Lower Back Pain Relief and Massage – The Research
The American College of Physicians looked into massage as a form of pain relief for acute, sub-acute and long term (chronic) lower back pain in an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine 2017.
Their research on 104 patients showed that massage had a positive impact on pain, disability and health – related to quality of life for patients with chronic lower back pain.
Participants within the study had between 5 - 10 massages within a 12 week period and were reassessed at the 12 week and 24 week mark of the study.
The results showed:
- 41% of people with lower back pain reported and improvement in their pain with massage over the period.
- 36% of people reported pain relief from massage
- 62% of the people in the study would receive massage treatment again, if their pain was to return.
Performing clinical research into modalities like Remedial Massage is always difficult.
There are many variables with Soft Tissue Therapy:
- The practitioner,
- Frequency of remedial massage treatment,
- Length of time of treatment and time between treatments,
- The type and severity of injury,
- The type of remedial massage techniques used in treatment
- Additionally, health and lifestyle factors that will all affect the outcome of someone’s treatment.
Each person will also responds to treatment differently. It is why it is so important to treat each remedial massage client differently. However, this makes performing clinical research really difficult.
It is important to remember this point when looking into remedial massage research.
Most studies only involve small sample groups. It is difficult to draw conclusions on the implications of the research for the greater community, when a sample group is small. The key is to look at the research, but also to see whether or not remedial massage or any other form of allied health works for you and your body.
We recommend seeing a qualified remedial massage therapist that understands Lower Back Pain to get the best results.
According to the World Health Organisation, Lower Back Pain stands as the single leading cause of disability globally. It is essential that research continues ways in which to prevent and manage the condition.
As a massage therapist group it is exciting to see more and more research into remedial massage and other soft tissue therapies. In clinic, we constantly see improvement for people who suffer from Lower Back Pain.
Although further research is necessary, it is good to see research starting to emerge into benefits of massage for chronic conditions like Lower Back Pain .
Reference:
Qaseem A, Wilt TJ, McLean RM, et al. Noninvasive treatments for acute, subacute, and chronic low back pain: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2017;166(7):514-530.
Comments