Massage therapy isn’t a new practice and has evolved over thousands of years, as part of medical practice. References to massage have been found in Chinese medical texts, dating back more than 4,000 years.
Some of the benefits of massage therapy
Pain relief and management are at the center of what massage therapists can offer to clients.
Nearly 50 million American adults have significant chronic pain or severe pain, according to a new study prepared by National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
NCCIH
These can include back, shoulder and neck pain, headaches, arthritis and fibromyalgia. While levels of pain are obviously subjective, a person’s individual reality can be improved through therapies like massage.
Pain that comes from other sources can also benefit from massage:
- Post-operative / acute disease or condition related pain — in fact, pain related to the management of cancer, including lymphatic drainage pain that is very prevalent for breast cancer patients, can be relieved with massage therapy.
- Maternal and newborn care — The stress that a mother’s body endures before and during delivery of a baby can be alleviated through massage.
- Rehabilitation from injury — Ask any world class athlete and they’ll tell you that they’ve benefited from massage therapy at some point in their career! Beyond athletes, cardiac and joint replacement patients experience pain that can be helped. Even the pain from repetitive stress injuries that are work related, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, can be improved significantly.
- Mental health — Stress and anxiety are just two examples of mental health issues that can be relieved with massage therapy.
There are no limits to the benefits of massage therapy when it comes to pain management and relief. And since pain comes in many forms, so does the help that massage provides.
