Massage Therapy & Arthritis

Arthritis is the painful inflammation of a joint in the body. This inflammation may cause stiffness and limited range of joint motion. Massage therapy can help treat arthritis by promoting relaxation in the client, increasing blood flow, and assisting range of motion in the affected joint.

Talk to Your Therapist

• After obtaining a proper diagnosis from your doctor, be sure to talk to your therapist about your condition. Therapists are trained professionals and can adapt the massage session to have a positive effect on your specific area of concern.

Things to Avoid

• Therapists should not apply massage directly over the joint that is experiencing arthritic pain. Also, massage may include range of motion exercises, designed to bring joints through their proper movements. These range-of-motion techniques should not be applied to an arthritic joint. If you are experiencing a flare-up, or if any of the massage therapists strokes cause pain in the joint, be sure to speak up and let her know about your discomfort.

Massage Goals

• Arthritis may cause the muscles surrounding an affected joint to tense up because of the pain. A massage seeks to relax and stretch these muscles, which should help reduce the pain in the area. The long strokes of massage also promote blood flow to the area, which can help heal any torn or tired muscles. The relaxed musculature in the area should help improve your range of motion after the massage.

  Arthritic pain can also be very stressful, and the therapist addresses his client's body in the attempt to promote stress reduction and relaxation.

Work on Nonarthritic Limb

• If the arthritis is in one leg, the massage therapist may spend time working on the other leg. Many times, the nonarthritic leg will be sore because it has had to compensate and carry the weight transferred from the painful extremity.

Eastern Massage and Arthritis

• Eastern massage styles, like Shiatsu, seek to balance the body's energy. Arthritis represents an imbalance in this energy, and Shiatsu seeks to restore that balance with light, sweeping strokes over the area. The massage therapist may also focus on pressure points with her thumb or fingers in ways that are meant to help restore the energy flow throughout the body.

Scheduling Appointments

• Because arthritis is a chronic condition, multiple sessions of massage therapy may be necessary. You should see increased gains after the second or third session. If you cannot afford regular massages, check with your local massage school. Many schools organize clinics for patients with chronic conditions at a reduced rate, so students can gain practice working on medical issues.