Susan Biali

A while ago, as I was getting a facial treatment at my favourite local spa, my aesthetician told me that spas across the city were experiencing a slump in business.   Apparently, when things get “tough”, people see something like going to the spa as an extra, inessential splurge.  Than, the other day, on the show The Daily, I was asked to provide on-air “ammunition” for wives who want to convince their husbands that they still need to go to the spa. 

What I discovered surprised me – in addition to helping you convince your significant other, this should convince you that taking care of yourself in this way is truly essential to your health and success!

Five health benefits of going to the spa (in this case, for a massage):

1) It reduces stress hormone levels

Several studies have shown that massage reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which among many other benefits helps slow your heart rate, and brings your blood pressure down.

2) It boosts your immunity

By reducing stress and stress hormones, massage boosts the levels of "natural killer cells" in your body, which are your first defense against invaders.  Massage has been shown to even boost immunity in people with severely decreased immune systems, such as patients with breast cancer. 

3) It’s a great pain reliever

Whether you’ve got muscular pain, chronic headaches or a migraine, or even labor pains (!), massage has been shown to significantly decrease and relieve pain. I woke up with a headache three days in a row last week, a sign that I was trying to do too much in too little time.  A one hour massage (and three hour visit to the spa, with a lot of that time spent relaxing in the whirlpool), cured the headaches completely! 

4) It boosts your mood

As if a wonderful, healing, relaxing visit to a spa wasn’t enough (I already feel better, just walking in the door), treatments such as massage increase your brain’s level of feel-good hormones like dopamine and serotonin.

5) It relieves PMS symptoms!

A small study of a group of women with severe PMS found that massage reduced a variety of symptoms such as pain, water retention, and mood swings.  Now there’s some ammunition that might  seriously convince your husband or partner of the necessity of your spa visit – maybe you can even get them to pay for it!  Imagine how much happier a place this world would be, if all women were treated to a spa visit a minimum of once a month?

Now, I know I’ve been talking mostly about the benefits of massage, but just think about it – a pedicure usually comes with an brief massage, as does a facial, and even some manicures come with mini hand and arm massages.  In fact, when they’re doing the massage part of your pedicure, you could say: “you know, I’m feeling like I might be coming down with something, and need to boost my natural killer cells – could you do that a little bit longer?”  Who would say no?

Dr. Susan Biali, MD is an internationally recognized wellness expert, life coach, speaker and writer, dedicated to helping people live their dreams and create better balance, health and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Biali speaks internationally, and her opinions and advice on health and life appear regularly in print, radio, and television media across North America.  An expert for HealthyCanada.com and HealthyOntario.com, she writes three nationally published columns on wellness, nutrition and life balance.  Dr.Biali is the author of the upcoming book Your Prescription for Life! Seven Steps to Extraordinary Health & Happiness.  www.susanbiali.com

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Comments (1)

1  Coach T.I.A - Coaching You to Take Inspi Written by Tia Singh, on 09-07-2009 01:41 As an ex massage therapist and current life coach, I fully agree!     To me it boils down to self love. Taking care of our minds, bodies, health should be # 1 in our lives.     Cos when we are the best we can be, that's when we give our best and make the world around us a better place! When things get tough, it's time to love ourselves even more.    Thanks for the article Tia   Coach T.I.A - Coaching You to Take Inspired Action

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