Massage Reduces Symptoms
of Parkinson's Disease
Massage
improved daily functioning, increased quality of sleep
and decreased stress-hormone levels in people with
Parkinson's disease, according to a recent study.
"Parkinson's Disease
Symptoms are Reduced by Massage Therapy and Progressive
Muscle Exercises," was conducted by the Touch Research
Institute at the University of Miami, along with staff
from the university's neurology department and Duke
University's pharmacology department.
Sixteen adults diagnosed
with Parkinson's disease, a chronic disease of the
central nervous system characterized by tremor, muscle
weakness and rigidity, were randomly assigned to receive
either massage therapy or progressive muscle relaxation,
for 30 minutes twice a week for five weeks.
The massage consisted of 15
minutes in the prone position, focusing on the back,
buttocks, ribs, thighs, calves and feet; and 15 minutes
in the supine position, focusing on the thighs, lower
legs, feet, hands, forearms, upper arms, neck, face and
head.
The progressive muscle
relaxation consisted of subjects, guided by a cassette
tape, tightening and relaxing their muscles while lying
on their back.
On the first and last days of
the study, urine samples were collected; participants
completed self-reports on daily functioning, sleep and
fatigue; and physicians evaluated the participants.
The Activities of Daily
Life Scale, which measures the amount of daily
activities a person with Parkinson's disease can
perform, was used by both the physicians and the
participants to assess daily functioning.
A 15-item sleep scale was
used to gauge subjects' quality of sleep and levels of
fatigue, with options ranging from "did not awaken" and
"had no trouble sleeping" to "was awake 10 hours" and
"had a lot of trouble falling asleep."
Urine samples were
collected to determine participants' stress-hormone
levels.
According to the physicians
and the subjects' self-reports, daily functioning
improved for those in the massage-therapy group.
"These data are consistent
with previous research showing improvement on activities
of daily living following massage therapy, for example,
for patients with multiple sclerosis and spinal-cord
injuries," state the study's authors. "Together these
findings suggest that massage therapy enhances
functioning in progressive or degenerative central
nervous system disorders or conditions."
The urine samples revealed
a decrease in the stress hormones norepinephrine and
epinephrine for the massage-therapy group and an
increase in dopamine and epinephrine for the
progressive-relaxation group.
"These findings suggest
that progressive muscle relaxation exercises may
increase dopamine levels, which have been associated
with both a progression of the disease and a slowing of
the disease," state the study's authors.
Both groups reported more
effective sleep by the end of the study, but the massage
group alone reported less sleep disturbance.
- Source: The
Touch Research Institute and the department of neurology
at the University of Miami School of Medicine; Duke
University Department of Pharmacology. Authors: Maria
Hernandez-Reif, Ph.D., Tiffany Field, Ph.D., Shay Largie,
Christy Cullen, Julia Beutler, Chris Sanders, William
Weiner, Dinorah Rodriguez-Bateman, Lisette Zelaya, Saul
Schanberg and Cynthia Kuhn. Originally published in the
Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, July 2002,
Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 177-182 |
