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MORE MYTHS OF MASSAGE
There are several myths of massage that seem to be passed down through generations of massage therapy teachers. I am going to list a few of my favourites, and hope you will add yours.I'm sure there are lots more. Let's dispell the myths and teach fact-based massage therapy!
1. Massage releases lactic acid from the muscles
2. We cannot treat clients with cancer as massage will spread the cancer through the body
3. A crooked spine (scoliosis) can be straightened by doing tapotement on the "weak" side of the spine and relaxing massage on the "tight" side of the spine
4. We cannot do manual lymph drainage and effleurage in one treatment as the lymph nodes will shut down and the client's legs and arms will swell up
1. Massage releases lactic acid from the muscles
2. We cannot treat clients with cancer as massage will spread the cancer through the body
3. A crooked spine (scoliosis) can be straightened by doing tapotement on the "weak" side of the spine and relaxing massage on the "tight" side of the spine
4. We cannot do manual lymph drainage and effleurage in one treatment as the lymph nodes will shut down and the client's legs and arms will swell up
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Blank on
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This is in response to # 2
A UK study in 2007 found that that aromatherapy massage reduced anxiety and depression in people with cancer. The benefit only lasted a few weeks, though. A large American study published in 2004 looked at the effects of charlotte massage therapy on almost 1,300 people with cancer, over 3 years. The types of massage used were
* Swedish massage
* Light touch massage
* Reflexology
Those in hospital had 20 minute massage sessions, while those treated as outpatients had 60 minute sessions. The study found that, over all, massage therapy greatly reduced these symptoms in all patients
* Pain
* Sickness
* Fatigue
* Anxiety
* Depression
The benefits lasted longer in the patients who had the 60 minute sessions. charlotte urbana massage and light touch massage appeared to help more than reflexology.
Another American study of 230 people with cancer having chemotherapy showed that massage therapy and healing touch helped reduce anxiety, fatigue and mood upsets in some patients.
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Permalink Reply by lee kalpin on
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Excellent. Thanks.
I attended a Research Conference in Montreal a few years ago (maybe 2003)? A teacher from New Zealand presented a research study done at a cancer hospital with people who were attending to receive chemo therapy or radiation. These patients had mostly travelled a long way to receive treatment, which contributed to high stress levels. Students took the BP and pulse of all patients (study group and control group). Then the patients in the study group were treated with foot massage by students from a massage therapy school. It was found that the people who had foot massage had lower BP and pulse rates than the control group.
In many studies it has been found that various types of massage therapy are beneficial for people with cancer. Great information for all of us.
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With regard to the idea that massage flushes toxins out of the muscles, I am including an excerpt from an excellent article on the subject.
"I believe this is yet another myth that continues to be passed on as misinformation to massage students. This is not to dispute that there are very real toxins that accumulate in the body, notably persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in fatty tissues and heavy metals in skeletal tissues. [7,8] However, these toxins are too chemically bound to their target tissues to be significantly liberated by the mechanical motions of massage.
A more significant issue is whether metabolic wastes and cellular debris can significantly accumulate and be flushed out by massage. To elucidate a negative response to this, I turn to consideration of the circulation of blood and lymph. If the tissue is to accumulate wastes in a static manner, i.e. not as an instantaneous balance between production and removal, the tissue must be isolated. If we assume that the tissue is isolated from blood circulation, then necrosis (cellular death) is the rapid consequence. Such gangrene is, for example, one of the results of the vascular pathology of diabetes. We have to conclude that non-gangrenous tissue must be receiving oxygen and nutrients via circulation and that, for this to continue, venous return flow must also be occurring. If the toxins are accumulating, they cannot be doing so within the reach of the circulatory system. Perhaps we should look instead in the interstitial spaces served by the lymphatic
vessels"
There is more, but this gives the general answer. No, massage is not effective in releasing toxins from muscles.
Rachel Sheard, LMT said:My understanding regarding toxins within the body...is basically that that is the job of fat cells--holding "toxins" (excess fat, pollution, cleaning chemical vapors that we inhale, etc) to prevent them (toxins) from affecting our more vital organs. I am curious to know if anyone has nutritional knowledge to confirm/disprove this.
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Permalink Reply by Erica Olson on
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Interesting! What is the citation for the source? I'd love to read the rest of the article.
lee kalpin said:With regard to the idea that massage flushes toxins out of the muscles, I am including an excerpt from an excellent article on the subject.
