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Fewer Colds & Viruses
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HANDS ON HEALING: Fewer Colds and Viruses? By Katherine Griffin Massage therapists have long believed that a regular laying on of hands can tune up the immune system, making people who get rubdowns less susceptible to the everyday maladies that most often send the rest of us to the doctor's office. The theory is that deep massage strokes push lymph fluid more quickly through the network of vessels that deliver it throughout the body. Since lymph fluid carries immune cells, massage is thought to give those cells more opportunities to seek out and neutralize disease-mongering invaders. A tantalizing, though preliminary, research finding suggests there may be something to this notion. Institute massage therapists gave 33 men-23 of whom were hiv positive and ten hiv negative-a 45 minute massage five times a week for five weeks. At the end of the study period, the researchers found an increase in both the number and activity of the immune cells known as natural killers, which are though to ward off colds and viruses. It's not the first time that relaxation techniques have been shown to affect the immune system. Ronald Glaser, an immunologist at Ohio State University Medical Center, in Columbus, has found similar changes in the natural killer cells of elderly people taught to relax by first tightening, then loosening muscles. What's not certain, though, is how such changes might translate into disease-fighting power, particularly for a person with a healthy immune system. "We don't know how low certain aspects of the immune system have to go to make us at risk for infectious disease," Glaser says. Further complicating the picture is a finding suggesting that in immune-compromised people, natural killer-cell changes may may kick in only after several massages a week. In a group of ten hiv-positive men who got just one massage weekly for 12 weeks, physiologist Thomas Birk, of the Medical College of Ohio, in Toledo, was unable to document any changes in immune functioning. Still, Birk himself isn't ready to give up on the notion that massage may be good for the immune system. Although one massage a week may not be enough to trigger changes in hiv-positive people, it's plausible that it may be enough to rev up natural killer cells in people with healthy immune systems. Glaser notes that the lower levels of stress hormones seen in other massage studies do hint at a positive immune effect, since certain immune markers are known to rise when stress hormone levels drop. |
Massage Therapy and Healing Arts Center & Day Spa |
2100 Padre Blvd. Suite 3
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