Massage for Chronic Pain

Massage for chronic pain can break the vicious cycle of pain, where pain leads to muscle tension, reduced circulation, and restricted movement, which in turn lead to more pain.

Muscles contract around any painful site to protect the area. If pain is resolved quickly, muscles relax. If pain persists, muscles can become habitually tight.

Sometimes tight muscles press on nerves, causing tingling, numbness, or more pain. Massage therapy helps by stretching tight muscles and by stimulating the nervous system to relax muscle tension.

Massage for Chronic Pain Improves Circulation

Tight muscles reduce circulation, letting waste products accumulate, which can leave you feeling fatigued and sore. Plus waste products can irritate nerves, causing pain to spread.

Massage therapy releases contracted muscles and increases circulation. As massage relaxes the nervous system, blood vessels dilate to increase blood flow. Waste products are flushed away and replaced with oxygen and nutrients.

Areas with poor circulation often develop trigger points—highly irritable spots that refer pain, tingling, or other sensations to other places in the body. Trigger points respond well to standard massage techniques.

Massage Stretches Muscles and Improves Movement

Eventually, the body lays down connective tissue in any contracted area with poor circulation. While helpful for healing injuries, this natural reaction can "glue" muscles and their connective tissue coverings into a shortened state. The stretching and kneading of massage therapy softens and lengthens connective tissue.

Summary

Irritating waste products, painful trigger points, and shortened muscles make even simple actions difficult and tiring. As your capacity for movement and exercise decreases, you lose the most important means for maintaining good circulation throughout your body, risking pain in new areas.

Massage for chronic pain helps restore normal movement by releasing trigger points, removing waste products, and stretching shortened muscles. Also, because you feel better after a massage, you may find renewed energy and motivation for physical activity.

Note on Choosing a Massage Therapist

Some massage therapists and some types of massage are better at relieving chronic pain than others. While a feel-good Swedish massage is great, you can often get more permanent relief by finding a massage therapist who specializes in a massage technique especially geared toward relieving pain, such as Neuromuscular Technique, deep tissue massage, or Myofascial Release.

Other Resources

Relax The Back offers ergonomic office chairs and other ergonomic items, massage and hydrotherapy products, and many other items that can be helpful in reducing and managing chronic pain.

For more information about chronic pain and methods to relieve it, visit The Chronic Pain Haven or go to Amazon for books about using massage for chronic pain.