Anxiety
Anxiety is a fairly common mental state, sometimes called a condition or disorder, that can lead us to modify our behavior. It affects our choices and creates physical changes in the body.
There are probably a lot of different nuances or degrees of severity with anxiety, that’s beyond the scope of my knowledge.
Everybody pretty much knows that thoughtful and sensitive massage is a relaxing experience. But what does that mean? Is the act of relaxing related to changes in the body, and in the emotions, that have clinical significance in the reduction of anxiety?
A study published in the journal Depression and Anxiety found participants who received regular massage therapy for 12 weeks had a 50 percent reduction in anxiety symptoms. One of the ways this is measured is by testing cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone associated with the fight or flight (technically the “sympathetic”) response of the nervous system, and is elevated in people with anxiety.
A single massage can lower cortisol by up to 30%.
A recent German study found elevated myofascial (meaning the combination of muscles and connective tissue) stiffness and lower tissue elasticity in the posterior neck and upper back muscles among people with major depressive disorders when compared with a control group. This marks a point of definite association between a disorder considered psychological and effects in the muscle and/or fascia (connective tissue).
You might be thinking, that’s not very surprising since many people have experienced their shoulders getting tense when they’re stressed…but now it’s peer reviewed science.
Even more interesting is that a self administered foam rolling session to the area significantly influenced the participant’s “positive affect” which is a psychology term defined as a subjective experience of joy, positive mood, satisfaction and contentment.
“Positive affect” is also enhanced by long-term psychotherapy or pharmacological treatments.
It’s significant to find that a physical treatment could have a similar effect.
Furthermore, it’s been shown that stimulation of a nerve ending called a Ruffini receptor, creates a long lasting inhibition of the sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system. It also augments the parasympathetic (rest and digest) response. Ruffini receptors are affected most by slow deformation with changes in the direction of the pressure and shear in the muscles and connective tissue that they are embedded in. Some massage techniques create this kind of stimulus.
So, we find that the positive psychological benefits of massage therapy extend to reducing the stress hormone cortisol, to measurable changes in contentment and positivity, to inhibition of the fight or flight response and supporting the rest and recovery response.
The takeaway is that some types of massage bring about changes to the physical, chemical and emotional systems of the body which counteract the effects of anxiety.
