MASSAGE
Massage
is the treatment and practice of manipulation of the soft body tissues with
physical, functional, i.e. mechanical, medical/therapeutic, and in some cases
psychological purposes and goals.The word comes from the French massage "friction
of kneading," possibly from Arabic massa "to touch, feel, handle"
or from Latin massa "mass, dough".
Massage involves acting and manipulating the patient's body with pressure (structured, unstructured, stationary, and/or moving), tension, motion, or vibration done manually or with mechanical aids. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, or other connective tissue, as well as lymphatic vessels, and/or organs of the gastrointestinal system. Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, forearm, and feet. There are over eighty different massage modalities. The most cited reasons for introducing massage was patient demand and perceived clinical effectiveness.
Peer-reviewed
medical research has shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief,
reduced trait anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure,
heart rate, and state anxiety.Theories behind what massage might do include
blocking pain signals to the brain (gate control theory), activating the parasympathetic
nervous system which may stimulate the release of endorphins and serotonin,
preventing fibrosis or scar tissue, increasing the flow of lymph, and improving
sleep but such effects are yet to be supported by well designed clinical studies.(1)
source
: wikipedia