Essay On Massage Therapy

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Weerapong, Hume and Kolt (2005) define massage therapy as a physical manipulation of muscles and soft tissues of the body, with the aim of promoting well-being and good health. Some of the mechanical activities involved in massage therapy include exertion of rhythmical pressure, stroking, rolling and rubbing. Massage therapy promotes well-being and positive health by producing psychological, physical and functional outcomes to the afflicted clients. The procedure of massage therapy entails four distinct mechanisms namely; biochemical mechanisms, physiological mechanisms, neurological mechanisms, and psychophysiological mechanisms. All these procedures work together to bring about the effectivity of massage therapy (Fitzcharles, Ste-Marie and Pereira, 2013).
Massage therapy is believed to benefit clients by enhancing recovery and performance, and through promotion of neurological, biochemical, psychological and physiological mechanisms. Application of mechanical pressure on the muscle and soft tissues helps to decrease tissue adhesion. Increased muscle-tendon compliance is achieved through mobilization and elongation of the adhered connective tissue (Fitzcharles, Ste-Marie and Pereira, 2013). The obtained muscle compliance then causes the stiff muscle-tendon unit to flex. Biomechanically, the impact of massage on the compliance of muscle-tendon unit is measured by joint range of motion, active stiffness and passive stiffness. Joint range of motion reveals an increase in static flexibility. On the other hand, passive stiffness measures an increase in dynamic flexibility, while active stiffness measures the effect of mental activation in promoting stretch reflex (Kumar, Beaton and Hughes, 2013).
Under physiological mechanisms, ma...

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... to fibromyalgia condition. Acupuncture generally stimulates the nervous system, causing the release of neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters initiate biochemical reactions that influence the homeostatic mechanism of the body. Consequently, anxiety, pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression associated with fibromyalgia are improved (Fitzcharles, Ste-Marie and Pereira, 2013). Specifically, acupuncture relieves pain in fibromyalgia patients by increasing endorphins and reducing the blood levels of serotonin. In addition, it evokes short-term increase in mu-opioid receptors in the brain. It also initiates nervous stimulation of muscles and tissues, thereby changing the process of pain processing in the spinal cord and in the brain. Consequently, acupuncture improves muscle stiffness by increasing local microcirculation in fibromyalgia patients (Terhorst et al, 2011).

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