In the last decade, massages have enjoyed a surge of popularity. Once thought of as a luxury for the pampered, it has become a favorite of stressed out office workers, recreational athletes and those of us who appreciate its ability to cleanse and relax both our bodies and our minds.
Massage’s benefits go way back; it’s an ancient healing art mentioned in Chinese literature as early as 3000 B.C., and Greek and Roman physicians used it to treat their ruler. “Massage has its roots in earliest medicine,” says Richard Why, president of the Texas-based Bodywork Institute. “It’s always been a crucial part of the health systems of most cultures.
Research shows that massage boosts circulation to the skin’s surface, bringing along a greater supply of nutrients and encouraging self-cleansing. By increasing the blood flow, massage also hastens the removal of metabolic waste products from the body. It fuels the muscles with fresh oxygen, releases physical tension, and soothes the nerves. The result is a blend of cleansing, relaxation, rekindled energy, and healing.
Across all the medical studies on massage,” says Tiffany Field, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the director of The Touch Research Institute, “we see a decrease in anxiety and depression, an improvement in sleep and a reduction of stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine.
Field also contends that kneading the muscles stimulates the vagus nerve, the largest and most complex of the cranial nerves that link the brain to the heart, and that it can affect speech, alertness, and relaxation as well as release stress hormones. “Touch,” she says “affects digestion and the release of hormones like insulin, which promotes the absorption of food.
In a three-month test, nineteen asthmatics who received weekly fifteen-minute upper-body massages reported drops in chest tightness, wheezing, physical pain and fatigue. The study was presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
Thomas J. Birk, director of the Morse Research Center at the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, has tied the art of touch to the science of molecules and medicine in a controlled study of people infected with HIV. Before and after massage, blood tests measured the number of natural killer (NK) cells, which form part of the immune system. “Everyone who got massages felt better during the twelve-week period,” Birk says. “More important, their cell counts improved.
Douglas DeGood, a researcher at the University of Virginia, demonstrated that as part of post-surgical care for women undergoing hysterectomy, a daily forty-five-minute massage reduced stress hormones, significantly lowered blood pressure, and aided the healing process. In his study, the women receiving massage required no post-hospitalization physician visits during the four-week follow-up period, whereas a third of the women in the control group needed to see their doctors.
Your health insurance may cover massage therapy if your doctor prescribes a specific number of sessions and precisely states the desired outcome. Orthopedists, neurologists, and internists are the doctors most likely to recommend massage to their patients.
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