How Massage Can Help Decrease Previous Emotional Assaults in Those with Psoriasis
Can massage help you if you have psoriasis? Yes and no. Yes, if you have been seriously stressed and can’t seem to get back to ‘normal’. No, if you are expecting massage to be the tipping point that somehow mysteriously cures the lesions.
The Impact of Massage on Stress Reduction
Massage is one of the best things you could ever do for stress. Surprisingly, no scientist so far has ever taken highly stressed individuals during the height of their stress, interrupted their stress with a massage, and recorded what happened. However, studies have shown that when individuals rate their level of stress as high and then get a massage, their stress levels have fallen remarkably.
What about you? When you get a massage, how long does it take before your stress levels fall to half what they were initially? Many people would say about 13 to 15 minutes into the massage is the magical turning point when all their problems seem irrelevant.
Massage is helpful to those with psoriasis because stress can play a big role in flare-ups of the skin lesions. During stress, there are a lot of inflammatory compounds produced in the body that massage can significantly lower. The more inflammation you have, the worse the lesions will look.
The Effect of Stress on Psoriasis
There comes a time in everyone’s life where emotional upheavals make life miserable. I have noticed that those who have psoriasis seem to be in this phase of life more so than other patients. Massage can help immensely because the body stores emotions in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia.
Let’s say you have a really bad experience with your boss who rants and raves at you and even calls you names. During the incident, it’s a human response to ‘brace’ against it. However, when bracing and tensing your muscles, the emotions and stress are held in those muscles.
It’s only during massage that you may realize it, as an image of the event returns to the forefront of your mind.
