Waking up and realizing you are sick … should you go for Massage? 

Massage does boost the immune system and relieve your tension. 

However, when your body is already fighting off a virus due to cold or flu or even simply a sore throat or headache with body chills, it means you are sick and your body needs to stay warm so your lymphocytes (white blood cells), which are provided to clean your body, can activate to make you feel better. 

Rest allows your lymphocytes to multiply so they can then work efficiently to clean up infection. This is always best done when you are resting and warmly tucked up.

On a sick day you don’t really have the energy or the stamina to work and put in the effort for socialising.

Getting a massage when sick is not a good idea in the early stages

Although it does sound soothing and relaxing and you may feel you need a pain reliever. Unknotting your muscles pushes toxins into your system and although the nervous system is on tender hooks and you may feel that it needs soothing, a massage can overstimulate the movement of toxins through the internal organs when your body most needs to conserve energy to take away the virus. 

Massage can help in the very later days of recovery but should be avoided in the early days of sickness. 

Massages are generally known to boost your immune system.

Massage works well for stress and pain relief being calming with therapeutic touch and unwinding muscular knots also relieving acquired tension from the body, it will also increase blood circulation and help balance the chakras. Massage works well for slimming and toning stimulating the lymphatic system to detoxify and remove excess fluid and tissue sludge while also helping tone the body, it also pushes out lactic acid accumulated in the joints after exercise. 

Massage isn’t as relaxing as it sounds in sickness:

When the body is already dealing with sickness symptoms this stimulation of circulation and removal of toxins might just add to those existing symptoms and make you even sicker.

which is the reason that if you go to your massage therapist when you are sick, they might just send you back home. 

In the earlier stages of sickness it gets very hard to lay head faced downwards on the massage bed it can make the sinuses feel very heavy and congested so you become dizzy when you get up and stuffy!

A contagious sickness may spread: Another reason to stay away from a massage clinic while you are sick is that if you have a contagious illness, you don’t want others to catch it from you. This is just to be considerate of your therapist and the other clients.

Staying at home a much better idea when you first become sick:

You can be home and stay in bed wrapped up and all cozy allowing your body to heal itself quickly, so that you can be up and running around again much faster and in good health. 

How can getting a massage helps in sickness:

Massage can speed up your recovery process but you should wait 5 days before you try this as getting a massage will pressure your body and push it to its limits.

It forces to speed up the process by pushing everything around your body. This would cause a reaction of increased disease symptoms for 3 to 4 days. 

A few things that should be kept in mind are that if you have colds and flu you should probably stay at home. Or if you have a fever or feel nausea it is still better to stay at home and tucked in your bed. If you have a case of a common cold you should wait until it gets a little better to catch your appointment with the therapist for a massage.

However, if you are having common cold signs, it is usually ok to get a therapeutic massage after 5 days. There are different types of massage that you go for in this situation. These include Swedish massage, Hot stone massage, and Deep tissue massage. These massages are also good for recovering from strenuous exercise. These massage techniques will improve blood flow and your overall health and release stress hormones.

written by Caroline