Between long days at the office, taxiing the kids, housework, the gym, and being a weekend warrior there isn't much time left for you. Your shoulders ache, your low back is on fire and you can't sleep. So, you make an appointment to see your Doctor hoping for the magic bullet to get you through the day. You sit in the waiting room for half an hour. The chairs are horrible. Finally, the nurse calls you and you move to the treatment room where you sit for another half hour at the end of that uncomfortable table. Not sure if you should lie down or try to remain upright. Finally, the doctor comes in, talks to you for 5 minutes and writes you a prescription for muscle relaxers and Vicodin. Whoot! You are on your way but at what cost?
I'm not saying that muscle relaxers and pain relievers don't have their place. They absolutely do. What I'm saying is that you just spent over an hour at your PCP's office getting drugs that are potentially addictive, cause dehydration and make you drowsy but you have only treated the symptoms and not accessed the cause. Drugs should be looked at as a temporary fix to get you over the acute phase.
In the hour that you spent getting pills, you could have been cradled in warm sheets, listened to relaxing music and drifted into a state of bliss. You could have relaxed for an hour in comfort at Massage Therapy Olympia. You could have started fixing the problem. Here are 5 reasons that massage will work for you.
- Pain Relief - Massage relieves pain. It's that simple. It does so by helping to block the pain receptors in the nervous system. Studies by the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, the Touch Institute of Miami, the Mayo Clinic and many more have all recognized that massage significantly reduces pain.
- Relaxation - Our busy lives don't lend much time for R&R. Stress adds to muscle tension. You can see this for yourself by being conscious. Next time life gets to you, go to the nearest mirror and look at how your shoulders just became a set of matching earrings. Massage relaxes the muscles but it also works on the entire nervous system, reducing tension and restoring a sense of calm. It has also been proven to lower blood pressure.
- Improves Sleep - It is a natural sleep aid. Receiving bodywork increases sleep and disrupts the pain sleep cycle. In recent studies, people receiving back massage not only slept more deeply but slept longer.
- Increased Circulation - By pushing on the surface of the body, the deeper layers of muscles, veins and arteries are affected moving the blood through the tissue. When the blood delivers fresh oxygen and nutrients to the tissue, the tissue is better able to heal itself.
- Decrease Edema and Swelling - By stimulating the lymphatic system, fluids causing inflammation and swelling are carried back to the lymph nodes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9656043
http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/
http://www.mayoclinic.org
