Fortify Your Immunity and Improve Circulation with Massage Therapy

Among massage's many benefits are improved circulation and immune system response. While the exact mechanisms behind this are complex, the basic concepts are easier to understand.

A solid immune system requires that the lymphatic system be functioning optimally, as this is what distributes white blood cells and antibodies throughout the body. Such distribution requires a series of pumps, and massage's most obvious benefits to both systems derive from its effects on these.

The circulatory system's most obvious pump is the heart, whose valves provide fresh blood to the body's many systems while simultaneously flushing old and de-oxygenated blood away. Massage increases cardiac efficiency in many ways, and a more efficient heart translates into numerous additional health benefits. By inhibiting the performance of the sympathetic nervous system, the key mechanism behind stress and the fight-or-flight response, the heart rate and blood pressure are lowered.

A less obvious means by which blood and other chemicals are moved through the body is the musculoskeletal pump, or the pressure of muscles against bones. Imagine holding a water-filled balloon between two hands, applying pressure with one while keeping the other stationary. This is a rough analogue for how the musculoskeletal pump moves blood throughout the body, and it is by this action that a massage can improve circulation. By always stroking toward the heart, a therapist can improve the rate and quantity at which old, de-oxygenated blood is returned to the heart for re-circulation. By applying deep, kneading motions, a therapist can help break up waste products and toxins, re-introducing them back into circulation and giving the body another opportunity to remove them. Furthermore, blood vessels in massaged areas become dilated, thus increasing the quantity of blood re-circulated by the pressure of muscles on bones.

As previously mentioned, immunity is highly dependent on the lymphatic system. Unlike the circulatory system, there is no heart or other active pump to ensure continuous flow of lymphatic fluid, and just as massage improves the effectiveness of circulation by driving blood toward the heart, so it does with the lymphatic system. Toxins and other foreign agents often break free from the circulatory system and remain in the body. It is in the lymphatic system that white blood cells and other agents of the immune system break these invaders into smaller particles that may once again be expelled, but before this can happen, the waste must be introduced from muscle and other tissues back into the body's lymph vessels. It is at this point that massage can help by channeling these wastes toward the stomach, where normal digestive processes take over.

Massage improves immune and cardiovascular performance in a number of other ways as well. The reduction of stress results in less production of cortisol, a hormone that also inhibits immune system function. Certain percussive massage techniques can help break up blockages in the lungs, increasing the body's oxygen intake and, as such, its ability to combat respiratory infections. Some types of allergies can also be helped with the application of various massage techniques, and by freeing the immune system from responding inappropriately to the harmless allergen, its resources are then available for more harmful pathogens.