What is one treatment that can help with aging and feeling youthful? Massage. Recent scientific studies have concluded that with just one 60 minute session a month you can not only get rid of pain, but also reverse aging effects on your body (Caberlotto, et al., 2017)(Field, et al., 2009)(Yegorov, et al., 2020).
There are many studies available to read that talk about how stress and pain can actually cause a person to age (Yegorov, et al., 2020). It’s a known factor that being stressed too long shortens the telomeres on our DNA which leads to aging, cancer, and other negative, chronic conditions.
And, if you’re like most people, pain causes a lot of stress which can lead to premature aging too.
I have met with so many people over the last 5 years who tell me that their pain limits them. That it is all that they can think about. Or that they just wished it would go away.
Most people have also told me that the work I do with them lessens their pain OR even entirely gets rid of it (read some of their testimonials here).
We’re all familiar with massages lessening or getting rid of pain, but can they really make you look and feel younger?
Scientists have concluded a lot of objective data that says this is so. One such person is Dr. Tiffany Field who founded the touch institute after seeing her baby recover so fast in the NICU with massages. This inspired her to look more into touch and it’s health benefits. I’ll list a few scientific findings on touch and aging below that might interest you.
Massage Can Help You Reverse Stress Induced Aging Due to Inflammation
Yegorov and team found that a person who is consistently stressed actually ages faster (2020). One thing that happens when the body is consistently stressed is that it releases inflammation and it’s this inflammation that causes what they call inflammaging (nice word creation there!). This just means that chronic inflammation ages you. Not good.
In another article, Dr. Tiffany Field has shown how massage can actually combat this by helping the body get rid of inflammation and then be able to function normally so as to heal up and reverse cellular damage related to aging (Field, 2014)(Field, et al., 2009).
Relaxation also helps to reduce cortisol and increase serotonin and dopamine, both of which signal enjoyment and pleasure in the body. Both of which also help with healing (Field, et al., 2009).
Serotonin is generally known as the “feel good” hormone, but it also helps with cardiovascular function, bowel motility, and bladder control (Berger, et al., 2009). It definitely helps to have normal levels of serotonin! If you have a healthy nutrition and waste exchange going on in your body you will age slower and keep your youthful look and vitality longer.
Dopamine does a ton of good in the body, but one major thing it helps with is motivation. It helps people feel like the end goal is worth the cost getting there. So, if you’re struggling to reach new goals, maybe consider getting a massage and reassess your goals afterwards. See if you don’t feel like they’re worth working towards (examples could include trying a new diet, starting a new exercise regime, or simply just giving up something that’s bad for you).
Once out of chronic stress the body now uses resources to heal up damaged tissues (vs. the inflammatory response), and detox waste, all of which make a person look and feel younger. Remember, nutrient and waste exchange help you keep your youth longer. It can also reverse pre-mature aging.
Massage Can Reduce Wrinkles and Skin Textures
One study showed how massage reduced wrinkles in the face, forehead, lips, and cheeks, and also reduced the severity of sagging neck and skin texture (Caberlotto, et al., 2017). They also showed how massage aided in increasing amounts of Collagen 7, Collagen 4, Decorin, Fibrillin, Tropoelastin, and Procollagen 1 all of which help to make the skin tighter, healthier and younger.
Talk about an easy and feel good kind of way to make yourself better looking!
Two examples I was personally amazed at were two women I got to work with. One lady was 50 years old and she looked like she had the body of a 35 year old! I was shocked when she told me her age.
Her secret? She tried very hard to get a massage once a week. She just made it a priority and she definitely has the results of youthfulness in her body.
The second example was a woman who was 82 and she looked like she just turn 60. She told me she did no surgeries, no injections, nothing – except massage! I even prodded her with questions to see if she just forgot anything in taking care of herself but she said she never tried anything else. She’d been getting massages off and on for decades. I was amazed. I wish I could show you pictures.
Massage Can Remedy Anxiety Disorders
Remember how we talked about stress aging the body faster than normal? Well being anxious, depressed, etc. definitely shortens one’s life.
