Holistic Health Care
(Page 4 of 8)
Today, meditative breathing and mental focus exercises have
been incorporated into everything from childbirth classes
to diabetes education, and studies show meditation not only
helps control anxiety and pain, but also can boost the
immune system. Though meditation can have a powerful effect
on your health, it's one therapy that doesn't require the
supervision of a health professional. All that's necessary
to meditate is taking the time to sit quietly and empty
your mind by focusing on your breathing or on a single word
or phrase, called a mantra. Work up to 20 minutes a day
over a few months.
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Massage. Even a simple back or shoulder
rub can be relaxing, but it's really no substitute for a
professional massage, which works wonders on stress and
muscle tension. Several studies have shown massage can
produce remarkable health benefits. In a 1998 study at the
University of Miami's Touch Research Institute (TRI),
researchers had the parents of 32 children with severe
asthma either coach relaxation exercises or give 20-minute
massages. After 30 days, children who received the massage
treatment had significantly easier breathing compared to
the other group. A TRI study conducted in 2000 found that
massage helps relieve PMS.
If you've never had a professional massage, here's what to
expect. At an appointment, you typically lie on a padded
table in a warm room, wearing only underwear and covered by
a sheet. The two main schools of massage are Swedish and
deep-tissue. Swedish massage involves long, gliding strokes
or muscle kneading. Deep-tissue massage presses into muscle
and connective tissue. Neither Swedish massage nor
deep-tissue work should hurt, but the latter can feel
intense. If intensity crosses over into pain, say so, and
the masseuse will ease the pressure. Swedish massage
therapy uses lotion, scented with aromatic plant oils, to
help the practitioners" hands glide more smoothly.
Biofeedback. Another door into deep,
meditative relaxation is biofeedback. Effective for
relaxing specific muscle groups, biofeedback involves small
machines with visual displays that look like speedometers.
Say you suffer from tension headaches, a condition caused
by chronic muscle tension in the head, neck and shoulders.
At a biofeedback office, you sit in a chair, and the
trainer pastes small tension-sensing electrodes to the
muscles that need to relax. The dial on the visual display
shows you how tense those muscles are. As you relax, the
dial moves. Using meditative deep breathing and conscious
relaxation, it usually doesn't take long before people can
move the dial into the deep-relaxation zone. Eventually
biofeedback clients can dispense with the machinery and
relax their muscles as needed.
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