Medical Massage: The Prescription Your Muscles Need

You can just see the wording on the prescription—Rx: Massage, once weekly. Don’t you wish your doctor would hand you that prescription? It could happen—increasingly, doctors are ordering patient massages via prescriptions to treat medical conditions, especially for orthopedic problems. Sometimes your health insurance will even cover the cost…but don’t be fooled into thinking you’re off to a day at the spa, because this kind of massage is truly a “treatment.” There are no terry robes, slippers and soft music, nor does a medical massage typically last as long as a spa treatment.

To find out what a medical massage is like when performed by a skilled practitioner, our editors turned to Herbert Levin, LMT, MMP, a pioneer in the field and founder of Medical Massage Practitioners of America (MMPA), in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He explained that medical massage can be an effective, safe and natural treatment that leaves you feeling great.

What’s unique about medical massage is that the therapist works only on the injured area as specified by a doctor’s prescription. If your doctor has diagnosed a problem with, say, your left shoulder, you can expect the therapist to focus solely on that problem. Massage treatments can help migraine headaches and orthopedic injuries, and some people find them beneficial for a variety of other maladies, too, including fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ), osteoarthritis and other conditions.

WHAT TO EXPECT

You won’t be asked to remove all your clothes, but the therapist will need to uncover the body part that he/she is working on. At the start of your first session, you can expect that your medical massage therapist will begin by assessing your muscle and joint function—strength, range of motion, degree of pain, etc. This is done by applying active, passive and resistive forces to your muscles to determine which ones aren’t functioning right—then the same tests are repeated after each treatment to check the treatment’s effectiveness. How much pressure is used during massage will vary depending on your condition and what feels comfortable to you. Often therapists include stretching as part of the treatment, too.

TYPES OF MASSAGE

These three techniques are the most widely used, Levin said…

Neuromuscular massage. This involves applying pressure to a specific body part to release tension.

Trigger point massage. This technique targets spasms that reduce blood flow into other parts of the muscle, causing pain—which gets even more painful when the spasm pressures nearby nerves. Therapists relieve a spasm by applying eight to 12 seconds of moderate pressure to the trigger point (a sensitive area caused by tight muscle fibers). Though this doesn’t always feel great, patients who have experienced it say that there is a moment when the spasm releases and the pain dissipates that makes it well worth the brief discomfort. Some get this result with just one such massage, while for others, it takes several.

Myofascial release. This technique is used to stretch and release tension in the myofascia (the soft connective tissue that surrounds all muscles), which can become constricted and sometimes inflamed because of trauma, overuse, inactivity, poor posture, chronic stress and inflammatory agents (including chemotherapy drugs). Therapists bring relief by pressing into the myofascia for several minutes (longer if needed) to release the tension.

Note: If you have cancer, it is critical to first seek approval for any kind of massage from your oncologist, because there are concerns that manipulation near a tumor may spread the disease.

WANT TO GIVE IT A TRY?

If you and your doctor agree that medical massage might help a condition you have, ask him or her for some recommendations of good therapists in your area. Levin suggests interviewing several therapists prior to booking your first session. Ask about the extent of their education, how long they’ve been practicing, and how much training they have in specific modalities, including the ones discussed above. A well-qualified therapist will be able to knowledgeably discuss the orthopedic tests that your doctor used to diagnose your problem and ideally will have performed several thousand massages—yes, you read that right!—for your type of injury or condition.

Costs vary according to region but typically run about $60 per massage. Insurance covers some massages, depending on your condition and your carrier. This is generally approved in 15-minute increments at a fee of about $30 to $45 each, allowing two units per body part per session. One resource for locating a qualified therapist is the Web site of the American Massage Therapy Association, http://www.amtaMassage.org/findamassage/locator.aspx.