How Massage Therapy Can Relieve Work Stress

Introduction• Anyone who has ever had a job in any industry

knows a little something about work-related stress. Some types of jobs are more prone to stress than others, but all will experience it from time to time.

Introduction

•Whether you’re the vice president of a big company, a cashier in that same company or the person who cleans the floors once everyone goes home, stress is a factor. Sometimes the stress is mental and sometimes it is physical, but you must find a way to ease it or you may find yourself in a serious predicament.

Introduction• One solution that more and more people seem to

turn to for work stress is massage therapy. When you get into the details, it almost seems as if massage therapy was made for work stress.

Common Work Stress Symptoms

• According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can have serious effects on your body, your mood and your behaviour. The stresses that you experience in the workplace may result in:

▫ Muscle tension and pain

▫ Headaches▫ Chest pains▫ Upset stomach▫ Loss of libido▫ Fatigue

▫ Sleep disruptions▫ Anxiety▫ Depression▫ Restlessness▫ Anger▫ Inability to focus

What Is Massage Therapy?• According to the Registered

Massage Therapist’s Association of Ontario, “massage therapy is a comprehensive intervention involving a range of techniques to manipulate the soft tissues and joints of the body.”

What Is Massage Therapy?• The purpose of massage therapy is to relieve

pain, rehabilitate, augment and maintain physical function. The different techniques provide relief for many different ailments, stemming from stress, overuse of muscles and several chronic pain syndromes.

• The website states that between 17 and 23 percent of Canadians have used massage therapy at some point, and it is a generally accepted form of treatment.

How Stress Affects Health• The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and

Safety website list several health issues that can result from too much stress in your life. One of the things that make work stress so serious is that we typically spend 40 or more hours per week on the job.

• This prolonged exposure to a stressful environment can make the health effects even worse, because your body doesn’t get a chance to switch it off like in an immediate danger “fight or flight” type of situation.

How Stress Affects Health• Your body has a pre-programmed response to

stress that is often referred to as the “Generalized Stress Response”. The effects on your body include:▫ Increased blood pressure▫ Increased fatty acids and cholesterol in the blood▫ Faster heartbeat and respiration▫ Faster blood clotting▫ Increased stomach acids▫ Increased blood sugar production▫ Inflammation

How Stress Affects Health

•When you add these kinds of effects to the symptoms listed earlier, it’s easy to see how prolonged exposure can result in serious health problems.

Massage Therapy Treatment• If the effects of work-related are getting to you physically

or emotionally, ask your doctor to refer you to a registered massage therapist. The Chiro Med Rehab Centre lists the following conditions as some of the ones that are treatable by massage therapy. ▫ Headache▫ Neck pain▫ Postnatal pain▫ Low back pain▫ Lymphatic drainage▫ Repetitive stress injuries▫ Shoulder pain▫ Stress

Massage Therapy Treatment• As you can see, several of the symptoms and

effects produced by stress in the workplace are the exact same ones that massage therapy can treat effectively. Some work benefits even allow for a certain amount for massage therapy on a yearly basis.

• Check with your benefits, check with your doctor, and go see a massage therapist to help relieve the effects of your work stress sooner rather than later.