Massage Therapy Reduces Anxiety and Enhances EEG Patterns of Alertness and Math Computations

Get a message, help relaxing our body and mind. When we are under stress, we tighten our muscle, doing massage can help relax the tension of the muscles.

Massage Therapy is a commonly used method in modern society to enhance an individual’s well-being on a variety of levels. Massage therapy is manual manipulation of soft body tissues (muscle, connective tissue, tendons and ligaments) to enhance a person’s health and well-being (1). Massage Therapy is a natural therapeutic treatment intervention recommended by many physicians to help combat the negative effects of stress on the human body in both a physical and mental capacity.

The first key finding that I concluded from my research article is that non-pharmacological intervention such as music and massage, whether used individually or in a combination of both, demonstrated a decrease in pain perception and anxiety, and an increase in relaxation according to patients’ experience (T. Najafi Ghezelieh, et al. 2017). This article was about a randomized controlled clinical trial group of 240 burn patients located in a burn unit hospital in Iran, the group was divided into groups of 60 patients in one of the following four groups: control group receiving conventional (pharmacological approach) primary care, music group that allows patients to

Pain can be such a horrifying thing for someone who experiences it continuously. There are so many types of pain, emotional, physical, spiritual, stress related, cancer related. The list is endless. Massage therapy is one of the ways that pain can be treated and more importantly modified to a patient’s individual needs for pain management. Recent studies have shown that therapeutic massage has been known to reduce the number of people on pain medication and the amount that is taken to reach a therapeutic level. This in turn is lowering the amount of frequent calls to pharmacies for prescription refills, lowering the amount of people that are hospitalized for pain control and help

What do Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and Billy Joel all have in common; besides being heavy drinkers? I’ll give you a hint, it affects 6.7% of American’s. It’s depression, that “Utterly black and uncompromising cloud of dread” that affects so many individuals throughout their lives. I’m sure everyone can relate to a time when they were depressed or sad, and massage can help with

Massage therapy has been utilized for thousands of years as a form of medical care. The origins began around India and spread east to what is now China. Its uses were understood as a form of healing of muscles, joints, and ligaments. Its ability to decrease the healing time required for injuries and other ailments is what makes massage therapy beneficial. Due to this, the practice is rapidly growing around the world, especially within the United States. This form of homeopathy is recommended by both Doctors and Holistic healers and is even covered by medical insurance by a few clinics. Added to the physical benefits of massage is the effect it has on the human mind. It

Parenting massage interventions are said to be effective in improving outcomes such as enhanced cognitive development and lower

In three randomized control trials, similar findings of massage therapy on the reduction of pain were found. In these studies, the control groups received the usual postoperative care which included analgesic administration (Bauer et al., 2010; Braun et al., 2012; Cutshall et al., 2010). The experimental groups received the usual care as well as two 20-minutes massage sessions on two different days. During the 20 minutes when the experimental group received the massage, the control group had 20 minutes of rest time to mirror the time of the massage patients. Visual analog scales were used in all three studies to measure pain intensity. Massage was provided depending on where the patients preferred and the areas of discomfort. It was found that in all three studies, the reduction of pain scores was more significant in the experimental groups as compared to the control groups whom only received rest time and analgesic medications. In one study, the patients’ average pain scores were reduced by 52% after massage therapy in one of the two days of receiving massage while the

The study did indicate that General Swedish massage techniques were used for up to 5 hours, and treatment was provided on an individual basis as per client requests/preferences. Additional information on areas treated, total treatment time and commonalities between treatments would have been beneficial to compare efficacy of treatment types. Limited information was available on the therapists involved in each treatment, details on therapists could also have been compared for efficacy of treatment (i.e. do they have additional training, or specific techniques they prefer to use.) If this study was conducted in the future it may be beneficial to develop treatment protocols, if results prove effective the treatment could be implemented as a standard method for treating active labor pain. A variety of protocols could be developed for treating clients in labor and used based on individual client requests/needs. The researchers of this study indicate limitations to this study as; sample size, therapist fatigue/time restrictions (5 hour maximum treatment) and inability to blind participants or staff. (Janssen, Shroff, & Jaspar,

Massage offers therapeutic benefits for chronic pain management: From deep tissue massage to more gentle techniques, massage

Massage, whether we label it as a form of pampering or pain management, can greatly help with anxiety, depression, sleep quality, fatigue and concentration. Massages release endorphins- so these amino acids that work as the body’s natural painkiller increase our happiness. It is important to take note that experts have estimated approximately 99 percent of disease is stress-related, so one must manage this stress before it impacts our health negatively. Clients come out of massage clinics with a much better sense of perspective and clarity.

Anxiety is the body’s biological and psychological response to stressors. A stressor can be anything that cause an individual to feel threatened or cause stress. The body decides whether or not a situation is too difficult to deal with alone based upon past experiences and what it sees and hears. When a stressor is detected, the body’s stress response system known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), begins a surge of biological events. As a result, the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released. In the brain, the hypothalamus will then send a chemical message to the pituitary gland. However, people can

Biofeedback is a process that allows patient’s to develop awareness over certain functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and EEG rhythms. Patients are taught how to monitor and control these body responses, which results in relaxation, and a relief from certain types of pains. Biofeedback has been efficiently used to relieve headaches and hypertension. Relaxation and meditation techniques provide muscle relaxation and physical relaxation to the patient’s mind and body. The technique eliminates distractions allowing the patient to focus on one single thing to promote relaxation, and increase a sense of awareness. These techniques are known to be affective in stress related circumstances because, it encourages individuals

Having all comes at a price, so one will have to sacrifice sleep and sometimes even self care to get work done. A person could multi task or wake up early in the morning, but will they really be taking care of themselves the way they should. So, how does one maintain luminous and strong hair while doing paperwork or reading 50 pages a night? The Scalp Massager might just be the answer. This paper will be discussing the ways this improved invention benefits the body, one way the machinery functions, and another way that could contribute to giving someone the sense of a real massage.

Older individuals experiencing cognitive impairments such as dementia, experience depression, agitation, stress, anxiety, and sleep disturbances at one point or another. These problems become extenuated as the individuals become institutionalized and contribute to rising cost of care; in 2003 the estimated cost of care for institutionalized dementia patients was $48.6 billion (Holliday-Welsh, Gessert, & Renier, 2009). Massage therapy is a method that enhances sensory stimulations, consequently leading to relaxation to and regulation of the circadian rhythm and resulting in sleep promotion. In addition, massage therapy can increase nighttime sleep through neurological mechanisms that reduce pain and muscle spasm; reducing factors that contribute