Numerous studies have been conducted on effects of massage therapy on various conditions. Massage therapy has been shown to reduce stress, lower cortisol (stress) hormone levels, improve mood, increase gastrointestinal motility, improve sleep, and decrease pain levels. Offered post-operatively, massage has been found to yield lowered blood pressure levels, less pain, quicker recovery, and reduced hospital stay time. It has been shown to reduce pain, nausea, anxiety, and fatigue with patients receiving cancer treatment, as well as improve sleep and increase relaxation. One study found that massage reduced blood glucose levels in diabetic children to normal levels. A number of studies have been made of preterm babies; massaged babies gained weight ranging from 31-47% over non-massaged infants. Babies also showed lower cortisol levels, more gastric motility, less colic, better sleep, and lowered hospital stay by 6 days on average. Cocaine-exposed preterm neonates experienced fewer postnatal complications, lowered stress, and 28% greater weight gain per day than non-massaged infants.
Conditions that have been studied include:
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Much of this research has been done by the Touch Research Institute at the University of Florida-Miama. Study summaries can be found on these webpages: http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/Massage.html; https://www.amtamassage.org/research/Massage-in-the-News.html. Wellness Evidence summarizes research studies related to deep tissue massage in particular (http://www.wellnessevidence.com/wellnessevidence/deep-tissue-bodywork/spotlight).
Some of the specific research studies that have been done include:
Massage Therapy for Pain of Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A 60-minute Swedish massage offered once a week for 8 weeks significantly reduced pain in 25 subjects, compared to 100 subjects receiving less massage or usual care without massage (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0030248).
Massage Therapy for Inflammation After Exercise: The Buck Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University found massage activates certain signaling pathways to reduce skeletal muscle inflammation acutely damaged from exercise (http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/119/119ra13.abstract).
Massage Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain – Comparing Structural versus Relaxation Massage Methods: A 2011 10-week study on effectiveness of weekly 60 minute massage therapy for chronic low back pain found that patients receiving massage were twice as likely as those receiving usual care to report significant improvements in both pain and function, and reduced use of anti-inflammatory medications, even 6 months later. The study randomly assigned 401 persons aged 20-65 into 3 groups: structural massage, relaxation massage, or usual care. There were few differences in outcome between the massage groups. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?db=pubmed&cmd=link&linkname=pubmed_pubmed&uid=21727288).
Massage Therapy for Fibromyalgia: A study was made of 59 subjects with fibromyalgia, 30 receiving 90 minute massage-myofascial release for 20 weeks that focused on relaxing the 18 fibromyalgia tender points, and 29 in a control group that was provided with disconnected magnetotherapy on the cervical and lumbar regions for 20 weeks. The study found reduced anxiety and depression levels, improved quality of sleep, reduced pain, and quality of life in the massage-myofascial group, immediately after completing treatment, 1 month, and 6 months later (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018656/).
Effectiveness of Cupping Therapy: A meta-analysis was made in 2012 of articles reviewing effectiveness of cupping therapy, searching through 6 databases for articles published between 1992 and 2010; 135 research studies were found, but were generally of low methodological quality. Meta-analysis showed cupping therapy combined with other Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments was superior to other treatments alone in increasing the number of cured patients with herpes zoster, facial paralysis, acne and cervical spondylosis, with no serious adverse effects noted. Cupping is promising as a treatment method, but more rigorous research trials are needed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22389674).