Why You DON’T Want a Boosted Immune System.
So many vitamins and supplements these days come with the promise of boosting your immunity against viruses and other illnesses, among many other claims. But I ask you – why do you want to boost your immune system?
If you are a relatively healthy individual with a balanced diet (a.k.a, you eat your fruits and vegetables), your immune system is typically already brilliant and fights off illness and infections beautifully as it is. Every now and then, our bodies do require a bit of extra help from antibiotics and certain medications (mostly to alleviate symptoms to make us more comfortable), but this isn’t to say that our immune systems aren’t doing their job!
A ‘boosted’ immune system is technically an overactive immune system. This is bad news for the owner of this immunity, as essentially with an overactive immune system, it isn’t just the cells of the invading bacteria and virus that the immune system wants to fight – its EVERY cell, good and bad. This overactive immune system is commonly diagnosed as an “autoimmune” disease.
There are a long list of illnesses you will have heard of that fall under this autoimmune umbrella, and it includes but is not limited to:
Type 1 Diabetes, Lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Coeliac disease, Multiple Sclerosis – and many, many more!
Did you know all these diseases were the result of the immune system attacking the healthy cells of certain body parts?
If you do have an autoimmune condition, we can help you!
The few autoimmune conditions that have been studied extensively (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and type 1 diabetes), show that regular massage therapy assists with disease-related symptoms and can even increase the effectiveness of the medications being used for treatment.
One study in particular showed that receiving massage directly after insulin injection had the effect of increasing serum insulin action for those with type 1 diabetes more effectively than just receiving the insulin injection itself! Isn’t that cool? At this stage, the studies performed on massage and diabetes related neuropathy are suggesting that massage can also assist in the treatment of neuropathy – however there is always more research to be done!
For rheumatoid arthritis, studies performed have shown a substantial decrease in pain and inflammation, and a greater increase in strength and range of motion through the affected joints!
In regards to lupus, while there are very few studies so far on even the disease itself let alone the treatments available, the studies that have been performed on the treatment of lupus with massage have shown that it has the ability to reduce pain levels, improve quality of sleep and improve the health-related quality of life in patients.
Auto-immune diseases are among the least studied ailments that affect the population, and much more research is yet to be performed. However, with the data we have received so far on the effectiveness on massage for those with auto-immune conditions, we can confirm that it provides some relief on multiple levels.
If you have been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease (and have been given the okay from your primary health care provider), feel free to book in for a treatment with one of our qualified practitioners.
In health,
Aimee
Remedial Massage Therapist