Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress-related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. Massage is an effective tool for managing this stress, which translates into:

• Decreased anxiety.
• Enhanced sleep quality.
• Greater energy.
• Improved concentration.
• Increased circulation.
• Reduced fatigue.

Massage can also help specifically address a number of health issues. Bodywork can:

• Alleviate low-back pain and improve range of motion.
• Assist with shorter, easier labor for expectant mothers and shorten maternity hospital stays.
• Ease medication dependence.
• Enhance immunity by stimulating lymph flow—the body's natural defense system.
• Exercise and stretch weak, tight, or atrophied muscles.
• Help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover from, strenuous workouts.
• Improve the condition of the body's largest organ—the skin.
• Increase joint flexibility.
• Lessen depression and anxiety.
• Promote tissue regeneration, reducing scar tissue and stretch marks.
• Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs, improving circulation.
• Reduce postsurgery adhesions and swelling.
• Reduce spasms and cramping.
• Relax and soften injured, tired, and overused muscles.
• Release endorphins—amino acids that work as the body's natural painkiller.
• Relieve migraine pain.

Furthermore, research done at the University of Miami School of Medicine's Touch Research Institute have shown that massage has the following benefits:

• Facilitates growth in children
• Increases attentiveness and learning, which has positive implications for those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), hyperactivity, or learning disabilities
• Reduces stereotypical and off-task behavior in autistic individuals while normalizing social behaviors
• Alleviates pain
• Improves immune function (massage increases the number of natural killer cells, which has implications for those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), cancer, and viral diseases)
• Reduces Stress
• Promotes healing of psychiatric problems (Child and adolescent psychiatric patients showed more open verbal communication, improved sleep, less depression, and lower anxiety levels.) Similar results were ahieved with depressed adolescent mothers and patients with eating disorders
• Assist in overcoming addictions
• Supports effective breathing and digestion
• Diminishes premenstrual symptoms
• Encourages dietary compliance in diabetics, leading to more normal glucose levels
• Lowers blood pressure, anxiety and hostility levels in individuals with hypertension
• Increases job performance (After a 15-minute chair massage, computation time with figures was cut in half and accuracy almost doubled)
• Reduces pain and increases range of motion in indivuals with low back pain
• Reduces the number of headaches in individuals affected with migraines and tension headaches