Advance Your Health & Well-being with Massage Therapy

Massage therapy, simply known as “getting a massage,” involves applying pressure to the soft tissues of the body. This method promotes relaxation, improves blood flow, and reduces pain.

For those looking to incorporate a safe and effective way to improve their health and well-being, massage therapy may be an excellent choice.

Massage Therapy: Safe, Effective, and Successful

Massage therapy can safely and effectively treat a variety of conditions. It does wonders for things like muscle pain, edema, muscle spasms, pain patterns, surgery recovery, and so much more.

Additionally, it can improve tissue healing, strengthen your immune system, relax you before a surgery, reduce stress and anxiety, reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, help you lose weight, improve digestion, boost your metabolism, alleviate constipation, bloating and flatulence, and reduce cortisol (a stress-induced hormone that increases appetite).

Massage therapy has an interesting history. It’s been used by cultures all over the world for centuries as one of the oldest healing arts. Throughout ancient Egypt, China, as well as Greece and Rome, it dates back thousands of years.

Massage therapy is safe and effective. Not only that, but it complements a variety of conditions as an alternative medicine. Using a specific set of techniques, a “modality” is a specific type of massage therapy. In fact, this treatment has many different modalities, each with its own set of advantages.

Various ‘Modalities’ and What’s Right for You

A massage therapy patient’s specific needs can be met by using different massage modalities. There are many types, including:

• Reflexology: We apply pressure to unique points on you feet, hands, and ears.
• Hot stone massage: Heated stones are used to promote blood flow and relax your muscles.
• Lomi lomi massage: A Hawaiian massage using broad strokes to promote relaxation and well-being.
• Deep tissue massage: Deep pressure is used to release knots, tension in your muscles, and other areas.

• Prenatal massage: Specifically, this soothes a variety of pregnancy pains and allows you a rare moment to relax.
• Swedish massage: This is the most common type of massage therapy. It uses very long strokes to relax your muscles.
• Aromatherapy massage: This leverages the aromatic power of essential oils and other special relaxation techniques.
• Sports massage: Athletes need targeted recovery from injuries. This type of massage helps improve their performance.
• Thai massage: Using deep pressure, assisted stretching, and acupressure, this technique combines multiple techniques.
• Shiatsu: Based on traditional Chinese medicine, this uses selective finger pressure to activate pressure points on your body.
• Medical massage: This effective and safe treatment helps you relax, boosts blood flow, reduces pain, and treats a variety of medical conditions.
• Stretch massage: This is a soft and efficient method of improving your flexibility and range of motion. It combines stretching with deep-tissue massage techniques.
• Cranial sacral therapy (CS): This massage therapy soothes your central nervous system. Cerebrospinal fluid cushions your brain and spinal cord. By gently moving bones in your skull and sacrum, this helps improve fluid circulation and promotes healing.

At Wellness and Pain, we offer a select set of therapies that are appropriate for our patients’ individual circumstances, pain management problems, and massage therapy needs.

The Science Behind Massage Therapy

In massage therapy, touch is used to improve health and well-being as an alternative medicine. Muscle, tendons, and other areas of your body are all treated through manual application of pressure.

As a whole, this treatment helps to release endorphins. In turn, endorphins relieve pain and boost your mood. Your pituitary glands and hypothalamus release endorphins in response to pain or stress. These  are pain relievers and mood boosters. Additionally, you can stimulate them through a variety of activities, including exercise, listening to music, and spending time outside.

Massage therapy, however, has been shown to increase endorphin levels in the body and is effective in helping with pain and stress. Through interaction between your neuron receptors and endorphins, massage therapy reduces the perception of pain by stopping pain signals from reaching the brain.

The effect of endorphins on one’s mood is also positive. In the brain, they increase levels of dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters connected to happiness and well-being.

Wellness and Pain Can Help

A range of massage therapy options are available at Wellness and Pain. We offer conservative treatments, routine visits, and minimally invasive, quick-recovery procedures. Together we can keep you free of problems by providing lifestyle education and home care advice to help you avoid and manage issues, quickly relieving the conditions slowing your life by using cutting-edge massage therapy techniques.

