Posts Tagged ‘stress’

Massage Therapy as a Complementary Treatment for Stroke Patients

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Last week we finished up a series of articles on medical massage therapy, and I can think of no better transition than to go from medical massage therapy to a medical condition that massage therapy has been demonstrated to help.

Strokes are a leading cause of death and disability in the United States and world, and usually strike suddenly with dramatic consequences. Fortunately, massage therapy has been shown to ease stroke patients’ levels of pain and stress while improving their quality of life. (more…)

Therapeutic Massage Therapy in More Ways than One

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Every couple of months we try and pull together a list of the many benefits of massage therapy (click here or here). We do this because, while writing individually about different benefits of massage therapy week in and week out, it is easy to forget the impressive collection of benefits that massage therapy provides.

Fortunately for this week’s report, another writer has pulled together a pretty thorough list of massage therapy benefits for us. (more…)

Massage Therapists and Taxes

Monday, April 12th, 2010

It’s tax week, with all taxpayers having until Thursday, April 15 to file their income taxes for 2009. While this is a stressful time for all industrious Americans, it is especially taxing (ha!) for massage therapists.

Taxes are difficult for massage therapists because of the varied nature of their business. (more…)

Autism, Asthma, Children, and Massage (Part II)

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Last week I wrote specifically about two studies that demonstrated massage therapy’s marked ability to improve the symptoms of autism and asthma. These bring up the perspective of massage therapy as a holistic therapy in the overall conclusions that they make. (more…)

Wintertime Blues and Massage Therapy

Monday, March 1st, 2010

As the East coast shovels out from yet another brutal winter storm, and places as far south as Florida see snow, many of us are left to wonder exactly how much longer winter can last. The shorter days and limited sunshine can leave people depressed, lethargic, and illness-prone, looking for something to give them a boost that will carry them to the longer, warmer, sunshine-filled days of spring and summer. (more…)

Massage Therapy is an Unequivocal Stress Buster

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Continuing on with our blog’s often-explored theme of the benefits of massage therapy for mankind, today’s blog focuses on an element that affects nearly all humans and that massage therapy has a great track record of treating effectively. That element is: stress.

To start off, check out this article from The Massage Advancer, which obviously is a little biased in favor of massage therapy. (more…)

Aromatherapy and Massage, an Easy Combination

Friday, December 18th, 2009

We already wrote about the medicinal benefits of aromatherapy, coupled with massage therapy, over a year ago (see post). As it says in that entry, aromatherapy and massage can be used (and has been clinically proven) to reduce stress levels and help the immune system.

But in that entry, we glossed over the fact that making massage oils and aromatherapy oils can be a very easy task. Follow the directions below, and start adding aromatherapy to your chair and table massage sessions. It is a great addition to the many benefits that massage therapy already offers. (more…)

Massage: The Perfect Complement (and gift) for the Holidays

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

DISCLAIMER: I know in my previous blog I said I would offer some solutions for personal and professional boundary transference, but I wanted to squeeze in a quick entry about Thanksgiving and the holidays first. Please look for the blog I promised some time next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pie – and a whole mess of sides – can pretty much take up the entire Thanksgiving holiday weekend. First, there’s the time it takes to prepare all these dishes. Then there’s the devouring of them all. Then the recovery from the feast. Then the clean up. Then the non-stop football and leftovers.

With so much personal indulgence, it seems like a silly idea to mention the prospect of another indulgence, massage therapy, as part of your Thanksgiving routine. But there are some compelling reasons to do so. (more…)

Understanding Trigger Points (Part III)

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

In my last two entries about trigger points, I’ve discussed how they have been studied, some ways they are described clinically, and the type of pain they cause for the people who suffer from them. I’ve done this all while maintaining that there is still a lot unknown about trigger points, how they are defined, and the symptoms that they cause. However, that has not stopped massage therapists and others from attempting to discover and treat them, a noble cause considering the incredible amount of pain trigger points can cause (see previous entries as well as the ending paragraph of this entry). (more…)

Understanding Trigger Points (Part I)

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Massage therapy has been demonstrated to help relieve chronic pain, stress, and anxiety, all in a non-invasive way. For this, it deserves praise as a profession. But there are, of course, limits to what massage can do. Often pain and discomfort is caused by something (such as an internal injury, certain chemical imbalances, etc.) that needs a more invasive approach, and in these cases massage therapy can be used as a supplementary treatment. However, there is also a lot of pain that goes unexplained in the medical world, and this might be due by an element that is difficult to define: trigger points.

(more…)