The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a center within the National Institutes of Health, this month published a report titled, “Massage Therapy for Health Purposes.”
“A lot of the scientific research on the clinical effects of massage therapy has been carried out. While often preliminary or conflicting, much of the evidence points toward beneficial effects on pain and other symptoms associated with a number of different conditions,” the report notes. “For example, there is evidence that massage may help with back pain and may improve quality of life for people with depression, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. However, much of the evidence suggests these effects are short term and that people need to keep getting massages for the benefits to continue.”