Latest Massage Therapy Research


Recent studies have brought new understanding to how massage therapy helps muscles repair after overuse. It was often thought that massage removed lactic acid buildup from the tissue but Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who has studied the cellular effects of exercise for decades, performed muscle biopsies in both legs of healthy young men before and after they'd undergone strenuous exercise, and then a third time after massaging just one leg in each individual.

Comparing tissues from each subject's massaged leg with tissues from his unmassaged leg, Tarnopolsky and his team found that massage therapy reduced exercise-related inflammation by dampening activity of a protein called NF-kB.

Massage also seemed to help cells recover by boosting amounts of another protein called PGC-1alpha, which spurs production of new mitochondria — tiny organelles inside cells that are crucial for muscle energy generation and adaptation to endurance exercise.

So we help reduce inflammation and increase production of mitochondria!

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Lee worked as a massage therapist on a local team in an exciting research study called Reducing End-of-Life Symptoms with Touch (REST) with the Community Hospices of Washington DC. The study's principal investigator was Dr. Jean Kutner, MD, MSPH from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Funding was being provided through the NIH Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine as well as several other large foundations.

The research was designed to study moving touch therapy for pain relief among people with advanced cancer. Hospices all over the country participated and a total of almost 400 people received treatment.

If you are interested in learning more click below for a link to Dr. Kutner's organization - the Population-based Palliative Care Research Network.

Other links related to Massage Therapy Research

External link opens in new tab or windowNational Library of Medicine & NIH PubMed Search