Giving Your Body A Real Vacation
Too
often people say, "I did too much and now I need a vacation from my vacation!"
You really should treat yourself better. The purpose of a vacation may be a
change of scenery, but also should be a time to relax, get healthier, and
perhaps improve a loving relationship with a special someone you miss because
you spend too many hours working. One of the best events you should plan for
your vacation is at least one day for rest and a therapeutic massage.
Massage is a physical therapeutic art and science with origins stemming back at least 25,000 years. We know this by the estimated dates of cave drawings in Europe. Some studies from the South Pacific islands suggest these people were doing massage and some sort of back care at least 10,000 years ago, when most of them left the land we call Thailand today, and went voyaging toward the rising sun. That of course suggests the ancestors of today's Thailand also were doing some sort of massage far earlier than 10,000 years ago.
Modern instruments can record energy flow and lymph fluid movement, blood flow and hormone production before and after massage. All indications are massage keeps people healthier, and helps speed healing for those who have been injured, exercised or worked too much, or been through surgery.
Massage is a valuable component of a well-rounded healthcare regimen, combating chronic pain, misaligned spinal joints, and muscle imbalances. Ligaments may hold bones and joints together but muscles hold them in alignment and if muscles aren't balanced properly joints will be painful and eventually may be injured requiring more serious therapy. Massage is therefore to be honored as a valuable adjunct to your health care routine and is more than worth its expense as a preventative measure.
Americans are oriented to go to a medical doctor when they have symptoms. We imagine we're not sick or have no problems until we feel pain. But the truth is our bodies will do nearly anything to avoid the pain (alarm system) until there are no more ways to adapt to the problem. This is a bit like waiting for the aircraft to break down in mid flight before deciding to fix it. Wouldn't it be better to maintain the vehicle before takeoff?
Wouldn't it be wiser to give your body some serious good-health consideration every day and especially during your vacation?
Massage therapy in the United States is licensed and most states require a rigorous educational process and testing. Health departments look in on massage spas and clinics to check for cleanliness and proper professional decorum. Unlicensed people claiming to be massage therapists, or worse, offering sexual experience under the guise of massage generally find themselves suddenly dragged off to jail! So…if that smirk has been crossing your mind, please delete the idea immediately. That kind of behavior nowadays simply doesn't happen!
There is a misconception that massage is only a luxury. I blame the uneducated at Madison Avenue advertising agencies for writing headlines promoting such ideas. Yes, it's certainly pleasant to be massaged. Everyone needs touch and studies show that massage causes the skin to shower healthful hormones into the blood stream. Babies that are untouched do not thrive. Babies that are held and rubbed do much better. The same can be rightly said for most pets.
Massage therapy is physically demanding work. Today's spas are expensive business endeavors. The costs have to be covered, but certainly, in a free enterprise environment costs are maintained at reasonable and customary rates that no one could say are inordinately extravagant.
A well run day spa is one of America's finest answers to the problems with today's health care system. The system is not doing well under a model run by insurance companies that look only at dollar figure numbers. The more insurance companies force doctors to reduce their prices the more the quality of health care falters. Many of the nation's most competent doctors have given up practice in despair due to the pressure to give patients less than the best they can offer. In such an economic environment the Licensed Massage Therapist offers a warm light at the end of a cold dark tunnel.
Good nutrition, moderate sensible exercise, and massage can go a very long way in keeping all of us much healthier for life. Discover where to enjoy the best of the art and science of massage HERE.
Dr. Stephen Newdell, (MT, DC)
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