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Medical massage therapy is emerging as an excellent manual medicine system of treatment that addresses the needs of a rehabilitation therapy environment while offering you soothing relief from chronic pain.
Medical massage is not a general massage treatment; it is manual therapy applied to one or two specific areas of pain. Medical massage of soft tissue is performed only after joint mobility testing and diagnostic manual palpation. You are taken through several progressive steps or stages of treatment that attempt to correct abnormal conditions affecting the joint complex.
Medical massage therapy is not limited to myofascial tissues, but includes highly specialized joint complex and joint mobilization techniques, and work with tendons and ligaments. We use soft tissue techniques from various types of manual therapy from both Eastern and Western traditions to enhance your healing process.
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Medical Massage Treatment
...when you want relief
from chronic pain
November, 2002
Have you tried the conventional medical route and been told that you will "just have to live with it", or been offered drugs, or been referred to a psychotherapist when all you really wanted was pain relief? If you are not satisfied with the options you have been given, but still have chronic pain, please read on. We respect your knowledge about your body and know you are seeking options.
Medical massage offers hope for relief of pain which is of soft tissue origin. We work with your health care provider on the source of the pain. A recent study indicated that soft tissue pain accounts for nearly 70% of all the visits to emergency facilities. These include low back pain, migraines, and neck, shoulder or face and jaw pain.
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We will ask questions and we will listen to your answers. We want to know how long you have had your pain and what you have done to alleviate the problem. We want to know what has worked and what has not. We want to know what movements you do that help or aggravate the problem. In short, we will listen and we believe you know best what is going on, because you live with the pain 24/7.
We have a name for this phenomenon, we refer to it as the "cycle of pain". Simply speaking, something happens, stress, accident or injury and the body responds by protecting the injured part with muscle spasm. Other muscles are recruited, and posture changes due to the pain. Walking and other movements change. Range of motion is lost and as a result other muscles are stressed and then spasm. So, the cycle begins again. Medical and orthopedic massage uses many methods to break the cycle of pain and begin the healing and recovery process.
You can expect to be treated like the unique, individual that you are. We work with you and consider ourselves as part of your team. We are specialists in soft tissue pain and injury. Medical and orthopedic manipulation of soft tissue improves the efficiency of the lymphatic system, increases circulation, lessons muscle spasms and stretches shortened muscles which all tend to normalize range of motion
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and reduce the postural stress placed on the body.
Releasing and normalizing painful shortened tissues often results in a release of energy that has been used by the body to hold this painful pattern. Our clients report either feeling a surge of energy after a session or they will feel like taking a nap. Both of these are a therapeutic response to the release of energy which the body has been using for the pain or injury condition.
Fatigue is generally a temporary condition and goes away within 24 to 48 hours as the muscles relax and return to normal metabolic functioning. Clients are cautioned not to over do it.
Chronic pain conditions develop over a period of several months or even several years, and typically require several sessions to clear. Be patient. Our intention is for you to be able to return to your normal activities in as short a time as possible... pain free.
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"Massage therapy has clearly been shown to me to be very beneficial, particularly in areas where conventional medicine has not been successful, including chronic arthritis, musculoskeletal and chronic headaches, among others."
Renslow Sherer, M.D.
Director of the Cook County Hospital
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