Hello, and welcome to the June 2010 newsletter! Do you remember when you were growing up and summer meant three months of vacation from your “day job,” going to school? How nice it would be to have that much holiday time to relax and enjoy the warm summer days!

Not many working-age adults have the luxury of that much free time, but you can get away from it all almost anytime—with a rejuvenating massage session. Your next mini-vacation is just a phone call away, so find an opening in your schedule and make that call!

If you’ll be traveling in the coming weeks, start that trip nice and relaxed by getting a massage just before you leave—or on your return, to handle the stress of touring. Remember, the purpose of taking a vacation is for rest and relaxation, and a massage is an ideal way to do just that.

This issue has more recent news on how massage can help you improve and maintain proper health. The better you feel, the more you can get out of life, so be sure to make your well-being a priority. As the years roll by, you’ll be glad you took good care of yourself now—there’s no better investment. See you soon!

Who do you know who could really use a mini-vacation?
Make their day with a gift certificate for a relaxing massage.
Call today!

Integrative Medicine: Human Touch Helps Healing

Of our five senses, touch is the only one that is essential to life. Studies on premature babies have shown a link between holding the babies and better survival rates. Touch has also been linked to many other health benefits – from decreased pain to increased immunity, enhanced alertness and improved performance.

Three new studies on massage reinforce the importance of touch to our lifelong health and well-being:

• Touch may help alleviate symptoms of depression, according to a March study in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The study reviewed 17 trials involving almost 800 people, comparing massage therapy with other approaches, including herbs, rest or no treatment.

The researchers hypothesized that touch may help reduce depression by inducing relaxation, reducing stress, building an alliance between the therapist and patient, and releasing the feel-good hormone oxytocin.

• Massage may help bereaved people. A study published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing looked at 18 people who recently had lost a relative to cancer. Hand or foot massage was performed once a week for eight weeks, and it was found that massage helped people deal with the grief and move forward in their lives.

• Massage can reduce anxiety. A recent study on 68 patients published in the journal Depression and Anxiety showed that patients had half the symptoms of anxiety and stress three months after getting a series of 10 hour-long massages. This is one of the first studies to look at the benefits of massage on generalized anxiety disorder...

Amid all these health benefits, it is interesting that in studies evaluating the frequency of touch in various countries, the United States and Britain had the least amount of touch in human interactions. We do not live in a society that celebrates touch.

Further, social isolation, and therefore touch isolation, is most likely to occur in the groups that can derive the most health benefits—the sick and the elderly.

So if you or a loved one faces depression or illness, consider the healing power of touch—whether in the form of a hug or a massage. It may be an important step in the healing journey.

Source: http://www.sacbee.com  (The Sacramento Bee)

Massage Therapy for Cancer Patients
By Kathleen Hall

Massages are a great way to relax, rejuvenate, and pamper yourself. What you may not know, however, is that massage also has therapeutic benefits for cancer patients.

Massage Therapy for Cancer — Numerous studies have shown massage therapy to be beneficial for cancer patients. In fact, about 20 percent of cancer patients have used massage therapy to reduce symptoms and improve healing, and it's one of the most commonly used pain management strategies for pediatric patients newly diagnosed with leukemia. In one study, patients who received massage therapy experienced a 60 percent reduction in pain and 24 percent reduction in anxiety. Massage therapy also significantly enhances relaxation. ...

Experts suspect that massage therapy increases serotonin and dopamine (neurotransmitters) and decreases cortisol levels, which tends to increase with stress and anxiety. Massage therapy also supports the body's natural immune system by stimulating lymph flow and pumping oxygen and nutrients into tissues and organs to improve circulation. In addition to reducing depression and anxiety, massage releases endorphins, or the feel-good hormones.

Source: www.qualityhealth.com

Handle Stress with Massage!

Need another reason to get that next stress-busting massage? Read on!

Stress and cancer — Stress can cause certain cancers to grow and spread, a new health study suggests. In the body, healthy cells typically need to maintain contact with other cells; if they float free, they die. Not cancer cells: They have the ability to break loose and disperse, causing multiple tumors. While studying ovarian cancer cells in the lab, researchers at the University of Texas in Houston found that stress hormones such as adrenalin activated a protein that helped the cancer cells survive unattached. In mice, the ovarian-cancer cells grew more quickly when the animals were put under stress or given an adrenalin-like drug. The researchers saw a similar trend at work in human patients with ovarian cancer: Those who had higher levels of stress hormones typically saw the disease progress faster. Researchers now will attempt to determine if reducing stress ... has an effect on cancer. “We’re really trying to understand the biology,” study author Anil Sood tells Scientific American. “We hope it will help us identify better therapeutic strategies.”

– The Week; Vol 10 Iss 461

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand,
as in what direction we are moving.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
— C. Northcote Parkinson

The content of this letter is not intended to replace professional medical advice.
If you’re ill, please consult a physician.
© 2010 Massage Marketing.   Used with permission; all rights reserved.