Amazing Benefits of Massage to Your Body

 

There is barely any experience that can be as soothing as getting a full body massage in a dimly lit room and with soft melodious music playing. It is the perfect definition of tranquility and bliss. This is why many people who understand the need for peace of mind and tranquility are booking more massage sessions these days. 

Another fantastic thing about body massage that people often do not realize is that it goes beyond offering you total relaxation and peace of mind to trigger other crucial functions that will benefit different aspects of your body system and your mind. A massage can facilitate your nervous system, activate your muscles, and stimulate your organs and glands to produce and release essential body hormones and chemicals to ensure better body health and functionalities for you. 

If you are yet to cultivate the habit of booking frequent massages, then you are missing out on a lot of goodies your body could be enjoying now. This article will discuss some of these benefits and why you should not continue missing them. Read on to discover more. 

A Body Massage Helps to Relax Your Nervous System 

As your body relaxes during a massage session, your nervous system will enter a “rest and digest” mode. Often, when people experience pains and pressure in their body, it is because of nerve pressures that are caused by tight muscles. Booking a fulfilling massage session can help you to relieve this pressure. 

A relaxed nervous system will help to balance out your body’s hormone production levels. This means that the production of stress hormones like corticosteroids (LDL) will reduce as relaxation hormones like endorphins increase in your body. Moreover, hormones that regulate body functions like menstrual cycles, sleep/wake cycles, blood sugar, immune cells, and even your digestive system all positively react to the relaxation that full-body massages offer. 

Body Massages Help to Refresh Your Skin 

The use of massage lotions and oil, when combined with the slight friction of the masseuse’s hands on your body, can lead to gentle skin exfoliation. Of course, this will allow new skin cells to grow around your body and help you to achieve better and clearer skin structures.  

Body Massages Deliver Musculoskeletal Benefits 

The human muscles function like a sponge – they squeeze out blood and lymph fluid when contracted and allow fresh blood to enter when they are relaxed. This means that their real action will bring more fresh oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells to your system. 

An experienced massage therapist can also initiate stretching of the muscles and other motion movements to their routines to mobilize the joints and focus beneficial tension on your ligaments, tendons, and muscles. 

Body Massages Enhance Supply of Blood to the Bone 

Many people do not know that their bones have a blood supply and that an efficient massage therapy session can enhance this supply’s function. Blood helps to bring calcium and other mineral types to the human bones. This is to support the bone's strength and functionalities. 

Indeed, a massage session can improve blood supply to your bones, thereby making them stronger and healthier for better functionalities. 

Conclusion 

It is established that an efficient massage session can contribute significantly to relaxing your body and giving you the peace of mind you deserve. However, its benefits do not end there. Body massages can also deliver some other health benefits to enthusiasts. This article has discussed the top vital things you should know about the therapy. 

This Olive Oil Ice Cream Has Healthy Fats In Every Delicious Bite

Of all the cooking oils out there, olive oil, in particular, is a favorite among doctors and dietitians. The golden pantry staple is full of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, both of which are linked to benefitting brain and heart health. It’s also the oil of choice in the Mediterranean diet, primarily because olive trees grow abundantly in this region of the world, but also because of its rich flavor, which pairs well with everything—even ice cream as it turns out.

Yep, you read that right. Your favorite pantry staple is now the star of a new plant-based ice cream line, Wildgood, which is currently sold at Wegman’s, and will be available to buy online starting next month. Olive oil was a part of everyday life for Wildgood founder Sotiris Tsichlopoulos. Groves of these fruit trees grew right outside his family’s house in Greece, and the oil was used in practically every meal he ate—except for dessert.

So it’s sort of surprising that it wound up being the star in his plant-based ice cream. “When I first set out to make a dairy-free ice cream, my two goals were that it had to be as creamy as premium dairy-based ice cream and deliver the same satisfaction without compromising on the taste,” Tsichlopoulos says. “Olive oil proved to be the perfect ingredient to accomplish both those goals. “This allows us to deliver the creamy texture without using any alternative milks.” (In a sweet nod to his childhood, the olive oil Tsichlopoulos uses to make his ice cream is hand-pressed at his family’s home in Greece.)

