Simple touch through massage increases health benefits

Rosalie Joan Yeager has magical hands. The Robie House Day Spa certified massage therapist focuses her energy to make her client's massage experience both relaxing and beneficial to their health. Massage provides another therapeutic element largely absent in today's world: tactile stimulation, or, more simply, touch. "It has been proven through medical studies that simple touch has many healing aspects," Yeager said. "Sexual and physical abuse victims, people with autism and others with similar afflictions respond very well to safe touch." Benefits of Massage Increases circulation, to allow the body to pump more oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs. Stimulates the lymph system, the body's natural defense, against toxic invaders. For example, in breast cancer patients, massage has been shown to increase the cells that fight cancer. Relaxes and softens injured and overused muscles.Reduces spasms and cramping.Increases joint flexibility. Reduces recovery time for strenuous workouts and eliminates subsequent pains of the athlete at any level.Releases endorphins, the body's natural painkiller. For this reason, massage is being incorporated into treatment for chronic illness, injury and recovery from surgery to control and relieve pain. Reduces post-surgery adhesions and edema and reduces and realigns scar tissue after healing has occurred. Improves range of motion and decreases discomfort for patients with low back pain.Relieves pain for migraine sufferers and decreases the need for medication.Provides exercise and stretching for atrophied muscles and reduces shortening of the muscles for those with restricted range of motion.Contributes to shorter labor and reduced tearing for expectant mothers, as well as lessens the need for medication, minimizing depression and anxiety, and shortening hospital stays.- Information compiled from www.massagetherapy.com.Yeager has been a certified massage therapist and teacher for 13 years. She tends to her clients' needs through hot stone massage, traditional massage, Craniosacral Therapy and more. "I really enjoy the Craniosacral Therapy and feel it's very important to trauma victims," she said. Craniosacral Therapy was pioneered and developed by osteopathic physician John E. Upledger following extensive scientific studies from 1975 to 1983 at Michigan State University.The therapy is a gentle, hands-on method of evaluating and enhancing the functioning of a physiological body system called the craniosacral system - comprised of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. Using a soft touch, practitioners release restrictions in the craniosacral system to improve the functioning of the central nervous system."Craniosacral Therapy has helped me so much over the years," said Donna Kuper, owner of Robie House Day Spa. "Effectively it has helped more than other forms of massage." Kuper said hot stone massage therapy is effective for muscle pain."The heat seeps into the muscles and allows the massage therapist to do a more effective massage because there isn't quite so much pressure on the hands. Clients love the hot stones. They emit good energy and are very relaxing."Auburn homeopath and chiropractor, Suzette Lanzarotta said touch is vital to life. "There are many clinical studies relating to the importance of touch for the health and development of human beings," she said. "This is especially important in children and the elderly. Touch provides validation and nurturing to both the emotional and physical state, dramatically impacting health and well-being. Without touch, human beings would wither and die." Striving for balance through touch is what the theory is based on. "Touch through massage allows our bodies to relax," Yeager said. "Through touch all the organs in the body relax and allow alignment when we are able to bring our mind and bodies into balance." Massage therapy addresses a variety of health conditions, the most prevalent being stress-related tension, which, experts believe, accounts for 80 to 90 percent of disease. "We all live in such a stressful world," Yeager said. "With stress being more prominent now that ever, gentle touch is so important to release the endorphins that promote health." According to the Web site www.massagetherapy.com, in 1986, the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami published groundbreaking research on the effects of massage on premature babies. The preterm babies who received massage therapy showed 47 percent greater weight gain and six-day shorter hospital stays than the infants who were not massaged. But is this study evidence of what loving touch can do spiritually, or rather what massage can do on a physiological level? Regardless, babies are not the only benefactors.Many adults have reported cathartic experiences on the massage table. As a therapist carefully unwinds a client's stressed and tired muscles, the therapist may very well be unwinding the taut, pent-up emotions that one doesn't always have time to process in the middle of the day. The feeling of being touched in a safe, caring, compassionate manner can be a very powerful experience, reminding the client that she or he is not alone in the world.Massage has been proven beneficial in treating cancer-related fatigue, sleep disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, low back pain, immunity suppression, spinal cord injury, autism, post-operative surgery, age-related disorders, infertility, eating disorders, smoking cessation, and depression, to name just a few.As studies continue to reveal the link touch and the physical and emotional health benefits, the effects of massage will continue to be studied. However, you only need to experience a good massage to know it's beneficial to body and soul.