I apologize for taking so much time between posts but I’m working on a couple of related projects that I think you might find interesting in the next few months. I’m back with a guest entry from a massage expert named Elise Degrass. I always love posts from folks that know a lot more about a subject than I do. You may enjoy taking a look at her web site which is listed at the bottom of her post.  bjmdjd

According to patrons and practitioners as well as scientific studies, massage therapy has many beneficial effects on patients suffering from all manner of disease or affliction. This lends authority and legitimacy to the widespread and growing addition of massage therapists to the staff of many hospitals and clinics. Massage has been practiced for centuries as a stress reducer but massage therapy is specifically meant to provide medical or health benefits to patients suffering from illnesses.

Massage therapy uses touch to manipulate the soft tissue of muscles in order to achieve a beneficial physical effect. For example, massage therapy is often used to help heal sprained muscles and torn ligaments. There are multiple beneficial applications of massage therapy for patients, and this article will examine five of them.

1) Massage therapy can significantly reduce anxiety, which is a great relief for people suffering from worry or anxiety that is physiologically-based. Massage therapy stimulates and relaxes the muscles of a certain area of the body, but due to the nature of the muscular system, the entire body benefits from the massage of only one place. In fact, massage therapy also improves the immune system; after being massaged before an exam, students from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey showed a noticeable increase in white blood cell count as well as increased presence and activity of natural killer cells.

2) Due to the relaxing effects of the massage, endorphins are released by the brain in response to the stimulation provided to the muscular system. Endorphins are natural pain killers as well as biochemically-based analgesics that promote a general sense of well-being as well as reduce sensations of pain. All muscles in the body benefit from massage therapy; for example, massage therapy is noted to reduce muscle spasms, which may reveal this form of therapy as an alternative to drugs such as methocarbamol.

3) After severe accidents or debilitating injuries, massage therapy can help rebuild atrophied muscles and stimulate healing of the affected areas and systems. As noted above, the muscular system is restored under the influence of a massage therapist. Injured areas are healed faster by utilizing the techniques to relieve the body of the stress from pain or an overtaxed immune or nervous system.

4) Massage therapy also benefits the body as a form of exercise, however mild. It can help free up stiff joints and also rebuilds weakened muscles. Using massage therapy for this kind of purpose is different from using it for medicinal purposes, although this certainly counts as a very effective kind of physical therapy.

5) Massage therapy provides many miscellaneous benefits to patients of all sorts. Even autistic children showed markedly decreased erratic behavior after being treated with massage therapy. Obviously this form of treatment offers many benefits to all people and not just patients, but it also demonstrates significant medical benefits, as well.

Massage therapy can help patients achieve a new level of health in their lives beyond simply giving them some freedom from stress.

Elise Degrass is a freelance writer who writes about Massage Therapy for Massage Therapy

The autor of this website is not affiliated with any other websites that are linked to within this post and do not endorse nor guarantee any of their information.

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anxiety reduction · beneficial effects of massage therapy · helps achieve a new level of health · massage therapy · pain relief · restors muscular system

If you are a Medicare patient you need to know that a Medicare disaster is on the verge of occurring. The Senate adjourned before approving a bill that would prevent a 21.2% physician pay cut from becoming effective on Monday March 1, 2010.

To their credit (for once) Democrats have tried for months to pass legislation that would prevent this from happening but once again this past week they were thwarted by Republican Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky. He stated that he just could not support this bill with all of it’s other expensive attachments because the Democrats had not figured out a way to pay for it and thus it would increase the deficit.

The bill was going to delay the pay cut for 30 days until something more permanent could be studied and possibly passed. Most physician groups have supported passage of a bill that permanently fixes this recurring pay cut problem.

If physicians are to be believed, it may be hard to get a doctor’s appointment as early as next week. I don’t think I am going out on a limb by saying that if the pay cut occurs, a primary care physician will LOSE money every time a Medicare patient walks in their office. NOT make less money, LOSE money! The average Joe may not believe it but it’s true!

I have no doubt that something will be done. Medicare payors have already informed physicians that if the pay cut occurs they will hold all Medicare claims for 10 business days starting Monday giving the Senate time to fix the problem and make it retroactive to March 1st.

If the physician pay fix doesn’t become a done deal, woe to those (including me) who need a doctor and their payor is Medicare!  bjmdjd

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Medicare · Medicare physician pay cut · Sen. Jim Bunning · Senate Democrats

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Health On the Net Foundation · HONcode · reliability of health and medical information on the web