Mysteries of Massage
By: Patrick S. Cross, LMT, CPN, CET
For centuries people have believed in the profound benefits of massage therapy for health, performance, and longevity.
Almost 5,000 years ago in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic Book of Internal Medicine, Chinese doctors and monks were described practicing massage methods to ease ailments of all kinds. Native shaman from around the world rubbed smooth stones on the aching muscles of their tribe members after long treks or big hunts.
Native shaman
from around the world rubbed smooth stones on the aching muscles of their tribe members after long treks or big hunts.
Even the ancient Egyptians felt massage therapy was important enough to leave depictions permanently etched into the walls of the tomb of Ankhmahor, one of the most important of Teti’s officials, which has come to commonly be called the ‘physician’s tomb’.
In more modern times, clinical massage therapies are found in hospitals to aid in pain relief and post surgical recovery. Sports massage serves athletes from the weekend warrior level all the way up to the shimmering glory of Olympic contenders to enhance performance. There are even applications to supplement sleep patterns, help with brain development, and relieve social anxieties.
Through the ages there have been countless myths and theories about the different methods of massage, and the reasons massage therapy has such a potent effect on health and performance.
Some explanations are simple and straight forward, such as the use of massage therapy in combating osteoarthritis. When a joint is chronically compressed it eventually wares down and becomes painful. A skilled massage therapist will loosen the tension around the joint, decompress it, and then coach better movements so that the joint is less likely to get compressed again.
Still, the mechanisms behind many massage therapy methods have remained a mystery, and have been a source of great controversy in the medical world.
One aspect in particular that has eluded explanation is the ability for certain massage techniques to reduce inflammation, and speed up recovery after an injury. Many therapists and scientists have asserted that inflammation and lactic acid can be flushed out of the tissues by squeezing them, which is why soreness is decreased and recovery speeds up. That theory has been officially disproven.
Due to more current technology and innovative scientific minds we now have new insights into the powers of massage, and may finally have some real answers to that riddle.
Mark Tarnopolsky, a cellular biologist and avid athlete in Hamilton, Canada has shed light on this mystery in a way never previously explored. His team went beyond the normal research methods and started looking at gene expression in subjects before and after massage, and what he found was nothing short of incredible.
He discovered that after a massage the gene known as PGC1-Alpha, which is responsible for cellular metabolism and repair, was ramped up, while the gene NFkB, which is responsible for inflammation, was significantly inhibited. That means that simply getting a massage increases heeling and repair while simultaneously decreasing inflammation because it turns some of your genes on, and it turns other ones off. So we respond to massage therapy not just on a mechanical level, but also on a genetic level.
Changes on an epigenetic level
One more piece of the puzzle
This of course is very excited for me as an evidence based practitioner, but also as someone who is constantly realizing how deep the story goes, and how mysteries as old as time are just now being understood on a level humans have never been able to see or understand before.
