December 2025

Hello, and welcome to this month's article! Happy Holidays! As yet another year winds down, it’s about time to start looking ahead and making plans for a new year. What do you hope to achieve in the coming months?

The final week of the year can be an excellent time to step back from your daily routines and imagine where you’d like to be in your life this time next year.

This month’s issue shares some hints on setting goals that can help you reach a more rewarding life.

The massage article this month was sourced from Science Direct, an online database for science and medical journals. It offers another reminder of how regular massage provides you with such a wide array of health benefits.

One of the best benefits from massage is improved sleep. The final article covers a study that shows how proper sleep can help you to thoroughly handle anxiety by reorganizing connections in the brain.

Enjoy the rest of your holidays, spending time with friends, family, and loved ones. See you soon for your next massage!

Creating a healthier life is in your hands

Setting health-related goals is important because it provides you with a roadmap for achieving a healthier lifestyle, increases motivation by creating a sense of purpose, and offers a way to measure progress towards meaningful objectives. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, clear, specific goals help you focus your efforts and ensure you are making changes that are relevant to your personal health vision.

Key benefits of setting personal goals—

• Provides direction and purpose: Goals give you a clear sense of where you are headed, helping you prioritize your actions and decisions to align with your objectives. 
   
• Increases motivation: Having something specific to strive for keeps you motivated and engaged, and the process of achieving goals builds confidence. 
   
• Boosts productivity: Goals give you a clear path to follow, helping you focus your energy and avoid distractions, which helps make you more productive. 
   
• Enhances self-esteem: Accomplishing goals, no matter the size, builds self-confidence and self-worth, creating a positive feedback loop for continued growth. 
   
• Promotes accountability: Goals provide a framework for measuring your progress.

Massage myths busted: Research delivers final verdict
by Kateryna Serohina

Increasing research shows that massage has real therapeutic effects—from reducing pain to improving psychological well-being, according to studies published in the online database Science Direct.

In the 2022 US National Health Survey, 8.5% of Americans identified massage as part of their overall wellness. Scientists explain that the effects of massage are so comprehensive that they are difficult to measure separately; it impacts the body, the nervous system, and emotional state alike.

Physical effects of massage— At the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, massage is used for patients with severe conditions. Research has shown that in people with advanced cancer, massage reduced chronic pain over the long term. Based on these findings, the US has launched the Imagine project—integrating massage and acupuncture into oncology programs nationwide.

In another study, veterans who received massage twice a week for 12 weeks experienced a significant reduction in pain levels, and the effect lasted for an additional three months. After 10 sessions, patients with chronic back pain showed clinically meaningful improvement, especially those aged 50 and older.

Research also confirms that massage improves blood circulation and accelerates muscle recovery after exertion. Even foot massage was found to change blood flow in the hands, indicating a systemic effect rather than a purely local one.

Psychological effects of massage— Massage increases endorphin levels—natural painkillers and feel-good hormones. Positive touch reduces anxiety, eases depression symptoms, improves sleep, and enhances overall well-being. In patients with HIV/AIDS, it increased motivation and the sense of reconnecting with their body. ...

Source: newsukraine.rbc.ua

Study finds deep sleep ‘rewires’ the brain to eliminate anxiety
by John Anderer

Anxiety and stress are universal human conditions, experienced to some degree by everyone at various times in their life. While some are less prone to bouts of anxiety than others, we’ve all felt especially fried after a long day filled with trials and tribulations. Society tells us there are various ways to reduce stress and unwind: have a drink, watch a movie, take a deep breath, etc., but a new study finds the best way to promote a natural, neural “reset” of sorts and relieve anxiety is to fall into a deep sleep.

According to the research team at UC Berkeley, deep sleep, scientifically referred to as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave sleep, stabilizes our emotions, promotes highly-synchronized neural movements between synapses, and lowers heart rate and blood pressure. In short, falling into a deep sleep quite literally soothes the brain into a relaxed state, allowing it to reset inter-neural connections and reinvigorate itself.

“We have identified a new function of deep sleep, one that decreases anxiety overnight by reorganizing connections in the brain,” explains senior author Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology, in a release. “Deep sleep seems to be a natural anxiolytic (anxiety inhibitor), so long as we get it each and every night.”

Overall, this new set of research is among the strongest pieces of evidence ever connecting sleep to anxiety relief on a neural level. Furthermore, the study’s authors believe their findings designate sleep as a natural, non-pharmaceutical alternative for anxiety disorder treatment.

“Our study strongly suggests that insufficient sleep amplifies levels of anxiety and, conversely, that deep sleep helps reduce such stress,” says study lead author Eti Ben Simon, a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley.

... “Without sleep, it’s almost as if the brain is too heavy on the emotional accelerator pedal, without enough brake,” professor Walker says.

On the other hand, after getting a full night’s sleep, participants’ anxiety levels dropped considerably. Those who achieved slow-wave NREM sleep for longer periods of time showed even more pronounced drops in anxiety. ...

Even slight fluctuations in sleep patterns appeared to impact anxiety levels. ...

The study is published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Source: studyfinds.org

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
— Mike Murdock

The content of this article is not designed to replace professional medical advice. If you’re ill, consult a physician.
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