It’s July…time for picnics, lazy days at the pool, ice cream, and code orange days that drive people with respiratory problems inside. It seems unfair that we make it through Spring’s pollen, only to face the (literally) hazy days of summer.

All kidding aside, the air quality in the summer is very hard on people with asthma and other respiratory problems. I know massage helps for many health problems, so I did some research to see if there is any evidence to support that it helps with asthma. The bottom line is that there hasn’t been enough research done. In most of the studies I found, patients found relief…mostly in that the massage decreased their stress levels, which helped them relax and breath better.

The University of Maryland Medical Center said this:

A few studies of small numbers of children and adults with asthma have suggested that massage therapy may reduce anxiety associated with asthma, improve symptoms, and even improve lung function. Given the limited scope of these studies, however, more research is needed to understand the relationship between massage therapy and asthma, beyond the ability of this technique to reduce stress and induce relaxation.

I think you should never underestimate the power of reducing stress and inducing relaxation. So I suggest that if you’re having trouble breathing on these code orange days, take a trip to visit your massage therapist.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Health Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.