Oct. 15, 2010 – A new
study in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (JCAM)
shows that massage therapy might have a physiological effect that
benefits immune function.
The study, titled A Preliminary Study of the Effects of a Single Session
of Swedish Massage on Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal and Immune
Function in Normal Individuals is scheduled for print publication in JCM
Volume: 16 Issue 10: October 18, 2010. It also appears online at
www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2009.0634
Co-authors Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD, Pamela Schettler, PhD, and Catherine Bresee, MS, all working out of Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, compared a single Swedish Massage therapy session with a light touch control session on several healthy adults to determine whether the massage therapy technique had any measurable physiological effects on neuroendocrine and immune functions.
Although only a preliminary study, the authors found that Swedish massage therapy produced a statistically significant physiological effect as compared to light touch and suggested that, if replicated, these findings could have implications for management of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.
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