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February 2009 [Volume 8, Issue 2]
To Your Health is brought to you by:
In this issue of To Your Health:
Managing Your Stress With Massage
For those who feel a bit undeserving of the pampering, full-body massage, there's enough science on the health benefits to ease even the strictest conscience. Massage has been shown in scientific studies to help with serious medical conditions, including reducing pain and anxiety in burn and cancer patients, and relieving pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and surgery. It also can benefit people with eating disorders and Alzheimer's disease as well as reduce angst and withdrawal symptoms in people trying to kick cigarette and alcohol addictions. If your own medical condition isn't as serious, you'll be happy to know massage strengthens the immune system, makes workers more productive, improves sleep, and relieves tension headaches, migraines, and lower back pain.
If massage can provide such relief in the case of serious illness, how many more benefits can you reap when you're healthy, albeit somewhat stressed or frazzled from work, traffic or the daily demands of a fast-paced society? There is truly a biological component to stress, involving the release of certain neurochemicals and hormones into the body. These substances flood the nervous system with messages that essentially scream, "The sky is falling!" This repeated flooding of the emergency (or stress) chemicals can have a meaningful impact on health. All of this activity and a buildup of stress responses express themselves through the body. If one part of the posture is out of whack – say the shoulders are hunched forward – it throws off alignment throughout the rest of the structure. This adds up to tight muscles, compressed organs, pain and fatigue.
Massage offsets those "stress chemicals" by releasing endorphins (the body's natural anesthetic), countering the cortisol and adrenaline the body releases in response to stress or a perceived threat. We might ride the chemical roller coaster during the day as we try to pour 2 gallon's worth of activity into a 1-gallon container. And we may enter the massage room coiled like springs, wound tightly from driving, sitting in chairs, pushing shopping carts, and craning necks to hold a phone in place. However, massage will sooth that daily stress, decrease our anxiety and re-establishing balance and alignment.
Evidence suggests massage improves circulation and joint mobility, lowers blood pressure, and improves energy and concentration. With better circulation, more oxygen and nutrients reach your vital organs and tissues, and more lymph fluid flows to fight off disease. Massage also improves muscle function, flexibility, and range of motion, and decreases muscle spasms and cramping. A study by the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami showed less stress and improved performance for a small sample of employees (against a control group), who had twice-weekly, 15-minute massages in the office. Little wonder the Society for Human Resource Management reported in 2007 that 13 percent of its 210,000 member companies offer workplace massage, and an article in Working Mother magazine reported that 77 percent of the top 100 U.S. companies offer massage at work.
How to Stick With an Exercise Routine
Break up your workout. You don't need to exercise in a single block of time to see results. Simply take the stairs at work, park farther away from wherever you happen to be going (work, school, the grocery store, etc.), or walk over to a colleague's desk rather than phoning them, etc. Did you know you can potentially burn just as many calories throughout the day doing this as you would from huffing and puffing at the gym for hours? Make exercise a part of your daily life and you won't even know you are exercising!
Start small. Most people tend to overdo it when they first start an exercise program. We get so motivated that we start going to the gym every day. We try to do more than we can. Guess what happens? We get so sore or so burned out that we actually start hating it. Start off slow and pace yourself. This will always keep you going over the long haul.
Remember, you don't need to spend hours at the gym. Nowadays, even if you do decide to go to a gym, you can do a weight-training program in 20 minutes. If you don't know how, ask a trainer. More is not necessarily better. It's about efficiency and quality of exercise, not quantity. In fact, there are high-intensity cardio workouts that last only four minutes, if you can believe that, and they are used by professional athletes and other people who are exceptionally well-conditioned. If elite athletes are doing things in less time and seeing results, so can you. Always do full-body workouts, making sure you engage all your muscles. This always leads to better results.
Try new activities. The best way to prevent exercise boredom is to always seek new activities you can do during the year. Some activities that can give you a great workout just as well as conventional exercise include salsa or ballroom dancing, golf, swimming, or even an activity such as sightseeing around town. If you are going out for dinner, park as far away from the restaurant as possible and enjoy the walk there and back. These simple activities add up.
Write down your goals. Did you know one of the best predictors of success is writing things down? It's as simple as spending a minute at the start of each day writing down what you are going to do that day. This type of activity provides reinforcement that you have goals to achieve. Always follow the SMART rules of goal setting. This means each goal should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
No matter what your fitness level, time availability or motivation, taking simple steps to staying active is within your reach. Not only will you be able to do more, but you'll also have better overall health and a better ability to combat the stresses of everyday life. All it requires is a bit of your time in outlining your goals and what you will do to achieve them. Once you do, write down what you're going to do every day – and then do it! Only by committing to exercise on a consistent basis can you hope to follow through on a consistent basis.
Yoga combines physical and mental discipline to achieve peace of mind and strength of body. Various branches of yoga utilize different physical postures or asanas; however, each branch has several elements in common. The most important is the emphasis on the connection between the power of the mind and the body. Evidence suggests that when practiced consistently, yoga can tone and strengthen muscles, ease stress, and even help fight addictions.
Smoking is one such addiction that seems to respond to yoga. Kundalini yoga, in particular, is thought to benefit smokers in their battle to quit. Kundalini is one of the more vigorous forms of yoga. Strenuous and repetitive movements stretch people's limits. Particular attention to heavy breathing draws participants' focus to the lungs and their current health state.
The mind-body-spirit approach that yoga uses is becoming increasingly popular in addiction-recovery programs. Part of the addiction of smoking is associated with the mental comfort a cigarette provides. People who are addicted to a substance either have or develop anxiety. Smoking is used to alleviate that anxiety.
Yoga may help conquer other addictions such as shopping, gambling and drinking. It also recognizes that the addiction may be a symptom of another, larger emotional problem. For example, alcoholism may develop as a mechanism for dealing with depression, and some people smoke to deal with insecurity. By first realizing the larger spiritual or emotional problem, the addict can better use the serene poses and quiet thoughtfulness of yoga to explore the mind and focus energy on quitting. Consistent meetings or classes that addicts can attend for yoga also can help make them accountable for their path of healing, as well as providing a supportive community.
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