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My computer skills are not the best for this. I will attempt to send you the link and hope I have it right.
http:/www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=10608
I hope it works. Obviously from a magazine titled Massage Today.and the writer is Eric Grant Phd
Erica Olson said:Interesting! What is the citation for the source? I'd love to read the rest of the article.
lee kalpin said:With regard to the idea that massage flushes toxins out of the muscles, I am including an excerpt from an excellent article on the subject.
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Thanks Paul. Yes, there is lots of good information on the site. It is always useful to question and debate about what we read. That's what "critical thinking" is about.
Paul Ingraham said:Rajam K Roose said:For example, I would take Paul Ingraham's site with a grain of salt ... He goes on to encourage the therapist to apply firm pressure directly in the soft region right in the middle of the occipital triangle ... This is taught to be an endangerment site ...
Fair point, but I don’t think it’s a major issue. Numerous listings of endangerment sites do not include this location. Also, concern about applying pressure to nerves and arteries is generally exaggerated. For instance, many listings of endangerment sites include the entire anterior cervical triangle, but obviously there’s plenty of good therapeutic work that can be done in this region. Endangerment sites are not necessarily off-limits, just areas where there’s a red flag.
That said, your point should be noted in the article. I’ll make an appropriate adjustment to the language. Thanks for pointing it out.
I hope that you won’t take my entire site “with a grain of salt” just because you disagreed with one thing that you found in an article I wrote about ten years ago. No writer can stand by everything they have ever written. Of course, you can certainly take SaveYourself.ca with a grain of salt in the sense that it’s always good to think critically! But I would encourage you to evaluate claims and statements individually and give SaveYourself.ca plenty of chances to be useful to you. It’s a really big site. ;-)
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Got the article, Lee, but I still have a lot of questions. Mainly, regarding a snippet from the section you quote earlier:
If the tissue is to accumulate wastes in a static manner, i.e. not as an instantaneous balance between production and removal, the tissue must be isolated. If we assume that the tissue is isolated from blood circulation, then necrosis (cellular death) is the rapid consequence.
If the above statement is true, how do ischemia and trigger points fit into things? I'm confused.
Also, [Massage] will also reduce the muscular pressure on surrounding tissues, effectively improving circulation and recovery from use. This, however, is not massage moving out toxins, but massage facilitating a better homeostasis.
I asked a question earlier about, I think, this very thing. I wonder if the distinction is thus:
- That there is a common misconception that the pressure applied to muscle tissue squeezes out the wastes/toxins, much like squeezing water out of a dirty sponge.
. . . when in reality, it's more like massage helps release the fist clenched around said dirty sponge, allowing water from the faucet (ie, blood/increase circulation) to rinse away the accumulated gunk.
Does this sound like a reasonable analogy to anyone? Or am I wildly off base?
lee kalpin said:My computer skills are not the best for this. I will attempt to send you the link and hope I have it right.
http:/www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=10608
I hope it works. Obviously from a magazine titled Massage Today.and the writer is Eric Grant Phd
/blockquote>
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Hi Erica
Your questions are good, and I feel that I am not the best person to answer. I hope that one of the members with more science knowledge will step in. However, I will make an attempt.
Indeed, when we apply ischemic compression our goal is to deprive the trigger point of circulation so it will let go.
And the article says that tissue that is deprivied of circulation will quickly die and necrosis will set in. I think the whole question is around what is meant by "quickly". We can certainly deprive tissue of circulation for several minutes at least without causing necrosis. If you are sitting on your foot, and it "goes to sleep" it is from lack of circulation and you will feel the ef.ffects of numbness, tingling and pain, but you will move long before necrosis sets in.
Even when it is necessary to apply a tourniquet to stop severe bleeding, it can be held for a long time before tissue death occurs. My first aid books says one hour, although it's an old book and I think I have read more recently that the tourniquet should be briefly loosened off every 20 minutes. At any rate, tissue death will not occur in the length of time that we are going to apply ischemic compression.
As for your analogy, I am not sure if it works or not. My impression is that release of muscle tension allows for better circulation to surrounding tissues - the benefit being that circulation brings nutrition to the tissues and therefore better health to those tissues. Arterial blood brings oxygen and other nutrients to the tissues. People with very poor circulation often have severe muscle pain and poor muscle function. In this I am thinking about a few elderly people I know who have impaired circulation because of diabetes and/or blockage of arteries, and can barely walk because of pain and lack of function of the muscles of their legs.
