Sci Rep: Ten-minute massage helps relieve body stress.

September 13, 2020 /--- A new study suggests that a few minutes of relaxation can greatly boost your body and mind.
by psychologists at the University of Constance found that after just ten minutes of receiving a massage, people's levels of psychological and physical relaxation improved.
even a ten-minute break can increase relaxation, although not as much as a massage.
findings, published September 8, 2020 in the journal Scientific Reports, are the first to show that relaxing the side-sensing nervous system (PNS) can be effective in reducing stress at the psychological and physiological levels.
(Photo: www.pixabay.com) is known to have a negative impact on health and disease.
, our body has a built-in regenerative system, PNS, that protects against stress when threatened.
, initiating a relaxation response is key to protecting our health and restoring balance in our bodies.
massage has been used to improve relaxation, but there is no systematic way to strongly confirm its effect on PNS and whether it can be used as a rehabilitation method for patients with stress-related diseases.
study shows that massage is an easy-to-implement intervention that enhances the body's main motivation for relaxation and reduces perceived stress.
that massage is effective in psychology and physiology through PNS, the findings could pave the way for future studies to understand the effects of relaxation on stress.
To better deal with the negative effects of stress, we need to understand the opposite of stress reduction, " says Professor Jens Pruesner. "Relaxation therapy as a holistic approach to stress shows great hope, but a more systematic scientific assessment of these methods is needed."
at the University of Constance's Department of Psychology have developed a standardized method to test whether tactile stimulation can improve relaxation.
they performed two different ten-minute massages on human subjects in the lab to test them: head and neck massages were designed to actively stimulate PNS by applying moderate pressure to the ecstasy nerve, the largest nerve leading to PNS.
then designed a shoulder-neck massage for gentle strokes to check if just touch can relax.
, the rest effect of a control group sitting quietly at a table was tested without tactile stimulation.
physiological relaxation by monitoring participants' heart rate and measuring heart rate variability (HRV), suggesting that PNS is flexible enough to respond to changes in the environment.
the higher the HRV, the more relaxed the body.
to measure psychological relaxation by asking participants to describe how they felt relaxed or stressed.
rest or receive a massage for ten minutes can lead to a reduction in psychological and physical stress.
all participants reported feeling more relaxed and less stressed than before treatment.
addition, there was a significant increase in heart rate changes in all participants, suggesting that PNS could be activated and the body was physiologically relaxed by resting alone.
when participants received a massage, their physiological effects were more pronounced.
(bioon.com) Source: Ten minutes of massage or rest will help your body body stress: study Original Source: Maria Meier et al. Notted massage interventions as protocols for the induction of the psychophysiological in the laboratory: a block randomized, controlled trial, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71173-w.