The Immune System
Ever question whether it’s going to do more harm than good to have a massage when you’re sick, coming down with something, or have just recovered from illness? We need to consider the effects of massage on the immune system.
The immune system is one of the most complex systems in the body. It is your internal, invisible army, is 100% loyal to you, and will quite literally fight to the death. This considerable defense system is constantly serving to protect the body from harmful pathogens (bacteria, viruses etc), by recognising and neutralising threats.
The fight is not only against harmful invaders, but also any traitors on the inside (sinister cell mutations or built up metabolic wastes within the body). When the harmful pathogens win the battle, the war is not won, rather the immune system continues to fight, strategize, and reinforce until health is restored.
Immune Boost
There is a popular notion that you can boost your immune system. This is a clever way to market supplements, but it makes little scientific sense. Are our systems really so inferior? In fact, we often catch a cold because we're putting undue stress on the body, weakening ourselves. Sabotage. If there are pills to boost your disease-fighting cells with bigger weapons, great!
Rather, the boost is usually in the number of cells, and this is not really helpful, as the body is constantly producing the necessary cells, more than you can use. Instead of trying to boost the already brilliant immune system, we need to level the playing field. Don’t make your army fight in impossible conditions. You need to remove as many obstacles as you can, and let your defense force do its work.
What are some of the things we can do to support our immune system?
- Get sufficient sleep. Sleep is for regeneration, healing, processing.
- Get enough nutrition. It’s a bonus that we enjoy food, but pleasure is not the point of eating. The body has specific needs that only food can meet. If you’re only eating what you WANT, you might be skipping what you NEED.
- Get enough exercise. The lymphatic system is part of the immune system, and it relies on the musculoskeletal system to function. When you don’t get enough exercise, the immune system suffers.
- Avoid harmful substances. This includes anything unnatural that causes the body to expend large amounts of energy to process. i.e. chemicals, excessive alcohol, non-essential pharmaceuticals, preservatives.
- Find ways to deal with stress. Mental, emotional, and physical stress will use up an enormous amount of energy.
How does massage effect the immune system?
It’s easy to see how massage can help with the steps outlined above – it improves sleep for multiple reasons, treats the muscles, and goes a long way with stress relief.
More directly, massage aids in the purging of toxins. Toxins are harmful pathogens and metabolic waste products.
The lymphatic system is involved in identifying and eliminating toxins in the blood. This is a fascinating process!
However, unlike the circulatory system, it doesn’t not include a heart to move the blood. Massage can help to stimulate this process, manually pumping and moving along the blood, resulting in what we generally refer to as a ‘toxin flush’.
If you can enable your immune system to perform well, the hope is that you’ll mostly avoid getting sick. If you are housing a lot of toxins, it is possible to become symptomatic after a deep tissue massage, but it’s still necessary to purge.
If you’re coming down with something or are already symptomatic, massage will probably speed everything up and bring it to a head. I’ve experienced this first-hand! This is bad if the symptoms are intensely unpleasant, but good if it means avoiding the lingering cold/flu that lasts for weeks.
If you’re contagious and in the thick of it at the time of your appointment, there are a few reasons I would postpone:
- Illness makes you tender and hypersensitive to touch.
- You'll be uncomfortable, and therefore unable to relax.
- Your massage therapist doesn’t want your infection. :)
Muscle pain and stiffness is often a result of illness, particularly if you’ve been dealing with a virus, fever, vomiting, coughing, or extended bed-rest. Treating this, along with flushing the toxins are obvious reasons to seek massage after illness.
In conclusion:
- Before you get sick, having regular massage should improve your ability to fight disease. (Massage only plays a supportive and complementary role, of course).
- While you’re sick, it’s best to postpone.
- When you’re on the mend, massage will hasten your return to full health.
