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From
1873, when the term massage first entered
the medical lexicon, through 1939, more than 600
journal articles appeared in mainline English
language journals of medicine. During the past
50 years, reports on nearly 100 clinical trials
have been published in the medical and allied
health literature. Many well-designed studies
have documented the benefits of massage therapy
for the treatment of acute and chronic pain,
inflammation, nausea, muscle spasm, various soft
tissue dysfunctions, grand mal epileptic
seizures, anxiety and depression, insomnia and
psycho-emotional stress.
The
following studies reflect the versatility and
broad range of massage applications.
Premature infants
treated with daily massage therapy gain more
weight and have shorter hospital stays. A study
of 40 babies with low birth weight found that
those massaged had 47- percent greater weight
gain per day and stayed in the hospital 6 fewer
days. Cost saving of $3,000. per infant. (field
et al., 1986)
Cocaine-exposed pre-term
infants given massages 3 times daily for
a ten day period showed significant
improvement. Results indicated that massaged
infants had fewer postnatal complications and
exhibited fewer stress behaviors. They had
28-percent greater weight gain and demonstrated
more mature motor skills. (Field, 1993)
Children and adolescents
suffering from depression and adjustment
disorders were found to have lower depression
levels after massage therapy. Anxiety and
depression levels were determined by monitoring
saliva cortisol levels (an indicator of
depression levels.) (Field et al,. 1992)
A study of elderly subjects
showed that massage therapy produced
relaxation. This study demonstrated
physiological signs of relaxation in measures
such as decreased blood pressure and heart rate
and in increased skin temperatures. (Fakouri and
Jones, 1987)
Spinal pain subjects
massaged with a combination of Swedish massage,
shiatsu and trigger point suppression led to
significant alleviations of acute and chronic pain
and increased muscle flexibility. These were
subjects with traumatically induced spinal pain.
The study also found massage therapy to be extremely
cost-effective in comparison with other therapies. (Wientraub
1992a, 1992b).
Massage has
shown to stimulate the body's ability to
naturally: in one study, massage stimulated the
brain to produce endorphins, the neuro-chemicals
that control pain. Fibromyalgia, a painful type
of inflammation, is an example of a condition
that may be favorably affected by this
mechanism. (Kaarda and Tosteinbo, 1989).
Subjects with symptoms of tension and anxiety found a
significant response to massage based on one or more
psycho-physiological parameters, including heart rate,
frontalis and forearm extensor electro-myograms and skin
resistance. These changes denote relaxation of muscle
tension and reduced anxiety. (McKechnie et al., 1983).
Subjects suffering from chronic inflammatory bowel
disease found massage reduced the frequency of episodes of
pain and disability. Stress can worsen the symptoms of
ulcerative colitis and Chron's disease, which causes great
pain and bleeding and can lead to hospitalization or death.
Massage had a powerful effect on relieving the patients
psycho-emotional distress. (Joachim, 1983)
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