blog
july 26, 2011 04:23pm
From the NYTimes
We already know how many benefits there are when having a massage. Here is just further proof that massages do so much!
Stubborn Back Pain? Try Massage
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Can massage help back pain?
Massage is a common alternative treatment for chronic low back pain, but most recent studies have found little evidence that it works. A group of researchers designed a study to see if they could find a difference between back pain sufferers who got massage and those who did not.
The scientists recruited 401 members of a large group health plan who had moderately severe back pain unconnected with any disease and generally related to strains and sprains. Three quarters of the volunteers had had pain for more than a year.
The volunteers, average age 46, two-thirds of them women, were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Some got relaxation massage, a full-body technique intended to induce a generalized sense of relaxation to ease low back pain. Others got structural massage, which aims to identify specific musculoskeletal contributors to pain and to release restrictions on muscles causing the distress. The third group received no special care and served as controls.
The three groups were similar in the other kinds and frequency of treatments they used, including painkillers or sedatives, back exercises and bed rest.
Each of the massage groups received 10 weeks of treatment, and at the end of that period, all three groups had some improvement, as measured by their answers to 23 questions about performing routine activities without help — for example, climbing stairs without using a handrail or getting out of an easy chair by themselves. They were also asked to rate the degree of their back pain symptoms on a 10-point scale.
Those who received massage scored significantly better on both symptom and function tests, and they spent less time in bed, used less medicine and were more satisfied with their current level of back pain.
At 26 weeks after treatment, those in the usual care group continued to function less well than those who had gotten massage. But there were no significant differences in the pain scores in the three groups, either at 26 or at 52 weeks.
Daniel C. Cherkin, the lead author and an epidemiologist with the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, mentioned some of the study’s considerable strengths. It had a randomized design, a high follow-up rate, good adherence to the treatment and a large sample size. Still, he said, the study was done on a mostly white, middle-class population in otherwise good health, which may limit its applicability to other groups. The study appeared online Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.
It is unclear how massage eases back pain, but the researchers suggest it may stimulate tissue locally or cause a more generalized central nervous system response. It is also possible that just spending time in a relaxing environment or being touched and cared for by a sympathetic therapist could have led to improvement. Also, those in the control group knew that the other groups were getting massage, and the knowledge that others were getting the treatment while they got none may have led them to underestimate their own progress.
Still, the researchers conclude that massage has few adverse effects and is a reasonable treatment for low back pain. There is no evidence, though, that it lowers the cost of health services related to back pain.
“We tested this on people who had not been getting better from the usual medical approaches, Dr. Cherkin said. “If you’ve tried other things and you’re not getting adequate relief, then massage is a reasonable thing to try.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/embargo-july-4-5pm-for-back-pain-try-massage/
december 02, 2010 04:40pm
Injuries, Exercise and Massage
There are many powerful reasons why massage is important, including detoxification and stress relief. But when people ask me why to do it or why it’s important the answer that responds to most busy New Yorkers is that it helps you get into good shape faster with less stiffness, soreness and most of all it helps prevent injuries that will set you back.
We all know the enormous benefits of exercise and moving the body. Anyone who routinely pushes their physical limits through any movement, sports, strength training and aerobics can benefit from a massage. Whether you are a weekend warrior that fits in workouts between work and family or a serious athlete, massage in an important part of any sports regimen. Sports medicine clinics and both professional and college athletic teams use massage to heal and prevent the wear-and-tear and minor injuries that naturally occur with strenuous movement. The added physiological and psychological benefits of massage also add to the reasons to do it.
Heavily exercised muscles may also lose their capacity to relax, causing chronically tight (hypertonic) muscles, and loss of flexibility. Lack of flexibility is often linked to muscle soreness, and predisposes you to injuries,
especially muscle pulls and tears. Blood flow through tight muscles is poor (ischemia), which also causes pain.
Some benefits of massage for exercise and injury prevention:
1. Reduced chance of injury by improving range of motion and muscle
flexibility.
2. Performance enhancing results with improved power and performance.
3. Shortened recovery time between workouts.
4. Maximizes the supply of nutrients and oxygen through increased blood flow and the elimination of lactic acid in the muscle (a by-products of exercise).
