Massage Therapy:  Benefits That Go Beyond Relaxation

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Professional massage therapy goes beyond relaxation, also helping to relieve pain, decrease blood pressure, boost immune system, restore mobility, and more!  

​Many people come to massage therapy seeking relief from stress, pain, and other conditions that interfere with quality of life. Perhaps you're interested in massage for its stress relieving benefits, or seeking relief for chronic or acute pain. Maybe you are simply looking for better relaxation and improved sleep. Whether you have specific goals for treatment or not, massage therapy tends to enhance health and well-being.

Research on the Health Benefits of Massage Therapy

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• ​Massage Can Improve Health and Wellness
• Massage Therapy for Anxiety
• Massage Therapy Can Help Improve Sleep
• Massage Therapy as Beneficial Part of Integrative Treatment Plan for Fibromyalgia
• Massage Therapy Can be Effective for Low Back Pain
• Massage Can Reduce Symptoms of Depression
• Massage Therapy for Those Who Exercise
• Massage Can Be Effective for Tension Headaches
• Massage Can Aid in Pain Relief
• Massage Therapy Can Improve the Quality of Life for Those in Hospice and Palliative Care
• Massage Therapy May Benefit Newborns
• Massage Therapy Can Be a Valuable Component of a Wellness Program
• Massage Therapy Can Aid in Postoperative Pain Relief
• Massage Therapy Can Relieve Stress

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Research shows massage therapy can aid in physical, mental, and social well-being, and may also help prevent disease by improving immune function and reducing stress. With such a long list of health benefits, make massage therapy a part of your wellness plan! Here's just some of the scientific research and studies we've come across proving that massage therapy doesn't just feel good, it really is good medicine...

Massage Really is Good Medicine

• In a recent survey, 64% of hospitals reported using massage therapy as part of outpatient care, and 44% use massage therapy as part of inpatient care. Among Consumer Reports readers who used deep tissue massage, usually for back or neck pain, 28% said their doctors recommended it.

Give Your Immune System a Boost With Massage

• In addition to lowering cortisol levels, and increasing our "feel-good" neurotransmitters, massage therapy also improves immune function by increasing our body’s natural "killer T cells”  and lymphocytes, which fight off viruses and protect us from infection and disease. 
• Massage therapy is also being researched as a complimentary treatment to promote healthy immune and endocrine function in cancer patients.
• Research shows that even a single session of Swedish Massage produces measurable biologic effects! 

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Massage Can Alleviate Pain

• Massage therapy is also proven to help relieve and manage pain symptoms.  Massage can decrease low-back pain, one of the most common ailments among Americans, especially during snow shoveling season.  Massage therapy can also ease symptoms of arthritis and fibromyalgia, which often flare up when the cold weather hits.
• Research indicates that massage can decrease postoperative pain.  Postoperative pain can complicate and delay a patient’s recovery, lengthen hospital stays and costs, and interfere with a patient’s return to activities of daily living.  For many people, pain medications can have unpleasant side effects.
• Research supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) showed that sixty minute sessions of Swedish massage once a week for those with osteoarthritis of the knee significantly reduced their pain.

Massage Therapy Reduces Inflammation

• Research through the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario indicates that massage therapy reduces inflammation of acutely damaged skeletal muscle.  The study found evidence at the cellular level that massage therapy may affect inflammation in a way similar to anti-inflammatory medications.

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Massage Can Improve Your Cardiovascular Health

• Massage has been proven to decrease blood pressure and heart rate, and has been shown to significantly decrease in the hormone arginine-vasopressin (a major player in regulating blood pressure and water retention).
• Massage produces significant therapeutic effects on balance, neurological and cardiovascular outcomes in older adults. In 2012, the results of a two-part study conducted collaboratively by researchers at Auburn University and Samford University in Alabama were published in the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

• Numerous controlled studies have shown significant reductions in blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of the "stress-hormone" cortisol after just 10-15 minutes of massage! 

Get Active & Stay Fit 

• Whether you are a professional athlete or just getting started with a fitness program, massage therapy has been shown to have major benefits for exercise, including enhanced performance and cardiovascular health.  Massage therapy is also effective for pain management,  faster recovery, and prevention of injuries, so that you can keep going. Massage therapy can be a key part of maintaining peak fitness.

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Stay Motivated with Massage

• Massage therapy is proven to boost the will-power hormone--serotonin.  A stress-busting Swedish relaxation massage or deep tissue session could be just what you need to strengthen your resolve.

