The Japanese seem to have learned massage from the Chinese along with other forms of their culture. For years the blind were the primary practitioners and understood the use of massage in treating illness.
The Hindus and Persians, who still practice massage have helped in the maintaining of this skill since early times. Massage was also practiced by the Greeks and Romans, in connection with their baths. Herodicus taught Hippocrates massage and medical gymnastics. Julius Ceaser, who had a severe nervous disorder (epilepsy) had himself pinched all over daily and massaged. He was better able to carry on his labors because of being treated. Pliny was rubbed for the relief of chronic asthma.
A sort of percussion, called whipping, was employed by the ancient Roman physicians in various diseases, and is still used by the Laplanders and the Finns, who beat the body with bundles of birch twigs.
The natives of the South Pacific islands have used massage both in the water and out for hundreds of years.
The art of massage has been used in all parts of the world. The development of the proper use of the methods of massage was led by physicians in France, Germany and Sweden. Dr. Pehr Ling, of Sweden, in the beginning of the nineteenth century cured himself of rheumatism. Later he founded a system of gymnastics that is universally known as "the Ling System" or the "Swedish Movement Treatment." He established a school and when he died in 1839 he left several pupils in Europe who made known his methods throughout the world.
In the middle and late 1800's men from America went to Sweden, Germany and France and learned the skills that were being used there. The methods were further developed and their efficiency demonstrated in treating certain physical problems.
In the late 1800's the most common treatments were blood letting and the use of purgatives. Commonly used were Calomel which is mercury based and arsenic based tonics. Touching was not considered as part of the healing methods as it involved corporal pleasures and these were considered sinful. However, there were always some who used "folk remedies" and the movement was called health reform. Included in these were the use of herbs and water therapy with rubbing of the body. Some men traveled to Europe to learn Swedish Massage. They brought the techniques and some European trained therapists to work at sanitariums that were established to offer an alternative to the standard medical approach.
Native Americans used heat and massage with herbs as the means of treating various problems. The Cherokee, Penias and Navaho were among the tribes which rubbed their warriors before they went to war and when they returned. They eased the labor of the women and colic of the infants and many other ailments and problems.
During the 1960's there was a resurgence of interest in the natural ways of treating the body. Since then there have been an increasing interest in and use of hand applications on the body to affect and or relieve body problems. The range has been from the Rolfing and Alexander methods with considerable pressure to Tragering with its rhythmic nurturing of the tissues. There is Shiatsu using pressure from the Japanese to reflexology where only the feet are worked upon. The use of massage in the treatment of athletes both before and after participation in sports is growing from the local occasional participant to the world renowned Olympic class performer.
The use of massage with infants is also increasing. It is used with premature and well babies and many benefits are being documented. Western countries have been the slowest to use massage in the care of infants but are gathering much evidence of its many benefits.
The use of the hands to treat and nurture the body, to aid its functions and to promote its well being is growing steadily. Recent studies at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami in Florida have verified the value of massage in the treatment of many problems. When infants who were born premature or of crack addicted mothers and were not developing well were massaged, the results were remarkable. When these babies were massaged for fifteen minutes three times a day, they gained weight 47 percent faster than babies which were not massaged. The food intake was the same. The babies simply developed more than those which were not massaged. Eight months later, the mental and motor abilities showed better development and they had maintained their weight advantage.
Coffee breaks or fifteen minute chair massages twice a week, which is better? Studies over five weeks showed:
- Immediate response - A change in brain waves in the direction of heightened alertness. Secondly, the subjects showed better performance on math problems which were completed in less time with fewer errors.
- At the end of the five-week period, the subjects reported:
- Reduced job stress.
- Less depressed mood state.
This was felt to be of significance as the International Labor Organization has stated that job stress costs the U.S. economy $200 billion annually. The Journal of the American Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry has reported that massage reduces depression and anxiety in child and adolescent psychiatry clients. The group of 52 hospitalized depressed and adjustment disordered youth in the study were given thirty minute back massages daily for five days. The results showed the subjects to be less depressed and anxious. They also showed lower saliva cortisol levels. The nurses also rated the youth less anxious and more cooperative. Their night time sleep also increased. Cortisol and norepinephrine levels decreased. The other youth in the controlled study were shown relaxing video tapes instead of the massage. The control group did not display the responses that those who were massaged did.
So much information is coming out weekly, often daily on the studies being done and the findings of those studies regarding massage. The public is also being informed regarding the training of massage therapists and how to evaluate the clinic or therapist before they patronize them.
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