1) It reduces stress hormone levels
Several studies have shown that massage reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which among many other benefits helps slow your heart rate, and brings your blood pressure down.
2) It boosts your immunity
By reducing stress and stress hormones, massage boosts the levels of "natural killer cells" in your body, which are your first defense against invaders. Massage has been shown to even boost immunity in people with severely decreased immune systems, such as patients with breast cancer.
3) It’s a great pain reliever
Whether you’ve got muscular pain, chronic headaches or a migraine, or even labor pains (!), massage has been shown to significantly decrease and relieve pain. I woke up with a headache three days in a row last week, a sign that I was trying to do too much in too little time. A one hour massage (and three hour visit to the spa, with a lot of that time spent relaxing in the whirlpool), cured the headaches completely!
4) It boosts your mood
As if a wonderful, healing, relaxing visit to a spa wasn’t enough (I already feel better, just walking in the door), treatments such as massage increase your brain’s level of feel-good hormones like dopamine and serotonin.
5) It relieves PMS symptoms!
A small study of a group of women with severe PMS found that massage reduced a variety of symptoms such as pain, water retention, and mood swings. Now there’s some ammunition that might seriously convince your husband or partner of the necessity of your spa visit – maybe you can even get them to pay for it! Imagine how much happier a place this world would be, if all women were treated to a spa visit a minimum of once a month?