Tag: hormones

Balancing Hormones with Massage

hormonalimbalanceHormonal ups and downs can wreak havoc on your life.  They can affect your mood, your weight, your food cravings, even your desire for sex.  For many women, hormones balance normally and it’s smooth sailing–but for others, any imbalance can be a train wreck. And guys, you’re not immune either, recent research suggests your hormonal imbalances can be just as crazy.

Enter massage therapy. Among the many benefits of massage therapy are those related to the body’s production and regulation of neurohormones. Neurohormones are produced by the nervous system and affect an individual’s behavior and general well-being. Recent studies have solidly concluded that massage can help balance mood levels by moving your body toward homeostasis (a naturally balanced state). And the story’s even better! Research conducted at the TOUCH Research Institute at the University of Miami suggests that massage increases the availability of all neurohormones affecting brain chemistry.

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Massage Boosts the Immune System

Recent studies suggest that a massage can not only help you relax, but may also benefit your immune system.

Researchers who provide massage therapy at the Outpatient Physical Therapy Clinic, UAB Rehabilitation Center, identified two reasons why massage can help you stay healthier: immediate changes in the body and cumulative effects of regular massage.

Changes to the body

Immediate changes in the body come from the stress reduction gained during the session. Your heart rate can decrease, your breathing can deepen and slow, your brain gets a few minutes of rest time. There are benefits long term as well:

“Over the long-term, the benefits of massage accumulate; massage can increase a person’s range of motion, strengthen the immune system and provide an improved sense of well-being” A. Kelly, University of Alabama, 2013

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Massage Helps Build Positive Attitude

positivethinkingDid you know optimism combats stress? That’s right, having a positive attitude actually reduces stressors in your life.  You worry less. You believe that things are going to work out and stress less about the small things. Positive thinking also helps stop “negative self-talk”–those little voices telling you to expect the worst.  This is all a conscious decision.  And positive thinking positively works.

For thousands of years, massage recipients have known that therapeutic massage reduces stress and people who get regular massage are generally much happier.  It turns out that there is evidence that massage also helps you have a more positive outlook on life and helps you cope better with the things that make you stressed.

Massage calms the mind

Massage can help you feel better about yourself and the relaxation can help with focus after your session. Anyone who has had a relaxing massage knows that when you finish, you feel peaceful and even a little “foggy”.  This “fogginess” is a true sign that for the time you were on the table you experienced “physical ease” which your body carries over into emotional ease. And while your mind and all your thoughts were focused on the quiet stillness of relaxation, your stress melted away.

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Massage Therapy for Headaches

headacheAn estimated 45 million Americans suffer from chronic headaches, and whether the headache is tension-related or a full-blown migraine, massage therapy may help.

Chronic headaches are one of the most common complaints made to healthcare professionals each year. Headaches are most often treated with over-the-counter or prescription medication. While these treatments are effective, they can be a temporary solution for a chronic problem.

Most headaches fall into one of two categories: tension and migraine. Tension headaches can be caused by stress, dehydration, muscle spasms, trigger points, eye strain, hormonal changes, neck misalignment, or TMJ.

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The Power of Touch

Touch is the very first sense humans acquire. It develops in simple form in the womb, well before birth. Newborns are born with sight, but initially focus at 8-12 inches from their face. Newborns can hear, even in the womb, and initially respond mostly to high-pitched exaggerated sounds and voices. Newborns can taste and smell at birth, with a preference toward sweetness and pleasant smells.

Newborns love skin-to-skin contact. Newborns who share bare-chested snuggles with their moms (sometimes called “kangaroo care”) may breathe better, cry less, and breastfeed longer.
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, 2012

As it is with newborns, our sense of touch remains very important as we grow. We learn about our surroundings and learn to associate touch with sense memory–things like the warmth of a blanket, a cool breeze, comforting hugs, and loving caresses. With almost every touch you learn more about life.

Western cultures, sadly, are pretty touch-deprived and this is especially true of the US. Psychologist Sidney Jourard (1960s) studied conversations between friends in a cafe in different parts of the world. He watched conversations for an hour and noted touch interactions. In England, the two friends touched zero times.  In the US, twice–mostly associated with an emphatic or enthusiastic moment in the conversation. But in France, the number dramatically increased to 110 times per hour. In Puerto Rico, friends touched each other 180 times. Cultural norms dictate public touch behavior along with each individual’s sense of personal space. In general, though, people feel more connected (“closer”) when nonverbal communication, like touch, is involved in a conversation.

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Perform a Mental Reset with Massage

resetyourdayMost modern day computers and mobile devices have a limit.  You’ll know when you’ve hit it when things start running slowly, battery life drains fast, things just don’t work the way they should.  You try everything, then pick up the phone and call for tech support–they always recommend a restart.

A  mental restart sets things back to normal.  It clears extra memory baggage and dismisses extraneous code that causes things to bog down.  It returns important settings that balance your machine to default status. POOF! The restarted device seems to have a new lease on life.  It just works better.

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Moody Hormones Meet Your Match: Massage Therapy

hormalHormonal ups and downs can wreak havoc on your life.  They can affect your mood, your weight, your food cravings, even your desire for sex.  For many women, hormones balance normally and it’s smooth sailing–but for others, any imbalance can be a train wreck.

Enter massage therapy. Among the many benefits of massage therapy are those related to the body’s production and regulation of neurohormones. Neurohormones are produced by the nervous system and affect an individual’s behavior and general well-being. Recent studies have solidly concluded that massage can help balance mood levels by moving your body toward homeostasis (a naturally balanced state). And the story’s even better! Research conducted at the TOUCH Research Institute at the University of Miami suggests that massage increases the availability of all neurohormones affecting brain chemistry.

Massage tends to elevate the levels of dopamine, a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus gland. Dopamine influences fine motor activity like painting, playing a musical instrument or navigating with a mouse. It affects intuition, inspiration, joy, and enthusiasm. If your dopamine fall, you will likely exhibit clumsiness, poor focus, and be easily distracted.
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Five Ways to Keep Your Body Young

The Fountain of Youth is really all about habits.  Good habits.  Here are five good habits for you to acquire that will help keep your body young, fit and happy.

1 Eat more fat. The healthy kind, that is. Omega-3 fatty acids (found in salmon, walnuts, and seeds) help stabilize your mood, maintain bone strength, and help prevent visible signs of aging by reducing inflammation in the body. Eat two grams of omega-3 fatty acids a day or consider taking krill or fish oil supplements.

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Why Does Massage Feel So Good?

A healing massage can soothe your body, mind and soul. How? It’s all about science.

Getting a massage feels amazing. You feel better even before your therapist enters the room. You’re in our dimly lit, clean & quiet space enveloped with calming music, a warm massage table and cool, soft linens. You’ll feel relaxation begin to take over almost immediately.

As the massage session begins, you’ll be able to close your eyes and focus on your own breath, leaving behind all the worries of the day. You’ll get a sense of calm called mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state of awareness that helps regulate emotion and boosts body awareness. When you’re in a mindful state, parts of your brain become less active, causing you to be less reactive. You can disconnect from the world.

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