Rejuvenations Massage

Archive for the ‘chronic pain’ Category

11. Massage provides expert handling of your minor bodily aches and pains.
In addition to addressing sports injuries or accident traumas, even minor aches and pains due to aging or a sedentary lifestyle can be eased with massage. Mild arthritic discomfort may be diminished with a massage at the spa by experienced hands. Stiff, underused, or overused limbs may benefit from professional massage.

Thanks to Rose Alexander, who wrote a great article on the 12 benefits of massage for Lifescript.com. You can find the whole article here.

4. Massage improves circulation.
Whether you’re feeling sluggish, have been doing too much deskwork, or don’t get enough exercise, a massage can help stimulate your body tissues and improve circulatory flow. For some people, massage can lower blood pressure and improve pulse rates to actually contribute to overall improved health.

Thanks to Rose Alexander, who wrote a great article on the 12 benefits of massage for Lifescript.com. You can find the whole article here.

3. Massage relaxes inflamed muscles.
If you play sports, chances are there will be times when you overdo it (like pulling a muscle that has not warmed up properly). Massage helps heal those injured muscles and get your body back in working order. There’s a reason Michael Phelps gets a massage every day!

Thanks to Rose Alexander, who wrote a great article on the 12 benefits of massage for Lifescript.com. You can find the whole article here.

1. Massage relieves pain.
In the hands of a skilled massage therapist, massage can give you relief from chronic pain. Therapeutic massage is often used in conjunction with physical therapy or other remedies for injury-related pain.

Thanks to Rose Alexander, who wrote a great article on the 12 benefits of massage for Lifescript.com. You can find the whole article here.

You know massage makes you feel better, but did you know it could also help lower high blood pressure? A new study found that a 45- to 60-minute deep-tissue massage temporarily lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) numbers by several points—the average short-term drop was from 125/76 down to 115/70. More research is needed to determine if regular massage can reduce high blood pressure long-term, but isn’t it nice to know that your massage is doing even more than making your sore muscles feel better?

Need to distress quickly? Relax with a Mini Head Massage. With your thumbs at your temples and fingers in a half fist, run your index and middle fingers along the eyebrows and then along the cheekbones and sinuses, feeling the muscles release. Using the tips of your fingers, start at your forehead and rub along your scalp, front to back. Repeat as many times as you like.

A few years ago, my wife was experiencing some health problems. The doctor’s diagnosis was that her job was too stressful. Six months later, she left that job to start her own company, and those health problems completely disappeared (that’s a pretty stressful job if starting a business is less stressful!).

My wife’s job/stress-related health problems are common: According to one study, 40% of American employees feel their job is stressful. In fact, stress related problems are the most common cause of employee absenteeism and the stress-related problems cost about 150 billion dollars in the US.

Unfortunately, most people can’t quit their job to get rid of stress. So what can they do? Fortunately, the list is pretty long: exercise, eat right, take time every day to meditate and relax, and find hobbies that give you pleasure to name a few. And, get regular massage.

A study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience looked at the impact of massage on job performance over a five week period. The study showed the following:

Massaged adults showed:
1) decreased frontal EEG alpha and beta power and increased delta power consistent with enhanced alertness;
2) math problems were completed in significantly less time with significantly fewer errors after the massage; and
3) anxiety, cortisol (stress hormone) and job stress levels were lower at the end of the 5 week period.

Field, T., Ironson, G., Scafidi, F., Nawrocki, T., Goncalves, A., Burman, I., Pickens, J., Fox, N., Schanberg, S., & Kuhn, C. (1996). Massage therapy reduces anxiety and enhances EEG pattern of alertness and math computations. International Journal of Neuroscience, 86, 197-205.

In case you’re wondering what the most common causes of work place stress are, they’re:

And the top four most stressful professions are:

(Data from Stress Focus)

Many people that end up on our massage tables are there because of back pain. Massage is definitely a great way to alleviate that. But there are other things you can do too…things that you may not have thought of. This one is for you smokers out there:

According to the North American Spine Society, smokers are more prone to back pain than non smokers because the nicotine restricts the flow of blood to the discs that cushion your vertebrae. Ouch.

