One In Five American Adults Experience Chronic Pain

 One In Five American Adults Experience Chronic Pain.  Science DailyBrigham and Women's Hospital.  April 20, 2021.  

Drug-Free Approach To Pain Management

Drug-Free Approach To Pain Management.  Harvard Men's Health Watch.  November 2018. 

Nondrug Approaches To Common Pain Conditions Found Effective; Massage Therapy Found Effective For Neck Pain

NIH Review Finds Nondrug Approaches Effective For Treatment Of Common Pain Conditions.  National Institutes Of Health.  September 1, 2016. 

Touch Can Be Louder Than Words

Louder Than Words by Rick Chillot.  Psychology Today.  March 11, 2013.

Touch is a sense capable of great nuance and is dependent on the emotional, social, and physical context.  Touch is a language whose meaning is only vaguely understood.  Touch begins before birth inside the womb, continues in childhood where the level of comfort with touch is often established.  In childhood the massage can bring important benefits.  Touch is influenced by the entire cultural context including religion, climate, and clothing styles.  Touch influences bonding and team success, perhaps by lowering stress hormones.  Touch brings mutual benefits, with the person touching received benefits as well as the person touched.  With mutual benefits of touching, it is not surprising that touching plays an important role in relationships, a role that varies according to the stage of that relationship.  In social relationships, touch often conveys dominance or lack of dominance.  In social situations, it is important to consider context and expectations.  Consolation is probably the most appropriate time for touch.

Neuronal Source of The Pleasant Sensations From Massage Identified

Sorting Out Stroking Sensations:  Biologists Find Individual Neurons In Skin That React To Massage.  Science Daily.  January 30, 2013.

Scientists hope that this research will lead to further efforts to identify different types of neurons associated with various types of skin stimuli.  With a unique research methodology which incorporated genetic tags, the use of light to identify firing neurons,  advanced microscopy, and behavioral testing to measure the reaction to the firing of pleasure-related neurons, there is potential to do just that.

Increased Interest In Hospital-Based Massage Practice

Help For Hospital-Based Therapy by Tracy  Walton.  Massage Today.  January 2013.

This is basically a resource list for massage therapists who want to work in a hospital setting from the American Massage Therapy Association, the Hospital-Based Massage Network and others.

The Body Issue

The Body Issue.  The New York Times Magazine.  October 28, 2012.

A marvelous and eclectic collection of essays on massage, gerontology, yoga, and mortality.  The emphasis here moves away from the "hard science" of medicine toward more emphasis on the intangible, cultural, intuitive, psychological, as well as the use of data to shape the behavioral and physical environment.

In The Island Where People Forget to Die Dan Buettner focuses on the social, cultural, and dietary features of the Greek island of Ikaria to determine why so many of its residents live so long.

In Naked With Strangers by John Jeremiah Sullivan recounts his personal experience and reactions to receiving a series of massages and body treatments.

In Safety Lessons from the Morgue by Robert Stook explores the work of Susan P. Baker of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as  uses data about causes of deaths to work for policies and environments that promote safety.