Massage Therapy - Masseuse Linda Kostenko, RN

“An Investment In Your Health”

Stress is not only important in our lives, but useful in today’s world.  Those people who are able to respond well to stress are the healthiest and most successful.  Our daily giving must become a circle, completed by receiving in return.

Therapeutic massage therapy is one method to help you cope with stress and provide a way to deeply relax and nourish yourself both physically and mentally.  Massage can reduce the discomfort and pain caused by illness, activity, or hormonal fluctuations.  In fact, regular massage has been found to be a healthy addition to dealing with the unique challenges of our busy lives.

Massage and stress
Massage can help you cope with what may be your number one complaint—stress.  When under stress, our “fight or flight” response goes into action with our bodies set into action to respond to an emergency.  Muscles tense, our heart rate and blood pressure climbs.  Breathing becomes shallow and rapid, while digestion and other body functions are put on hold.  Because massage relaxes the nervous system and alleviates muscle tightness, it can help relieve stress-related conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and headaches.  When you feel renewed and restored after a massage, daily aggravations seem less important and are easier to cope with.  A tension relieving massage can also support you during emotionally stressful times or if you are in psychological counseling.

When stress is not relieved and allowed to mount, our bodies’ ability to unwind is decreased.  Muscle tension may manifest itself as chronic headaches or shoulder and back pain which creates a vicious cycle as it produces even more stress.  Sleep is often interrupted as tension and worry mount, leaving you more and more exhausted with little remaining energy or mental focus.  Normal coping strategies like exercise and social interaction may then also become a source of stress. 

Stress hormones (cortisol) may become high and finally fatigued if no resolution, so that it seems anything triggers a stress response.  Simple things may cause agitation and reactions that would not have occurred when not under undue stress.

Massage for immediate relief. 
Massage can provide immediate relief that assists you in refocusing attention away from worries and tensions.  Massage and calming touch triggers the relaxation response according to research by taking your body off alert and setting in motion the body’s ability to reverse the “fight or flight” response.

Help for specific conditions
Fibromyalgia.  This condition, associated with chronic pain and tender areas in the neck, trunk, and hips, primarily affects women.  Massage helps by gently relieving “trigger points” and releasing endorphins, the body’s natural painkiller.  Massage can also restore blood flow to painfully tight muscles, eliminating waste products that irritate sensitive tissue.  As a result, you may experience less stiffness and fatigue, decreased insomnia, and a reduced need for pain medication.  Finally, massage can provide a time and place to nurture yourself when you must adjust your activities to a slower paced lifestyle.

Arthritis.  Massage therapy given between inflammation flare-ups can help you cope with both the physical pain and mental stress of arthritis.  Massage boosts circulation, which enhances natural joint lubrication and flushes away irritating chemicals produced by inflammation.  Gentle stretching and kneading of tight muscles around affected joints helps them relax and improves movement.  Massage can also improve sleep, provide a break from anxiety, and act as an antidote to the isolation sometimes associated with arthritis. 

Pre-menstrual Syndrome
Massage helps calm your emotions, eases low back tension, and can decrease the pain of menstrual cramping.

Support through life’s stages

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