Anita Jacobs juggles a hectic schedule. She travels all over the country as a corporate training lecturer, plus she’s an author and a mom. But just over a year ago, her world was turned upside down. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy and several rounds of grueling radiation. During the course of her treatment she discovered the beneficial effects of massage therapy on breast cancer.

“To get through this period, you almost need to detach yourself from your body. It’s like an outer body experience, where you just have to let them manipulate you around,” says Anita.
With the combination of bad radiation burns and significant scarring, Anita says her body was craving for some human care. She chose to get therapeutic massage to help the healing process. “The massage made me feel like I was human. It really put me back in touch with myself, made me feel parts of my body, and helped me relax.”
The effect of massage therapy on breast cancer, as well as other types of cancer is aggressively being studied across the country. Researchers are enrolling patients in clinical trials to better understand the effect of massage on cancer, and other illnesses like diabetes and migraine.
At Englewood Hospital, breast cancer patients can opt for therapeutic massage in conjunction with their traditional cancer treatments.
“It’s basically stimulating the systems, the vascular system and the lymphatic system, so that there’s better draining. With the lymphatic system, the drainage helps with removing toxins from the body,” says Dr. Merle McIntosh of Englewood Medical Center.
Skin is the body’s largest organ, containing millions of receptors – about 8000 in a single finger tip – that send messages through nerve fibers to the spinal cord and then to the brain.
A simple touch – a hand on a shoulder, an arm around a waist, can actually reduce the heart rate and lower blood pressure. Nurturing touch appears to stimulate the release of endorphines, the body’s natural pain suppressors.
Massage therapist Felicia Callagy, a breast cancer survivor knows first hand how much mastectomy and breast surgery massage treatments can help in overcoming the fears and anxiety of illness. “It helps boost the person’s self image, it does a lot to give that person back a sense of well-being,” says Felicia.
Dr. Merle McIntosh says massage may help improve the immune systems of patients, which would in turn allow them to better fight their illnesses.
“Physicians are becoming more aware that these things can indeed complement the care that they’re providing and help the patient to recover faster or even to have an overall better outcome from their illness,” says Dr. McIntosh.
As for Anita, she’s a firm believer in the benefits of massage on cancer and other illnesses. She says the healing power of human touch has been a tremendous help in her fight against disease. “I didn’t pick up the side symptoms that many patients seem to get, like side or back pain, or headaches. When you’re fighting cancer, massage gives you a great sense of getting back in touch with your body.”
Dr. McIntosh stresses that before selecting a massage therapist, do your homework. Check to see if the massage therapist is licensed and ask where he or she received training. Also, consult with your physician before beginning a massage program.
For more information about massage, and the benefits of massage on cancer and other illnesses, click here:
http://www.amtamassage.org/

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