By Kristyn Kusek Lewis
Health.com

Having your honey rub your back is sweet, but it’s tough to compete with the hands of a pro. A good massage therapist can make you feel like a new person. And now research suggests massage can ease insomnia, boost immunity, prevent PMS, and more. Maybe that’s why hospitals are making it a standard therapy.

“All of our surgery patients are offered the treatment — I call it ’service with a smile’ — and it’s a mandatory weekly prescription I give myself,” says Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and a member of the board at LLuminari, a health-education company.

Our advice: Enjoy your hands-on time with your sweetie, but set aside some time for a real massage, too. Here are some feel-good reasons:

Goodbye, pain

It sounds like a no-brainer, but rubdowns are especially effective for aches like low-back pain. Researchers at the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle, Washington, found that massage works better than common treatments including chiropractic therapy and acupuncture. It’s not clear why, but several studies show massage reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol while boosting the feel-good hormones serotonin and dopamine. Those changes slow your heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and block your nervous system’s pain receptors. Massage also increases blood flow to the muscles, which may help them heal. (Health.com: Frequently asked questions about massage )

A bonus: Massage also seems to ease distress from migraine, labor pain, and even cancer, as well as the body tenderness seen with fibromyalgia, says Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Plus, the benefits may last as long as a year after just a few treatments, says Partap Khalsa, Ph.D., a chiropractor and a program officer at the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Com­plementary and Alternative Medicine, the agency funding many major studies on massage.

Hello, dreams

Fluctuations in several types of brain waves either relax you or wake you up. Massage increases delta waves — those linked with deep sleep — according to a study at the Touch Research Institute. That’s why it’s easy to drift off on the massage table, Field says.

Nice to have you back, brain power

The Touch Research Institute study that connected massage to sleep also found that a 15-minute chair massage boosted alertness. “Subjects reported that it felt like a runner’s high,” Field says. Tests also show that brain-wave activity stimulated by massage is linked to improved attention.

Take that, colds

Massage helps ward off bugs by boosting your “natural killer cells,” the immune system’s first line of defense against invading illness. “We know that cortisol destroys natural killer cells,” Field says. “Therefore, since massage decreases cortisol, your immune cells get a boost.” Massage even seems to boost immunity in those people with severely compromised immune systems, such as breast-cancer patients. (Health.com: Which massage is best for you?)

Blues, be gone

Less cortisol and more serotonin and dopamine in your system may also mean less stress, anxiety, and depression. “We know that the right side of the frontal lobe of the brain is more active when we’re sad, and the left side’s activated when we’re happy,” Field says. “Our studies have observed that massage decreases activity in the right lobe and increases functioning in the left.” The well-being people feel after a massage is a big reason why some hospitals offer it to anxious patients pre­paring for surgery and cancer patients going through chemo.

Shove off, PMS

A small study of 24 women with severe PMS found that massage reduced symp­toms such as pain, water retention, and mood swings. Try it with proven remedies such as exercise (and who-cares-if-they-work solutions like a little dark chocolate).

Chronic pain affects more Americans than any other medical condition. It is estimated that more than fifty million people in the United States are presently suffering from a chronically painful condition and that one in three Americans will suffer from chronic pain at some point in their lives. It is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and its cost in lost productivity each year tops the $100 billion mark.
What is chronic pain, and what factors lead to pain becoming chronic? Loosely defined, chronic pain is any pain that does not subside after an illness or injury has healed. When such pain is left unchecked, nerve fibers become trained to send pain messages to the brain at a faster rate and with more intensity. The result is a brain that becomes more sensitive to these signals, making the pain feel worse. Living with chronic pain takes a toll on every aspect of one’s daily life. Productivity at work suffers and there is less gratification from hobbies and other interests. Personal relationships are negatively affected because of increased irritability and a higher rate of depression among chronic pain sufferers.
Recent data sheds light on the difficulties surrounding effective pain management. Most chronic pain sufferers report use of medication (both prescription and over the counter), but less than half of those using medication consider it effective in managing their pain. Taking into consideration that pain can have an emotional component, drug therapy alone may not be enough to effectively control the problem. Recent studies have shown that massage can be an effective addition to pain management therapy because it addresses both the physical and emotional components of pain. Although the research has been limited, the data most strongly supports the use of massage to treat lower back pain, shoulder pain, headaches and fibromyalgia.

Arthritis is a painful and debilitating condition that affects millions of Americans. It is broadly defined as an inflammation of the joints. The Centers for Disease Control recently released figures showing that arthritis is the predominant cause of physical impairment, diminished quality of life and increased health care costs. There are many factors that contribute to arthritic conditions, such as genetic predisposition, gender, age and obesity. The term is a catch-all phrase to describe a disease which consists of several different types. Gout, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are all considered arthritic diseases and affect different parts of the musculoskeletal system.
Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent form, affecting the greatest segment of the population. It is caused by the loss of joint cartilage, which leads to a painful rubbing together of the bones. The pain is intensified by any increase in movement and the condition can spread to more than one joint. Age generally plays a role in the onset of osteoarthritis, as it is found to occur as a result of a lifetime’s worth of joint wear and tear. However, age is not the sole factor—repeated injuries through sports or prolonged repetitive tasks can also be contributors.