Massage helps the body recover from the stresses of strenuous exercise, and facilitates the rebuilding phase of conditioning. The physiological benefits of massage include improved blood and lymph circulation and muscle and general relaxation. These, in turn, lead to removal of waste products and better cell nutrition, normalization and greater elasticity of tissues, deactivation of trigger points, and faster healing of injuries. It all adds up to relief from soreness and
stiffness, better flexibility, and less potential for future injury.
With regular massage for maintenance the therapist can zero in on particular muscle groups and work specific tissues, they can help maintain or improve range of motion and muscle flexibility. The overall objective of a maintenance program is to help you reach optimal performance through injury-free training. Regular massage also gives a therapist a chance to find your unique trouble spots, perhaps from past injuries. They can pay special attention to these areas, monitor them for developing problems, and help keep them in good condition. An experienced massage therapist can also compliment treatment received from other health care professionals for various injuries.
Massage for injuries can speed healing and reduce discomfort during the rehabilitation process. Deep tissue and trigger point massage breaks up the tissues in the muscle to speed recovery.
So to sum it up, make massage part of your wellness and fitness routine. You’ll get all the benefits of relaxation and if you’re more a type A personality remember you can push yourself a little harder with less injuries and get in shape a little faster.
october 22, 2010 04:23pm
More Research About the Benefits of Massage!
Printed in the New York Times Sept 20, 2010
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Does a good massage do more than just relax your muscles? To find out, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recruited 53 healthy adults and randomly assigned 29 of them to a 45-minute session of deep-tissue Swedish massage and the other 24 to a session of light massage.
All of the subjects were fitted with intravenous catheters so blood samples could be taken immediately before the massage and up to an hour afterward.
To their surprise, the researchers, sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health, found that a single session of massage caused biological changes.
Volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system.
Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.
The study was published online in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
The lead author, Dr. Mark Hyman Rapaport, chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai, said the findings were “very, very intriguing and very, very exciting — and I’m a skeptic.”
october 20, 2010 03:46pm
Reach Out and Touch
I have been giving a weekly massage to a wonderful elderly woman, Marie, for many years. She’s a petit spitfire that broke boundaries for woman in the financial world when she was working. We were talking the other day in her home after her session about how she looks forward to our appointments. “I’ve realized that it often the only time anyone touches me all week.” Marie explained. This is not a sad lonely old lady, she is vibrant woman, active in her bridge club, additionally she has many friends and family. But without a partner and because her family and grandchildren live out of the area I am her main source of touch. It got me thinking about touch and what we as adults are missing because of the invisible social boundaries we’ve created.
When the body becomes stressed it produces a hormone called “cortisol.” Increased cortisol levels lower immunity, affect sleep and decrease dopamine levels which affect moods. There have been many studies done how massage and touch decrease cortisol levels in the body. A The New York Times article recently discussed research that showed how the value of simple gestures of touch can change brain chemistry. Gestures such as a high five or reassuring squeeze of the arm can change how people feel and behave by promoting a feeling of calm and nurture throughout the body. But in the workplace, where most of us spend the larger portion of our day, most touch has become taboo. Many companies have strict policies about even very casual and friendly touch.
Not only in our workplace but also culturally Americans deprive themselves of touch more than many other cultures. In many Latin American and African cultures, ordinary things like breast-feeding, co-sleeping and baby carrying are not even something discussed as if it were a choice. Children are naturally reared with a lot of touch and closeness. The idea that one would sleep separate from their baby is strange to them. In France and Italy individuals usually touch one another 100 times in the course of an hour conversation, while in the United States that drops to maybe ten times.
I watch my 4 year old son and his friends who love to hold hands, cuddle, hug and kiss. Eventually hormones and growing up will change them and I can’t help but feel a little sad that their openness and relaxed relationship to touch will change.
In the words of Diana Ross “Reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place, if you can.” Go get some massage, give some hugs and next time if your inclined to give a shoulder rub to your loved one or touch someone’s arm thoughtfully, do it.
september 30, 2010 04:06pm
Norma Kamali's Conversation with Nancy Shaw
Nancy Shaw co-owner of In Touch Bodywork discusses the benefits of massage. Norma Kamali a fashion designer and health and wellness advocate assembled this amazing group of professionals to talk about our world today. Check out all these fascinating conversations with leaders in wellness each with different solutions to make your life and the world better.
Click here to view them:
http://www.normakamalicollection.com/Shared/HTML/conversations.html
