Doesn’t everyone love a massage?
The Mayo Clinic supports massage for relief of stress and pain as well as for promotion of the healing of various medical conditions. You may find a host of massage therapists locally using the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) website including therapists in Ankeny, Des Moines, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines, or many other communities across the country., or you can find many more in the Yellow Pages.
Jennifer Main (owner of Massage Heights in Ankeny, a franchise headquartered in San Antonio, Texas) would prefer that you visit Massage Heights. She passed along the following comments about the benefits of massage.
For many, thoughts of having a massage conjure up images of getting a relaxing rubdown in a lavish beachside resort.
While massages may have been more of a luxury item in the past, today more and more American’s are getting massages because of their health related benefits.
According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), 36 percent of adult Americans who received a massage in the past 5 years did so for medical purposes, such as for muscle soreness and spasm, injury recovery and rehabilitation, and pain relief.
Besides helping to relieve pains associated with things like muscle soreness and back pain, there are also several other not as commonly known health benefits of a massage.
Other benefits include boosting the body’s immune system, easing post-operative pain, reducing headache frequency, easing alcohol withdrawal symptoms and decreasing the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Massages have even been shown to decrease pain and anxiety in hospitalized cancer patients.
With all of these benefits, healthcare professionals are more frequently promoting the benefits of massage therapy to their patients. Last year, the AMTA reported that 13 percent of adult Americans discussed massage therapy with their doctors, with more than half of those doctors strongly recommending it.
So when thinking of a way to reduce stress and relieve some of those aches and pains at the same consider visiting your local massage therapist.
photos by flickr by zen118
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