Can Massage Help With Stress?

Stress is an unavoidable eventuality of life. We all experience it to varying degrees. “On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means you have “little or no stress” and 10 meaning you have “a great deal of stress” the average American has a stress level of 5.” Integrative health experts across the country agree that massage therapy could play a major role in helping manage the stress epidemic. 

Stress is both a physical and psychological response to “threats” when a human feels threatened their body activates resources that trigger the fight or flight response. There is an immediate stress response that triggers adrenaline in the body and a secondary long term response from the stress hormone, cortisol. 

The stress response is woven into our biology and was designed to keep us alive in dangerous situations meant only to last a few minutes, maybe a few hours. The problem we're seeing now is stress lasting much longer than this, sometimes days or weeks at a time! This is very destructive to the body. Let's break down the ways stress affects us physically.

• Stress increases blood flow to our muscles so we can respond to danger but over the long term can lead to increased tension.  

• Heart rate and blood pressure increase during times of increased stress 

• Stress causes our respiratory system to work harder (in times of danger this helps increase oxygen in case of need of rapid response)

• Stress shuts down our gastrointestinal system. In times of high stress the body shuts down functions it does not immediately need.

• It can also affect the reproductive system as it is seen by the body as another nonessential function.

There is a misunderstanding that massage is only meant for pampering oneself. While that can be true for some people, most people will need massage throughout their lifetime to help manage anxiety, depression, and trouble sleeping. We can’t shut down our body's natural reaction to stress levels. 

Massage’s effect on the body is clear. We have many scientific studies that have proven this over the years. Massage can: 

• Decrease heart rate

• Decrease blood pressure

• Naturally lower cortisol levels

• Increases the release of serotonin, the neurotransmitter that helps increase happiness and reduce feelings of depression.

The state of your physical body will have an effect on your mental state. By tightness and tension in our muscles, tendons, and ligaments, we can put the body into a state of deep relaxation. This can help your body and brain deescalate from its emergency state and help the nervous system regulate. Remember, stress is inevitable and a necessary function we evolutionarily adopted.  But living in constant stress is not normal and detrimental to our health.

There's no direct way to stop the body from producing stress hormones but we can change our response to stress. Massage being a clinically proven way to do so! 

While massage therapists cannot diagnose or prescribe medications they can offer valuable tools to help keep clients stress levels in check in between appointments. Adding in practices like meditation, yoga, stretching, and lifestyle changes like decreasing alcohol and caffeine consumption can help manage stress levels.

 If you struggle with your stress levels, massage can be an invaluable tool to add to your weekly, biweekly, or monthly self care routine. Experience all that medical massage has to offer by scheduling an appointment!