How Massage Helps the Nervous System
Massage therapy can be one of the best ways to maintain balance and help our nervous system. This is the system of communication within our body and determines how we can respond to the external world. Our different perception outside our body depends on it, and knowing that a basic massage can enhance this capability is very amusing. Our nervous system is made up of our brain, our spinal cord, and all the stimulation that goes through it. There are also nerve branches that are connected through the spine. They supply our limbs and organs. Spinal nerves supply the body, and head nerves are simply known as cranial nerves. Massage helps the nervous system in various ways.
A stimulus passes through our bodies by sensory receptors in our skin, soft tissue, and muscles. That information is transferred from to the nerves, going to the spinal cord and then the brain where it generates a conclusion on how our body should react or what it has experienced. Then our brain sends another signal through the motor nerves in which our body will react.
Massage is a great help to use in balancing our nervous system. It stimulates the central nervous system via the peripheral nerves in the skin. This stimulates the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is a component of the nervous system that regulates involuntary processes including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal. Regaining balance in this system is what massage therapy does; When stimulation occurs, the body refreshes and regenerates new perceptions that are very pleasant, it calms all the nerves and perception, giving the sense of balance that a client will always need.
The nervous system is a very complex network of nerves and cells that carry messages to and from the brain and spinal cord to various parts of the body. Our nervous system collects and processes information from the senses via nerves and the brain, and tells the muscles to move which results in physical actions. The nerves also innervate muscles and give them tone. The following lists are the more detailed benefits and positive effects of massage therapy on the body’s nervous system:
1. There is a general relaxation on the nerves, it will reduce all swelling and you may feel a great impact on a more relaxed heartbeat and stress on the head.
2. Massage helps to reduce pain; it redirects all the physical stress in a pleasant stimulation by pressing the muscles.
3. Massage helps increase our parasympathetic response, it neutralizes the body’s rest and digestion response when the body is relaxed, resting, or feeding.
4. It reduces facial and muscular tension on the body as well as reduction of joint stiffness from a massage can release good stimulus to the brain.
5. Massage also helps reduce musculoskeletal signs and symptoms of various disease states (Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s Disease, Buerger’s Disease, and other hyper/ hypotonicity syndromes and disease states).6. Massage helps reduce the body’s time spent in “sympathetic overdrive” where it can manifest as increased heart rate, increased respiration, increased blood pressure, diaphoresis, and hyperthermia, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the “fight or flight” response. It is activated when our body is really stressed. It reduces blood flow to the brain, extremities, and digestive organs in preparation for a perceived survival situation. When a person is constantly stressed, their nervous system can be forced to go on a sympathetic overdrive. If this only happens occasionally, the system usually has the resilience to recover. However, if the body is in a state of sympathetic overdrive, elevated levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, can lead to further damage to these tissues. Massage helps you fight stress and all other unpleasant stimuli perceived by the body.
Massage is one of the best ways to keep ourselves healthy and relaxed, our nervous system is one of the most sensitive parts of our body and it is very important to take care of it, here in “The Hands of Life”, we understand and respect our clients’ needs, we know you need to move away from stress and all other unpleasant things that happened outside your body. With our highly skilled practitioner, we can make sure that your nervous system’s health is in safe hands.