Last week we finished up a series of articles on medical massage therapy, and I can think of no better transition than to go from medical massage therapy to a medical condition that massage therapy has been demonstrated to help.
Strokes are a leading cause of death and disability in the United States and world, and usually strike suddenly with dramatic consequences. Fortunately, massage therapy has been shown to ease stroke patients’ levels of pain and stress while improving their quality of life.
While not a lot of research has been done about massage therapy and its benefits to victims of strokes, the Web site suite101 has chronicled a couple of studies that demonstrate well the benefits massage therapy can have as a complementary treatment for stroke patients.
Patients in the studies said that their quality of life improved after they began to receive massage therapy. Moreover, the stroke patients who received massage therapy saw their levels of general hygiene and mobility improve while also seeing reductions in the amount of pain they experienced and the amount of depression medication they used.
Another study chronicled in the article looked at stroke patients who received 10 minutes of slow-stroke massage therapy every night, showing that these patients experienced reduced levels of pain, blood pressure, and anxiety.
All in all, the benefits of massage therapy for stroke victims was pretty convincing, but, in reality, the results from these studies should not be very surprising. It is well documented that massage therapy can reduce levels of depression, pain, and stress (among other ailments) so it should come as no surprise that massage therapy, when performed on any population, shows similar, therapeutic results.