What is Massage Therapy, and what can it do for me?
OK so full disclosure…I am not a massage therapist.
I am a Physiotherapist who owns a clinic that prides itself in evidence-informed practice. Many of my patient’s tell me how great they feel after a massage. This got me thinking about what do Massage Therapist’s do? what could they offer my patients? and what is the evidence behind it?
As far as scientific research goes, systematic reviews are about as high-level as they come in terms of quality of evidence. I was lucky enough to stumble upon this blog from Richard Lebert (https://www.rmtedu.com/blog/current-systematic-reviews-of-massage-therapy-october-2022). Where he summarises many of the recent systematic reviews into massage therapy.
It turns out that there is some good quality research to show that massage therapy can help many musculoskeletal pain conditions including Low back, neck, knee, shoulder, foot pain, migraine and headaches, and osteoarthritis. As well as Temporomandibular dysfunction and more systemic conditions such as fibromyalgia, antenatal/pre-natal care, anxiety and stress disorders.
As an evidence-based practitioner, I like to think that manual therapists such as Physio’s, Chiro’s and Massage Therapists have moved away from telling patients their joints are ‘out of place’, their discs have ‘slipped’, or there pelvis is wonky! Likewise the notion that massage can ‘break up [mature] scar tissue’ also does not seem to be substantiated by science. This does not mean that it cannot help however!
Many of the traditional explanations for how manual therapy works have been challenged recently (https://www.raynersmale.com/blog/2015/7/10/chain-reaction-the-neurophysiological-mechanism-of-manual-therapy). The most up-to-date explanation for manual therapy (regardless of the mode of delivery; physio, chiro, massage) seems to be less about the biomechanical responses of joints and muscles, but more related to a dampening down of the excitability of the peripheral and central nervous system due to a phenomena we call ‘descending inhibition’. Descending inhibition is like having a ‘drug cabinet’ in your brain that can inhibit messages being sent up to the brain. It’s a bit like that annoying feeling you get when you first put on a pair of flip-flops, but after a few minutes, you stop feeling it because your brain becomes less interested in it. Or even those terrible corderoy pants that your mom would make you wear when you would visit your aunt on a Sunday, the tantrum only lasted a few minutes (but maybe that was just me).
So it would seem that manual therapy helps people in pain via complex neurophysiological mechanisms rather than ‘breaking up scar tissue’ or ‘realigning your joints’ or ‘twisted pelvis’. Therapeutic-touch in the form of massage therapy from a registered massage therapist (RMT) may be a fantastic way to tap into those neurophysiological inhibitory pathways.
People in pain tend to move differently. So perhaps if you have less pain you would have more confidence in your ability to move, you would move better with less caution, and more often! There are of course other benefits to massage therapy other than pain reduction. It also seems to be effective for stress and anxiety and more.
I look forward to sharing the expertise and collaboration with Innov8’s new RMT; Brittany Morgan. She brings a lot to the table through her background in Yoga and dance… I mean really, who moves better than dancers and Yoga practitioners? Let her help you on your road to recovery and book with her now!
