It is safe to assume that the first Chinese people to have performed massage therapy never in their wildest dreams thought that humans could actually invent chairs that massage you while you’re sitting.
Massage chairs were first popularized in 1986 by David Palmer, a San Francisco massage practitioner. He called the High Touch Massage Chair. Several models later, we now have the most advanced massage chairs the world has seen.
One of these is the Inada Dreamwave, which uses a Japanese body scanning technology to give you a relaxing Shiatsu massage. It is also well known for its infrared lumbar and seat heating that melts away any back soreness.
Massage chairs have come a long way. Here are some of their amazing benefits to your mental and physical well-being:
Reduce stress and anxiety.
Not many people fully understand the gravity of the effects of chronic stress on humans. Chronic stress has been found to increase the risk of acquiring diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, insomnia, autoimmune diseases, respiratory infections, and even gastrointestinal disorders. And that’s just to name a few.
It is scary how people sweep chronic stress under the rug, thinking that it will go away on its own. More often than not, it does not. Massage chairs and massage therapies, in general, have been found to reduce people’s blood pressure after 15 minutes of use. This, in turn, helps in stress reduction.
Power-charge your immune system.
Your immune system is in charge of fighting off harmful bacteria and viruses, so if it’s weak, your chance of getting sick increases. But do you know that getting a 45-minute massage increases a person’s lymphocytes?
The same study by researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles found that massages also resulted in lower levels of cytokines, which play a role in inflammation. If you’ve got chronic high levels of inflammation, you’re at risk for cardiovascular disease, asthma, and depression.
They also found that the massage decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol and vasopressin, a hormone linked to aggressive behavior.
Boost your blood flow.
What’s so good with having blood that flows well? A lot, actually. Good circulation ensures that your organs get enough nutrients that they need (assuming that you do consume vitamins!). Your body needs nutrients in all the right places to avoid the following:
- Muscle cramps
- High blood pressure
- Organ damage
- Varicose veins
- Blood clots
- Vertigo and dizziness
- Leg ulcers
- Stroke
In other words, you need good blood circulation to live longer. And massage chairs help you with that. All the mechanical rolling, tapping, kneading, gripping, and Shiatsu movements are good for your blood flow.
In the end, all these fantastic benefits make a massage chair not only the ultimate equipment for relaxation but for staying healthy as well. You should keep in mind that as we age, it takes more effort to stay healthy, both physically and mentally. This makes getting all the help we can get, even from a chair, worth taking.