A regular massage is often considered to be a treat, rather than a necessity. Most people believe that having a massage is good for aches and pains, or can help if they’ve overdone the exercise. Not everybody realizes that massage therapy can also be a powerful painkiller that can even be used to help people with back problems to possibly reduce the amount of medication they must take.
According to the Health & Safety Executive in an article published in November 2017 – “The rate of self-reported work-related musculoskeletal disorders mainly affecting the back showed a generally downward trend. In 2016/17 the prevalence rate was 590 cases per 100,000 workers. This equates to 194,000 total cases in 2016/17. In 2016/17 the working days lost due to work-related back disorders was 3.2 million days with an average number of days lost per case of 16.5 days.”
If you’re one of those who has suffered with back pain at some point in your life, you’ll know how miserable it can be. If you are dealing with chronic back pain – which is pain that’s lasted more than three months and less than six – it can impact on your daily life, and stop you doing things you want to do. You could be reliant on drugs to keep you mobile or help you sleep.
The vicious pain cycle
If you can no longer exercise pain-free, you might end up in a vicious cycle of inactivity which makes your pain worse, which stops you being active. Or you could just increase your meds but that just masks the problem. Also, some strong pain meds contain painkillers opioids like codeine which can lose their power over time as you build up a tolerance to their effects. They can also have unwanted side effects.
What you need is a way to manage your back pain that is effective but doesn’t have the side effects. Wouldn’t you know it, research has shown that regular massage along with your prescribed medication and any other advice from your healthcare provider can be so powerful that you might be able to decrease the number of painkillers you need to manage your back pain and start to live a more active life.
How massage can help beat back pain
A massage session doesn’t just relax you, it can help to promote tissue repair, improve the blood circulation and does wonders for your stress levels and mood. An article published 14/3/17 by Pain Medicine reports a study of 104 people with lower back pain who were referred to a qualified massage therapist and given 10 massages over a 12 week period, more than 50% reported an improvement in their condition and those that had reported an improvement 75% of them reported they still felt better after 24 weeks.
If you suffer with back pain and want to see if massage therapy can help you, give us a call. At your appointment we will do a full consultation and assessment and give you a massage specifically for you.