Does Massage Improve Circulation ?
Poor circulation is more problematic than just cold hands and feet. If you suffer from restricted blood flow, you may be faced with heart and kidney problems, high blood pressure, varicose veins, and organ damage in the long term. Fortunately, there’s a very pleasurable way to get your circulation pumping. Massage therapy has been praised for alleviating muscle soreness and boosting blood flow, and it’s becoming ever more popular as a complement to traditional medical treatments. No longer just hearsay, the ability of massage to improve circulation is now validated.
To understand the benefits of massage, you first have to know a little about your circulatory system. Your circulatory system consists of two parts: the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems. These two systems work together to detoxify the body. As nutrient-rich blood travels away from your heart through capillaries, in adjacent tissue cells, nutrients and wastes are exchanged. Fluid taken from the blood, or lymph, transports waste to your lymph nodes where they filter wastes and return fluid to your bloodstream. When your circulatory systems isn’t working properly, your blood flow is impaired and your heart has to work extra hard to pump blood. This can cause health problems such as heart attack, stroke, eye disease, kidney disease, muscle pain, dementia, diabetes, influenza and cirrhosis, just to name a few.
Massage stimulates the flow of blood and lymph vessels, thus enhancing circulation. Think of a tube of toothpaste: when you apply pressure to the tube, toothpaste flows out of the tube more easily. The same principle applies to your blood and lymph flow when you get a massage.
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