“Touch is often the most neglected or assaulted sense of the hospitalized patient”.
Integrating massage therapy into a hospital setting shows how effective it is for not only treating physical pain, but how-- on deeper physical, mental, and emotional levels--it not only treats injury, but treats and respects the patient as a whole, complex human being.
From a marked improvement in the ability to rest (sleep) and thus promote speedy recovery, to much needed relief from acute physical pain, soreness--even to the extent that it is an effective replacement for pharmaceuticals-- the impact of massage therapy is wide-ranging and profound. Even more significantly, it treats the patient as a whole, relieving the discomforts of the environment (an unfamiliar, perhaps coldly clinical setting) as well as treating human conditions that are equally distressing as physical pain, such as anxiety, loneliness, depression--often overlooked in a clinical environment.
The findings of this study are fascinating, even surprising; the capacity of massage therapy to heal is much more comprehensive and profound than even previously thought.
For the full details of this study and the fascinating scope of the findings, read the study itself (originally linked from the Mayo Clinic): Read More...
