So massage feels wonderfully relaxing and it’s a great way to spend some time on yourself, but did you also know that massage has some incredible health benefits? Massage health benefits range from simply helping you sleep better to anti-anxiety and even anti-cancer protection. Find out about how massage can help you towards better health and wellbeing with 13 wonderful reasons to book a massage appointment right now.
What is Massage and Massage Therapy?
Massage is the name for the process of rubbing, smoothing, manipulating and pressing on the skin, with the aim of producing changes in the muscles and tendons beneath. There are many different types of massage therapy. These include Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage, and trigger point massage.
What Are Some Massage Health Benefits?
Massage is often offered as a simple relaxation technique but it actually has many other health benefits attached. Massage can help to relieve many different conditions and physical and psychological problems. It can help to reduce stress, relieve muscle pain and tension, relieve anxiety and depression, improve digestion, help fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions, ease headaches, and treat and prevent sports injuries.
Here is some more detail on how massage helps you live a healthier life.
1) Massage Offers a Solution to Anxiety
If you are suffering from mild to moderate anxiety, massage can form an effective part of your treatment plan. Not only does massage create a calming effect that helps to reduce levels of anxiety, it may also actually change structures in your body to help you process stress more effectively.
2) Massage Helps Infants Grow and Develop
Massage is not only helpful for adults, but it is highly effective for babies, too. Doctors recommend baby massage, a special form of massage suited to babies’ delicate skin and composition, to help infants gain weight and promote strong muscle tissue growth. It is particularly effective for premature babies.
3) Massage Helps Labor for Pregnant Mothers
Massage has also been shown to help out before the baby is born, by assisting in achieving a shorter labor and an easier delivery. It also acts as a very special stress reliever that can help to make the process easier and painful.
4) Massage is Great for Improving the Immune System
Your immune system is naturally strong and able to protect you from serious harm on a daily basis. But it doesn’t hurt to strengthen your immune system so that you have better resources to call upon to protect your body systems and build the cells you need to reduce the likelihood of disease and infection. Massage helps to do this, and it is an extremely relaxing way to do it.
5) Massage May Help to Prevent Cancer
Some studies show that massage helps to reduce the damage caused by cancer cells in the body. It is also proven that massage helps to reduce the pain and the levels of anxiety that are associated with the disease.
6) Massage Could Help With Heart Conditions
Some studies also show that massage can help your heart function better, at optimal levels, so you are at lower risk of cardiovascular issues and associated chronic health problems.
7) Massage Helps Treat Diabetes
Massage is often recommended by doctors for helping to control the amount of sugar in the blood. This is particularly important for children, experts say.
8) Massage Relieves Chronic Pain
Massage is also excellent for decreasing pain levels that come about through chronic pain conditions, or after injury or surgery. Massage is also a good way of relieving pain in pregnancy without drugs. Massage is particularly good for lower back pain.
9) Massage Improves Joint Flexibility
Massage also helps with pain by improving the flexibility of joints and promoting a healthier muscle and joint system. This is particularly useful in conditions where the joints cause pain and restrict freedom of movement.
10) Massage Helps Relieve Muscle Pain
And it also helps to deal with cramping during exercise, and helps athletes perform at a higher level, with a lower risk of injuries.
11) Benefits of Massage Include Skin Care
Did you know that massage can even help you towards healthier, glowing skin? It can prevent the signs of premature aging and help deal with problems like acne and skin discoloration.
12) Massage Improves Blood Circulation
After a massage therapy session, blood flows more easily around the body, carrying essential oxygen to all the right places. Oxygenated blood delivers the vital nutrients and health to the entire body system, and better blood flow helps the body heal.
13) Massage Helps You to Sleep
Of course, one of the most important benefits of massage therapy is the way it helps you to relax and sleep better. Good quality sleep is vital for many aspects of health. Massage health benefits assist in getting you to that special relaxed state at the end of the day that helps you sleep deeply and well.
