Massage therapy can relieve both chronic and acute pain caused by inflammation or damage to the soft tissues arising from injury, stress, or disease.
Injury includes strain, over use of muscles or joints, repetitive injuries, as well as major trauma from a car accident, fall or other mishap.
Pain is a Signal
Pain is the means through which your body tells your brain that you have a problem. Once the brain has received and processed the pain message, pain has served its purpose. The body uses natural pain killers, called endorphins which are meant to derail further pain messages from the same source. However, these natural pain killers may not adequately dampen a continuing pain message.
Pain has a negative impact on your quality of life and can impede recovery from illness or injury. Unrelieved pain can become a syndrome in its own right and cause a downward spiral in your health, your emotional outlook, and can be exhausting.
Managing pain properly facilitates recovery, prevents additional health complications, improves mental state, and your quality of life.
Types of Pain
Acute Pain
Acute pain begins suddenly and is usually sharp in quality. It serves as a warning of disease or a threat to the body.
Acute pain might be mild and last just a moment, or it might be severe and last for weeks or months. In most cases, acute pain does not last longer than six months, and it disappears when the underlying cause of pain has been treated or has healed.
Unrelieved acute pain, however, might lead to chronic pain.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain persists despite the fact that the injury has healed. Pain signals remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months, or years. Physical effects include tense muscles, limited mobility, a lack of energy, and changes in appetite. Emotional effects include depression, anger, anxiety, and fear of re-injury.
Chronic pain might have originated with an initial trauma/injury or infection, or there might be an ongoing cause of pain. However, some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage
Massage therapy can help accelerate the healing of many acute pain producing conditions. It can also help relieve the pain of chronic conditions by helping improve soft tissue recovery and relaxing the body thus assisting in the self-healing process.
