Using Massage Therapy to Improve Your Health

Sometimes at the end of a week filled with ringing phones, crashing computers, and tight deadlines I feel like I’ve been in a car wreck. My eyes are red from the twitching problem, my back and shoulders ache, and I have a nagging headache behind my ears. While everyone knows how awful “stress” is, sometimes we concentrate on how hard it is on our psyches and not on our bodies. But stress hurts us physically inside and out. Our bodies are giving us hints all the time. Luckily, we have a way to fight back! Massage. While the word is likely to inspire images of white robes, large Swedish women named Helga, and private spas only for the very wealthy, we need to change the way we think about massage therapy. Massage therapy is so much more than just a rub down – it can improve our health and well-being in significant ways. 

Dr. Wanona Wellspring, a naprapathic physician at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, IL, cannot say enough about the benefits of massage. The first substantial physical benefit she claims is increased circulation. “Manipulation of soft tissue improves the supply of oxygenated blood to tissues and organs and assists in the removal of wastes and venous return of blood.” This increase in the spread of oxygenated blood, along with the body’s relaxation response to massage also enhances our immune system. “Stress reduction can increase natural killer cells,” explains Dr. Wellspring. “They are our bodies first line of defense.” Medical studies back up Dr. Wellspring’s claims. In a 1996 study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience, massage therapy significantly increased the number of natural killer cells in the majority of 29 HIV-positive men who had received daily massages for one month.