Leg massage
If you’ve ever had massage treatment for sore muscles, you’ll know how good it feels, but now researchers have discovered that it not only eases pain, it also reduces inflammation in the affected area.
Researchers from the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario asked 11 men to exercise on bicycles to the point of exhaustion (70 minutes or more), then let them rest for 10 minutes. While they were resting a massage therapist worked on only one leg using a variety of techniques. Biopsies were then done on the quadriceps muscles of both legs, to ascertain if there was any difference in how they had responded to the exercise. The researchers were surprised to discover that such a short period of treatment did indeed produce a noticeable effect.
They found that the massage triggered the dispatch of signals to muscle cells to reduce inflammation. This also triggered a response to build more mitochondria, which help generate a cell’s energy as well as control cell signalling, cell growth and death.
Sore muscles are the result of damage to the muscle fibres which is gradually repaired by the body, leading to stronger muscles over time. The massage helps ‘stretch’ the affected muscle and this is what causes the reduction in inflammation. Because inflammation is a symptom of many diseases, such as arthritis, and because mitochondria are involved in processes such as insulin resistance, this is an important finding with potentially far-reaching effects.