Hey GRAEt supporters,
I was sitting in front of my computer like many of you are probably doing right now and thought to myself… “I don’t get a massage often enough”…, which is ironic since I am a massage therapist. There are a number of common and lesser known fun facts about the benefits of massage that provide incentive so I decided to pay it forward by sharing a “touch” of what I know.
Here is a good study article I know you’ll enjoy regarding “the connection between therapeutic healing and embracing love”. The following case study was sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health:
All of the subjects were fitted with intravenous catheters so blood samples could be taken immediately before the massage and up to an hour afterward. To their surprise, the researchers found that a single session of massage caused biological changes. Volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system.
Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.
Oxytocin is best known for its roles in sexual reproduction, in particular during and after childbirth. It is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and uterus during labor, facilitating birth, and after stimulation of the nipples, facilitating breastfeeding. Recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin’s role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone”.
The inability to secrete oxytocin and feel empathy is linked to sociopathic, psychopathy, narcissism and general manipulative tendencies.
The wondering power of massage is endless; touch is the best form of connection and therapeutic healing opening gateways to embrace love within you by allowing the body to self-repair and increase enjoyments from all angles of your life, including feeling beautiful, sexy, confident and over all self-rewarded.
So stop stressing get a massage! Take it from me … “I’m a Massage Therapist!”
Even the lead author of the study, Dr. Mark Hyman Rapaport, chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai, said the findings were “very, very intriguing and very, very exciting — and I’m a skeptic.”
Cheers,
Carlos Bain – Master Massage Therapist, GRAE Therapy
