Patients kneading away health ills with massage

Healing touch
Offering free 15-minute massages to hospital patients, who are typically under stress, makes a lot of sense since research has shown it can reduce anxiety, heart rates, blood pressure and even the amount of pain people feel, White says.

Well ahead of the trend, Stanford Hospital & Clinics has been offering Swedish massage to patients since 1993. The facility has eight massage therapists, who talk to nursing staff to make sure patients are ready for a massage once they've requested one. Therapists also discuss with patients the areas they'd like to have addressed.

Options include a pregnancy and postpartum massage to help relieve a woman's lower back pain and increase blood circulation, and a stretching massage that pulls or extends muscles. Stretching is popular among active patients who want to keep limber despite being on bed rest, says Teresa Reyna, director of programs and operations for Stanford Hospital & Clinics.

While Stanford charges $30 for a 30-minute treatment, it hasn't hurt interest.

"We have so many requests for massage," Reyna says, "that we can't meet all the demand."

New health regimen
Beyond the hospital, massages have long been offered at luxury spas, usually costing $100 and up per treatment.

Comstock During a trigger-point massage, moderate pressure is applied to release muscle knots, which may develop over time due to long-term strain or following an accident.

But Denise Vitiello, spa director at the Mandarin Oriental in New York, says more people are starting to view the hands-on therapy as an important part of their regular health regimen, not just something to do while on a relaxing vacation. She estimates that 60 percent of the Mandarin spas' clientele are locals who come in on a weekly basis.

"It's proactive versus reactive," she says. "People are definitely more educated and more open to what they can do to prevent illness. They're watching their parents and grandparents take pills and medicines and saying, 'I don't want to do that.' I want to make my health optimal now."

At Mandarin, massages offered include Thai Yoga and Life Dance. Set in the spa's new Thai Yoga Suite, decorated with teak wood and gold leafing, the Thai Yoga massage is a treatment in which therapists guide the body into stretches and yoga poses. Palm and thumb pressure relieve muscle and joint tension, encourage deep breathing and put you in a meditative state. Since the body is so relaxed, people end up stretching more than if they were doing yoga on their own, says senior therapist Tim Ekstrom.

Much like a sports massage, the Life Dance massage involves stretching and gently rocking the body back and forth to increase energy and flexibility.

Arizona-based luxury spa Miraval's signature treatment is the thermal stone massage, in which therapists use heated, smooth Basalt stones to bring blood to an area and deeply penetrate muscles, relieving tension. Cold marble, on the other hand, has an anti-inflammatory effect, says Miraval's lead massage therapist Jeff Eagle.

Eagle, who has been a massage therapist for 23 years, says people are starting to realize that regular massages can do a lot more than relieve stress, and the positive health effects are cumulative.

"It's like working out," he says. "When you work out more regularly, you see more benefits."

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