The Newest Headlines Surrounding Massage Chairs and Human Touch

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Dr Shawn dillBy Shawn Henry Dill, D.C.

Doctor of Chiropractic

If your doctor tells you that you have hypertension, you aren’t alone. Nearly 73 million adults in the United States also suffer from the condition as do two million teens and children.

So what does this mean? The term “hypertension” is medical jargon for high blood pressure. This means that the blood pressure in your arteries is elevated and therefore puts stress on your heart because it has to work harder to push blood through your body past those blockages. The harder the heart has to pump, the more likely you are to suffer from organ damage and conditions such as a heart attack, stroke, heart failure, aneurysm or renal failure.

Though it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of a particular case of hypertension, several factors have been associated with it, including smoking, obesity, having diabetes, taking in high levels of sodium, living a sedentary lifestyle void of physical activity, displaying a deficiency of vitamin D, consuming excess alcohol, and stress.

The good news is that it is possible to lower your blood pressure if it is higher than it should be. Though it is difficult to combat genetics or aging, both of which have been known to play a role in hypertension, several other factors are in your control. Maintaining a nutritious diet and regular exercise regimen are especially important, as are maintaining a healthy weight, reducing salt intake and reducing alcohol consumption.

It is also important to keep stress in check. A healthy balance of daily life and work can help put perspective on areas where you need to cut back or reevaluate your priorities.

Frequent and regular visits to your massage therapist may also be appropriate as you work to manage or prevent hypertension. If you’d rather manage your stress from home, consider using a Human Touch® massage chair, which provides you with the opportunity to relax your body without having to make an appointment to do so.

Massage helps minimize the physical stress we carry in our bodies. When we feel stress, our shoulder muscles tighten, jaws clench and body becomes sore, achy and uncomfortable. A proper massage—whether in person or in  a massage chair—helps to physically remove stress from our bodies. When our bodies feel healthy and rejuvenated, it is easier to clear our minds and deal with the outside forces that put that stress in our lives in the first place.

We often tend to get worked up, trying to achieve more than we can handle and helping other people before we help ourselves. But if we don’t take the time to relax, we are only hurting ourselves physically, which puts us in an even more precarious position for developing hypertension.

It may be true that 73 million adults suffer from hypertension, but you don’t have to be a statistic. Don’t simply accept the fact that you have high blood pressure … do something about it instead.