Category Archives: research

And again! More muscle knot squishing science, different experiment, same results

By Paul Ingraham | Published: July 14, 2010
Odd! Just a couple days after posting about a not-yet-published study of trigger point squishing — quite a rare subject for research — I came across (via @massagetherapy) an almost identical study that is published. They also reported news that makes massage therapists smile: …using ischemic compression on shoulder trigger points may reduce the symptoms of [...]
Also posted in evidence-based medicine, massage, massage therapy, massage tools, placebo, science, self-massage, self-treatment, therapy, treatment, trigger points | Leave a comment

(Newer than new) evidence that squishing trigger points works

By Paul Ingraham | Published: July 8, 2010
An upcoming issue of Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies will include a new study of trigger point squishing. I was lucky to get a look at a final draft, thanks to connections at The Pressure Positive Company, the massage tool manufacturer that supplied the tools. This experiment has the simple elegance of a good science-fair [...]
Also posted in massage, massage therapy, massage tools, self-massage, self-treatment, therapy, treatment, trigger points | Leave a comment

Jedi mind trick turns a muscle relaxant drug into a stimulant

By Paul Ingraham | Published: July 8, 2010
How much does the effect of a medication depend on what you are told about it? Quite a bit, apparently! This strange and fascinating study in Psychosomatic Medicine showed that a muscle relaxant actually increases tension when the patient is told (lied to) that it is actually a stimulant. The false information is so potent [...]
Also posted in medications | Leave a comment

Science updates on acupunture, strengthening for neck pain and low back pain, and the physiology of muscle fatigue

By Paul Ingraham | Published: May 25, 2010
Once again I present some new bibliographic records for your reading pleasure — no, seriously. These are not dry “abstracts” (although those are also available if you click through). The whole point of the SaveYourself.ca bibliography is to explain pain science as painlessly as possible. More and more I realize that the bibliography is turning [...]
Also posted in exercise, fatigue, pain, science | Leave a comment

A flicker of hope for platelet-rich plasma injection as a treatment for muscle strains

By Paul Ingraham | Published: April 8, 2010
PRP is the injection of a concentrated preparation of your own blood into irritated or injured tissue to stimulate healing … hopefully. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection isn’t having a great year. The best PRP research to date was published recently, showing that it was no better a treatment than injecting saline solution into inflamed tendons. The evidence [...]
Also posted in injury, platelet-rich plasma, strain, treatment | Leave a comment

Research in the massage therapy field is still in its infancy

By Paul Ingraham | Published: March 29, 2010
Harriet Hall, RMT, PDP, from “Vision of Specialization for Registered Massage Therapists”: Research in the massage therapy field is still in infancy partly due to a lack of research infrastructure and a research tradition. The result is that most registered massage therapists are not accustomed to reading, analyzing, conducting, writing case studies or applying research in [...]
Also posted in massage therapy, pain, science | Leave a comment

Science experiment shows that massage actually interferes with lactic acid removal

By Paul Ingraham | Published: March 26, 2010
One of the classic claims of massage therapy is that it can help you by flushing “toxins” and metabolic wastes from your muscles, especially the most famous one: lactic acid. This is not a difficult thing to test — the principle is science-fair simple, just compare metabolic waste products with and without massage involved — [...]
Also posted in debunkery, massage, massage therapy | Leave a comment

Muscle relaxants: still not very relaxing

By Paul Ingraham | Published: February 15, 2010
Most people — both patients and many professionals — assume that muscle relaxants are effective, especially for injured necks and backs. This does not appear to be a safe assumption. A new study in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medical Care compared ibuprofen and a muscle relaxant (cyclobenzaprine or Flexeril) for patients with serious soft-tissue injury [...]
Also posted in injury, medications, neck pain, pain, treatment | Leave a comment

Vitamin D supplementation reduces falls in the elderly by 19%: could it help with muscle pain as well?

By Paul Ingraham | Published: January 7, 2010
Can taking vitamin D prevent falls? Apparently so: these researchers set out to “test the efficacy of supplemental vitamin D … in preventing falls among older individuals” and found that a “high dose” (700-1000 IU a day) actually reduced falling by a whopping 19%. That’s quite a significant effect! It’s also a [...]
Also posted in nutrition, pain, tips, treatment, trigger points | Leave a comment

Massage for low back pain is an evidence-based therapy, despite the need for more study

By Paul Ingraham | Published: January 6, 2010
Massage therapy is an effective treatment for low back pain: that’s the finding of a comprehensive review of the science, from a 2008 Cochrane review (Cochrane reviews are generally considered to be the most authoritative summaries of scientific research). The conclusions are strongly positive (emphases mine): Massage is beneficial for patients with subacute and chronic non-specific [...]
Also posted in low back pain, self-massage, self-treatment | Leave a comment