massage helps reduce effects of chronic pain

From western medicine to alternative practices, there are many therapeutic models to treat chronic pain and help you feel better physically. Rick Morgan, CMT and owner of Rejuvenations Massage Therapy says that 80% of his clients come to them to help manage chronic pain. "We know they get results because they tell us so," Rick says

But that’s the physical side of the pain. What about the emotional side of it?

I recently strained a muscle and was in terrible pain—pain added on top of the chronic pain I live with every day. I didn’t sleep well that night. After tossing and turning all night, I woke feeling stressed and irritable. However, I didn’t connect my mood to the pain until I had a massage. After 90 minutes in my therapist’s care, my mood was transformed, and that night I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in weeks.

Rick says that's common. When you suffer from pain—even minor, yet chronic pain—your body can’t relax. And when your body can’t relax and regenerate, you get stressed, irritable, cranky, upset…the list goes on. Chronic pain takes a tremendous emotional toll on you.

So what can you do? Regardless of what you do to treat the physical side of your condition, therapeutic massage can help address the emotional side of it. Studies show that massage:
• Improves sleep patterns
• Creates a general feeling of well-being,
• Helps release pent up emotions, and
• Reduces anxiety

As an example, let’s look at the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. A study at the Touch Research Institutes, University of Miami School of Medicine, found that massage improved fibromyalgia patients’ moods. Another study by the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association found that patients reported sleeping better with regular massage: they began sleeping for longer periods at a time and had more restful sleep, thus improving their moods. Massage has also been shown to benefit cancer patients.

How often should you get massage to reap the emotional benefit? Rick says it’s different for everyone. What he does know is you’ll get better results if you are on a regular schedule—whether it’s monthly, weekly, or some other formula that works for you. Studies show that a half hour massage a few times a week has tremendous benefit. However, most of our clients with chronic pain come in monthly for 60 or 90 minutes. The best thing to do is work out a treatment plan with your massage therapist.

Massage helps minimize your physical pain and alleviates the stress and anxiety associated with it. When you feel relaxed, your emotional state will be improved and life will seem a little bit brighter. And that is something to really feel good about.