We personalize patient care plans based on each patient’s condition and unique circumstances to relieve pain, improve mobility and mental space, and improve your overall health.

By using needles, your body reacts, rebalances, or releases natural chemicals, including endorphins, your body’s own natural painkillers and neurotransmitters.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to acupuncture treatment. There are some people who feel nothing at all, while others feel a dull ache or mild pricking. Others feel tingling or buzzing or feel warm or heavy. Acupuncturists sometimes twirl or move needles after inserting them. You might feel a slight increase in sensation at times.

Acupuncture is mild and tolerable for most people. Be sure to tell your acupuncturist if you’re feeling pain. To make the treatment more comfortable, they may adjust the needles or use a different size of needle or technique.

You might feel relaxed or energized after acupuncture therapy. Pain or other symptoms also seem to be lessened. Although acupuncture’s effects can vary from person to person, most people find it to be a safe and effective treatment.

Different Kinds of Acupuncture Therapy

There are many different types of acupuncture therapy, each with its own approach and philosophy. Traditional Chinese acupuncture is the most common type of acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture can unblock and balance qi, which leads to improved health and wellbeing.

Korean hand acupuncture treatment focuses primarily on the hands. By stimulating the points on the hands, Korean acupuncturists believe they can affect the entire body.

Auricular acupuncture focuses on the ear as part of the treatment. By stimulating points on the ears, auricular acupuncturists are able to affect the entire body by using reflexology.

While Japanese acupuncture uses the same principles as traditional Chinese acupuncture, it uses a different approach. In Japanese acupuncture, small needles are used and gentle stimulation is used. Besides acupressure and moxibustion, they also use other techniques.

In electroacupuncture, electrical stimulation enhances the effects of acupuncture by passing a small current between pairs of acupuncture needles. Pain that cannot be treated with other forms of treatment is often treated with electroacupuncture.

Other kinds of acupuncture therapy may include:

• Moxibustion, which stimulates acupuncture points by leveraging heat. Oftentimes, moxibustion helps with generic pain, infertility, and digestive issues.
• Laser acupuncture, which is the application of therapeutic laser to acupoints on the body, ear, or hand using low-energy laser beams. Laser acupuncture is often used for those who may fear needles or have a bleeding disorder.
• Acupressure, which uses pressure in the form of massage to stimulate acupuncture points. Commonly, those who fear needles or have a bleeding disorder seek acupressure treatment as a secondary option.
• Diet acupuncture, which focuses on your food diet to improve health. Diet acupuncturists believe that by eating certain foods, you can improve the flow of qi and promote overall health.

Acupuncture Therapy Can Cure a Variety of Ailments

Acupuncture therapy can help with a lot of health problems. It’s usually used for chronic (long-term) pain like arthritis, back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, headaches, migraines, sports injuries, jaw pain, sinus congestion and facial pain, neuropathy, and menstrual cramps.

As well as alleviating chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients and reducing nausea during pregnancy, acupuncture treatment may also help with infertility, autoimmune diseases, colds and flu, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, and depression.

Getting a ride home is always wise if you’re getting acupuncture therapy for the first time. If that’s not possible, try to rest for five to ten minutes before driving home. Your practitioner may advise you to take it easy following each session.

Your body may need a number of treatments depending on how severe your condition is. Most patients have an appointment once a week. Some people get treatment more often, while others get it less frequently. Our acupuncturists can recommend the right schedule for each patient.

Wellness and Pain Can Help

A range of acupuncture therapy options is available at Wellness and Pain. We offer conservative treatments, minimally invasive quick-recovery procedures, and surgery. With these, we can keep you free of problems by providing lifestyle education and home care advice to help you avoid and manage issues, quickly relieving the conditions inhibiting your life by using state-of-the-art acupuncture treatment.

We personalize patient care plans based on each patient’s condition and unique circumstances to relieve pain, improve mobility and mental space, and improve your overall health.