Setting aside the convenience of not feeling stupidified by drugs, massage still is a better treatment for lower back pain than the usual treatment. Reuters reports on a recent study that randomly assigned 401 people to usual care or one of two kinds of massage therapy: structural massage, or relaxation massage (also called Swedish massage). After 10 weeks, 30 percent of those getting massages had used painkillers in the past week, compared to 40 percent of those getting usual care. And twice as many in the usual care group — seven percent — had stayed in bed at least one day in the past month. And the bad news: Swedish massage costs about $60 a session.
Read an abstract in the Annals of Internal Medicine,
Love massage and have them regularly, especially deep tissue. However, I’ve been concerned recently, having read an article that implicates deep tissue massage w/ strokes. Any more news on that?