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October 26, 2005

National Massage Therapy Awareness Week

It's National Massage Therapy Awareness Week. The theme of this year's event is to demonstrate the health and benefits of massage therapy.

"Therapeutic massage is a wonderful way to help your body foster good health. Through National Massage Therapy Awareness Week, AMTA hopes to further educate the public about how therapeutic massage has become an important part of health care," Monroe said.

Research has shown that, aside from just making people feel good, massage has definite health benefits, health experts say. It reduces the heart rate and blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, relaxes muscles and improves range of motion. It also has been shown to increase serotonin and endorphins, which affect pain perception, enhancing medical treatment. Because massage also helps relieve stress, it can improve job productivity, which is motivating many companies to provide massage therapy at the worksite.

Posted by linda at October 26, 2005 8:08 AM