Foot massage effective in improving sleep quality and anxiety in postmenopausal women

The therapeutic advantages of therapeutic massage have lengthy been acknowledged. A brand new examine means that foot therapeutic massage, specifically, can assist reduce quite a lot of frequent menopause signs, together with sleep disruption, successfully extending sleep period by a median of an hour per day. Research outcomes are revealed on-line immediately in Menopause.

Through the menopause transition, estrogen deficiency can result in quite a lot of bodily and psychological well being issues, together with insomnia, sizzling flashes, vaginal dryness, complications and anxiousness. Though sizzling flashes and unfavorable moods generally seen in within the menopause transition usually enhance, circumstances comparable to sleep complaints and vaginal dryness are inclined to persist or worsen over time.

Fatigue generally happens because of sizzling flashes and impaired sleep high quality. Actually, fatigue usually ranks as one of many prime three menopause complaints and is prevalent in additional than a 3rd of girls older than 45 years. Though hormone remedy is acknowledged as an efficient remedy choice for a lot of menopausal signs, together with sizzling flashes, not all ladies all ready or prepared to take hormones. Thus, there’s a must establish different approaches, together with complementary and various remedies, to alleviate the assorted bodily and psychological well being signs that always accompany the menopause transition.

Reflexology, which is a particular kind of therapeutic massage remedy, has been proven to assist enhance leisure. Foot therapeutic massage, specifically, reportedly helps people loosen up, scale back stress and restore the physique’s stability by stimulating the nerve cells situated within the legs. Earlier research have instructed that foot reflexology is an efficient intervention in decreasing stress and fatigue in premenopausal ladies. Nonetheless, no earlier research have been discovered that evaluated the consequences of foot therapeutic massage on anxiousness, fatigue and sleep on the identical time in postmenopausal ladies.

On this new, small-scale examine, researchers particularly sought to judge the consequences of foot therapeutic massage on anxiousness, fatigue and sleep in postmenopausal ladies. Research outcomes decided that foot therapeutic massage utilized throughout menopause will increase the typical each day sleep period—as a lot as an hour per day—and reduces ladies’s fatigue and anxiousness ranges.

“Sleep disturbances, fatigue and anxiousness signs are frequent throughout menopause. This small examine in Turkish ladies reveals how a easy, cheap intervention comparable to foot therapeutic massage can enhance these bothersome signs in postmenopausal ladies. Though extra examine is required to substantiate these findings in different populations of postmenopausal ladies, there’s little draw back to recommending foot therapeutic massage as a non-hormonal choice to assist relieve signs,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.