Massage produces benefits far beyond feeling great during and immediately after a session. While this is certainly an excellent reason to have massage, the real strength of massage is in preventing illness and conditions before they develop.
The greatest physiological change produced by massage therapy is the stimulation of the nervous system. Consequently, there are several benefits from this stimulation:
- Massage helps to balance the autonomic nervous system and is known to affect the neurotransmitters of the brain. This in turn increases endorphin secretion (natural pain killers) and helps reduce stress.
- Massage also stimulates the touch, pressure and proprioceptive receptors (the sense that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally) of the skin and underlying tissues.
- Massage can also help decrease nerve entrapment and reduce nerve root compression caused by muscle tension and therefore can be quite effective in treating and reducing pain.
- Massage is also known to reduce anxiety and depression due to the calming of the nervous system and can even help in treating restlessness and insomnia.
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