone who values their health. Stress causes the release of hormones that create vasoconstriction – vessel shrinking – and reduced circulation. The heart works harder, breathing becomes rapid and shallow, and digestion slows. Nearly every body process is degraded. Researchers have estimated that 80% of disease is stress related.
Whether you’re suffering from back pain, headaches, depression, high blood pressure, or chronic fatigue, managing stress and tension can sometimes help you fix the problem at its source. At the very least it will provide symptom relief so you can function and enjoy life.
Any lingering symptom or medical concern should always be brought to the attention of your primary care physician first.
If your doctor recommended massage therapy to help relieve stress, tension, or pain – or if you’re simply curious about how this could help you – it’s worth looking into massage therapy and what it can offer.
For those of us who aren’t familiar, therapeutic massage is a personal health service employing various soft tissue manipulations for the improvement of the client’s health. It has a range of applications: muscular and general relaxation, stress reduction, pain management, recovery from injury, health promotions, education, and body awareness.
According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), here are the physical benefits of therapeutic massage.
- Helps relieve stress, aids relaxation, relieves muscle tension/stiffness
- Alleviates discomfort during pregnancy
- Fosters faster healing of strained muscles and sprained ligaments, reduces pain and swelling, reduces formation of excessive scar tissue
- Improves posture, treats musculoskeletal problems
- Provides greater joint flexibility/range of motion, reduces muscle spasms
- Enhances athletic performance, treats injuries caused during sports or work
- Promotes deeper, easier breathing, strengthens the immune system
- Improves circulation of blood and movement of lymph fluids, reduces blood pressure