Massage is probably the oldest therapy known to man, and has been practised around the world for thousands of years. The beneficial effects have been acknowledged for generations.
Hippocrates, known as the Father of Medicine, advised that an aromatic bath and a fragrant massage should be had daily for the maintenance of health.
Massage is therapeutic manipulation of soft tissue (the musculature and indirectly the circulatory system) to prevent and ease pain, discomfort, muscle spasm and stress; and to promote health and well being.
Over the last few decades more and more research has been done into the effectiveness of massage in counteracting the various ailments from which we suffer, from stress to injury recovery, from withdrawal symptoms when giving up smoking to increasing growth in premature babies.
Below is a passage from a website detailing some of the research carried out. I think this sums up the importance of recognising one thing that probably all of us suffer from: stress.
“Stress is a subject about which the general public is becoming increasingly aware. It seems that every day a new study is reported in the press or medical journals relating stress to one disease or another. Some physicians suggest that stress may be responsible for 75 per cent of all diseases in the Western world including skin diseases (e.g., psoriasis and eczema), headaches and migraine, digestive disorders, high blood pressure and heart-related diseases, as well as back-ache and muscle pain, poor eyesight and depression. As the world in which we live becomes increasingly stressful both physically and emotionally we are left with two choices; either we avoid stress, or we learn how to deal with it effectively. It is, of course, impossible to avoid stress, and therefore the only real solution is to find ways to manage the stresses and strains we encounter each day. One way is the use of massage therapy. “ http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Therapies/MassageTherapy-Research.htm One body of research that has studied and shown the effectiveness of massage and other touch therapies is the Touch Research Centre, Miami. Their website details research looking at the effectiveness of massage on over seventy functions and medical conditions. http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/Massage.htm
To my mind, it all seems to point to the same thing, what I felt already: massage is good for us.
Dr Stretch Dowse, Eminent Victorian Physician, 1887.
