Wednesday, November 07, 2007

HEALTH FLASH

Floating may be the best stress and pain buster

The next time you go to a swimming pool try floating

Arecent study has found that relaxing in large, sound and light proof tank with salt water-floating is an effective way of easing long-term stress-related pain. The study was conducted at the Human Performance Laboratory at Karlstad University and was carried out in collaboration with the health authorities under the Varmland County Council.

It was authored by Sven-Ake Bood, who recently completed his doctorate in psychology, with a dissertation from Karlstad University in Sweden. The research project took under four years for concluding and included 140 individuals, all with some form of diagnosis involving stress-related longterm pain. The recent research also agrees with an earlier thesis that improved sleep patients feels more optimistic, and the content of the vitalising hormone prolactin increases. Anxiety, stress, depression and perception of pain declines.

The research comprised four studies that involved the treatment of pain and stress-related disorders with the aid of a floating tank. A control group that was not treated in a floating tank experienced no improvement in their health. After a period of treatment lasting a total of seven weeks, 22 percent of the participants in the floating group were entirely free of pain, and 56 experienced a clear improvement. Nineteen percent felt no change and three per cent felt worse. And the effect persists after the treatment is completed.

“Through relaxing in floating tanks, people with long-term fibromyalgia, for instance, or depression and anxiety felt substantially better after only twelve treatments. Relaxing in a weightless state in the silent, warm floating tank activates the body’s own system for recuperation and healing,” said Sven-Ake Bood. “The stress hormone decreases, as does blood pressure. The findings confirm and reinforce our earlier studies on the effects of relaxing in a floating tank. “The treatment method can be used for several groups, such as people with whiplash injuries, fibromyalgia, depression, and long-term stressrelated pain. “We can also see that a combination of treatment in a floating tank and traditional therapy can be effective. We are now moving on in our research and will be monitoring blood circulation in the capillaries, the oxygen uptake of the blood, and how the body’s reflexes are affected,”

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