Dementia is a condition that can deteriorate cognitive capacity (i.e., the ability to process thought) beyond what is likely to be expected from natural ageing, typically of a chronic or progressive nature. Memory, thinking, awareness, estimation, learning ability, and judgement are affected. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type and cause of dementia. It is caused by specific changes in the brain. Some of the signs and symptoms that may point to dementia are, forgetting recent events and old memories, forgetting the names of family members, difficulty with walking and talking, muscle stiffness and pain, depression, restlessness and change in overall personality.
Treatment and Care
No treatment is currently available to cure dementia. In different phases of clinical trials, several new treatments are being studied. However, massage therapy can be offered to support and improve the lives of people with dementia.
Here are some benefits of Massage therapy for people with Dementia:
In order to control dementia-related symptoms such as anxiety, disturbed behaviour and depression, Massage and touch were proposed as a non-pharmacological alternative or supplement to other therapies provided. It is also proposed that cognitive impairment can be lessened by massage and touch.
In so many cases, massage therapy is highly helpful! In a while, I am going to explain some advantages of massage therapy and why today you should reserve a massage. Alternative therapies can enhance the lives of individuals with the disease in several respects.
Several alternatives and complementary medicine, including herbal treatments, therapies, and other phototherapies, have been shown to be helpful for people with dementia. Yet massage is one of the therapies that are most easily handled. Using massage therapy for dementia has been shown to be helpful for patients. Since massage therapy is focused on human interaction, it is an efficient part of treatment. In several ways, massage will enhance the lives of individuals with dementia:
1. Ease Pain and physical discomfort
Massage can help ease the pain and distress that individuals experience, regardless of what it originates from. We learn from an early age that the touch of a hand will relieve pain. When a toddler bangs his leg, he would immediately rub the sore spot. Similarly, a person with sore shoulders is likely to attempt to knead them. If you have pain, brief or chronic, you might want to try relaxing with a massage.
How does it ease the pain?
In various ways, massage appears to relieve pain. Blood supply to swollen joints, and muscles, which are warmed by the extra circulation, may be improved for instance.
- It relaxes muscles and enhances feelings of calmness and joy
- The way the brain feels pain can also be changed by massage
- Acceleration of blood flow
Massage can help relieve general discomfort and even improve mobility by enhancing circulation, regardless of the pain you experience. Massage can also help soothe painful areas and decrease the hypersensitivity of the mind-body connected to chronic pain. Pain relief can lead to an improvement in the quality of life.
2. Enhances the Mood
Dementia is a stressful condition that affects most individuals. As a consequence, many individuals with dementia are depressed and nervous, risking the quality of their everyday lives. By stimulating the release of dopamine and oxytocin, massage will help enhance your mental state. These two hormones are known to improve mood and induce feelings of love and a sense of well-being. Daily massage has abilities for mood-enhancing that can change the overall mental outlook in ways you did not think possible.
3. Mitigate Stress
In our lives, we all experience good and bad stress, which triggers cortisol and this can produce chaos in our body and mind and even illness. Massages, in many ways, can help relieve and control tension. For one thing, massage therapy’s physical benefits can help alleviate the stress response our body and mind generate and act on. In stressful times massage is important to balance out feelings and emotions of anxiety and depression. At any age, it is important to reduce and combat the effects of stress.
4. Soothes muscle pain and Improve Flexibility
Work can leave you with sore and pain-filled muscles. The expanding and touchiness of the muscle is brought about by irritation. A professional massage therapist’s services will assist the immune system to alleviate muscle pain and feel more relaxed.
Proper flexibility in our muscles allows us, without discomfort or stiffness, to move easily and engage in daily activities. It helps our joints to move through their natural range of motion and provides us with the correct shape, posture, and work. Massage therapy helps to increase the flexibility of our muscles by enhancing the supply of blood and oxygen to the muscles, reducing the tightness of the muscles.
