If you’ve received a professional massage even once, you know how much better you feel after just a few minutes on the table. But your physiological response goes deeper than simple relaxation.
According to Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Miami, FL, massage, whether applied by hand or by a premium massage chair, “can improve a person’s emotional health by reducing stress and stress hormones; by increasing serotonin and thereby reducing depression and pain.”
Massage can also help individuals with low serotonin levels because it boosts the body’s natural ability to produce serotonin. Research cited on the website Everyday Health indicates that regular massage can increase serotonin levels and prompt a subsequent drop in depression and pain.
Massage therapy is also useful for trauma victims who, aside from physical pain itself, often hold memories of past events in their muscle tissues. Massage can help a victim of trauma get back in touch with their body and access deeply held emotions.
Even among cancer patients, massage has powerful and positive effects. Researchers have found that six thirty-minute sessions over the course of two weeks can significantly reduce pain and enhance mood.
Essential to unlocking the benefits of any massage therapy is moderate pressure. “Moderate pressure is the key factor for massage therapy to be effective,” says Dr. Field. And because your massage chairs offer variable controls of intensity as well as duration, you can dial in the right type of treatment for mood enhancement. Good moderate pressure massage chairs are all of the Panasonic massage chair lines.
So enjoy the mood-enhancing benefits of massage any time in your own home with a premium massage chair.
Vann, MPH Madeline R. “Massage and Emotional Wellness.” EverydayHealth.com, 22 Dec. 2009, www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/the-benefits-of-massage.aspx.
“How Regular Massage Boosts Your Mood.” Better Health Solutions, 25 Feb. 2017, www.betterhealthsolutions.org/regular-massage-boosts-mood/.
