Todays Massage research
(Taken
from: Rattray,
F., and Ludwig, L. Clinical Massage Therapy. Talus Inc. 2000.
Pp8-9)
There
seems to be a tendency today for some therapists to lament that
there are no scientific studies to to prove the effects of massage
therapy, that the evidence is all empirical. Studies do exist,
in English as well as other languages. For example, Yate's A
Physician's Guide to Theraputic Massage is based on over
200 articles in scientific, medical and health-sciences literature
published from 1885 to 1987 on the effects of massage therapy
(Yates, 1990).
More
recently Dr Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute at the
Miami School of Medicine in Florida is researching the role of
touch in health development and the treatment of disease. She
has published papers in leading pediatric and psychiatry journals.
Examples
of Field's current research include a study which examined the
effect of 45 minutes of daily massage on premature babies. It
reported that these babies had a 47 percent weight gain compared
to premature babies who received Coventional treatment and who
were not "unnecessarily handled" during hospital care.
Another study, on the effects of massage on children with diabetes,
revealed that 20 minutes of nightly massage for 30 days improved
the subjects' blood glucose levels (Field et al, 1997b).
Perhaps
we, as massage therapists, have unrealistic expectations of massage
and research in this field. For example, one issue that is questioned
(often by the insurance industry) is the long term effectiveness
of massage; yet other common forms of treatment are
not necessarily questioned, such as medication and the need for
ongoing doses . Field notes that "we've
been very concerned about convincing physicians sitting on committees
about this and they don't care about the long term effects of
massage. They want to know what happens immediately. Physicians
know that if you want a drug to work, you have to keep taking
it. They could be criticised if they said, "How long... are
the effects of the drug?" Its dose dependant typically. Their
reasoning is: would you expect if you stopped massaging someone
that the positive effects of massage are going to go on any longer
than if you stopped someone on a drug. They may have a point.
It may be that you need to have a daily or weekly dose in order
for the effects to persist. We do massage assessments on day one
and then on day 30. If we look at the base line on day one versus
base line on day 30, the latter is better, suggesting an incremental
effect of the month of therapy" (Knaster, 1994).
Some
concerns with studies that do exist on the effectiveness of massage
therapy techniques are that they often neglect to mention which
specific techniques are used and the pressure, rate, number of
repetitions and areas of the body to which the techniques are
applied. This makes the studies difficult to reproduce. The terminology
used to describe the techniques may vary. Studies also show a
lack of consistency in approach so comparisons of techniques are
difficult to make (Zadai, 1992).
All
this focus on research raises a concern for those therapists who
feel that massage therapy is, intuitive, that all its effects
can not be measured by scientific methods, nor should they be,
and that massage is becoming too medicalised.
Whether
we like it or not, the public are seeing massage therapy not only
as an alternative to traditional or allopathic medicine, but also
as a respected therapeutic approach in its own right. As the public
uses massage more frequently,, and if we want to attract more
people to using massage, the profession finds itself asked more
frequently to "prove that massage works in medical terms".
Perhaps
a compromise is to use both empirical and scientific methods,
combining qualitative and quantitative research, because the positive
effects of massage therapy are a combination of physiological
and psychological factors.
References:
Field,
T., Kuhn, C., LaGreca, A., Shaw, K., and Schanberg, S.
Adherance and glucose levels improved after giving massage therapy
to children with diabetes. Touchpoints. 1997. Vol.3,
No. 4:2.
Knaster,
Mirka. Researching
Massage as Real Therapy. Massage Therapy Journal. 1994.Vol
33, No 3:56-112
Zadai,
C.
Pulmonary management in physical therapy. New york: Churchill
livingstone.
Where's
the evidence?
By RESTORE
There may be
little scientific evidence to support the idea that Sports Massage,
or even stretching can help to prevent injury in athletes. However
the empirical evidence is overwhelming. Try telling a professional
athlete not to stretch or that they can't have their regular massage!
Unfortunately, as detailed in the article above, massage by it's
very nature proves extremely difficult to control for, or measure
objectively, so the 'evidence based' research studies will likely
always be limited. We simply can't control the all the many variables
such as depth, pressure, speed, individual variance etc... as
is required in truly objective and generalisable scientific method.
With
research focused on much more serious matters it's also an area
of little interest to the sort of research physiologist's who
would have the means to conduct large scale studies. Unfortunately
the benefits of massage are more likely to be tested as part of
a students' undergraduate dissertation than they are to be put
through fully funded and large clinical trials.
Additionally,
the term 'massage' covers such a wide range of techniques that
can be infinitely interwoven and individualised for every person
and situation. So its little wonder that there is a relatively
poor evidence base.
Research
studies into very specific massage techniques are being conducted
however. Fascia research is an extremely exciting area of study,
relevant to both clinical massage therapy and to furthering our
general knowledge and understanding of the sensory, tensegrity
and structural aspects of the human body. Myofascial release is
fast becoming a favorite technique at RESTORE thanks to its efficiency
and effectiveness over a very short space of time. The research
is backing up its effectiveness and relevance more and more.
With
such a huge supporting network of amateur and professional athletes
and lay people who swear by their regular massage combined with
the fact that this discipline has endured since ancient times
one must operate as an evidence informed practitioner,
rather than evidence based. Any advances in the research are keenly
anticipated and welcomed.
At
RESTORE we follow the research with great interest, especially
within the field of fascial release. While we enjoy the science
behind our treatment, and see it as an essential component we
will always combine this with an intuitive sense of what the body
and the individual needs from the treatment. This puts us in a
great position. We are able to dip into the research and
keep our eyes peeled for anything else that may be of benefit
to our patients that may, as yet, be just one or two steps ahead
of the research...
Please
enjoy our our research library where we regularly place articles
that we have found interesting and relevant.
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