Massage therapy is more commonly being offered by health care providers as a complement to other kinds of treatment. Cancer centers in particular are exploring its potential to help assuage patients’ anxiety, depression, nausea, fatigue and pain.
Cancer patients have reported at least short-term relief. In one large study, 1,290 patients at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City receiving variations of massage said they experienced a 50 percent reduction in the severity of their symptoms.
But scientists are only beginning to unravel the reasons why.
A study published in Current Oncology suggests there is a kind of back-and-forth interplay between the body and mind. Specifically, it focuses on the body’s meridian system – the channels through which your body’s energy moves – as a sort of communication highway between the soft tissue and nervous system.
The body-mind benefit of massage may happen when the manipulation of muscle and ligaments triggers biochemical changes. Not only does this set in motion improved blood flow and oxygenation of muscle, but also it lights up components of the nervous system that influence mood and perception of pain.
The implications are important, the study says, opening up new research avenues for exploring symptom control in cancer patients.