In a study by Rapaport and team (2016) they showed how people who have anxiety and then get continuous massage (massage twice a week for 6 weeks in his experiment) had major decreases in their baseline scores of anxiety!
Now maybe it’s not feasible to get a massage twice a week due to time and financial limitations, but even getting just one massage a month works miracles on one’s health.
With less stress comes less pain AND less pre-mature aging.
Massage Can Decrease Fatigue
Maybe you’ve heard the saying that one hour of massage has similar health effects as seven hours of sleep? There may actually be some truth to this!
Sleep effects every part of the human body. The U.S. Department of Health and Human services says that, “Sleep affects almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance. Research shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity.”
Interestingly enough, massage can effect each of these systems too as found in Field’s work (2014).
One study by Kinkead and team (2018) found that Swedish massage actually decreased cancer-related fatigue! Pretty impressive.
When you’re tired and worn out your body is trying to tell you to stop and rest. When you keep pushing yourself you don’t give your body time to heal up, rebuild, and become optimal again. This leads to rapid aging.
To combat that, massage not only lowers blood pressure, soothes the broken heart, boosts immune function, improves mental health, manages your pain and improves your physical fitness, but it does all this in less time than just allowing your body to heal normally (25, n.d.).
Massage is one of the few medicines that can speed up recovery without adding any negative side effects.
This all contributes to your feeling and actually being younger. Your tissues will become healthier as shown in Caberlotto’s and team’s study. You delay the degradation of your cells, tissues, and DNA and this leads to youthful vitality throughout your life span.
Conclusion
Now there is a ton more I could write about on how massage can help you keep your youthfulness so keep in touch.
Massage isn’t a fix-all, but it definitely can help aid in a multiplicity of health aspects and problems.
If you want to look and feel younger, get rid of inflammation, strengthen your soft tissues (skin, muscles, etc.), de-stress, and give yourself time to rest (diet is important too, and I’ll write more about that in the future).
If you struggle to find time to do any or all of these then come get a massage. You’ll not only enjoy the healing and relief, but you will also get a side effect of feeling and looking younger. And all of this in a shorter amount of time.
Sources
Kinkead, B., Schettler, P. J., Larson, E. R., Carroll, D., Sharenko, M., Nettles, J., Edwards, S. A., Miller, A. H., Torres, M. A., Dunlop, B. W., Rakofsky, J. J., & Rapaport, M. H. (2018). Massage therapy decreases cancer-related fatigue: Results from a randomized early phase trial. Cancer, 124(3), 546–554. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.31064
Berger, M., Gray, J. A., & Roth, B. L. (2009). The expanded biology of Serotonin. Annual review of medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5864293/
Caberlotto, E., Ruiz, L., Miller, Z., Poletti, M., & Tadlock, L. (2017, March 1). Effects of a skin-massaging device on the ex-vivo expression of human dermis proteins and in-vivo facial wrinkles. PloS one. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5383004/
Field, T. (2014, November). Massage therapy research review. Complementary therapies in clinical practice. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5467308/
Field, T., Hernandez-reif, M., Diego, M., Schanberg, S., & Kuhn, C. (2009, July 7). Cortisol decreases and serotonin and dopamine increase following … Taylor and Francis Online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207450590956459
Rapaport, M. H., Scheduler, P., Larson, E. R., Edwards, S. A., Dunlop, B. W., Rakofsky, J. J., & Kinkead, B. (2016, July). Acute Swedish massage monotherapy successfully remediates symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder: A proof-of-concept, randomized controlled study. The Journal of clinical psychiatry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27464321/
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Brain basics: Understanding sleep. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-understanding-sleep#:~:text=Sleep%20is%20important%20to%20a,up%20while%20you%20are%20awake.
Yegorov, Y. E., Poznyak, A. V., Nikiforov, N. G., Sobenin, I. A., & Orekhov, A. N. (2020). The Link between Chronic Stress and Accelerated Aging. Biomedicines, 8(7), 198. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines8070198
25 reasons to get a massage: Amta. American Massage Therapy Association. (n.d.). https://www.amtamassage.org/find-massage-therapist/25-reasons-to-get-a-massage/
