Rub Away Your Knee Pain

Most people feel that massage is pleasant and relaxing, but not so many believe that it’s a good specific treatment for disease processes. Well, a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine a few months ago showed that Swedish massage is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee. Sixty-eight adults over 35 with knee osteoarthritis were randomly allocated to have Swedish massage or not immediate treatment (controls). Massage was whole-body, sessions lasted one hour, and were twice weekly for 4 weeks followed by once-weekly for another 4 weeks. After 8 weeks, the controls were given massage treatment, too.

Standard rating scales were used to assess changes in pain and function – the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index pain and function score, and a visual analog pain scale. After 8 weeks, the patients given the massage therapy had significant improvements in pain, stiffness, and functional disability, while the controls had no change in their scores. When the controls were given an 8-week course of massage, too, they had substantially similar scores to the first group.

Although this finding may not seem too surprising to the lay person, it’s the first time a clinical study has proved the benefits of massage in osteoarthritis. And it doesn’t have any of the side-effects sometimes associated with more conventional drug treatments – cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, kidney, and liver toxicities. Maybe it’s more expensive than an anti-inflammatory drug or acupuncture, but it’s probably much more pleasant . . .