Five Conditions Helped By Massage Therapy

massage therapy

Millions of people live with chronic pain. Pain has a significant negative impact on your quality of life. It can be challenging to find safe, effective pain relief methods for long-term use. The good news is that there are safe, natural, gentle, and effective ways to relieve pain – such as massage therapy.

Massage therapy can be valuable for a wide range of problems including back pain, neck pain, joint pain or stiffness, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal issues. This treatment can also minimize metastatic bone pain, headaches, and postoperative pain. It can be beneficial in back and leg pain in pregnant women as well. It also relieves the tension and mental distress that so often accompany a chronic pain condition.

Massage therapy helps relieve pain in a variety of ways. First, it relaxes muscles, which both improves range of motion and maximizes healing sleep. Massage also improves blood circulation, which helps muscles recover from soreness and injury as well as, massage increases endorphin levels. This gives your mood a boost – an essential part of chronic pain management.

There are so many causes of chronic pain and so many people who live with it that finding a solution is essential. Pain management is an ongoing problem for many people; more people live with pain than with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined and is the number-one reason people seek medical care. For those looking for effective treatment without the side effects of many oral medications, massage therapy offers hope. Five common conditions massage therapy can help:

Lower Back Pain

Back pain is widespread in the U.S. Massage therapy can help relax the muscles, improve function and mobility, reduce pain, and even decrease the anxiety and depression that can plague people who live with chronic pain.

Fibromyalgia

Massage therapy can be an essential component of an integrative treatment plan for people with fibromyalgia. Massage can help these individuals by reducing pain and improving quality of life; it can also minimize anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stiffness.

Postoperative Pain

Excessive postoperative pain can lengthen hospital stays, complicate recovery, and delay the patient’s return to their normal daily activities. For patients who have recently undergone a surgical procedure, massage therapy can lower pain levels as well as anxiety about healing.

Tension Headaches

Because massage therapy is such a great muscle relaxer, it has benefits for those suffering from tension headaches. Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. Massage therapy can help tension headache sufferers by decreasing the perceived pain, duration, frequency, and intensity of their headaches.

Arthritis

Massage therapy can be beneficial in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Not only can it reduce their pain, but it also increases mobility in some patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Massage therapy can also benefit those with other types of arthritis – even arthritis of the hand or wrist.