A call to those confused about research

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Comment by Anne Hagan on July 2, 2010 at 6:56pm

I am a bg fan of research for the reasons that have been mentioned here several times... I think it gives credibility to our profession, it allows for better education of the public and medical profession. I am also one who has a hard time finding research articles that relate to my subject.... therapeutic touch. Not nutrition, sleep, exercise, music ... Touch.

Comment by Julie Onofrio on April 9, 2010 at 11:39am

I am glad to see others comments that they are not interested in research - that is what I was trying to get people to say with my other post on research but it turned in another direction.

I think most massage therapists being tactile learners and more emotionally focused (can't figure out a better way to say that but just saying that in general they would just like to be doing massage!) don't need proof that it works - we know that it works because we get lots of massage too and we see it day in and day out.

I think one of the best examples on how to apply research is Paul from saveyourself.ca and all his tutorials and articles. I don't always agree with some of the things that he says and do some of the things he says not to! but in general it is a great example of how to use research. That is what I would like to see more of for my practice - being able to relate research to real life cases.

On the other side is getting more recognition from the medical profession. I am still amazed at how many doctors still will go for surgery before massage for things like carpal tunnel and herniated discs to name a few. I would think that research would be the best way to 'convert' those doctors because that is what they understand. I would love to see a resource to send those doctors too.

Julie

Comment by Rajam K Roose on April 9, 2010 at 2:38am

That being, I would still appreciate one site where all massage related research is posted. I would prefer the read research only and not plow through other info about other nutrition and other such related stuff. Just bodywork please!! For instance the site posted in the other thread by Samantha on this topic really didn't have any research, it was just all articles describing different therapies, which is NOT the same thing as research!

Comment by Rajam K Roose on April 9, 2010 at 2:27am

Many therapists don't seem to be interested in research and it probably won't matter how simple of a format you make the reading. In fact, if you make it too simple and I was reading the report, I might question the validity of it just because you will have to omit details that are important to an astute reader. Most massage therapists that I know just want to rub on folks and lower the levels of cortisol (a hormone created by the adrenals that is increased with stress) in their clients--although most therapists don't realize that's what massage has been shown to do through research. By measuring the amounts of cortisol in saliva before and after massage, researchers can measure the changes in the levels of cortisol.

Research really isn't that difficult to understand, I think it's more the mindset of what massage therapists' perceive as research that needs to change. For instance, say a person enjoys reading non-fiction, it would make sense that they first read about the author and their experiences and how those experiences qualify her/him to write the book in the first place? I'd be surprised if most even cared about those things, most people just read the back cover or hear about it from another source and that's how they make the decision to purchase the book. And it's not because people don't care, but I think more so because the reader is lazy and it's easier to just accept and believe everything one reads or hears from "trusted" sources. It's nice to go into our own little worlds and agree with things just because they sound good, isn't that how folks are swindled into giving away their life savings?

I'm only writing this because I have only a year and half of college education behind me and maybe just two and a half years of official high school (although I did graduate) and yet I have no problem reading research documents (or the health care bill for that matter). I might not understand every little nuance, but I usually can understand most of it. One difference is the use of discernment; knowing what is being read and who wrote it and what was the writer's background and education in order to present and write about the topic. Example, a research article came out recently that stated that sitting in uncomfortable positions in Zen meditation helps lower sensitivity to pain by thickening a part of the brain that regulates emotion and painful sensations. However if you read the actual study it shows they looked at only meditators sitting in uncomfortable positions, what about meditators who sit comfortably? Are their cortexes thickened as well? Just by reading that study, I found it inconclusive and here I have barely a college education. That is why I think it's a deeper issue than educational, it's whether or not the therapist has the inquisitive mind to delve deeper into the subject and not take everything they read for granted.

I can't tell you how many articles I get in my email box from well-wishers about health and food and so on, and the articles sound great, but when you actually read into them, there isn't much to back up the information that is initially touted as good research. Another example, many years ago my aunt ( a head nurse in the heart surgery unit) sent me some research about how people needed eight hours of sleep a day in order to be healthy. Upon further investigation (of my own) I discovered that the research was funded by a company that also makes medications to aid in sleep. So what about that? Even if the study was sound, just the nature of the company who produced it was suspect.

So, that is really my point. Being a critical thinker takes a certain type of mentality that either therapists have it, or they don't. Most therapists (in my experience) aren't going to go out of their way to explore research in their field and although this is a sad state of affairs (in my opinion), I think the best way to incorporate research and the desire to understand it is in massage school, where the training is initiated. Still, to this day, schools are teaching about lactic acid being cleared by massage or that massage can heal just about anything. If these issues are addressed in the schools themselves, that might help therapists change their minds about whether or not they are interested in the idea of "from where does this information come"?...) If you can make research more accessible to folks who are educating our up and coming therapists, maybe that will help get the desire going!

Comment by Vlad on April 3, 2010 at 3:57pm

For me the big cloudy area is stats and I think that most are put off by them. I bet it's the one thing where people just look at numbers and say "Screw it - I can't understand this - I'll just drop it" and they don't go any further. If there was a way of getting people to NOT do that, I think it would be huge (or make stats more furry and lovely, that would be great!).