Does deep tissue massage "release toxins"?

[cbloom]

Waste/toxins are removed from the tissues through the lymph system. It seems perfectly reasonable that massage would move this around & get it flowing. Also, deep tissue massage does break down fascia, which becomes waste and will be expelled.

Certainly when you get deep massage you can feel something, you feel very dehydrated & light headed & will get a head ache, so something happens to your body.

[posnera]

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And, alternative medicine coud easily be tested using standard scientific method and double-blind trials. It isn't in anyone's interest (other than the patients') to do it. The appeal of alternative medicine is in its mystery and voodoo. If any of it worked, it could be proven. (This isn't to say that I know for sure that it is all snake oil, some things might actually work, but the industry of alternative medicine and nutritional supplements have no incentive to prove that they work)

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how are you going to do adouble blind study with massage or chiropractic? both the massage therapist / chiropractor and the client / patient are going to be aware whether they've given / received a massage / adjustment?

I suppose you could do it single blind so that the doctor massage therapist doesn't know whom they're adjusting via covering the patient's face? or the chiro's /massage therapists? But no matter what, the patient is going to know if they've received a massage or an adjustment.

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Someone figured out how to do a double-blind study involving arthroscopic knee surgery, where the control group actually had the scope go into their knee, but no repair work was done. They ended up with scars, etc. and believed that they had the surgery. I'm sure someone could figure out how to set up an experiment with massage. But again, a study isn't in the interest of alternative medicine providers because they rely on faith rather than science, which is what makes them appealing to a large segment of their consumers.

How about using patients who have the complaint to be studied, who have never had a "deep tissue" massage or a chiropractic manipulation. Then have them get the "real" therapy vs a regular massage. If there is some benefiit to the specific techniques, then you can study it.

[onthebutton]

Exactly. Alternative medicine manufacturers aren't interested in double blind trials, or what most people consider real science, because they know most of what they are selling is just snake oil. They sell to the market they can---believe me, they'd love to get FDA approval, because they'd stand to make so much more money.

Most of it is just "pseudoscience", with little or no foundation in anything generally accepted inside the medical community.

[ThreeMartini]

Here is a link on the arthroscopic knee surgery study.

http://www.hopkins-arthritis.com/new...throscopy.html

Also, alternative medicine providers, ndo not rely on 'faith' to care for their patients.

[arbitrary]

I have nothing new to say about how much b.s. this "toxin" nonsense is, but this being OOT, how has nobody commented on the discussion of the color of one's urine over dinner? Yuck.

==arbitrary