Dawn Langnes Shear

Editor’s note: Research may be key to growing the public’s knowledge of the benefits of massage therapy. This is the inaugural article for a recurring column on massage therapy research and how MTs are interacting with that research. In this article, we follow a first-year practitioner—asked to be identified as “Emma” (she/they)—and how she grew to understand and welcome research. Emma helped in authoring this piece. On Wednesdays, Emma reads research. It wasn’t always like that.

Postevent Massage May Be Beneficial Approximately 1 percent of the US population will run a marathon in their lifetime. After such a physically demanding event, most athletes seek recovery through ice baths, compression clothing, or massage therapy. Postexercise massage is thought to improve muscle strength, decrease delayed onset muscle soreness, reduce swelling, and possibly increase blood circulation.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the “CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain—United States, 2016.”1 This publication is a result of the significant increase in opioid use over the past decade. According to the publication, approximately 20 percent of pain patients have been prescribed an opioid at some point; and from 2007 to 2012, opioid prescriptions increased a whopping 7.3 percent per capita.