The current state of our mental health is stark: In the U.S., 21% of adults — 50 million of us — are experiencing a
mental illness. And 55% currently receive no treatment. Knowing these surprising facts will hopefully help to dispel longstanding stigmas around mental health challenges. Let’s look at three recent studies to see how therapeutic massage can play an important role in relieving mental health symptoms.
Chiropractors are licensed doctors who treat about 35 million Americans each year. Much of their work involves restoring mobility to joints and relieving back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Chiropractic services cost less on average and are included in most health insurance plans.
A friend remembers his days as an eight-year-old paperboy fondly, except for the huge paper bag that hung off one of his slim shoulders, which was torture. Kids and adults are often carrying similar loads these days, through schoolyards and airports. Let's look at how we can be sensible about what we schlep around.
Oh noooo! For some reason, each of us has a head that weighs about 11 pounds. Apparently that's the trade-off we make for our big, beautiful brains. Luckily, the neck and spine are designed to support this weight, as long as it's well-balanced. The problems start when we tilt our heads forward, like when we're on our phones. Which is, on average, three hours a day. Yikes!
Our friend Tom’s laptop keeps shutting down on him while he’s working. It happens several times a week. The laptop isn’t broken — it actually warns Tom twice that it needs to be plugged in before it shuts down! Tom just needs to stop what he’s doing, acknowledge the alerts, and take action. Many of us hear the alerts our bodies are giving us in the form of aches and pains. They say, “Pay attention, do something about this!” But we ignore these messages, limp along, and make do as we slowly lose mobility.
Do you know how many joints are in your body? We don’t either! That’s because the answer varies from person to person, depending on factors like age and what is classified as a joint. Babies have more bones than adults, and therefore more joints, because some bones fuse together as they grow. Learn about these amazing connections that help you move!
Nothing will derail your life like back pain. Even mild pain in this part of the body can make getting out of bed a struggle (not to mention sleeping in it to begin with.) No matter what kind of activities you routinely engage in, doing them with back pain is no fun. Sometimes the cause of the pain is in the back itself. But sometimes tight muscles in other parts of the body can pull your back out of whack.
Repetition is essential to most learning, working and playing. But lots of physical repetition can make our bodies rebel. Industrialization and specialization have caused repetitive stress disorders in everyone from factory workers to brain surgeons to tennis pros. You might type away at a keyboard all day and play a standup bass in the evenings to unwind, incurring chronic strain from both. Common disorders resulting from repetitive stress include carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis, sprains, back pain — and yes, PlayStation Thumb.
The vagus nerve derives its name from the latin word for wandering, since it weaves throughout the body from the brainstem to the colon. It’s the nerve that’s largely responsible for our parasympathetic nervous system, which tells the body to rest and digest. This relaxed state also allows the body to heal.
