How massage aids muscle healing

Submitted by admin on Tue, 02/07/2012 - 11:01

Posted on CBC News February 1, 2012

Massage helps relieve pain in damaged muscles by sending anti-inflammation messages to muscle cells, Canadian researchers have found.

Athletes have long sought massages to relieve pain and promote recovery. Despite reports that long-term massage therapy reduces chronic pain such as back pain, the biological effects of massage on muscles weren't known.

Now scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton have found evidence at the cellular level that massage blunts muscle pain in a similar way to anti-inflammatory pills.

The study in Wednesday's issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine examined the effects of massage therapy versus no treatment on the quadricep muscles of 11 young men who were recreationally active.

Scientists studied samples from the men before they exercised to the point of exhaustion, just after and then 2½ hours afterwards.

Massage could also help the elderly, those suffering from musculoskeletal injuries and people with chronic inflammatory disease, although that idea still needs to be tested, cautioned the study's lead author, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of the pediatrics department at McMaster.

Massage seemed to blunt muscle pain using the same route that anti-inflammatory pain relievers do. (Jack Dempsey/Associated Press)

The study does offer evidence that massage is a safe and viable option to use in medical practice, he said.

"We know that exercise is a panacea of goodness," Tarnopolsky said in an interview. "Massage might enhance some of the favourable benefits that we get from exercise."

This article can be found in its entirety at http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/01/massage-muscle-repair.html