So, if you’re a smoker and you suffer from chronic back pain, you may want to think about kicking the habit.

My aunt came into our massage center last night completely unable to move her neck. I worked on her, but I was very gentle…I didn’t want to hurt her, even though I knew she needed deep therapy. Two days later, one of my therapists worked on her. Since he’s not related to her, he had no trouble giving her the treatment her body needed. She came out of that massage with significantly more mobility, and it was obvious the treatment had helped. Yet, she said it had hurt at times, when she really wanted to just relax. She preferred my gentle massage, even though it didn’t help her as much.

To be effective, your massage should be a relaxing experience. If you’re uncomfortable during the massage, you’ll tense up and the massage becomes counter productive. However, sometimes a little pain is necessary to treat the problem. The book Body Work: What Type of Massage to Get And How to Make the Most of it (Thomas Claire, Basic Health; 2006) says:

Some deep-tissue techniques used to address sports injuries or chronic pain require intense pressure to realign muscle fibers, break up scar tissue or restore oxygen-rich blood to fluid-depleted areas. This can smart momentarily and cause some soreness afterward, but it pays off with healthier tissue.

How much pain is too much? That depends on you. I have clients who can tolerate tremendous amounts of discomfort, and others who simply can’t. Most of my clients endure the discomfort because they know how good they feel for weeks after. Communicating with your therapist is the best way to ensure you get the therapeutic benefit without overdoing the pain. I can tell you personally that I’ll do what I need to do to address the problem, but if the client asks me to ease off, I will. The most important thing during your massage is that you feel comfortable. But remember that a little bit of discomfort or pain is normal, and when it comes to reducing chronic pain, it is probably necessary.

I wrote this article for the August 2008 issue of Your Health Magazine. Since almost 80% of the clients at Rejuvenations come to use to treat their chronic pain, I thought I’d reprint it here.

From western medicine to alternative practices, there are many therapeutic models to treat chronic pain and help you feel better physically. At our massage center, 80% of our clients come to us to help manage chronic pain. We know they get results because they tell us so. I personally know what it’s like to live with chronic pain, and how much massage and other treatments help.

But that’s the physical side of the pain. What about the emotional side of it?

I recently strained a muscle and was in terrible pain—pain added on top of the chronic pain I live with every day. I didn’t sleep well that night. After tossing and turning all night, I woke feeling stressed and irritable. However, I didn’t connect my mood to the pain until I had a massage. After 90 minutes in my therapist’s care, my mood was transformed, and that night I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in weeks.

When you suffer from pain—even minor, yet chronic pain—your body can’t relax. And when your body can’t relax and regenerate, you get stressed, irritable, cranky, upset…the list goes on. Chronic pain takes a tremendous emotional toll on you.

So what can you do? Regardless of what you do to treat the physical side of your condition, therapeutic massage can help address the emotional side of it. Studies show that massage:
• Improves sleep patterns
• Creates a general feeling of well-being,
• Helps release pent up emotions, and
• Reduces anxiety

As an example, let’s look at the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. A study at the Touch Research Institutes, University of Miami School of Medicine, found that massage improved fibromyalgia patients’ moods. Another study by the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association found that patients reported sleeping better with regular massage: they began sleeping for longer periods at a time and had more restful sleep, thus improving their moods.

How often should you get massage to reap the emotional benefit? It’s different for everyone. What we do know is you’ll get better results if you are on a regular schedule—whether it’s monthly, weekly, or some other formula that works for you. Studies show that a half hour massage a few times a week has tremendous benefit. However, most of our clients with chronic pain come in monthly for 60 or 90 minutes. The best thing to do is work out a treatment plan with your massage therapist.

Massage helps minimize your physical pain and alleviates the stress and anxiety associated with it. When you feel relaxed, your emotional state will be improved and life will seem a little bit brighter. And that is something to really feel good about.