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In this issue of To Your Health:

• Massage for Low Back Pain Gets a Boost
• Massage Could Help Dementia Patients
• Answers to Your Massage Questions: Highlights From This Month's "Ask a Massage Therapist" Online Forum

The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) recently approved financial support for the Integrative Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) to propose that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hold a consensus conference on massage for low back pain. The IHPC is a coalition of health care professional organizations advocating public policy to ensure access to safe, high quality medical care for all Americans. The latest survey from the AMTA provides evidence of the increasing popularity of massage for therapeutic purposes and suggests the tides may be changing in favor of insurance coverage for massage.

Massage has been credited with alleviating a wide variety of aches and pains, from migraines and carpal tunnel to anxiety and low back pain. More than 100 million Americans suffer from low back pain and nearly $25 billion a year is spent in search of relief. In the Centers for Disease Control’s 30th annual report on the health status of the nation, Health, United States, 2006, low back pain was the most commonly reported type of pain, the most common cause of job-related disability, and a leading contributor to missed work and reduced productivity.

Today, massage therapy is one of the most common ways people relieve back pain. Research is increasingly showing that millions of Americans regularly use complementary and alternative health care approaches. Because most of this complementary care is paid for by the patients themselves, without any assistance from Medicare or other forms of insurance, it is not accessible to all Americans. Only those who can afford the out-of-pocket costs have access to broader choices in their health care. Massage patients, massage therapists and affiliated health care organizations remain hopeful that the NIH consensus conference will convince the health care community and insurance providers of the benefits of massage therapy – a treatment that already provides much needed relief to millions of Americans.

Two recent studies offer promise that massage could offer a drug-free way to treat agitation and depression among dementia patients. However, it also is suggested that there still are too few studies to know for sure, according to a review of the recent research. In both studies, hand massage and gentle touch during conversation helped ease agitation and restore appetite in dementia patients over short periods of about an hour. "Although the available reliable evidence supports the use of massage and touch, it is so limited in scope that it is not possible to draw general conclusions about benefits in dementia," said lead authors Dr. Niels Viggo Hansen and colleagues.

The review of this research appears in The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. The Cochrane reviewers could only find two small studies, involving a total of 110 participants, of high enough quality to include in the review. Although the behavioral effect was short-lived, some suggest that massage also might improve memory and cognition in those with dementia.

"Even if touch therapy aims only to reintroduce something which has been lost in the professionalization and institutionalization of care, it may still turn out to be a relatively effective, inexpensive and low-risk intervention," said Viggo Hansen.

Question: What kind of massage will work for Temporo Mandibular Joint. My sister suffers from the following symptoms: headache and numbness in her jaw. The TMJ her dentist said was caused by a broken dentures which wasn’t fixed at once. She is undergoing a therapy, but it is more of a mechanical means. Could I give her a facial massage?

Answer: Facial massage can be very beneficial in relief of TMJ. Work all muscles of the jaw, head and neck. Also, if your sister is comfortable, it is a good idea to work the muscles of the jaw that are accessed through the inside of the mouth.

Note: Information provided in this Q&A section is drawn from the "Ask a Massage Therapist" online forum, in which massage therapists field questions relative to the massage profession. Readers are encouraged to post their questions at www.massagetoday.com/ask/. Answers should not be misconstrued as a diagnosis, prognosis or treatment recommendation and do not in any way constitute the practice of massage therapy or any other health care profession. Readers should consult their own health care providers for medical advice.

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