Abhyanga on stress management: integrative literature

Abstract

Does abhyanga help to reduce stress? Articles and dissertations published during the period of January of 2009 to June of 2014 had been consulted in eleven data bases: B-on, RCAAP, ERIC, Google Acadêmico, Pubmed, Scielo, Bire¬me, LILACS, Capes, Free Medical Journals and Bvsalud. Keywords used: 1. Ayurvedic Abhyanga Massage; 2. Ayurvedic Massage and stress; 3. Ayurveda and stress and 4. Abhyanga and stress. Three publications had dealt with the effect of abhyanga in healthful individuals and had brought indications of the importance of abhyanga on the immunologic system, reduction of the subjective experimentation of stress, heart tax reduction and blood pressure reduction for hypertensive citizens. Four publications had dealt with the effect of abhyanga to alleviate organic problems and had evaluated the effectiveness of abhyanga for cervical spondylolysis, osteoarthritis of knees and dandruff. In the selec¬ted publications, abhyanga procedure showed to be effective for illnesses prevention as well as for already installed illnesses treatment. It was observed in these studies biochemical alterations that help immunologic system empo-werment and that can be related to parasympathetic nervous system activation and relaxation response.