How Massage Therapy and Healing Touch Benefits Weight Loss

 Millions of Americans will attempt to start their 2021 with a weight loss-focused resolution. Before you tackle your weight loss challenge, have you thought about incorporating regular massage therapy into your fitness plan? We all know that there are many benefits to regular massage therapy, but you might be surprised that massage therapy has many positive benefits for weight loss. 

Help with Weight Loss

In addition to healthy eating and regular workouts, specialized massage techniques can help you with your weight loss goals. Massage therapy breaks down subcutaneous fat that will help you get rid of unwanted cellulite. When you’re losing weight your body is working hard; massage therapy can help heal your muscles and treat the body pain you have to endure throughout your journey. After a relaxing massage, your body will feel recharged and ready to get back to work. 

A Partner in Your Corner

Losing weight is one of the most challenging things for you to accomplish. Going at it alone is tough. If you have a personal trainer, you’ll have someone in your corner helping to guide you along the way. Your massage therapist is also another great resource for support. You can talk to your therapist about your body, your concerns and any pain you might have. They’ll customize a massage to you, and they’ll be there to cheer you on throughout your weight loss challenge. 

Reward Yourself

One of the key ingredients to a successful weight loss plan is rewarding yourself for small accomplishments. Along with the health benefits, receiving regular massage therapy will act as a way to reward yourself for meeting a goal. Relax your body with massage after a tough workout as well as heal your mind. Losing weight is not just a physical change, as it also requires a mental change in attitude. After all, you’re changing your entire lifestyle, which is stressful. Massage therapy will ease your stress and allow yourself to reconnect with your mind and get rid of any negativity that might exist. 

There’s no hiding that losing weight is a challenging mission and it’s important to have a good plan in place. Consult with me before you begin your training regimen. We'll create a custom massage therapy program that will help you meet your weight loss goals.

Another therapy to consider while on your weightloss journey is Healing Touch. The following are areas in which Healing will help. 

Reducing Stress 

A study published in November 2016 in Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem found healing combined with massage led to a 21 percent reduction in anxiety levels, compared with a 16 percent reduction for massage alone. How does destressing help your weight-loss efforts? According to Harvard Health Publishing, stress is linked to weight gain because increased stress levels release the hormone cortisol, which amps up your appetite. Oftentimes, your go-to foods when you’re stressed will be unhealthy comfort foods that are high in fat, sugar, calories, or all of the above. Eating these kinds of food actually makes you become hungrier a short time later, so the cycle of increased calories continues.

Promoting Quality Sleep 

Although there’s no solid research showing this benefit, but better-quality sleep is one of the possible benefits of healing touch. That, in turn, could help your waistline the same way stress reduction does: by promoting healthier food choices. Normal-weight adults who are deprived of sleep for only a short period of time will have a boost in hormones that encourage eating high-fat and high-sugar foods. A review and meta-analysis published in November 2016 in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found sleep deprivation led people to consume 385 extra calories per day, on average, which can lead to weight gain over time.

Increased Mindfulness 

The Healing Touch benefit helps if called upon while eating. By not engaging in distracted eating, such as snacking while driving or watching TV, you may make better food choices. A review published in March 2018 in Current Obesity Reports says mindful eating can help with portion control and reduce food cravings, body weight, and BMI.

The Affects of Massage on Sleep

 

Massage and Sleep

Sleep is an important aspect of health and well-being. Though there doesn’t seem to be any magic number concerning the amount of sleep people require, getting too little is associated with a number of medical conditions, and can negatively impact a person’s overall health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions—such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression—which threaten our nation’s health. Notably, insufficient sleep is associated with the onset of these diseases and also poses important implications for their management and outcome.”

Some Recent Research: Low Back Pain and Fatigue

Some recent research is helping shed light on how massage therapy can be used to help people who have difficulty sleeping. One study of how massage therapy can benefit people with lower back pain and sleep disturbances found that the massage therapy group experienced less pain, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance when compared to the group using only relaxation therapy.

This study comprised 30 adults with low back pain with a duration of at least six months. Randomly assigned to either massage therapy or relaxation therapy, each group had 30-minute sessions, twice a week for five weeks. On the first and last day of the five-week study, participants completed questionnaires and were assessed for range of motion. Along with the benefits for depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance, the massage therapy group also showed improved trunk and pain flexion performance.

A 2010 study investigated the effects of massage therapy for sleep quality on patients who had coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The study evaluated whether massage therapy would be effective in improving sleep quality in patients.

The 40 participants of the study were randomly assigned to a control group or massage therapy group following discharge from the intensive care unit. For three nights, the massage therapy group received massage while the control group did not. The patients were evaluated the following morning using a visual analogue scale for pain in the chest, back and shoulders, as well as fatigue and sleep.
 
Interestingly, pain in the chest, shoulders and back decreased significantly for both groups from day one to day three. The participants in the massage therapy group, however, had fewer complaints of fatigue on day one and day two, as well as reporting more effective sleep during all three days.

Create a Plan

Is it time to create a wellness plan to combat your nights of endless sleep? Are your aches and pains keeping you up at night? It could be that you may need more frequent, short massages to manage the present health condition. This may increase your sleep quality then allowing you to get back on track with your monthly massage program. 

I offer 15 minute and 30 minute massage sessions to help combat these minor problems. 

Hope to see you soon - Have a great day. 
Nancy

mcshane.massagetherapy.com

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3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Sleep Your Stomach

Before you lay down on that bed and fall a sleep, let's look at what you're doing to you body.

I understand that the last thing anyone wants to think about after a long day is how they are sleeping. Does it matter how you are 'RESTING.' Sadly it does. It impacts how you will feel the next day and over time this behavior will compound the symptoms that will become the very thing keeping you up at night and possibly unable to do your job the next day. 

The main problem with this position is that you must turn your head to one side in order to breathe effectively. People tend to consistently turn their head to the same side as a preference: the long-term result can be "wear and tear" on the joints of the cervical spine and unfortunately we also engage our arms while we're sleeping so our shoulder and wrist joints become victims of this whole process as well. 

3 Reasons Why It's Not Good for You

1.  Strain on the Spine

As you've probably already heard, many people who sleep on their stomach experience some kind of pain—whether it is in their joints, back, or neck. It is sure to affect how much sleep they get during the night. Such pains usually lead to waking up in the middle of the night, directly affecting the amount of sleep that you'll get, which then leads to a feeling of discomfort during the rest of the day.

This stress on the spine leads to increased stress on the rest of your body structure and, additionally, to pain in all parts of the body, since the spine could be considered as a pipeline for the nerves. It also leads to sensations such as numbness and tingling, which are rather uncomfortable.

2. Pain in the Neck

Just like with the spine, sleeping on your stomach may also cause neck problems. Unless you manage to find a way to breathe through the pillow, you have to turn your head to one side when you're sleeping on your stomach. This causes your neck to be twisted, putting your spine and head out of alignment, leading to some severe damage. You probably won't notice this damage after only one night, but the problems will unquestionably become evident over time.

One of the biggest neck problems that you certainly don't want to experience is the so-called herniated disk. This issue appears when the spinal vertebrae shift enough to cause a rupture of the gelatinous disk inside, causing the gel to leak out and irritate the nerves. This is very painful and requires professional treatment to heal.

2. Shoulder and Wrist Pain

Most of the belly sleepers I see have spent a life time with their arms wrapped around their head in an effort to find comfort. Over time this wears out the joints and ligaments. They state feeling numbness in arms and wrist pain.