February 2022
Hello, and welcome to this month's article! Well, the COVID-19 hits just keep on coming! Staying healthy these days has become quite a challenge. Let’s hope that this latest surge passes quickly and we have an easier, more normal future ahead.
Are you happy with your current level of health? Anything that you’d like to see improved? Most people would like to reduce their stress levels and get a better night’s sleep—two things that regular massage can help you to get.
This month’s issue has an interesting article on the importance of reducing stress for a longer life.
Stress is the precursor to most forms of illness and disease, so reducing your stress levels should be a high priority.
“Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress-related. Stress can interfere with your physical functioning and bodily processes. High blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and heart disease have been linked to stress factors.”
Source: nasdonline.org
Get healthy and stay happy. Enjoy your month; see you soon for your next massage!
Massage Therapy: What You Should Know
by Kathi Valeii
Cultures around the world have used massage since ancient times. It is one of the oldest techniques humans have used to treat pain. Today, massage therapy treats stress, anxiety, and certain health conditions.
Health Benefits of Massage Therapy
People use massage therapy for pain, muscle injuries, and supportive therapy for some health conditions. The overall benefits of massage may include:
- Relieves muscle tension
- Promotes better circulation
- Supports immunity
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Increases relaxation
- Faster healing from soft tissue injuries
- Reduces pregnancy pain and swelling
- Relieves fibromyalgia symptoms
- Reduces cancer pain
- Relieves constipation
- Improves sleep
Source: verywellhealth.com
Stress makes your genes age faster, but learning to relax helps you live longer
by Chris Melore
It’s no secret stress has a negative effect on the human body. However, a new study reveals that stress literally makes people age faster at a genetic level. Researchers from Yale discovered that experiencing stress speeds up the chemical changes in a person’s DNA that naturally occur as they age.
Previous studies have found that the "epigenetic clock" every person has is a better predictor of how long someone will live than their actual age. Using one of these genetic clocks, called “GrimAge,” the team examined two questions: Does stress affect the biological clock and Are there ways to slow that clock down?
Their findings reveal that although stress makes people age faster, strengthening your emotion regulation and self-control can block out the genetic impact of stress.
The Yale team studied 444 people between the ages of 19 and 50. They donated blood samples which the researchers analyzed using GrimAge as well as other biomarkers that measure a person’s health. The volunteers also completed a questionnaire which measured their levels of stress and how resilient they are to such mental strain.
After accounting for individual differences such as smoking habits, body mass index, race, and income, study authors found that chronic stress continued to accelerate aging. One of the biological side-effects of this was an increased insulin resistance in some participants.
Stress can be a trigger for disease
Continuous stress can lead to a higher risk of heart disease, addiction, mental health disorders, and obesity-related disorders like diabetes. Studies show stress even drains a person’s ability to control their emotions and think clearly.
However, just as people age at a biological level at different speeds, the study finds stress does not affect all people in the same way. Participants with high emotion regulation and self-control scores had more resistance to the effects of stress. They displayed less signs of aging and insulin resistance.
“These results support the popular notion that stress makes us age faster,” says study co-leader Zachary Harvanek in a university release. “But they also suggest a promising way to possibly minimize these adverse consequences of stress through strengthening emotion regulation and self-control.”
Simply put, researchers find that learning how to calm yourself down when under stress will not only make you feel better, but you’ll live longer as well.
“We all like to feel like we have some agency over our fate,” adds Professor of Neuroscience Rajita Sinha. “So it is a cool thing to reinforce in people’s minds that we should make an investment in our psychological health.”...
Source: studyfinds.org
Until you value yourself, you won't value your time.
Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
— M. Scott Peck
The content of this article is not designed to replace professional medical advice. If you’re ill, consult a physician.
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