Issue link: http://www.bodysensemagazinedigital.com/i/139509
MASSAGE FOR WELLNESS If it's been a while since you booked your last massage—because your pain is no longer an issue or your injury is fully rehabbed—you might want to consider massage for preventive care. Massage can play an important role in a good health-care regimen. Just as you eat healthily, exercise regularly, and take your vitamins to ward off illness and maintain a fit body, you should consider making frequent massage a part of your wellness lifestyle. According to Benny Vaughn, a sports massage expert in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the benefits of consistent and regular massage therapy is better flexibility. "This happens because regular and structured touch stimulus enhances the nervous system's sensory and spatial processing capacity," he says. "That is, the person becomes more aware of her body's movement in space and becomes more aware of tightness or pain long before it reaches a critical point of mechanical dysfunction." As a preventive measure, frequent massage puts you more in tune with your body. "The consistency of massage therapy over time creates a cumulative stress-reduction effect," Vaughn says. " Massage can play an important role in a good health-care regimen. 8 Body Sense "The person becomes acutely aware of stress within her body long before it can create stress-driven damage." And the more massage you receive, the more benefits you reap. "Massage therapists know that people who get massage regularly demonstrate greater improvement and notice a reduction in pain and muscular tension, as well as an improvement in posture," says Anne Williams, author of Massage Mastery: From Student to Professional (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2012). "People regularly make a commitment to fitness," Williams says. "People regularly make a commitment to changing their diet. The difference they'd experience if they regularly made a commitment to massage is mind-blowing." STRESS IS A KILLER Stress is more than just a word we throw around to describe the nature of our hectic day. Today, we understand that stress kills. According to the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, 60–90 percent of all US medical visits are for stress-related disorders. Chronic pain, headaches, heart disease, hypertension, and ulcers can all be wrought from