5. Increases alertness of the body
By improving blood circulation, a massage promotes an increase in oxygenation throughout the body that can later increase muscle capacity, decrease exhaustion, and keep muscles strong and healthy.
The sense of loneliness, boredom, and isolation is also relieved by massage. Patients are encouraged to feel self-worthy. A regular massage increases body awareness and alertness, as well as a reduction in the feeling of uncertainty.
6. Promotes Sleep
Stress and sleep deprivation are interrelated. Stress interferes with sleep function, making it hard to sleep at night, and quality of sleep. Not having enough sleep can lead to exhaustion, depression, trouble with concentration, and a decrease in the function of the immune system. The immune system would not be able to combat pathogens and diseases by combining lack of sleep with elevated stress levels.
The stress hormones are rooted out by massage, paving the way to enjoy better sleep. To battle other ailments, being able to enjoy better sleep strengthens the immune system.
The Role of Massage in Reducing Dementia
Massage is an effective means, although under-used, to remedy the urgent need to find alternatives to medicine to relieve dementia-like behavioral symptoms. As a tool, massage can help develop holistic care for dementia patients. A five or ten-minute hand massage results in:
- Decreases the level of tension
- Agitation immediately decreases and prolongs the decrease for up to one hour
- During morning care activities, it decreases the frequency and intensity of agitated behavior
- Induces deep relaxation
Recommendation
For people with dementia, we suggest a massage chair because it plays a vital role in delivering something that nurses do not do for patients. I would like to recommend and educate you about how massage chair therapy is important to the treatment regime of dementia and how it can help to minimize diagnosed patients’ suffering. It is believed that massage chair therapy is a holistic way to provide patients with the physical, mental, and emotional therapeutic relaxation they need. Sometimes, as a result of their memory loss, patients diagnosed with this illness will get confused and upset, leaving them stressed out, frightened and anxious. Massages have a gentle touch and are a more normal way to relax and calm down. The power of touch makes important improvements to patients’ overall quality of life. The full body massage chair helps to improve endorphin flow and lymph flow, which is the fluid that carries metabolic waste from the muscles and organs of the body. Increased blood flow and improved levels of endorphin contribute to the patient’s prolonged physical and mental health.
Some reasonable massage chairs for seniors are
Kahuna SM-7300
It has four automatic massage settings incorporated into the massage chair instead of the normal five that are most commonly found in massage chairs manufactured by Kahuna. 6 deep-tissue massage rollers give clients the comfort of choosing from a range of targeted massages, including targeted spot massage, half-body massage, and a full body massage experience. Alongside automatic massage settings, six manual massage motions are also featured within the Kahuna LM-7300 to aid with delivering the ability to create their own desired massage settings.
Mr Direct Full body Massage Chair
Massage Chair does not have a programmed body filtering framework; yet, simultaneously, to help people who have a generally taller body outline, the massage chair further highlights manual foot expansions which at that point permits the chair to serve both short and tall people. It consists of 8 massage joint points each of which targets core muscles within the Back Bones of users. Furthermore, total of 35 airbags works in complete synchronization to deliver an ideal massage experience.
Medical breakthrough 6 Massage Chair
Set on an L-track motion system, a total of 4 hand-like rollers starts the massage from the neck all the way down until the lower thighs help relieve pressure or pain spots stuck within.
Inside the Medical Breakthrough 6 Massage Chair, numerous automatically set massage motions are incorporated, in addition to which maximum comfort is also provided through the aid of the option to set manual massage settings, each with different massage motions, frequency, and intensity.
Conclusion
Massage and touch are among the number of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments used to reverse the cognitive deterioration in dementia treatment. Minimize the recurrent accompanying issues of depression, anxiety, violence, and associated psychological and behavioral symptoms, enhance the quality of life, or improve overall health. Touch methods were suggested to lessen anxiety as an alternative or complement to pharmacological and other therapies.
