Massage Therapy for Cancer Patients in Bradenton and Sarasota FL

Massage therapy has been proven to be beneficial to cancer patients, even in the most advanced stages. Patients can avail of therapeutic massage in professional massage spas in Bradenton and Sarasota FL.

The fact that there is a Society for Oncology Massage is proof of the value of massage for those afflicted with cancer. Oncology is the branch of medicine that studies cancer and cancer treatment. Oncology massage is defined in the Society’s website as “the adaptation of massage to safely nurture body, mind and spirit of anyone who is dealing with cancer.”

The Society for Oncology Massage is a non-profit organization based in Maine. It was born during the Oncology Massage Healing Summit in 2007, where lectures and workshops were participated in by 20 faculty members and more than 150 therapists.

Therapists, cancer patients and their families have already been experiencing the effectiveness of massage as a companion therapy for relief against cancer symptoms through the years. This experiential proof is also being validated by medical research.

Scientific studies have long focused on the benefits of massage for cancer patients. From as early as 1900 to 1990, the annual citations to cancer and massage average 31 per year. This rose drastically between 1991 and 2000 with 294 citations each year. Another big leap occurred between 2001 and 2005 with 1106 citations per year. In 2006 to 2008 this increased even more to 1370 citations a year. Most studies show that massage therapy significantly reduces pain, fatigue, nausea, depression and anxiety among cancer patients.

For example, a study published online in February 2009 was entitled “Massage therapy reduces physical discomfort and improves mood disturbances in women with breast cancer.” The study was done by Miriam Listing, Anett Reihauer, Michaela Krohn, Barbara Voigt, Gracia Tjahono, Janine Becker, Burghard F. Klapp, and Martina Rauchfu at the Charité Center for Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany. It investigated the efficacy of classical massage treatment in the reduction of breast cancer-related symptoms and in improving the patients’ mood disturbances.
Eighty-six women with primary early stage breast cancer and with an average age of 59 were randomly divided into a massage intervention group and a control group. The intervention group was given half an hour of classical massage therapy in the head, neck and back twice a week for five weeks. Results showed that the classical massage therapy effectively reduced physical discomfort and fatigue while improving mood among patients in the intervention group. The effect on mood was also observed to be better when the patient was consistently treated by the same massage therapist.

In March 2008, Nancy C. Russell, Sat-Siri Sumler, Curtiss M. Beinhorn and Moshe A. Frenkel published the paper, “Role of Massage Therapy in Cancer Care” in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. It cited reviews of scientific literature that present the effects of massage on cancer patients, covering improved quality of relaxation, sleep, and immune system responses, and again mentioning relief of fatigue, pain, anxiety, and nausea. The paper pointed out that these findings caused some large cancer centers in the United States to integrate therapeutic massage into their regimens.

To test these studies in their own lives, patients can choose the therapeutic massage technique most suited to their condition. Among the more popular massage therapy techniques are reflexology, Swedish massage and deep tissue massage. For those who are still able to indulge in sports, sports massage would be most beneficial. The only massage technique that cancer patients will most probably not be needing is pregnancy massage. Whatever their preference, though, patients can request for it from professional massage therapists in Bradenton and Sarasota FL.