The Health Benefits of Massage
Dr. Stephen Newdell
Massage is one of the earliest known therapeutic practices. There are French cave drawings indicating “a therapist” doing something like massage going back at least 25,000 years. In the Middle East and particularly Egypt, some geologists have looked at soil layers and said there are indications of hominids living in underground dwellings going back at least 100,000 years. We don’t have exacting dates but it appears people of one form or another have been working on each other for a very long time.
Treatments for various disorders were based on the belief that massage therapy had curative characteristics shared by many ancient cultures, including the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, and Indians.
Massage includes many techniques of kneading or manipulating a person’s muscles and other soft tissue to promote their health and well-being. As part of this manual treatment, the muscles, tendons, and ligaments and other connective tissue called “fascia” are gripped, manipulated, rolled, and pressured until tension that should not be there releases and the patient feels relief from pain, and experiences greater mobility.
Massage in addition to medical care or Chiropractic spinal adjustments brings notable benefits, and comfort. Nurses who apply massage to patients note that these patients get well faster in many cases.
Sometimes couples massage one another. A husband might massage his wife and after approximately 30 minutes she might request a more intimate interlude.
A woman may request a massage and a chance to talk to her Massage Therapist (MT) friend. She wants some muscle balancing and relaxation and a chance to talk out her upsets about some issue. Sometimes the MT is also a bit of a psychologist too. Some have a degree in psychology and later take up doing massage.
Deep tissue massage is applied in some situations to release injuries or repetitive use syndrome. Athletes note they recover faster after a strenuous workout or race when they visit their MT after the event. Many gyms employ MTs.
Types of Massage
Massage treatment offers various ways of delivering touch, pressure, and intensity.
Swedish massage (also called Classic massage (is a gentle technique using lengthy strokes, kneading, deep circular motions, vibration, and tapping. It has a calming and energizing effect. It is often applied with oiled hands on bare skin, and sometimes with a talcum powder on bare skin. Some therapists do the massage right through the patient’s clothing. The patient remains dressed for the entire session.
Traditional Classic / Swedish massage, is general treatment for all sorts of conditions. anything from general pleasurable relaxation and emotional improvement, sleep improvement and a place sometimes to rest and talk to a Massage Therapist friend. who treats everyone.
Sports massage targets athletes and their specific needs. Runners need it all over but particularly for low back, buttocks, legs and feet.
Trigger point massage releases “fixations” focusing upon areas of tight painful muscle fibers. This as mentioned is usually related to an injury or from using a particular muscle group repetitively. An example might be a long session using a saw cutting wood, or in earlier years ocean fishermen might have been pulling fish laden nets back aboard their ship for hours without rest, or they were rowing against current and high seas trying to return to their ship.
Lymphatic massage
Lymphatic fluid maintains bodily fluids and removes waste. Lymphatic massage employs gentle touch to improve lymphatic fluid flow.
Lymphatic massage is helpful for patients suffering inflammation, especially those with arthritis and who have had mastectomy surgery.
Health benefits of massage therapy
Massage is often regarded as an element of integrative medicine. It is given alongside conventional pharmaceutical therapy for many medical illnesses and circumstances.
Therapeutic massage increases muscle blood flow and warmth, boosts performance, reduces cell adhesion, increases muscular flexibility, and reduces injury risk.
For thousands of years, therapeutic massage, and care for patients using food, herbal medicines, fasting and water, has been practiced all around the world.
Many of such patients live long lives and remain fit, flexable and active until perhaps 10-days before their energy “falls off a cliff” and they go into a deep sleep and pass away.
Compare that if you will to being medicated continually at vast cost.
Living on fake food and processed sugar laden foods and alcohol takes its toll.
I am age 74 and look like a highschool gymnast. Older men I pass at the grocery store look like they’re about to birth triplets!
My point is: Natural Healing is not some sort of “witch-kraft.” It has proven valuable for centuries. Patients came to me when they were disabled. I got several out of wheel chairs and back to work or normal home life. They regained their hope for a normal married family life again!
What did I do? I applied a mixture of massage with Chiropractic care. Most of what I did can be and is being done by local Massage Therapists. I advised about eating real food the way the Creator gave it to us.
Researchers from the UK presented a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which shows that therapeutic massage accounts for roughly 45% of physiotherapy treatment time.
Therapeutic massage is employed in broad ways, including competitive preparation, during contests, and post-competition recovery.
The Health benefits of massage
Therapeutic massage uses mechanical pressure to decrease tissue adhesion. Mobilizing and elongating decreased or adherent connective cells may increase muscle and tendon mobility.
Stiffness in all of it’s forms may east considerably with a few massage sessions.
