BACKGROUND Massage therapy is offered increasingly in US medical facilities. Although the United States has many massage schools, their education differs, along with licensure and standards. As massage therapy in hospitals expands and proves its value, massage therapists need increased training and skills in working with patients who have various complex medical concerns, to provide safe and ef...

CONTEXT Massage is the most common complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy used in hospitals in the United States. As such, it is often the first CAM therapy to be integrated with conventional medicine. However, few academic medical centers have a written standard policy to guide this integration. This lack of standard policy may impede institutions from offering massage therapy as...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular diseases such as acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infarction are often accompanied by severe anxiety over the likelihood of death. Cortisol has been known as a stress hormone. However, there are controversies about the effect of massage therapy on blood cortisol level. Furthermore, no study is available on the difference between massage applied by a nurse special...

This preliminary investigation compares peripheral blood cell counts including red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), neutrophils, peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs), CD4(+), CD8(+) and CD16(+) lymphocytes, CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio, hematocrit, humoral parameters including serum interferon-gamma and interleukin-6, salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA). Psychological measures includin...

BACKGROUND There is not enough evidence to support the efficacy of massage for muscle fatigue despite wide utilization of the modality in various clinical settings. This study investigated the influence of massage application on localized back muscle fatigue. METHODS Twenty-nine healthy subjects participated in two experimental sessions (massage and rest conditions). On each test day, subject...

BACKGROUND Collaboration between providers of conventional care and complementary therapies (CTs) has gained in popularity but there is a lack of conceptualised models for delivering such care, i.e. integrative medicine (IM). The aim of this paper is to describe some key findings relevant to the development and implementation of a proposed model for IM adapted to Swedish primary care. METHODS...

OBJECTIVE To assess the diagnostic value of supine and upright carotid sinus massage in elderly patients. DESIGN Prospective controlled cohort study. SETTING Three inner city accident and emergency departments and a dedicated syncope facility. PATIENTS 1375 consecutive patients aged > 55 years presenting with unexplained syncope and drop attacks; 25 healthy controls. INTERVENTIONS Bilat...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the premature infants' responses to infant massage (tactile and kinesthetic stimulation). These responses measured by weight, physiological (vagal tone, heart rate, oxygen saturation) and behavioral responses (behavioral states, motor activities, and behavioral distress). METHODS This study was conducted using an equivalent control pretest-pos...

BACKGROUND The outcomes of hospitalization anxiety are mental health disorders. One of the methods of anxiety reduction is massage, which can cause reduction of pain and changes in physiological parameters. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the effects of slow-stroke back massage (SSBM) on hospitalization anxiety and physiological parameters in school-age children. METHODS This cli...

INTRODUCTION Postexercise massage can be used to help promote recovery from exercise on the cellular level, as well as systemically by increasing parasympathetic activity. No studies to date have been done to assess the effects of massage on postexercise metabolic changes, including excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of massage re...