{"id":1095,"date":"2012-05-22T07:31:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T07:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personalpolishing.wordpress.com\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2012-05-22T07:31:40","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T07:31:40","slug":"how-a-quick-massage-can-help-you-live-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/how-a-quick-massage-can-help-you-live-longer\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Quick Massage Can Help You Live Longer"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Carole Jackson<\/strong>, Bottom Line Health<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No one wants to be overweight, have diabetes or grow old prematurely. Well, a new study shows that there\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a simple strategy that may help prevent all three that is actually quite fun and relaxing.<\/p>\n

A massage might do the trick!<\/p>\n

And I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m not talking about an expensive, hour-long massage, either\u00e2\u0080\u0094the latest research shows that an inexpensive massage lasting just\u00c2\u00a010 minutes\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>can be beneficial.<\/p>\n

MASSAGING YOUR MUSCLES TO FIGHT DISEASE<\/h4>\n

Researchers were interested in studying massage immediately after exercise for two reasons. For one thing, practically speaking, that\u00e2\u0080\u0099s a common time for people to get a massage, since many people say that massage helps reduce muscle soreness from exercise. Another reason is that, biologically, it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s easier to measure differences in the effect of massage on cells after exercise, because exercise puts the body into a state of temporary stress.<\/p>\n

Volunteers in the study included 11 healthy, active men in their 20s who provided a bit of muscle tissue from one thigh for a baseline biopsy. Then researchers had the volunteers do 70 minutes of fast-paced cycling on a stationary bike. The volunteers rested for 10 minutes and then had a 10-minute massage on one thigh only. Immediately after the massage, researchers took second muscle biopsies, but this time from both thighs in order to compare massaged tissue versus nonmassaged tissue. Two and a half hours after the second biopsies, the volunteers underwent a third set of biopsies on both thighs to capture any changes that might have occurred a bit later after their massages.<\/p>\n

To learn about the findings, I called Mark Tarnopolsky, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine and head of neuromuscular and neurometabolic disease at McMaster University in Canada, who was a coauthor of the study published in\u00c2\u00a0Science Translational Medicine<\/em>this past February.<\/p>\n

STOP THE DAMAGE!<\/h4>\n

Dr. Tarnopolsky told me that the researchers found two very interesting differences in the muscles that had been massaged\u00e2\u0080\u00a6<\/p>\n