Veinous return does remove "waste" such as carbon dioxide and other waste matter from the body. I think we have to be careful about use of the term"toxins" which means a particular type of POISON.
eErica Olson said:Got the article, Lee, but I still have a lot of questions. Mainly, regarding a snippet from the section you quote earlier:
If the tissue is to accumulate wastes in a static manner, i.e. not as an instantaneous balance between production and removal, the tissue must be isolated. If we assume that the tissue is isolated from blood circulation, then necrosis (cellular death) is the rapid consequence.
If the above statement is true, how do ischemia and trigger points fit into things? I'm confused.
Also, [Massage] will also reduce the muscular pressure on surrounding tissues, effectively improving circulation and recovery from use. This, however, is not massage moving out toxins, but massage facilitating a better homeostasis.
I asked a question earlier about, I think, this very thing. I wonder if the distinction is thus:
- That there is a common misconception that the pressure applied to muscle tissue squeezes out the wastes/toxins, much like squeezing water out of a dirty sponge.
. . . when in reality, it's more like massage helps release the fist clenched around said dirty sponge, allowing water from the faucet (ie, blood/increase circulation) to rinse away the accumulated gunk.
Does this sound like a reasonable analogy to anyone? Or am I wildly off base?
lee kalpin said:My computer skills are not the best for this. I will attempt to send you the link and hope I have it right.
http:/www.massagetoday.com/mpacms/mt/article.php?id=10608
I hope it works. Obviously from a magazine titled Massage Today.and the writer is Eric Grant Phd
/blockquote>
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Thanks, Lee. I asked Keith Grant and Joseph Muscolino to stop by and weigh in on this.
lee kalpin said:Your questions are good, and I feel that I am not the best person to answer. I hope that one of the members with more science knowledge will step in.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Eric Grant on
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In general, I'm only sporadically on for the next few days, but Erica happened to ping me at a WiFi hotspot, so I can add a few comments.
Trigger points are localized, small regions of intense contraction. So, while circulation does get in (or the tissue would die), it is impaired. So there would be more waste products (to sensitize nerve endings) and an energy deficit -- energy is being used to continue the contraction but there's not enough to pump the Ca++ ions back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum and end the contraction.
Circulation into an area of tissue, by and large, depends on the difference in pressure produced by the heart (systolic) and the pressure on the tissue. Increase the pressure on the tissue and less blood flows through it. Erica's sponge analogy works on a one-shot basis, but not in the continual sense. Reducing the tissue is more like using a larger garden hose for a given driving pressure you can get more water through a large hose. However, in the body, there's a finite amount of blood circulated per heart beat, so lowering the tissue in one area diverts blood to it from another area. If the body needs more blood circulated in total, then the heart rate has to increase.
Placing ischemic pressure on a trigger point for 30 seconds isn't going to kill the tissue and hopefully will spread it somewhat. Releasing the pressure will cause a return flow bringing in new oxygen and ATP.
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I have heard of this technique, and as a matter of fact I know some of the practitioners featured on the website.
As with any technique, I would like to see a report of a research study done by an expert (or experts) who are uninvolved in the practice.
When they say there are excellent results I wonder if they are claiming that they have reduced the curvature? Or have they relieved pain? Not sure what the claim is.
Lee
Rick Britton said:Dr.George Roth D.C claims excellent results in the treatment of scoliosis through his Matrix Repatterning method.
http://www.matrixrepatterningcenter.com/patients/Pa_whoarewe.htm
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I had a glance at the website but have not examined it in detail. I can't help being sceptical. I have structural scoliosis and I have been a massage therapist for 25 years, so I have experienced it personally as well as professionally. I think that if there had been evidence based research done by an uninvolved third party, it would have been BIG news in the health care profession. Will have a closer look at the website at some point..
Rick Britton said:They definitely have made claims of straightening curvature. In fact, I believe that is on the website somewhere (in one of the videos, testimonials or somewhere) - has been sometime since I reviewed the material though
lee kalpin said:I have heard of this technique, and as a matter of fact I know some of the practitioners featured on the website.
As with any technique, I would like to see a report of a research study done by an expert (or experts) who are uninvolved in the practice.
When they say there are excellent results I wonder if they are claiming that they have reduced the curvature? Or have they relieved pain? Not sure what the claim is.
Lee
Rick Britton said:Dr.George Roth D.C claims excellent results in the treatment of scoliosis through his Matrix Repatterning method.
http://www.matrixrepatterningcenter.com/patients/Pa_whoarewe.htm
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