Did You Know the Five Surprising Benefits of Massage?

To the people who know about massage and what it can do, this will be preaching to the choir. But to those who do not you will find an article published in Newsweek on September 4^th quite surprising to quote the article.

I recommend this article as a very good read about the benefits of massage.  Move your mouse over the title and click on it to link to the article.

Five Surprising Benefits of Massage

By Temma Ehrenfeld

Massage is available at my office located in Downtown Silver Spring, MD, close to Washington DC and just blocks from the Red Line’s Silver Spring Station.

Simeon Pollock Present at Bill Signing

Simeon Pollock was present on Thursday April 24, 2008, as Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law an act creating the Maryland State Board of Chiropractic and Massage Therapy Examiners.

Holistic Massage in Washington, DC

I’ve been performing holistic massage in the Washington, DC area for the past five years. Over that time, I’ve noticed that patients who are seeking holistic massage are usually suffering from stress.

Here is a Holistic Health Minute I recorded about the benefits of holistic massage:

Holistic massage is an integral part of Chinese medicine. Human beings have suffered from stress since they were tossed out of the Garden of Eden and holistic massage has been there for thousands of years, helping to relieve the stress and provide health benefits.

If you’re in the Washington, DC area, Wholistic Family Healthcare is located in downtown Silver Spring, steps from the Metro’s Red Line. Call for an appointment 301-495-0303

Stress in Your Workplace?

In an article published in the Business section of the Washington Post on February 19, 2008, author Vickie Elmer discussed the effects of stress in the workplace.

In her article, Ms. Elmer that if you are “angry and overloaded because your hours keep growing as the staff gradually shrinks, don’t expect much help from management.” [Read more]

Top Ten List to Avoid Low Back Injury While Shoveling!

Every Winter the snow falls and most people don’t think twice about grabbing that shovel and heading out the door to shovel the walk, driveway or dig the car(s) out. Every winter I get people coming in to see me for relief from their aching back. Most of the time it is their lower back that has seized up, or as I like to say - went into spasm.

These injuries are preventable for the most part. [Read more]

Stress and You II

A colleague of mine just told me about a wonderful thing she did for herself. She went on a spiritual retreat. It was not with a revival group or anything like that. It was just her and some things she does to revive her spirit.

What she did was so simple, yet so powerful. [Read more]

Stress and You

Let me ask you something; what is the one thing in your life you could have less of and be a much happier person? If you said stress, you were right. I’ll have you know, stress in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is our body’s natural early warning system. It is the system that makes your hair stand on end when your gut tells you something is wrong. It initiates what is called the fight or flight response in your body.The problem with stress is when we have too much of it, when we have it all the time. It is like I tell my patients; you can’t always have the army out looking for a perceived enemy. The soldiers get burned out and tired. It is the same thing with stress. Having constant stress is like always having your army on high alert. The system that governs it the autonomic nervous system - gets burned out, so to speak.

So what to do? what to do? Well let me suggest a few ideas. First, take a walk and think about something pleasant. Second, pick up the phone and schedule a massage for yourself. Massage of any type is very calming. According to the Touch Research Institute in Florida, touch has unique ability to reduce stress hormones and improve immune system function. According to one study they did, it was found that massage therapy reduced anxiety, depressed mood, salivary cortisol (stress hormone) levels and body dissatisfaction.

Massage increases endorphin levels in the body. Endorphins are the body’s natural feel good hormone that helps with pain relief. Endorphins (or more correctly Endomorphines) are inherent opioid biochemical compounds. They are peptides produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in animals with spines, and they resemble opiates in their abilities to produce pain relief and a sense of well-being. In other words, they might work as “natural pain killers”. In fact the receptors in the brain that endorphins attach to are the same receptors that morphine would attach to.

In1999 clinical researchers reported that inserting acupuncture needles into specific body points triggers the production of endorphins [1]. In another study, higher levels of endorphins were found in cerebrospinal fluid after patients underwent acupuncture.

In my clinic I use a combination of massage, acupuncture and aroma therapy to induce a state of relaxation. This powerful treatment which I have used on many patients in combination with required “homework” has been a boon for my patients. Many have related being a “different person” at home and not being so quick to anger at other times. Don’t you owe it to yourself as well as your loved ones to be the best person that you can be? Wouldn’t you love to be more relaxed and calmer? It is possible, you can do it! Calm happy people are productive people. Who today would not want to be more productive? So take some time each week to focus for an hour on yourself. Invest in yourself, the dividends could be enormous.