5 Reasons to Give Hot Stone Massage Therapy a Try

Are you a person who is continually looking for a natural solution to your aches and pains? Perhaps you've been to your local therapist or spa and seen ads for hot stone massage, and you’ve wondered what it’s about.

In many massage therapy practices, hot stone massage is recommended either for specific purposes or general relaxation. Here, we'll review the benefits of hot stone massage so that you can make an educated choice about whether or not it's the right treatment for you.

How Hot Stone Massage Therapy Works

The hot stone massage therapy session is straightforward. It simply involves hot, flat stones being placed on the affected parts of the body. Therapists might also incorporate the rocks into a regular massage therapy session and use various gentle movements with the stones to help ease tension and pain.

1. Immune System Support

Massage therapy, in general, has the potential to boost the immune system, leaving you possibly more resistant to all kinds of health issues, from colds and flu to anxiety and depression, as studies like this one suggest. In addition, these types of massage therapy may help with chronic pain and autoimmune disorders such as fibromyalgia.

2. Stops Insomnia

Getting enough sleep is essential for human health, and more studies are coming out with surprising links between sleep and other health issues such as cardiovascular problems and obesity. Hot stone massage therapy relaxes all of the muscles in the body and leaves you feeling restful and sleepy.

3. Muscle Aches and Pains

Massage therapy is an excellent choice for relieving muscle tension in all parts of the body. And even though it can be useful for specific injuries, it’s also good for general tension that tends to build up, for instance, if we're sitting at a desk all day or on our feet for long periods of time.

A hot stone massage loosens up the entire body, pushing it to relax and let go of built-up tension. That improves circulation in a different way than regular massage because its heat-based and doesn't require the intense pressure that regular massage uses, which can be uncomfortable for some patients.

4. Circulation

The pre-heated stones are excellent at retaining heat, which means they can be placed on the body for a long period of time, promoting relaxation and circulation both via gentle, non-movement-based pressure and heat. When you have improved circulation throughout your body, you get more oxygen and other nutrients to each part, thus aiding in pain reduction plus deep-tissue healing at the cellular level.

5. Lowers Anxiety

A study done in 2015 found that people recovering from surgery had much less stress and anxiety during the recovery phase when they received massage therapy. And other research study shows that even small massages can significantly lower stress as well as even strokes.

Chronic pain is well-known to cause stress and anxiety, so when the pain is managed, anxiety is likely to lessen as well.

Finding relief from not only pain but also day-to-day ailments and stress is crucial in our modern-day society. Finding a massage therapist that you trust can make all the difference — Call Chiro-Med to schedule a FREE Consultation today.