Did you know that getting a regular massage can decrease your blood pressure? Or how about help your chances of fighting cancer? Did you know that all the way back in 400 AD Hippocrates was prescribing massage to his patients? It’s true.

More recently, studies have been pouring in from all over the world confirming the many health benefits of massage. Doctors and scientist no longer see massage as just “alternative medicine”; now they’re actually advocating massage for the treatment of many types of diseases, as well as for disease prevention and recovery. Moreover, leading experts now estimate that 80-90 percent of all disease is stress-related. Wow, 80-90 percent! This speaks volumes about our current culture. However, it also offers us hope. Now that stress has been identified as a key cause of so many of our ailments, then by reducing stress and its ugly effects on our health we can also reduce our chances of getting sick. No longer is massage just a luxury. Instead, it is fast becoming a necessity to maintaining good health.

For example, were you aware that massage can also...

REDUCES POST-SURGERY SCAR TISSUE
Massage can reduce post-surgery adhesions & scar tissue after healing has occurred.

RELIEVES MIGRAINES
Reduce your dependence on medication.

RELAXES OVERUSED MUSCLES
Reduces recovery time, helps prepare for strenuous workouts and eliminates subsequent pains of the athlete at any level.

REDUCES MUSCLE CRAMPING AND SPASMS
Helps with atrophied muscles and reduces shortening of the muscles for those with restricted range of motion.

IMPROVES RANGE OF MOTION
Have shoulder or knee stiffness? Massage allows the release of muscle tension for optimal flexibility!

IMPROVES ATHLETE PERFORMANCE
Reduce the chance of injury, Improve range of motion and muscle flexibility, shorter recovery time between workouts Enhances elimination of metabolic by-products of exercise.

---

"MASSAGE: It’s real medicine"

An hour on the table can fight pain, boost your immunity, help you sleep and more!

Having your honey rub your back is nice, but it does not compete with the hands of a professional massage therapist. Research is now showing it can ease insomnia, boost immunity, prevent PMS and more. That is why some hospitals are offering it as treatment for surgical and cancer patients.

1) GOODBYE PAIN
It may sound so simple but massages help to decrease pain especially back and neck pain. Researchers at the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle found that massage works better than chiropractic therapy and acupuncture. There are several studies that show massage reduces levels of stress hormone cortisol while boosting the feel-good hormones serotonin and dopamine. These changes slow your heart rate, blood pressure, and help to block your nervous system’s pain receptors. Massage also increases the blood flow to the soft tissue allowing any muscle injuries to heal quicker. Massage eases the pain and distress from labor pain, migraines, Fibromyalgia and even cancer says Tiffany Field PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine.

2) DREAMS
Massage increases delta waves, which are the brain waves that are linked with deep sleep. That is why it is easy to fall asleep while on the massage table.

3) BRAIN POWER
The Touch Research Institute study found that a 15 minute chair massage boosted alertness. “Subjects reported that it felt like a runner’s high,” Field says. Tests also show that brain-wave activity stimulated by massage is linked to improved attention.

4) GET RID OF COLDS
Massage helps ward off colds by boosting your “natural killer cells” the immune system’s first line of defense against invading illness. Massage decreases cortisol levels which destroy the natural killer cells, thus giving your immune system a boost.

5) BYE BYE STRESS
More serotonin and dopamine and less cortisol in your system can also decrease stress, anxiety and depression. “We know that the right side of the frontal lobe of the brain is more active when we are sad, and the left side’s activated when we’re happy,” Field says. “Our studies have observed that massage decreases activity in the right lobe and increases functioning in the left.” The well-being people feel after a massage is a big reason why some hospitals offer it to anxious patients preparing for surgery and cancer patients going through treatments.

6) DECREASE PMS
A study of 24 women with severe PMS found that massage reduced symptoms such as pain, water retention, and mood swings.