DID YOU KNOW?

 

• Massage Therapy can reduce stress, even in Children.

The results of this study revealed that the children receiving a 30 minute massage were less depressed or anxious and had lower saliva cortisol levels after the massage. In addition, nurses rated the massage group as being more co-operative on the last day of the study, and noted that the children were sleeping better than the children in the control group and that their night-time sleep had increased over the 5 day period. Massage therapy also had the effect of reducing urinary cortisol and norepinephrine levels in the children suffering from depression which was not observed in any of the children in the control group.

 

The researchers were left in no doubt that massage therapy offers real benefits for children suffering from stress and anxiety.

Field T; Morrow C; Valdeon C; Larson S; Kuhn C; Schanberg S. Massage reduces anxiety in child and adolescent psychiatric patients. Journal of the American Acadamy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (UNITED STATES) Jan 1992, 31 (1) p125-31

 

• Consumers visit massage therapists 114 million times each year. About 18% of the 629 million annual visits to alternative healthcare providers.

Eisenberg, et. al., "Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990-1997," Journal of the American Medical Association 280(18): 1569-1575 (November 11, 1998).

• By including 15 minutes of free massage therapy once each week, the Calvert Group, an investment firm in Bethesda, MD, reduced its turnover rate to 5% in an industry where the norm is 20%.20

 

• Massage therapy (as compared to transcutaneous electrical stimulation) improved sleep patterns and decreased pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression and cortisol levels in adults with fibromyalgia.
  Sunshine, W., Field, T., Schanberg, S., Quintino, O., Fierro, K., Kuhn, C., Burman, I., and Schanberg, S. (1996). Fibromyalgia benefits from massage therapy and transcutaneous electrical stimulation. Journal of Clinical Rheumatology, 2, 18-22.

 

• Massage therapy decreased diastolic blood pressure, anxiety and cortisol (stress hormone) levels in adults with hypertension.
  Hernandez-Reif, M., Field, T., Krasnegor, J., Theakston, H., Hossain, Z., & Burman, I. (2000). High blood pressure and associated symptoms were reduced by massage therapy. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 4, 31-38.

 

• Massage therapy during the first 15 minutes of every hour of labor decreased anxiety and pain and the need for pain medication. In addition, the massaged mothers had shorter labor, shorter hospital stay and less depressed mood.
  Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Taylor, S., & Quintino, 0., & Burman, I. (1997). Labor pain is reduced by massage therapy. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, 18, 286-291.

 

• This study showed decreased anxiety and stress hormones (norepinephrine) during pregnancy and fewer obstetric and postnatal complications including lower prematurity rates following pregnancy massage.
  Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Hart, S., Theakston, H., Schanberg, S., Kuhn, C., & Burman, I. (1999). Pregnant women benefit from massage therapy. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, 19, 31-38.