well. Airborne bacteria are not the only invaders; we also need a strong defense against viruses, both airborne and blood borne, and there is evidence that massage therapy may provide some benefits in that fight also. Research suggests that manual therapy can alter the activity of white blood cells in the body, improving the body’s response against viral attacks. “In a controlled study composed of HIV-positive adolescents, participants who received therapeutic massage showed enhanced immune function by the end of the 12-week study. The immune changes included increased white blood cells knowns as natural killer (NK) cells, which provide rapid responses to viral-infected cells.” (AMTA, 2018) Increased activity of lymphocytes, another kind of white blood cell, also plays a role in reducing cytokine levels, which are molecules that can cause inflammation. This is promising news. Dr. Michael Rapaport, the author of a 2010 study at Cedars-Sinai’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences on the health benefits on massage therapy, said: “Massage is popular in America, with almost 9 percent of adults receiving at least one massage within the past year. People often seek out massage as part of a healthy lifestyle but there hasn’t been much physiological proof of the body’s heightened immune response following massage until now...therapeutic massage doesn’t only feel good, it also may be good for you. It appears that a single massage may deliver a measurable benefit.” (Skuban, 2017) are flowing toward prevention, education and treatment of opioid use. That flow has rarely included funding of complementary therapies such as massage or acupuncture, despite such therapies’ indicated pain- relieving abilities, low cost and safety. Could that change?” (Menehan, 2016). According to the most recent data from the CDC, perhaps it should change. Maybe we will also see research that supports therapeutic massage in place of anxiety medication, prescription sleep aids, and blood pressure medication in the future. At the least, maybe we can offer our clients less dependency on over-the-counter treatments for pain, insomnia, and digestive distress with all the ways to counteract stress that manual therapy can provide. Feeling better overall because of regular therapeutic massage may also help our patients consistently make better self- care choices, which can also help reduce their need for medication. practitioners trained in the approach. Insurance coverage will allow people more access to care and make it easier for physicians to prescribe therapeutic massage to their patients. Until then, we must keep being the voices—and hands—for change.
accelerating the movement of food through the intestines. Abdominal massage techniques have been used to reduce muscle tension, improve circulation, increase intestinal movements and decrease intra-abdominal pressure (Dehghan et al., 2020). Over time, these effects can also aid and prevent digestive disorders like food intolerances, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea because the digestive system is healthier overall. A digestive condition called leaky gut, which is characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive system that makes it porous enough to leak substances into the bloodstream, can wreak havoc on the body. With leaky gut syndrome, the immune system responds by attacking the leaked substances, causing systemic inflammation. Medical professionals believe that leaky gut is also related to many allergy symptoms, even if they seem unrelated, like sinus congestion. The bottom line is that when the gut is not healthy, the rest of the body cannot be healthy. Therapeutic massage can help as part of a multidimensional approach. Digestive health also affects immune health. The immune system is closely linked to the digestive system, and immune health can also be greatly improved by regular massage therapy and exercise. The immune system relies on the good bacteria in the digestive tract to be the first line of defense against invading pathogens, which bombard us all the time from the food we eat and the fluids we drink. Because regular manual therapy and exercise can improve general digestive function, the immune system reaps secondary benefits because of the improved protection against the bad bacteria. However, food and drink are not the only way pathogens get into our bodies. The air we breathe carries dangers as opioid crisis. Clear connections have yet to be drawn between therapeutic massage and reduced medication usage. According to the CDC, opioids were involved in 80,411 overdose deaths in 2021 (75.4% of all drug overdose deaths (see References section for a link to the data, which is also referenced in Section 2 of this course). That’s a sharp increase from the 28,647 overdose deaths (60.9% of all drug overdose deaths) caused by opioids that the CDC reported for 2014. In a 2016 article published in Massage Magazine , author Karen Menehan shared those statistics and wrote, “Millions of dollars in government funding Conclusion Therapeutic massage is wonderful—this is not news. Based on the statistics and evidence provided in this course, it is easy to see that therapeutic massage can be a vital tool in the battle against the American stress epidemic. However, it will likely be up to us, the practitioners, to advocate for better recognition. We already know that manual therapy is a powerful tool and its power has become more recognized in the past decade. Clinicians still have a long way to go to prove the true value of manual techniques as the superior treatment approach compared to traditional medications to the medical community and the general public. If therapeutic massage continues to be taken more seriously by the medical community, perhaps more states will start to include insurance coverage in healthcare plans for such techniques by not only physical therapists, but also other
Can therapeutic massage reduce our dependency on medication? The short answer is that we don’t yet know because not enough research has been conducted to find out at this time. Most of the studies conducted so far have investigated the therapeutic benefits of massage for pain management, thereby potentially reducing the need for pain medication, which can be especially important considering the current
WORKS CITED https://qr2.mobi/massage-stress
EliteLearning.com/Massage-Therapy
Book Code: MNJ0626
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