To understand the benefits of massage, you first have to know a little about your circulatory system. Your circulatory system consists of two parts: the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems.

These two systems work together to detoxify the body. As nutrient-rich blood travels away from your heart through capillaries, in adjacent tissue cells, nutrients and wastes are exchanged. Fluid taken from the blood, or lymph, transports waste to your lymph nodes where they filter wastes and return fluid to your bloodstream.

When your circulatory systems aren't working properly, your blood flow is impaired and your heart has to work extra hard to pump blood. This can cause health problems such as heart attack, stroke, eye disease, kidney disease, muscle pain, dementia, diabetes, influenza, and cirrhosis, just to name a few.