Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress-related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. Massage is an effective tool for managing this stress, which translates into:

• Decreased anxiety.
• Enhanced sleep quality.
• Greater energy.
• Improved concentration.
• Increased circulation.
• Reduced fatigue.

Massage can also help specifically address a number of health issues. Bodywork can:

• Alleviate low-back pain and improve range of motion.
• Assist with shorter, easier labor for expectant mothers and shorten maternity hospital stays.
• Ease medication dependence.
• Enhance immunity by stimulating lymph flow—the body's natural defense system.
• Exercise and stretch weak, tight, or atrophied muscles.
• Help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover from, strenuous workouts.
• Improve the condition of the body's largest organ—the skin.
• Increase joint flexibility.
• Lessen depression and anxiety.
• Promote tissue regeneration, reducing scar tissue and stretch marks.
• Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs, improving circulation.
• Reduce postsurgery adhesions and swelling.
• Reduce spasms and cramping.
• Relax and soften injured, tired, and overused muscles.
• Release endorphins—amino acids that work as the body's natural painkiller.
• Relieve migraine pain.

If you Google "heart health," aside from all the drug ads, you will likely retrieve responses about healthy diet, exercise, and reducing stress. What you may not find, however, is how massage therapy influences the heart, by impacting the cardio-vascular system, autonomic nervous system (which controls heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, etc.), and even the endocrine system (glandular/hormones). Massage can create tremendous change in the bodies of your clients, and it is important and helpful to know how that change affects them.

Massage therapy creates changes in their blood pressure. Even when you perform the most basic methods of treatment like effleurage, the long superficial strokes, kneading, and tapotement stimulate receptors that send messages of relaxation to the central nervous system. These reflexes cause vasodilation, which is the widening of the blood vessels that results in decreased blood pressure and heart rate.

When you use more specific methods of treatment, such as neuromuscular therapy, typically aimed at breaking up scar tissue and freeing areas of immobilized muscle fibers or adhesions, one side effect can be an increase in blood pressure. With the use of ischemic compression, you allow the cardio-vascular system to move stagnant blood out of a tightened area and flood it with new, re-oxygenated blood that aids in healing the damaged tissue. This increased blood circulation can increase intra-vascular pressure. For most clients, this is a VERY good thing, as it provides their muscles with the oxygen they need to be healthy.

Due to the changes in blood pressure that can occur during and after a session of massage therapy, those with uncontrolled high or low blood pressure should avoid massage therapy unless they have received permission from their physician. It deserves mention, however, that there are studies showing the lighter forms of massage can aid in reducing hypertension in many cases.

In addition to the immediate effects on blood pressure, massage can help reduce the effects of stress on the body. Our autonomic nervous system has two "states of being" -- fight-or-flight (sympathetic nervous system) and rest-and-digest (parasympathetic nervous system). The sympathetic nervous system helps mobilize the body for action when we are faced with a stressful situation. Very often, the daily stresses of life, and sometimes even diet (especially excessive amounts of caffeine), cause our clients to stay in this fight-or-flight state, which has a negative effect on their bodies including increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Massage therapy can help the autonomic nervous system shift into the rest-and-digest state. Many studies have shown the effects of massage being not only decreased heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels, but also decreases in depression, hostility, and anxiety.

By taking steps to reduce the effects of stress on your clients, you can do their hearts a world of good. Remember the old adage, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and be proactive about the health of your clients. Tell them to eat right, move their bodies, do everything they can to keep stress at bay and have a happy American Heart Month.