Massage Benefits: Hands Reach More Than What The Skin & Muscles Feel
Getting a massage can do more than relax tired muscles. In a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, lead author Dr. Mark Hyman Rapaport was slightly intrigued by his findings.
“very, very intriguing and very, very exciting” – Dr. Mark Hyman said in an interview with Roni Caryn Rabin (The New York Times, September 21, 2010).
The study involves 53 healthy adults of whom 29 were assigned to a 45-minutes session of deep-tissue Swedish massage and the others to a session of light massage. The participants were fitted with catheters to get blood samples before and after the massage.
Much to their surprise, the researchers found out that a single Swedish massage session caused a significant decrease in levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in the blood and saliva. The subjects also had a significant increase of lymphocytes which are white blood cells that are part of our immune system.
On the other hand, the volunteers who were subjected to light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin (contentment hormone) and significantly larger decreases in adrenal coticotropin (hormone responsible for stimulating the adrenal glands to release cortisol).
Based on this study, we can conclude that with a few minutes of massage each day, we can reduce our stress levels and prevent ourselves from developing stress-related diseases. A daily 10 – 45 minutes light massage regimen would surely improve the quality of our day-to-day lives.
