Please welcome guest writer Melanie L. Bowen!

Improve Psychological and Physical Symptoms with Alternative Therapy

Just being diagnosed with cancer is enough for people to become depressed and anxious. They may begin to worry about the treatment that they will have to have. They may need surgery and after that, they may have to submit to medical treatments. All of this can cause people to become highly emotional.

Massage therapy is becoming known as a way for people to cope better with the fact that they have cancer. What is it about massage that can help people improve their emotional wellbeing? Those who perform massage rub the muscles in a manner that relaxes the patient. These motions make it possible for the muscles to receive an increased amount of oxygen and blood flow. As people are being massaged, they notice that they feel better and they report feeling less anxious than they had before the therapy session.

Massage therapy is also used to help people tolerate their mesothelioma and other cancer treatments better. When people are undergoing chemotherapy, for example, they may begin to experience pain. Massage therapy reduces this new pain. Chemotherapy may also cause stiffness and loss of the ability to move their bodies as they once had. As these patients undergo massage therapy, it has the effect of increasing their range of motion.

Specifically, patients who have massage therapy while they are also undergoing treatment for cancer will benefit from this therapy’s ability to reduce any inflammation that occurs after surgery or during the other treatments. Sometimes, people become sore when being treated and massage can help relieve this pain. Massage is even given credit for reducing stress hormones. Massage is believed to increase endorphins in the body that give the patients a sense of wellbeing and relieve pain.

The benefits of massage therapy do not stop with the advantages described above. Cancer patients who were having difficulties sleeping may begin to notice that they can sleep better at night. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be the reason that a patient begins to feel very tired. After massage therapy, these patients may not feel as fatigued as they had before the therapy. With massage therapy treatments, cancer patients have the potential to feel better in all aspects of their lives.

Consult your doctor today and soak up all the potential benefits massage therapy quite possibly could have in store for you. Give your mind, body and spirit a vacation from some of life’s everyday stressors and go indulge yourself in a massage today!

To learn more, visit: http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog