Massage Therapist as First-Line Health Advocate: Trained in Observing Signs of Pathology, Therapists Notice And Report Health Issues Before Anyone

Massage Therapists, whether employed in a spa setting, or working with a mobile company like ours, are an invaluable part of your health care team. Chances are, if you are a regular massage therapy client, you see the massage therapist more than your doctor. And of course, that's a good thing, indicative of even better things! As a result, your Massage Therapist may be the first health care professional to observe and report to you that something might be of issue.

Of course, a Massage Therapist is not a doctor, and isn't qualified to make diagnoses. If your therapist is doing this, it might be a good idea to start looking now for someone new, and quickly. Massage Therapist training includes a lengthy module on Pathology. This includes identifying all sorts of skin issues, from tinea to melanoma. And that's important, because a massage therapist, working on a client's back every two weeks, can easily be the only one in that person's life in a position to notice changes in a mole on a client's back.

Please click here to continue reading this blog post

Mobile Massage For Fibromyalgia Sufferers

Individuals suffering from fibromyalgia have a very difficult time functioning in this world. The excessive amounts of pain that they feel, along with a brain fog from the pain, can make it very difficult to function normally. Intense widespread pain in the body, as well as fatigue and sleeping difficulties, are common for fibromyalgia sufferers.

Although this disorder does not have a known cause, there are many things that can help a person with it. Massage therapy has been shown in studies to improve the amount and quality of sleep that people can have with this disorder. Also, levels of stress hormones were reduced, and anxiety and depression were also reduced among patients.

Fibromyalgia can be a torturous disorder for some, and it is not surprising that it leads to greater levels of anxiety and depression. The inability to function can be very frustrating, as the body is unable to do what the mind want it to do. Instead, people often find that they need to just lay in bed all day. Thus, this is a population that would be prone to depression and anxiety, especially because there is no cure and many of the treatments are only marginally effective.

Based upon the studies of massage with fibromyalgia, it would also appear that the pain causing substance, known as Substance P, can also be reduced in people who receive massage therapy. Since many people with fibromyalgia find ordinary activities draining, including walking and driving, having a mobile massage at their home would probably be best for people in this population.

If you have fibromyalgia or care for someone who does, please click here to find more information about having a session of mobile massage. To find the studies referenced above, please click here.

References:

J Clin Rheumatol. 2002 Apr;8(2):72-6. Fibromyalgia pain and substance P decrease and sleep improves after massage therapy. Field T, Diego M, Cullen C, Hernandez-Reif M, Sunshine W, Douglas S.

J Dermatol Sci. 2000 Feb;22(2):138-44. Firm stroking of human skin leads to vasodilatation possibly due to the release of substance P. Morhenn VB.

J Clin Rheumatol. 1996 Feb;2(1):18-22. Fibromyalgia benefits from massage therapy and transcutaneous electrical stimulation. Sunshine W, Field TM, Quintino O, Fierro K, Kuhn C, Burman I, Schanberg S.

Mobile and Chair Massage for the Elderly and Infirm

Perhaps you have never considered providing mobile massage for your elderly patients or those you give care to. It is actually a very worthwhile consideration for many reasons.

(Photo from YODCOX! on flickr)

First of all, elderly patients, especially those in assisted living and nursing home facilities, tend to be very lonely. They may go for many days or weeks without being touched in a meaningful way, either by loved ones or by the nursing staff. At most nursing homes or assisted living facilities, nurses provide the care necessary for their elderly patients, but that more often than not does not include touch of any kind.

Touch can include hugging the person, holding them around the shoulders, and other gentle types of touch. Consequently, the loneliness that many of the elderly already feel can be intensified by the fact that they are not ever touched. Mobile therapeutic massage can provide that kind of meaningful and therapeutic touch that we as humans all crave.

(Photo from quinn.anya on flickr)

As an example of the need for touch, there is a now famous study using rhesus monkeys who never received touch from anyone, compared to a control group that was given normal touch and care by their mothers or handlers. The monkeys who were not touched exhibited aggressiveness, anger, rage, and other abnormal social behaviors. This study, as well as others that have been done in recent years, have shown that touch is essential to mental and physical health in humans.

Second, many elderly patients experience pain of varying types and intensities. Many of them have tense shoulders, arms, and hands, which can lead to thoracic outlet syndrome and other conditions. They may have tension and pain in their lower backs, which is one of the most common types of pain that people experience. Mobile massage can help with both of these conditions, as well as many others. Many elderly patients suffer from pain and numbness in their extremities, which when left untreated, can become debilitating.

Third, and perhaps the most important, many elderly patients are homebound. That means they cannot travel to the spa or to a chiropractors office to get a massage. These people, perhaps more than any other population, would benefit a great deal from having mobile massage at their nursing home or assisted living facility.

There are many other benefits from massage therapy aside from pain relief, many of which can be found on our massage benefits page, by clicking here. If you are interested in scheduling a mobile massage session, you may visit our website by clicking here.

Mobile Massage in NYC: About As Hip As It Gets

Mobile Massage in New York City is definitely considered ‘cool'. The ‘thing to do'. New Yorkers, always at the edge of the wave of trendiness and what's nouveau, have already decided that yoga is only so hip. In the defense of Yoga, it's a practice that is thousands of years old, and seems to benefit just about everyone. But still, it's been decided: Massage Therapy, and Massage in your home or apartment, is the absolute coolest thing to do these days.

And there's certainly a reason. After a session of Therapeutic Massage, most people feel better. A lot better. Reducing stress is one of massage therapy's most well-known benefits. After a session of yoga, we feel likewise calm and serene, but yoga takes work. And consistent work. You really do have to keep at it to experience all of those wonderful benefits, whereas with a session of Massage Therapy, it doesn't matter if you go once a year or once a week; you'll still feel relaxed and reborn afterwards.

Many clients of Mobile Massage just happen to be practitioners of Yoga. They find that a massage session helps them with their yoga and meditation, helping them get past stuck-points, mentally, physically, and some even say spiritually. It seems most are in agreement that Therapeutic Massage in the 2010s is what Yoga was to the 1990s. It isn't that Therapeutic Massage is more hip, cooler, or in some way ‘better'; it's more like this is the decade that it's finally catching on.

When something is new, it's a curiosity that we all want to get to know better. But when it's something that's new and wonderful, and makes us feel better, helping us with our issues, both mental and physical, we take notice. And in the 1990s, yoga did just that for a good percentage of then-hip New Yorkers, many of them young professionals working in the fields of design, finance, and banking. It's probably good so many learned to be so balanced and stable; the decade that followed was not as easy, in terms of finding a good means to earn a living.

With fewer opportunities, the workplace has become ridiculously competitive. And surely, that will lead to greater stress. It's really no surprise that in these stressful times, Therapeutic Massage is thriving. Mobile Massage in NYC is specifically experiencing a surge in popularity, likely because everyone is so tired from work that they can't spare the time to drive, or even walk, to the local Day Spa and sit in a waiting room. What's cool usually becomes so because of some good reason. Yoga was cool because it worked. And now, it's the same thing with Therapeutic Massage.

© 2013 H Miller, NJMassage.Info, Mountainside On Site Massage Therapy