Massage and Chronic Pain

According to the National Institutes for Health, more than 1/3 of all adults will experience chronic pain at some point in their lives. Chronic pain is pain that persists or returns for varying periods of time - usually longer than 6 months.

Massage is the second most sought after form of pain relief, after pain medication. It is a safe and effective way to relieve pain in all populations. Studies suggest that massage can relieve chronic back pain, tension and post-traumatic headaches more effectively than other common therapies. It reduces pain and muscle spasms, such as those associated with heart by-pass surgery. Massage increases the release of endorphins which helps decrease the perception of pain and accompanying stress, anxiety and depression that are associated with it.

Chronic pain can affect an individual's ability to work. Treatment of pain can become a financial drain. In some cases, injury or illness also produces a pain cycle - a complicated series of events that reinforce one another, producing chronic pain over a long period of time.

Massage can be very effective in pain management by interrupting the pain cycle because of the endorphins released.

Chronic pain causes the muscles around any painful area to tense up. This action, as I've been telling my clients for years, is called "guarding". It supports and protects the damaged area. Over time, as the muscles relax, the pain is relieved. In a chronic pain situation, however, the muscles contract (get shorter) but do NOT release. In their contracted state, muscles can press on nerves, causing numbness, tingling and still more pain. (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a good example of this.) Massage can help stretch such muscles.

Massage helps chronically-tight muscles experience more efficient blood circulation, thus bringing greater oxygenation to the area, thus helping the body repair itself by ridding it of a build-up of cellular waste products.

The Healing Power Of Touch

The idea that touch has healing powers is not new. Remember when we were little kids and we bumped our head or our elbow? The first thing we did was run to our moms and she would rub it for it. For extra measure, she might even "kiss it to make it better".

Touch is the first sense to develop in humans, and may be the last to fade. Touch can reduce the heart rate and lower blood pressure, even for people in a coma. Touch also triggers the release of endorphins, the "feel good" chemicals that are also pain suppressants.

Therapeutic massage has been shown to alleviate pain and stress, reducing the need for narcotic or psychotropic medications, thus reducing the potentially-negative side effects that are associated with medication.

Please consult my web site to check for the other positive benefits of massage therapy. The link to reach my web site is: www.marshallrkrugassociates.com

Thanks for reading my blog.