Enhancing Your Health With Therapeutic Massage

 

Whether seeking relief for a medical condition, searching for a method to help deal with the stresses of daily life or wanting to maintain good health, more and more Americans are turning to therapeutic massage.

Massage doesn't just feel good. Research shows it reduces the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, relaxes muscles, improves range of motion, and increases endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. Therapeutic massage may enhance medical treatment and helps people feel less anxious and stressed, relaxed yet more alert.

A writer for the Chicago Tribune stated, “Massage is to the human body what a tune-up is to a car.” Therapeutic massage can be part of your regular healthcare maintenance.

The consumer demand for massage therapy is fed by the health and fitness movement as well complementary alternative care. Both the demand and the healthcare profession's response are overwhelming:

Consumers spend $4 billion to $6 billion a year on visits to massage therapists, according to an American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) analysis of a study by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November 1998.

Current research shows people are getting more massages, and that therapeutic massage has become mainstream, appealing to everyone from young adults to seniors. People are experiencing the therapeutic benefits of massage and report getting massages mostly to relax, relieve aches and pains, and help reduce stress.

A national survey of consumers attitudes about massage, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International in July 2000, found that, among those people who discussed massage with their primary healthcare provider, 71 percent reported the conversation was favorable and 20 percent found the response from their doctor to be neutral.

The American Massage Therapy Association's membership quadrupled in ten years, to more than 46,000 in 2002.

There also is a growing trend of offering therapeutic massage in the workplace. Your employer may be among those who have learned that massage therapy isn’t just a perk, but actually increases employee productivity and morale, and reduces absenteeism.

"Massage therapy has clearly been shown to me to be very beneficial, particularly in areas where conventional medicine has not been as successful, including chronic arthritis, musculoskeletal syndromes and chronic headache, among others." - Renslow Sherer, M.D., Director of the Cook County Hospital HIV Primary Care Center, Chicago

According to a 1996 survey of employees who regularly receive therapeutic massage onsite at Reebok International Ltd., 98 percent said it helped them reduce work-related stress; 92 percent said it increased alertness, motivation and productivity; 83 percent said it had in some cases sufficiently addressed a problem so medical attention was not necessary; and 66 percent said it had enabled them to stay at work when they would have otherwise gone home sick.