Could massage therapy reduce blood pressure?

As if there weren’t already enough reasons to enjoy all the good things about a massage – from mood-lifting and stress-busting to pain relief, a recent review by the Massage Therapy Foundation has considered another potential benefit.
Some very promising research has now suggested that a massage could help reduce blood pressure or hypertension, a leading global medical problem.

A thorough analysis of research on this subject was published last year in the Journal of Human Hypertension. All current research was looked at, as long as there was a control group not receiving massage treatment. Treatment had to have taken place for at least 10 days.

The study included nearly 2,000 patients, with all suffering from high blood pressure. Various groups of patients were established, and one group of 11 trials found that adding massage to medication reduced systolic blood pressure more effectively than with medication alone.

There was also (more limited) evidence to suggest that massage was a potentially safer form of treatment where people experience side-effects to drugs they are taking for their blood pressure.

The study made very thorough research for articles and rigorously assessed the available information. It also said further research into the benefits of massage in helping treat hypertension would be useful.

The potential benefits of massage in blood pressure treatment are not that surprising when you think what massage does to the body. When the muscles become very tense and stressed, blood circulation decreases and the lymph system is less able to filter toxins effectively.

Happily massage therapy activates the body’s own involuntary relaxation response within the nervous system. So heart rate and breathing slow as blood pressure comes down. In fact, indications that the body is finally relaxing begin to be felt at an early stage in a massage session.

At the same time, the amount of stress hormones the body produces is reduced, so that muscles begin to relax right away.
Based in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town, we provide a range of massage therapy treatments – including our trademark traditional Thai massage to loosen joints and balance the body’s main muscle groups.