By Alicia Potter
Copyright Health Magazine 2008
They survive cold season without a sniffle. They fly in germ-packed airplanes unscathed. And they somehow avoid stomach bugs that decimate the office. Wish you could be one of these women who never get sick? Try one or — even better — all of these seven secrets, and you may join this club come flu season.
Some say getting a massage once a month is key to fighting off bugs.
Get a massage
For the past three years, Mindy Hardwick, 38, of Lake Stevens, Washington, has dodged all the major bugs while volunteering at schools and a juvenile-detention center. Her secret weapon: a monthly massage. Hardwick even sailed through a move (selling her first house) without the post stress blahs.
“It’s got to be the massage,” she says. “I’m convinced it’s like taking medicine.”
Most studies show that massage can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate — and lowering these is likely to cause your stress level to drop, one key to building immunity. Health.com: What kind of massage is best for you?
“Decreasing stress increases your immune cells,” says Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute of the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Make massage work for you: Any type of rubdown is fine, as long as you ask for moderate pressure, Field says. The therapist’s touch should be vigorous enough to move or indent skin but not so hard that it causes pain. How often do you need one? There’s no science on that, but experts say once a month (or more) is worthwhile.
You can take matters into your own hands, too, by showering with a stiff, natural-bristle brush; like moderate-pressure massage, this stimulates pressure receptors under the skin, Field says.
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Tags: anxiety relief, body awareness, chicopee massage, Massage Sites, Massage Therapy, pressure, relaxation, stress relief, Touch
