Influence of stress on back and limb disorders.

It is important for us to remember that the genesis of many back and limb disorders is stress-related. For example, most of us carry stress in the muscular structures of the upper back and neck, lower back, or abdominals. The increased muscle tone can produce not only local aches and pains, but also general biomechanical imbalances. Biomechanical imbalances are always expressed in compensatory movement, which in many cases causes the development of intervertebral disc herniation, initiation and acceleration of arthritis, or muscular pathology. Thus, weekly or twice a week full body stress management massage not only helps eliminating the side effects of stress such as hypertension, anxiety, sleep disorders, tension headaches, etc., but also is a great preventive effort in avoiding back and limb disorders.

Stress and Cardiovascular Abnormalities.

Arteries carry a sufficient quantity of smooth muscles and nerve supply to contract as well as dilate. As I stated before, stress factors cause elevated activities of the sympathetic nervous system, which result in vasoconstriction. Constricted vessels cause an increase in blood pressure and significant amplification of peripheral vascular resistance, which is the main opposition to cardiac work. This means the heart must not only perform its non-stop duty of pumping blood to all body systems, but it must also work extra hard to overcome the added peripheral vascular resistance. With time, this overload of cardiac work leads to heart attack and other heart diseases related to exhaustion of the cardiac muscle/connective tissue. Also, elevated levels of cardiac work demand a greater amount of arterial blood supply, which is unavailable in the presence of vasoconstriction. Constant vasoconstriction and high blood pressure accelerates the development of arteriosclerosis. In turn, arteriosclerosis can be the main cause for heart diseases, kidney diseases, and strokes.

Stress and clinical depression.

Additional stress related phenomenon that supports all negative reactions of our body to stress is an increased production of stress hormones. Constantly being overstressed, the central nervous system is excited sometimes to a point when it cannot take anymore. At this point, as an act of defense, the centers cause a reduction of the amount and activities of serotonin within the brain. One of the twelve neurotransmitters, serotonin is largely responsible for our waking state. Reduction of the quantities and activities of serotonin in the brain is clinically expressed as depression. Full body stress management massage causes multiple positive changes in the functions of organs and systems, cutting back stress hormone production. With time, this will allow the serotonin activities to be restored and the depressed condition will improve. It is very important to understand that massage therapy tremendously helps to prevent the development of clinical depression. From the very first treatment, the positive changes occurring in the functions of organs and systems include reduction of the factors that constantly bombard/excite the central nervous system.