But perfecting his recipe for olive-oil ice cream took some trial and error since water and oil don’t mix. Ultimately, Tsichlopoulos says it took eight years to get the eight flavors in the line exactly right—they include mint chocolate chip, chocolate hazelnut, coffee, and mango, all made from natural ingredients like chicory root fiber, cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, pea protein, cocoa butter, and vanilla extract. And the olive oil doesn’t just add to the taste and texture, either. One serving has about 1.5 grams of unsaturated fat (depending on the flavor), which is eight perfect of what’s recommended for the day. Sure, it’s not a ton of omega-3s, but it’s certainly more than the average ice cream out there has.

Watch the video below to learn more about the health benefits of olive oil:

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Meet Buzz Lite, the First Coffee With a Microdose of Caffeine

Nothing is a double-edged sword quite like the caffeine in coffee. There’s no denying the energy boost it can give, but it’s one that’s best for productivity sprints, not marathons. Its high is short-lived and when it expires, the crash can hit hard. So hard, in fact, that many consistently keep refilling their mug throughout the day just to avoid it.

Like a lot of people, Andrew Cooper worked at a place where the cups of Joe overflowed. “The company was being run off caffeine and if you even looked at the artwork [in the offices] it was all about hustling and getting stuff done,” he says. (Don’t get him wrong, Cooper told me that he’s all for productivity, but was starting to think the glorification of hustle culture was a bit much.)

Unsurprisingly, Cooper says his excess coffee consumption eventually caught up with him: “One day, I overdid it and just felt so terrible.” He tried switching to tea, but found he still missed the taste of coffee. And since his only options were to go back to traditional java or opting for decaf—neither of which he wanted to do—he decided to create the very first coffee with a microdose of caffeine, Buzz Lite, as a means of enjoying smaller quantities of caffeine without the crash.

One cup of Buzz Lite has 10 percent the amount of caffeine as a regular cup of coffee, which Cooper settled on because it’s the same amount used for microdosing substances such as LSD and psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms). “My thought process was, caffeine is another psychoactive drug,” he says. It’s not a jolt of caffeine, just a nudge. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

The brew is made by blending together decaf and regular coffee, at a 90:10 ratio. Cooper explains that the beans used for the 90 percent are decaffeinated through a natural sugar process, where sugar latches onto the caffeine to remove it, but not reduce the rich flavor of the beans. Then, the beans are mixed and roasted together.

What to consider when microdosing caffeine

Just like with regular java, the results may vary because people metabolize caffeine at different rates. This is why one person can have a cup of Joe after dinner and still sleep soundly, while the jolt from an afternoon latte may be enough to keep someone else up hours past their bedtime. But in general, you can expect the effects of Buzz Lite to be a fraction of what you’d get from a mug of drip coffee, which makes sense when you think about it.

More than anything, Cooper says he hopes that calling out exactly how much caffeine is in a serving (20 milligrams) on the label will lead to people thinking about the amount of caffeine they’re consuming—similarly to how alcohol content is called out on beers, wines, and spirits. “We consume caffeine in a lot of different ways, including drinking soda and tea, but most people don’t know exactly how many milligrams of it makes them feel a certain way, so hopefully this will start to help people make that connection,” he says.

What a registered dietitian thinks

Robin Foroutan, RD, is a registered dietitian who is unaffiliated with Buzz Lite. In her unbiased opinion, she says it certainly could be beneficial to many people—particularly those who are sensitive to caffeine. “Some people feel super jittery after drinking coffee or experience digestive issues, so a lower caffeine amount could help people who don’t tolerate it well feel more energized [without the negative consequences],” she says.

Foroutan adds that while Buzz Lite may be the first coffee with a microdose of caffeine, the idea of microdosing caffeine isn’t new. “Actually, a lot of people do this without realizing it, such as nursing the same cup of coffee or latte for hours on end, or drinking a low-caffeinated tea throughout the day,” she says. “And there are actually scientific studies showing that microdosing caffeine can be good for brain health.”

When it comes to the health benefits of drinking coffee, Foroutan says caffeine content definitely matters. “There are many studies showing that drinking coffee regularly is linked to reducing the risk of certain inflammatory neurological conditions, like Parkinson’s disease. But there are also studies showing that too much caffeine isn’t good for you either,” she explains, saying that this comes down to (once again) how quickly someone metabolizes the caffeine. Foroutan adds that the source of the coffee matters too, as some coffee is contaminated with mold or other pathogens.

All of this is to say that regular coffee, decaf, or something in between (like Buzz Lite) can potentially have positive health benefits—as long as you’re mindful of your intake.

Watch the video below to learn more about the health benefits of coffee:

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