During my close to 12 years as a professional massage therapist, I’ve witnessed the amazing benefits of regular massage. Not only do my clients feel less stress and pain, but greater energy and flexibility.
A new study out of Emory University School of Medicine examined the biological effects of repeated Swedish Massage and light touch intervention. The researchers had learned from a previous study that healthy people who received a single session of Swedish Massage experience measurable changes in their body’s immune and endocrine response.
Mark Hyman Rapaport, one of the researchers who lead the study, explained how it was decided to expand the study “to show the effects of repeated massage because we believed the frequency of massage, or the interval between massages, may have different biological and psychological effects than a single session.”
The study was conducted over a five-week period of time, assessing neuroendocrine and immune parameters. Study volunteers were randomized into four intervention groups to receive a concurrent five weeks of Swedish Massage once a week or twice a week, or a light touch control once a week or twice a week.
The researchers believed that by understanding the “effects of massage and light touch in healthy individuals − including the effect of different frequency regimens on different biological systems − [would] help to guide the design of studies aimed at specific therapeutic effects for targeted populations.”
Read more about Massage Research.
Resources: Emory University, Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
