While massage is sometimes seen as more of a luxurious action during a spa weekend with your friends, it can also be a life saver for those experiencing pain and side effects from illnesses, disorders, and conditions. Massage therapy has a number of incredible benefits for a wide variety of people. Let’s do a deep dive into some of the most unexpected and lesser known (my favorites).
1) Massage Therapy for Insomnia in Postmenopausal Women
There are various beneficial effects of massage therapy for insomnia in postmenopausal women. Menopause comes with a lot of undesirable issues and insomnia is just one of the many things that can affect your body and ultimately your life. The study conducted showed that there was improvement in the sleep patterns of postmenopausal women who used massage therapy as a method for their symptoms.
2) Heart Health Benefits
There are amazing heart health benefits that can come from visiting a massage therapist on a regular basis. The American Massage Therapy Association has stated that professional massage therapists can help their clients improve cardiovascular health. A study conducted by the International Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2013 showed that correct massage therapy could help intervene in order to help control issues such as high blood pressure: “The study showed that the immediate results of lowered blood pressure lasted up to 72 hours after massage.” Another study done by the same group showed that Swedish massage specifically helped lower blood pressure in a period of 4 weeks.
3) Massage Therapy for Fibromyalgia
There is a relationship between massage therapy and Fibromyalgia when it comes to how massage is actually effective in helping relieve Fibromyalgia pain. Research in numerous studies have found that the most common issues reported for Fibromyalgia were pain, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance and that patients receiving massage therapy for five or more consecutive weeks had beneficial immediate effects on improving pain, anxiety, and depression.
4) Benefits from Massage on children with autism
Autism in general has been a hot topic for some time because people strive to know and understand more about it for their own sake, the sake of their family, and their children. The Oregon Live reported on a study performed by Dr. Louisa Silva, founder of the Oregon-based Qigong Sensory Training Institute; her treatment is a massage centered program specifically for autistic children and can ultimately help reduce the disorder and help the children live more normally in their day to day lives. Overall, her treatment was found to be extremely helpful and effective in both high and low functioning autistic children. The treatment is 15 minutes of whole body massage and essentially removes the obstacle of needing “language and ability to focus.” Silva has parents trained to use this treatment with their children daily (children under the age of 6, early intervention). Reports from the study showed some amazing results: in the first study report, out of 103 preschoolers in Oregon, the severity of the disorder decreased by 32 percent after the treatment; this resulted in far better behavior and language skills. “Children in the study also experienced an 18 percent increase in receptive language,” Silva said. This study was a breakthrough for parents who were struggling with the difficulty of trying to communicate with and understand their children.
5) Massage Can Reduce Cancer Pain and Anxiety
For those undergoing cancer treatment, the side effects of such treatment may be very unpleasant and the need for relief may be vital. A meta-analysis was published in 2015 in Integrative Cancer Therapies on the correlation between massage therapy and cancer pain, etc. It was found that massage therapy in fact did help reduce pain in cancer patients. A big find was determining that the massage therapy practices were extremely effective for those who has post-surgery pain. The “nurturing touch” has been found to do wonders for those suffering from cancer and can in return be potentially life changing for them as well.
6) Benefits of Massage on those with Arthritis
Summary: When your body is in pain it is natural to want to fight that pain and get rid of it as soon as humanly possible. Some people who suffer from Arthritis have found that a soothing massage can help with the stress and extreme pain they feel from inflammation in their joints. It has been studied and found to be true that any type of massage that helps alleviate pain in the joints and muscles of your body is helpful and that directly correlates to the issues those who have Arthritis face on a daily basis. This article mentions Tiffany Field, a PhD and director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, has conducted a variety of studies on the benefits of therapeutic massage. In regards to patients with Arthritis, Field found that “regular use of the simple therapy led to improvements in pain, stiffness, range of motion, hand grip strength and overall function of the joints.” In general, significant improvements with pain have been reported in those facing issues with Arthritis.
7) Effects of Massage Therapy on Multiple Sclerosis Patients
A study was conducted on the use of noninvasive massage therapy to help individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) and with their standard treatment. The students involved with this study from the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada hypothesized that the use of massage therapy would ultimately help improve function in the legs and overall quality of life in those who suffer from MS. MS “is a demyelinating disorder of the upper motor neurons” and the “degeneration of the neuronal myelin sheath results in abnormal firing of the upper motor neurons.” Essentially, this means that a number of debilitating issues can occur in patients who have been diagnosed with MS. They can experience various issues which can leave them in severe pain and even affect their mobility. Chronic stress has also been reported as a symptom of MS because cytokine response (cell movement) is weakened and this can make things much worse for the patients. While most of the treatments for MS and its symptoms are strictly pharmaceutical, the students doing this study wanted to make sure it was known that massage therapy can be a non-pharmaceutical alternative to pain associated with MS. Massage can be used as a way to put pressure on certain mechanoreceptors thus signals from the pain receptors to the spinal segment can be blocked and pain can be avoided.
8) Effect of Massage on Immune Function
Summary: This study, conducted by Dr. Mark Rapaport from the Massage Therapy Foundation, was done in order to see how the body responded to a one time Swedish massage therapy session versus a “light touch control group.” Rapaport had a hypothesis which assumed that those who were given the one time Swedish massage session would experience an increase in their oxytocin levels. This would “in turn decrease the activity of various hormones involved with the hypothalamic-adrenal (HPA) connection and ultimately improve immune function. A group of 53 people were split into the light touch and Swedish massage groups and given those treatments for 45 minutes. They did things like take blood and saliva samples from the individuals and also took psychological self-report statements before and after the massage as well. The findings to this specific study were rather interesting and it was found that even one session of Swedish massage produced outstanding positive effects for the immune system and HPA connection in the patients bodies.
9) Benefits of Massage Therapy for Anxiety and Depression
The number of people estimated to be suffering from disorders such as anxiety or depression grows year over year. Anxiety and depression can cause a number of issues in one’s social and professional life and can also cause other health related issues as well. It is true that these types of disorders can be treated with medications but some people do not want to be taking medications when there are alternative routes and options. Massage therapy is one of those alternative forms of medication to help a patient overcome anxiety and depression related issues. A study conducted at the Touch Research Institute showed that 30 minutes of massage therapy improved the mood and behavior of patients hospitalized for depression, etc.
Overall take away, you should book your next massage ASAP! Don’t feel guilty for getting a massage (due to their luxurious nature) because it can help you in a number of ways. While some may go to the spa solely to relax, others are getting a massage because of an issue or ailment with their body. The article discusses the different benefits of massage with valid evidence to back up those specific claims. According to multiple studies, massage therapy can reduce pain, help you sleep, ward of colds and flu, heighten your alert senses, ease cancer treatments and side effects, alleviate depression, and decrease headaches. A section of the article even discusses the science behind stress reduction overall and how important it is to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And that is what it is all about folks, maintaining a happy healthy lifestyle. Let Sempre Day & Medical Spa help. Come see us.