2024-07-16 03:17:46
Scientists have found that there is no strong evidence that massage is effective in relieving pain.
Researchers from the U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA), UCLA School of Medicine, and other institutions conducted a meta-analysis of more than 100 massage-related studies published since 2018, and found that only a small number of studies concluded that massage helped relieve pain, and even those that did not provide strong evidence to support their effectiveness, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Network Open, on the 15th (local time).
According to this, only 41 of the 129 studies published from 2018 to 2023 used formal methods to assess the certainty of the conclusions or the quality of the evidence. Of these, 17 studies addressed 13 health conditions. However, none of the studies provided evidence that clearly demonstrated health effects. Only seven studies reached a conclusion with moderate certainty about the association between massage therapy and pain relief.
“Despite hundreds of randomized clinical trials and dozens of reviews evaluating massage therapy for adult health conditions, we found that only a few have reached conclusions with moderate confidence in the evidence, and conclusions with moderate or high confidence that massage therapy is superior to other active treatments are rare,” the authors wrote in the paper.
The effects of massage known to the public are as follows:
It can increase blood flow to improve oxygen and nutrient supply and remove waste products such as lactic acid. It can strengthen the lymphatic system to help remove toxins and reduce swelling. Techniques such as kneading and stroking can help relieve muscle tension by breaking up adhesions and scar tissue in muscle fibers, and can also improve flexibility and range of motion by loosening tight muscles and tendons.
The authors stated that studies on massage to date, including sports massage therapy, osteopathy, dry cupping or acupuncture, internal massage therapy (e.g. for pelvic floor pain), and self-care massage therapies such as foam rolling, were excluded from the evaluation as they did not employ formal assessment methods and were therefore ineligible.
The conditions reviewed in the various papers included cancer-related pain, low back pain, chronic neck pain, fibromyalgia, postpartum pain, mechanical neck pain, myofascial pain, plantar fasciitis, post-breast cancer surgery pain, post-cesarean section pain, postpartum pain, and postoperative pain. The authors concluded that most of these were of low or very low certainty of evidence in their systematic review, and noted the need for high-quality randomized clinical trials to strengthen the evidence for the effectiveness of massage therapy in pain management.
For example, massage therapy generally helps relieve pain, but more rigorous studies are needed to demonstrate its superiority over other active treatments, the researchers suggested.
“This systematic review found that the number of conclusions judged to have at least moderate certainty of evidence for the effectiveness of massage therapy increased compared to 2018, but was still low compared to the need,” the researchers explained.
Reporter Park Hae-sik, Donga.com [email protected]
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2024-07-16 03:17:46