What does science say about the benefits of massage?

The benefits of massage are too powerful to pass up, at least according to science. Studies show that moderate pressure massage improves mood, reduces anxiety, relieves depression, even postpartum depression, reduces pain of all kinds including fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis of the knee, lower back, labor pain, migraine headaches, premenstrual syndrome, chronic fatigue, carpal tunnel syndrome, and post-operative-pain. Want more?

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Scientific studies have demonstrated that massage improves focus and attentiveness as well as performance on math tests. It improves sleep and deep sleep while reducing the stress hormone cortisol. It improves the health of both preterm and full-term babies. It relieves acute pain and improves mood in cancer patients. Clinical studies show that massage reduces illness, and disease, while helping humans relax. Massage improves immune function by increasing the production and activity of natural killer cells, the cells your body makes to crush viral cells, bacterial cells, and cancer cells. At the same time it’s doing all this, massage reduces muscle pain and soreness, and speeds recovery after exercise. The truth is that science has shown massage does even more but you get the idea. If we could bottle the benefits of massage and sell them in pill form on TV, you’d beg your doctor for a prescription, and we’d be billionaires.