Lose Weight--With a Relaxing Massage!

• Massage is at least as good as chocolate, but with zero calories.  Massage therapy has been proven to boost levels of the "feel-good" hormones serotonin and dopamine, while at the same time lowering levels of the "stress-hormone" cortisol.  This boost in beneficial neurotransmitters not only feels good, but it also helps ease stress and decrease appetite.  Increased levels of cortisol can slow metabolism,  trigger inflammation, and encourage the accumulation of belly fat.  In addition to revving your metabolism, massage can also help out with any stiffness or sore muscles after that great workout!  As an added bonus, a 2009 study by the National Institutes of Health, found abdominal massage effective in reducing constipation and abdominal pain.

Get Better Sleep & Feel More Energized

• According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic.  Lack of sleep contributes to many of the chronic diseases--such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression—which threaten our nation’s health. Inadequate sleep is associated with a number of medical conditions, and can negatively impact a person’s overall health.   Massage therapy has been proven to reduce fatigue and improve sleep.
• Massage therapy can help you get the sleep you need to stay focused and healthy.  Not only has research shown that massage therapy reduces levels of the "stress-hormone" cortisol, massage also increases levels of serotonin and dopamine, the "feel-good" hormone!

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Massage Therapy is Proven to Reduce Anxiety & Stress

• Research has proven massage therapy is effective stress relief.

• Massage therapy can reduce stress significantly on physical and psychological levels including decreased blood pressure and heart rate and improvements in mood and emotional states.
• Massage is also proven effective relief for anxiety and tension headaches.​

Massage Can Be Effective for Tension Headaches

• The most common type of headaches are tensions headaches, which are generally triggered by muscular tension, bony misalignment, postural patterns, eyestrain, TMJ disorders, myofascial pain syndrome, or other musculosketetal imbalances.  Massage therapy is proven effective relief.

Lower Levels of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

• According to the 2014 National College Health Assessment, students are really stressed out these days!  Research has proven massage therapy is effective stress relief.  Massage therapy has been proven to boost levels of the "feel-good" hormone dopamine, while at the same time lowering levels of the "stress-hormone" cortisol. 

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Massage Therapy Benefits Kids & Adolescents

• Decreases the frequency, intensity, duration of tension headaches, also reducing medication usage.
• Improves sleep in children and adolescents.
• Benefits students with ADHD by improving short-term mood and longer-term classroom behavior.
• Improves the behavior of children with autism.
• Lowers stress-hormones and boosts immune function.
• Improves pulmonary function in children with asthma.

Improved Study, Focus, and Attention

• Students with ADHD can improve mood and classroom attention and focus with regular massage therapy.  
• Headaches, especially tension headaches, frequently get in the way of study and sleep, with up to 30-50% of young people suffering from regular headaches.  
• Massage is proven effective relief for tension headaches.

Massage Improves Tactile Abnormalities for Children with Autism

• Massage therapy may be beneficial in reducing the autistic behaviors of inattentiveness, touch aversion and withdrawal.  Recent research indicates that massage therapy treatment resulted in significant decreases of tactile impairment, self-regulatory delay, and parenting stress for children with autism.

Massage Therapy Benefits Newborn and Pre-term Infants

• Infants who receive massage (especially newborn pre-term infants) experience many benefits including better weight gain, better sooth-ability and improved sleep, as well as decreases in stress hormones such as cortisol.

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Benefits of Massage for Skin

• Increases blood flow, bringing in fresh nutrients and oxygen to skin 
• Stimulates lymphatic flow and drainage, which aids detoxification, moving wastes out
• Moisturizes and improves elasticity
• Effectively calms the nervous system, relieving stress and improving overall health 
• Notice changes, such as moles and spots, that be signs of skin cancer
• Diminishes scar tissue by realigning and smoothing collagen and elastin fibers

Massage Therapy for Burns and Scarring

• A randomized, controlled study involving 146 burn patients published in the journal “Burns” this March 2015 concluded that burn rehabilitation massage therapy is effective in improving pain, itching and scar characteristics in hypertrophic scars after a burn. Patients who receive massage therapy as part of burn treatment experience a significant decrease in scar thickness as well as improvements in skin elasticity. 

• Another recent study indicates that massage therapy in general benefits burn victims during the initial healing process by significantly reducing levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol, as well as reducing symptoms of pain, anxiety, and anger.  Massage therapy has also been shown to increase levels of serotonin and dopamine, the "feel-good" hormone!