Massage often offers many benefits such as:
- stress reduction
- increased relaxation,
- reduced pain
- reduced muscular soreness and tension,
- improved circulation,
- improved energy, and alertness,
- decreased blood pressure and heart rate, and
- enhanced immunological function.
When hands touch skin the skin showers many different hormones into the blood stream benefiting the body with improved health and healing.
For couples this is a great beginning to a romantic interlude. Many couples can buy a book teaching beginners massage and begin learning that way. Some of them will decide to continue the study for their family members and to be kind and helpful to friends and pets.
How Massage Benefits Your Body
Different physiotherapeutic mechanisms are used in massage, which provides benefits to the body.
Shallow skin friction induces hyperemia by increasing regional warmth. Regional heating boosts blood flow. Massage increases skin and intramuscular warmth; which may or may not affect muscle blood circulation.
Stress and worry can be eased by the relaxation that comes with receiving a massage.
The sympathetic portion of our nervous system, is responsible for the “fight-or-flight” reaction. It can be calmed with massage. A baby who can’t sleep after stress may finally fall asleep and be settled into her bed.
The parasympathetic portion of our nervous system, is responsible for the regular and day-to-day activities including heart rate, breathing, digestion, relaxation and rest. The sympathetic portion is involved in work, stress and motion activity.
Massage helps to balance both sections of the nervous system and related sub-sections. The patient finally has an over-all improvement in general health.
An article in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry suggests a massage can reduce anxiety by increasing parasympathetic response.
The Stress hormone cortisol may be reduced by getting a massage, and the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine can be increased, which are known to help regulate your mood.
People who suffer with too much stress tend to gain unwanted fat. Balancing the nervous system and following good dietary advice may help the patient to lose the fat he/she does not want.
For people who suffer from sleeplessness caused by menopause or congestive heart failure, massage treatment can help.
Many researchers have investigated the possibility of massage relieving acute back, neck, headache, and knee pain. They find the same answers given 100 and more years ago. Massage helps reduce these pains and get muscles working together properly again. Joint pain deminishes and the patient returns to normal life in many cases.
A 60-minute massage given several times a week can be more effective than fewer or shorter massages in providing relief.
The therapist and patient can work together to find the best schedule for this particular person. The schedule will vary based on overall health, age, stress, physical work demands, personal scheduling, and other issues.
The researchers ailluded to above, caution that this benefit may be temporary rather than long-term. This does not mean “massage doesn’t work.” It tells us the patent needs more massage sessions while the normal nervous system patterns are restored. With that completed the aches, pains and weaknesses are gone and often do not reappear. A massage once or twice each month well repays it’s cost!
According to an article published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, frequent massages can help our bodies produce more white blood cells which naturally kill germs that cause illnesses.
An article published in Gastroenterology Nursing reports that an abdominal massage may help constipation. (It works on pets too.)
Results showed that abdominal massage reduced symptoms of constipation, shortened time intervals between defecation, and improved quality of life in individuals diagnosed with postoperative constipation.
Fibromyalgia: In their article published in PLOS ONE, researchers demonstrated that fibromyalgia’s effects on sleep, cognition, and mood improve after five weeks of massage therapy.
The toll on the body and mind of those battling cancer is enormous. Cancer pain relief, relaxation, and quality of life has been observed to improve after regular massage therapy sesions spaced once per day and then perhaps the schedule will be changed to three or two visits per week.
According to research published in Integrative Cancer Therapies, cancer discomfort may be alleviated by the use of massage treatment. Chiropractic combined with massage, particularly in bone related cancer is often noted to be remarkably effective.
For several years Massage magazine covers habitually displayed pretty young women receiving massage often in a tropical setting by a hotel swimming pool. I think what they unwittingly did was mis-educate the public to believe massage was only for pampering women, and a Man would never go for a massage. What a huge mistake that sort of promotion proved to be.
People of all ages and genders can benefit from massage treatment. It is more than just self-indulgence or self-pampering exercise for well-maintained pretty women.
It is often necessary for athletes, fighters, and gymnasts particularly.
Whether someone has a particular health issue or is just searching for a way to de-stress, Massage is a valuable therapy proven successful for perhaps many thousands of years.
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As editor I look for a business with a website, easy to read, with good reviews.
The information and reviews displayed for these Massage Therapists are so good, I wanted to add them to the list of several best and most recommended Massage Therapy clinics. The research and list of clinics will be growing.
I am well qualified to write about this subject. I am now an older man living outside the USA. I began Human Physiology study at age 20 at SUNY, Stonybrook, and began Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa at age 24, and in a no-vacations accelerated program graduated before the end of 1977. I also went to Massage School and taught to students at a college in Chicago. I ran my own practice combining both disciplines until age 50.
This magazine has a growing health articles section. I plan to write more about Massage. If this interests you, look for the Articles Section from the Cover Page.
