Transformative Essay: Massage Therapy For Stress Prevention

From the earliest of times, massage, which is the manipulation of body tissues for a therapeutic purpose, has been used by stroking or rubbing parts of our body that are experiencing pain.

Outline and evaluate research into the relationship between the immune system and stress related illness

Massage is the motion of using friction and pressure to elevate both mental and physical health issues. Conventionally people use it to relax their body and mind but when used as complimentary therapy it has many other uses, these are improving blood and lymphatic circulation, improve tissue permeability, improve micro circulation, stretch muscles and tissue, reduce scar tissue, reduce stress, help you to relax and improve self-esteem.

Everyone experiences stress in a different way: some shut down while others cry or become frustrated. Moreover, although a instinctual necessity, too much stress can definitely cause problems for one’s physical or psychological well-being. When I get too stressed, for example, my immune system drops which causes me to get sick sometimes even three times in a month. Other times, I just have to take breaks from my responsibilities to prevent myself from breaking down or becoming so exhausted that I cannot finish the task at

Humans frequently turn on the stress response that was intended to assist our survival in reaction to the everyday challenges we face. Professor Michael Marmot conducted a study in England of 28,000 people’s health over a course of 40 years. Each person was a British

According to ***Carnegie Mellon University. (2012, April 2). How stress influences disease: Study reveals inflammation as the culprit. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 16, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162546.htm, being under a tremendous amount of stress prevents the cells in our immune system from responding to hormonal control, causing inflammation, which is responsible for cardiovascular, asthma, autoimmune and disorder . During the experiment healthy participants received a shot causing a cold virus to see how well the immune system fights off the virus while under stress. The purpose of the study was to figure out to reduce infection in a highly stressed individual. Being under stress can automatically create a negative mind frame; insyead of thinking how things can go right, we start to automatically think of how they can go wrong. Though we think negative being under stress helps increase our focus on more positive things. In Association for Psychological Science. (2012, February 28). Stress changes how people make decisions.

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

If you are into sports, now days there are also many sports teams that use massage therapists to increase players’ performance. Increased performance is also going into the business world; many corporations are staffing massage therapists because relaxation reduces stress and headaches. When these physical negatives are reduced, more work gets accomplished with fewer complaints.

When someone says “Sports Massage” what comes to mind? Is it a large person with a white golf shirt and khaki chinos pressing their elbow in to a scantily clad football player’s back? Is it a person at the end of a five kilometer run, with a massage table, a bottle of water and a banana for the participant? In many educational environments, sporting events like runs are used to complete student clinical hours, and to “spread to word about massage”, yet many massage therapists do not have specific training about what entails a sports massage education.

Massage therapy can help with alleviating muscle tension, diminishing stress, and bringing to mind feelings of calmness, along with helping chronic fatigue syndrome, easing chronic constipation, and enhancing self image. It also manipulates the activity of the musculoskeletal, circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems in the body. Clinical studies have revealed that massage relieves chronic back pain more effectively than other treatments and most times it is more cost effective than other treatments ("University of Maryland Medical Center").

Stress can get bad enough to where it starts to affect your body system. Things like depression, heart attacks, diseases, rashes and a low immune system can all occur to people dealing with stress bad enough. The number of common signs and symptoms is outrageous and is depressing to see that there are so many people dealing with this and how it’s such a common thing in this world. On stress.org, they talk about the different body systems and how they’re affected. The nervous, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastro and reproductive systems are all affected in some way and in many ways to say the least. If your stress ever gets so bad, I consider seeing a doctor or specialist seeing how dangerous this can get.

Stress is one of the number one causes that contribute to people’s health problems. According to Weber.edu, “in Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S.

(Preview) Massage is widely practiced throughout the world and was brought to the United States years ago, since then we have improved our techniques and processes. There are many types of massage therapy, which can help with all kinds of physical ailments as well as improve one’s wellbeing.

“Stress is a silent disease” (Doctor Hobel). Over the years, stress has played a major rule in a large majority of people’s lives throughout the United States. When thought about, it is said to be extremely surprising as to how many people really have stress in each individual’s life. People do not consider what the reasons are for the feelings and emotions they experience. There are all different types of stress, and stress can do a lot to a person. Each person also handles stress in a different way. Some can handle more than others, because every single person’s body works in a different way. Stress has also been told to cause people to act out of character (Dr. David Posen). They often do not act the way they usually would while under

    Stress today can be described as "that which disturbs a person's mental and physical well-being" (Morrison 1).  Common symptoms of stress include chronic fatigue, changes in appetite, drug and/or alcohol abuse,  difficulty sleeping, body aches, and changes in emotions (Cooper 1-2).  And although stress is something that is inevitable, it can be controlled.  Just about everything we do today creates stress, both good and bad.  In the face paced and technological world we live in, stress management is key to survival as well as sanity.