11/14/2011
Stressed Out?
How Massage Can Help With Stress
Stress, overtime, can cause harmful chemicals to accumulate in your body. To understand how stress affects the body, one must understand how the nervous system works. The nervous system is divided up into two parts: somatic system and the autonomic system. The autonomic nervous system is then divided up into two parts: the sympathetic nervous system, which helps respond to “fight-or-flight” stressors; and the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body recover from the sympathetic nervous system responses.
Sympathetic nervous system enforces stress on the body. It increases heart rate, increases blood pressure and causes adrenaline to inundate the body. These things are good in small amounts and in emergency situations, but nowadays people are under more stress. This causes the body to be flooded with adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is a chemical that gives orders to the body to react quickly. Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to long-term stress. When it lingers in the body it can cause weakened tissues: such as muscles, tendons and ligaments. This raises the risk for chronic back, neck and other injuries. Cortisol, also, suppresses the immune system.
Both of these chemicals are important to the body, but too much adrenaline and cortisol for long periods of time can cause serious illness and makes us more vulnerable to pain and injury.
The parasympathetic nervous system suppresses the release of adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones and returns the body back to a healthy state. It strengthens the body’s immune response and improves the body’s resistance to injury and disease.
Massage aids the body to flush out and neutralize stress hormones. Having regular massage therapy sessions helps the body’s immune system, reduces cortisol levels and helps tissues replace waste products for fresh nutrients.
