Therapeutic Massage and its benefits
Massage benefits for the Mind
- Reduces anxiety
- Improves sleep habits
- Enhances alertness and psychological functioning.
- Enhances cognition and learning in infants and children
Types of Massage Therapies
There are different modalities with regards massages. Some of them are known as Swedish massage, Aromatherapy massage, Deep tissues massage, Thai massage, Pregnancy massage, Back and neck massage, Hot stone massage, Sport massage, Shiatsu massage and so no.
In our clinic, we do offer Aromatherapy massage and Deep tissue massage, which can be on back and neck or full body.
- Aromatherapy massage- Essential oils, made from selected flowers and plants are added to the massage oil for their particular therapeutic properties. For instance, the scent of Sandal wood or Lavender is thought to reduce nervous tension.
- Deep tissue massage- A group of massage techniques designed to access multiple layers of muscle and fascia to improve alignment and reduce levels of resting tension. These techniques create efficient postural and movement patterns.
Massage benefits for the Body
- Reduces muscular pain, spasms, cramps, tension, and trigger points
- Promotes relaxation
- Reduces chronic pain due to injuries and a variety of conditions
- Reduces formation of scar tissue, pain, and swelling following injury or surgery.
- Speeds healing from pulled muscles and sprained ligaments
- Improve blood flow and increase venous drainage
- Increases range of motion and promote flexibility.
- Improves posture
- Reduces stress hormones
- Improves immune system function
- Massage improves lymphatic flow
- Relieves tension headaches and migraine pain
- Improves digestion
- Reduces fatigue.
- Increases blood and lymph circulation
- Lowers blood pressure
- Promotes deeper and easier breathing
- Decreases premenstrual symptoms
- Reduces nerve pain
- Benefits for a variety of medical conditions. These include: diabetes, cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Cystic Fibrosis, autoimmune disorders, gastrointestinal disorder such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Colitis, high blood pressure, circulatory disorders, anemia, and many others.
What is Massage?
Massage is used as a curative and prophylactic tool against complications in the complex treatment of various diseases and injuries of the human body. Its physiological and beneficial effect on the diseased organ or system is scientifically proven.
What happens to one tissue affects the whole body and what happens to the body affects all of its parts. It is this holistic concept that alternative/complementary therapy, of which massage is one, adopts. To extend this further, the manipulation of soft tissue in one area potentially affects the whole body.
The individual is a whole organism: Everything is connected and related. Complex systems are more than the mere sum of their parts; that is, it is essential to see the whole body as ‘the forest and the trees’.
The practice of massage dates back to prehistoric times, with origins in India, China, Japan, Greece and Rome. Massage has been mentioned in literature dating back to the ancient times, with the earliest recorded in Chinese medical text written before 2500 BC.
The word ‘therapeutic’ is defined as ‘of or relating to the treatment or cure of a disorder or disease’. It comes from the Greek ‘therapeutikos’, and relates to the effect of the medical treatment. The word ‘massage’ also comes from the Greek ‘masso’, meaning to knead. Hippocrates (480 BC) used the term anatripsis, meaning to rub down, and this was later translated into the Latin frictio, meaning friction or rubbing. This term prevailed for a long time, and was still in use in the USA until the middle of the 1870s. The expression for massage in India was shampooing; in China it was known as Cong-Fou, and in Japan as Ambouk.
Massage has the potential to influence emotion, biochemistry and biomechanics, usually without adding excessively to the adaptation load, and is therefore uniquely placed to be able to be applied in most situations, from minor injuries to terminal conditions.
Massage therapy can be described as the manipulation of soft tissues by a trained massage or Physio therapist for therapeutic purposes. ‘Therapeutic’ is synonymous with the terms healing, restorative, beneficial, remedial and curative.