You often hear people saying that a massage would be great — something that they could certainly use right now. After a long week spent chasing deadlines at work, scrambling to look after the family’s needs, running errands, and keeping appointments, they’re left tired, cranky, and unable to truly relax. A soothing massage would be just the thing to melt their stress and tensions away, loosen up tired muscles, and help them become reinvigorated for the next round of challenges that the new week will bring.
But did you know that massage can do more than just alleviate stress and soothe tired muscles? If you pay a visit to health centers that bring together physicians, physical therapists, acupuncturists and chiropractors, you’ll find that they offer a treatment method called medical massage therapy which provides a host of important benefits.
What is it?
Medical massage therapy, according to specialists, is best defined as a form of massage that is performed with the intent of improving health conditions or pathologies that have been diagnosed by a physician. The therapist administering this type of massage can utilize a number of modalities — specifically, those that are appropriate to the to specific patient’s case, and focused only on the areas of the patient’s body that are related to the physician’s diagnosis and prescription.
There are a number of disciplines that can be considered as modalities that fall under medical massage. Examples of such are deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy, neuromuscular therapy, myofascial and positional release, craniosacral therapy, lymphatic drainage and orthopedic massage.
What conditions can this type of massage address?
Medical massage is a drug-free treatment method that serves as just one component of the overall treatment plan for an individual. It is often used to address symptoms such as headaches, spasms, pain, nerve compression or entrapment, tight or sore muscles, or inflammation.
By performing medical massage, therapists can help restore the patient’s muscle strength, increase their flexibility and range of motion, boost their immune system, improve their circulation, and even correct their posture and coordination in order to prevent the onset or reoccurrence of pain in the future.
If you find yourself experiencing conditions such as auto injuries, sciatica, or fibromyalgia, your physician can work together with other health and pain specialists to come up with an effective treatment that produces results — and medical massage can be an essential component of your treatment program. Visit a multi-specialty health center in your area today to discover the options that can help you find relief not just from stress, but from more serious conditions as well.
