Very good article by Dr. Mercola on massage therapy and pain relief. I would like to add there is a difference between acute pain (new, short term) and chronic (long standing ) pain. There can be significant overlap between acute and chronic issues with the predisposing factors and though the chronic pain may need to be addressed differently than the acute pain, the predisposing factors still need to be identified and corrected. A effective massage therapist knows how to carefully listen for the clues and piece together the pieces of the puzzle presented by their client. They will have a broad range of skills to call on to support the body in regaining balance, calm the nervous system, and support the healing process. The article points out a couple of key points for successful healing beyond those I just mentioned. One being timing. Many times a client will not come in for treatment until a month or more after the injury. By then things have cascaded into a much larger issue to be dealt with. Secondly, the most effective treatment requires initial therapy to include 2-3 treatments a week for the first several weeks at least to get things under control. It is also important to take personal responsibility to support the healing process in between therapy sessions by identifying and minimizing perpetuating activities (your therapist can help you with this) eg; if you have neck pain from holding your phone between your shoulder and your ear you must not continue this activity or re-injury will most certainly occur). Daily stretching, ice or hot packs, rest, are all helpful during the healing process. The article makes provides additional suggestions as well. The article references a new study supporting all this however I have seen this work first hand in my practice over the last twelve years. Dana
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 12:55:55 +0000
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