2012-04-01 11:53:27
Massages modify the functioning of genes
In this era of new technologies, paradoxically many distrust science, even medicine, and throw themselves into the arms of so-called alternative medicines. And I say incorrectly called alternatives because if alternative medicine were effective it would not be called alternative, but medicine without adjectives. If this medicine is still called alternative, it is because it has not yet been proven that it is really effective, so it is not medicine itself.
However, many currents of alternative medicine, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, herbalism, etc., are very popular. The popularity of these supposed therapies raises the suspicion that they are effective, although we do not know how, since it does not seem reasonable that so many people use them if they do not really generate a measurable benefit. This suspicion has led to scientific study of some of them and to the conclusion that, although in some cases, such as acupuncture, a specific benefit can be derived for some particular problems, the benefit of others, such as homeopathy, is due to the placebo effect, which we have already talked about on other occasions. In other words, many of these therapies work because we heal ourselves.
Despite the above, the popularity of some medical practices that are still scientifically unfounded is still very current today. One of them is massage. There are many benefits attributed to massage, including a reduction in pain, anxiety or even depression. That massage offers these and other benefits appears to be accepted by the medical community. However, the mechanisms by which these benefits occur are not yet known. Some maintain that they are due to the elimination of lactic acid generated during exercise, but this is not proven. Massage has not been subjected to serious scientific research, given the impossibility of carrying out well-controlled double-blind clinical studies (in which until the end of the study neither patients nor doctors know whether placebo or active drug is administered) since, obviously , it is very difficult not to know that you are getting a massage (unless you are in a coma). You could try to perform “placebo massages”, but what exactly would a placebo massage consist of?
EXERCISE AND INFLAMMATION
Despite these difficulties, there is nothing better to start scientific research than for a scientist to personally experience the effects of something he does not know how it works. Scientific curiosity is thus spurred and imaginative and interesting experiments arise to try to find out why things happen. This is what happened to Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who was lucky enough to severely damage one of his thigh muscles in a water skiing accident, according to what he himself says in a interview published by Science magazine.
Like many other doctors, Dr. Tarnopolsky was a skeptic of the therapeutic efficacy of massage. However, he underwent a regimen based on them to try to improve his damaged muscle. The therapy was so effective that the patient-doctor decided that he should investigate this phenomenon.
It was known that intense physical exercise can damage muscles and trigger an inflammatory reaction, which also occurs when tissues must regenerate after an injury, for example. However, prolonged inflammation is detrimental to muscle regeneration. In any case, these processes are always accompanied by changes in the functioning of some genes. What effect would massages have after exercise?
ATHLETES FOR SCIENCE
Dr. Tarnopolsky and his colleagues (which in this case included his own massage therapist), set out to study it. To do this, they recruited eleven hard-working young volunteer athletes who underwent a tough cycling session. Ten minutes later, they received a massage on one of their legs, but not the other, which would serve as a control for the experiment. This was the enjoyable part of it. The unpleasant part was that the researchers took muscle tissue samples (biopsies) before the cycling session, immediately after the cycling session, ten minutes after the massage, and three hours after the exercise. The volunteer athletes loved science so much that they even agreed to donate bits of their muscles to it.
The biopsies were analyzed to determine the functioning of some genes important in the inflammation process and muscle metabolism. As expected, after exercise an increase in the functioning of genes related to inflammation and regeneration was detected. The surprising thing was that the massage significantly affected the functioning of these genes. Thus, the muscle of the massaged leg showed a 30% increase in the functioning of a gene involved in the reproduction of mitochondria. Mitochondria are the cellular organelles responsible for generating energy from the oxidation of food, which is obviously necessary for muscle contraction. In addition, massage decreased, on the contrary, the level of functioning of another gene essential in the inflammation process, which was also related to the beneficial effects of massage.
These surprising discoveries, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, reveal an unsuspected connection between massages and the functioning of genes that will need to be explored in depth, not only with respect to physical exercise, but also in relation to other medical problems.
WORKS BY JORGE LABORDA.
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