I was honored to have been featured in Verily Mag, in which I was quoted as saying:
“FINALLY, HERE’S PROOF THAT YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL BAD ABOUT TREATING YOURSELF TO A MASSAGE:
There’s evidence that your massage goes deeper than you might think.
Of course, good posture is mostly developed by good habits and a strong core. But a massage can greatly help restore the damage caused by our sedentary lives. Janice Rosenthal, former owner of the Spa in Presidential Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, says that “[massaging] the erector spinae group of muscles, will straighten a person’s posture rather remarkably, because this group of muscles is connected to both the thoracic and cervical spine.”
Rosenthal adds, “Similarly, tight hamstrings can cause a person to hunch over, but through deep effleurage massage, the back of the thigh receives a stretch…one often sees posture improve, just from massaging the hamstrings alone.”
Rosenthal explains that “the lymph system is our main method of fighting foreign invaders in the body. Lymphatics do not have a pump, like the circulatory system, and so, it relies entirely upon the circulatory pumping of blood for its ability to pump its contents around the body. The lymphocytes attack waste products and cellular debris, and fight off bacteria and viruses.” When someone is incapable of exercise (or simply doesn’t) the body’s lymph system can stagnate. This is where regular massage can help “simulate exercise, and produce the powerful pumping and flushing motions which the lymph vessels require, in order to function efficiently.”
Rosenthal advocates, “People should stop thinking of massage as some kind of indulgent, luxury pastime, as thousands of books have been written about the scientific reasons that regular massage prevents injury and illness.”
1. How does massage detoxify the body, and why is this important?
The body detoxifies itself, if all conditions are ideal. However, given the stressful lives we lead, the sheer stagnation, tension, and deficiencies within our body systems, cause natural detoxification to be minimal. The liver is our main organ of detoxification. Yet it is bombarded with drugs, refined food, sugar, and alcohol, so that it has few resources remaining, with which to detoxify other elements, such as the dozens of environmental toxins we are exposed to daily.
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So how can massage detoxify your liver? After all, no one can massage your liver. Not true. Every knead, press, and effleurage of the body, rushes fresh blood to the liver, and flushes old blood outwards. Massage creates an on-off, pumping motion, which simulates exercise.
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Secondly, the skin is the body’s largest organ of detoxification. Massage stimulates the dermal and sub-dermal systems of cellular detoxification, to eliminate toxins, which often stagnate within the skin, causing skin dermatitis
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2. Can massage improve posture? If so, how does it do this?
Massage Therapy does not only stimulate blood flow, and organ detox. It stretches all the major muscle groups. And since the position of the bones are wholly reliant upon the position of the muscles, a good stretching of, for example, the erector spinae group of muscles, will straighten a person’s posture, rather remarkably, because this group of muscles is connected to both the thoracic and cervical spine.
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Similarly, tight hamstrings can cause a person to hunch over, but through deep effleurage massage, the back of the thigh receives a stretch, which is equivalent to a deep yoga stretch, and one often sees posture improve, just from massaging the hamstrings alone.
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3. Does getting massages prevent injury or illness? How does it do this?
People should stop thinking of massage as some kind of indulgent, luxury pastime, as thousands of books have been written about the scientific reasons that regular massage prevents injury and illness. We have already looked at the fact that massage stimulates the liver, the skin, and stretches the musculature throughout the body, improving posture. Well, unknown to many, massage also stimulates every other system in the body, the lymphatic system, being the major one that prevents illness.
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The lymph system runs parallel to the arterial system, so when blood is pumped via massage, so is the lymph. The lymph system is our main method of fighting foreign invaders in the body. Lymphatics do not have pump, like the circulatory system, and so, it relies entirely upon the circulatory pumping of blood, for its ability to pump its contents, around the body. The lymphocytes attack waste products and cellular debris, and fight off bacteria and viruses.
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However, should the lymph system become stagnant, as in the case wherein a person has no time to exercise, or is unable to exercise, massage can simulate exercise, and produce the powerful pumping and flushing motions which the lymph vessels require, in order to function efficiently.
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The prevention of injury, via massage, is so well documented, that many Olympic athletes are massaged prior to performing in an Olympic event. Proper posture has been documented as a preventing injury, but injury prevention goes way beyond good posture. The muscles also receive immense blood flow via massage, which is equivalent to doing an intense pre-exercise warm-up. .
4. Does Massage help with mental health? If so, how so?
Many scientific studies have sought to prove that massage relieves depression and anxiety. One such study is quoted here:
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“Leivadi et al evaluated the effects of massage on mood and anxiety states, in female dancers. The dancers were randomly assigned to either a massage therapy group, or a relaxation therapy group.
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The massage therapy group received a 30-minute treatment twice a week for a five week period.
The massages consisted of effleurage, petrissage, and friction techniques, with a treatment emphasis on the upper torso.
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Those assigned to the relaxation therapy group performed a series of muscle tensing and relaxation exercises while listening to a recorded tape.
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Both groups demonstrated significant effects between the first and last treatment sessions, for lowered anxiety levels and improved mood scores, as measured by the State Anxiety Inventory, and the Profile of Mood States.
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The massage treatment group also demonstrated significantly lower cortisol levels compared to the relaxation group.“
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5. Why is it important to relax muscle tension?
The body functions cumulatively. That means that a stressful experience that you had, months ago, which caused your muscles to become tense, can still be causing you muscle tension, unless you have purposefully released those muscles, via something like yoga, or massage. It is not uncommon to have clients cry with release, when I have massaged them, which to me, was proof enough of emotional tension, living within muscle tension. .
On a more scientific note, a study was done, monitoring blood pressure levels, via massage:
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“The authors found that clients receiving Swedish massage (effleurage and petrissage) experienced the greatest reduction in blood pressure, whereas those who had received trigger point therapy and sports massage experienced an increase in blood pressure.“
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One could conclude, that if massage reduces depression, anxiety, blood pressure, injury, and illness, then it is a worthwhile pursuit, and one that reveals the importance of relaxing muscle tension.
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6. In my career, I have seen massage therapy transform peoples lives.
When I first started out as a Massage Therapist, one of my clients came to me twice a week for a full body massage. After he had been coming to me for six months, he shared something with me, about how my massaging him, had changed his life. He said that when he had started coming to me, he had frequently had suicidal thoughts, and was on two kind of anti-depressive medication. He wanted to let me know that over the months, his mood had lifted so much, that his doctor had told him that he no longer needed any medication. He had stopped taking the medication, and had found that he really no longer needed it at all. He was so grateful to me, that he bought me a Massage Salon, in a five star hotel, and so began my amazing massage career.