Benefits of Massage

While massage has been around for centuries, the West has only recently begun scientific study the benefits of massage.  The main findings of recent studies indicate that massage has the following benefits:

• Facilitates growth
• Increases attentiveness and learning, which has positive implications for those with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity or learning disabilities
• Reduces stereotypical and off-task behavior in autistic individuals while normalizing social behaviors
• Alleviates pain
• Improves immune function (massage increases the number of natural killer cells, which has implications for those with AIDS, cancer and viral diseases)
• Reduces stress
• Promotes healing of psychiatric problems (Child and adolescent psychiatric patients showed more open verbal communication, improved sleep, less depression and lower anxiety levels.  Clinical progress increased.  Similar results were achieved with depressed adolescent mothers and patients with eating disorders.)
• Assists in overcoming addictions such as cigarette smoking
• Supports effective digestion and breathing through stimulation of the vagus nerve
• Diminishes premenstrual symptoms
• Encourages dietary compliance in diabetics, leading to more normal glucose levels
• Lowers blood pressure, anxiety and hostility levels in individuals with hypertension
• Increases job performance (After a 15-minute chair massage, computation time with figures was cut in half and accuracy almost doubled.)
• Reduces the number of headache days in migraine headaches
• Reduces pain and increases range of motion in individuals with low back pain
• Improves all clinical measures in pediatric eczema
• Improves grip strength, functional activities, positive mood, self-esteem and body images in multiple sclerosis
• Improves caregiver-child relationships for abused and neglected children

- From Mosby’s Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage, by Sandy Fritz