relationships when we find ourselves craving the physical presence of the new romantic partner. Physical touch has also been proven to boost our immune system and lower our blood pressure. “Warm, friendly patterns of touch also calm down the recipient’s neurophysiology of stress. In one study, simply holding the hand of a loved one deactivated stress-related regions of the brain when anticipating going through a stressful experience” (Keltner, 2017). As massage therapists, we already knew this, but it is important to remember the natural, positive biochemical effects that we can create, especially as we compare them to pharmaceutical tools for reducing stress and anxiety. as a component of the solution. This starts with educating ourselves, the medical community, and the general public. The opioid crisis that is happening right now in the United States is another medication problem to face, especially when you consider that most opioids are prescribed as a treatment for pain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated: Millions of Americans suffer from pain and are often prescribed opioids to treat their conditions. However, the dangers of prescription misuse, opioid use disorder, and overdose have been a growing problem throughout the United States. Since the 1990s, when the amount of opioids prescribed to patients began to grow, the number of overdoses and deaths from prescription opioids has also increased. Even as the amount of opioids prescribed and sold for pain has increased, the amount of pain that Americans report has not similarly changed. From 1999 to 2016, more than 200,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999. (CDC, 2017) By the same token, the majority of people who seek massage therapy are looking for a way to treat pain, but very few physicians are prescribing massage therapy as a much safer option to try first. We can speculate that perhaps that can be blamed on the tight hold the pharmaceutical industry has on the health care system in the United States. There is less corporate profit to be made by recommending alternative and natural therapies to deal with pain. It is a constant uphill battle that we in the massage industry face.
perhaps unconsciously, physical human contact. Virtual human contact that we participate in online is rapidly replacing real human contact and social engagement. But at what cost? Besides the overstimulation of the brain, the body suffers from lack of touch, which is fundamentally important for primates like us. Humans, like the other primates, communicate with each other through touch in subtle ways that we cannot communicate through language alone. Physical touch triggers the release of oxytocin, the “feel good” hormone, as well as increasing levels of dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that affect mood and anxiety levels. This is what creates the excitement we experience in new romantic Overmedication WHO released a report conducted by Medco Health Solutions, Inc., called “America’s State of Mind” that analyzed the use of psychological medications (antidepressants, antianxiety treatments, ADHD treatments, and antipsychotics) to treat behavioral and psychological disorders between 2001 and 2010 (see Section 5: References for a link to the report). The report showed a 22% increase in the use of these medications in those 10 years, with an average of one in five adults using them regularly. The report also indicated that an estimated 40 million American adults suffered from anxiety disorders in 2010. But perhaps the most alarming data in this report were the almost 50% increase in the use of antianxiety medications for children ages 10 through 19 during those 10 years. IQVia, a database tracker for the United States health care industry, documented that in 2017, 389,558 children ages 0 to 5 years old were prescribed antianxiety medications, and the total was even higher for children ages 6 to 12 years old (see Section 5: References for link to report). Those numbers indicate an incredibly high number of preschool-aged children being treated for anxiety. Additionally, many antianxiety drugs are believed to be addictive. These numbers then raise some important questions: Are our kids really that stressed? If so, are these medications being overprescribed? Why are they being prescribed? Whether we are looking at the symptom or the disease with these statistics, what we, as massage therapists, need to be promoting is our own profession
SECTION 3: HOW CAN MASSAGE THERAPY HELP?
yet discovered its role as part of an integrated self-care plan. When you provide that ahhhhhhhh … feeling to your clients day after day, it can be easy to take the power of our skills for granted and forget about the tremendous impact we can have on our clients. In the following section of this course, we will discuss this potential impact as well as some dos and don’ts to maintain our professionalism. body as the sympathetic nervous system and fight-or-flight response. When the parasympathetic nervous system kicks into gear, the body conserves energy by slowing down the heart rate, and the intestinal tract is relaxed and allowed to function optimally. These changes also have an effect on the brain by altering the hormone and neurotransmitter levels in the body. “The relaxation response is a state in which your heart and breathing rate slow, your blood pressure goes down, your production of stress hormones decreases, and your muscles relax. The relaxation response also seems to increase the available level of serotonin, which is a chemical
Do you remember how you felt after receiving your first massage? You likely walked out of that session with the “ ahhhhhhhh …” feeling that we enjoy providing for our clients. It is an undeniably blissful feeling. Chances are, because you have chosen massage therapy as your profession, that your first massage was a life-changing experience. It is important for us to remember that feeling as we welcome new clients into our practices, and continue to be the voice of massage therapy for those who have not What happens to the body and brain during massage? Getting a massage feels good, but why? What exactly happens in the body and brain to give us that feeling? Just as there is the stress response discussed previously in this course, there is also a relaxation response that can take place in the body during a massage. The relaxation response is the combination of neurological, biochemical, and physiological changes that occur when the parasympathetic nervous system takes over to create that ahhhhhhhh … feeling. The parasympathetic nervous system engineers the relaxation response, also known as the rest- and-digest response , triggering the opposite actions in the
EliteLearning.com/Massage-Therapy
Book Code: MNJ0524
Page 16
Powered by FlippingBook