Can tackling the big questions in life make you less depressed and anxious?

What is a muscle cramp? Normal movement of our bodies involves muscles alternating between contract and relaxation. A muscle that contracts involuntarily and is unable to relax is a spasm; and a forceful and prolonged spasm becomes a cramp. A muscle cramp can last anywhere from a few seconds to up to 15 minutes or occasionally longer. Any muscle can develop a cramp, but the most common site for muscle cramps are the legs, particularly the front of the thighs (quadriceps), back of the thighs (hamstrings) and calf muscles (gastrocnemius & soleus). Unfortunately almost everyone, one estimate is 95% of the population will experience a muscle cramp at some time in their life. Muscle cramps are one of those things that also increases as we get older. Those of you that have already had a muscle cramp will undoubtedly remember the unrelenting pain! Tip: Most muscle cramps can be stopped if the muscle can be stretched. Muscle spasms & cramps are one of the most common complaints that massage therapists deal with.

While it may not seem the most obvious time of year to start talking about sleep, we can often forget when the sun is out our natural instinct is to go out and play sport or socialise.  In addition summer is often a time when things naturally slow down in the business world so we can be tempted to pack in as many things as possible before it gets busy at work. This means at this time of year we can often find out ourselves feeling depleted and short on sleep due to hot summer nights which are not condusive to a good nights sleep. I know I have blogged in the past about sleep, here are my tips for a good nights sleep .  I have talked in the past about how we feel good if we get a good nights sleep but the medical profession is still unclear about why we need sleep.  What is clear is that sleep is a huge clear out of thoughts and feelings that accumulated during the day - and this is critical to our health.  The medical profession has many theories about why we dream or need to dream - what is agreed on is that parts of our brains are very active when we dream  and that dreaming improves our ability to solve problems and be creative. The key question about sleep is often how much sleep do I need.  I don't focus on a figure but go by how my body feels.  That means sometimes it needs more sleep and sometimes less sleep.  What I focus on is the quality of sleep which I judge by how refreshed I feel in the morning.      

Previously I explained the scientific theory for  "How does massage reduce muscle pain?" in the short term .  But what about the long term? I would like to introduce to you the "descending pain suppression mechanism." The brain is not a passive receiver of sensory messages, but rather a centre that interprets them and makes constant adjustments accordingly. For example, everyone knows that the way you perceive pain will be influenced by whether you focus on it or think of something else instead. And it seems reasonable to suppose that evolutionary selection may have favoured those individuals who could ignore pain signals for long enough to take actions that let them escape and survive danger.

Unpleasant cutaneous sensations stimulate nuclei within the mid brain.  These nuclei in turn initiate activity in the descending spinal tracts that release endogenous opiates (inhibitory neurotransmitters) within the spinal segment receiving the painful input.  This diminishes the intensity of the pain transmitted to the higher centres. Sports and Deep Tissue massage techniques can reinforce a naturally occurring discomfort, causing much greater release of opiates and achieve a more profound pain suppression.