Pseudoscience is rampant in the field, and AMMA has had enough.
Their position is outlined here. Fringe methods are rampant in the massage community and take up between 20% and 65% of the curriculum in message schools. According to the document “Some subjects taught in massage schools and practices of the general massage community are so extreme in nature as to constitute health care fraud.” Among the methods condemned by AMMA are metaphysical practices such as Reiki, Polarity Therapy and Therapeutic Touch. Others mentioned are those that have no rationale in known physiology such Myofacial Release.
Now why don’t the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians and the Association of American Medical Colleges have the courage to take a similar stand?
2 comments:
As a professional massage therapist with my own business, I concur that there were many modalities taught in school that showed little effectiveness in real practical applications. However, just the touch alone is healing as it has been verified that the electric potentials in the nerve channels change.
However, I do disagree with your statement of the myofacial release being ineffective too. I have personally used an ohmmeter before and after a session to demontrate a greater increase in conductivity of the entire body when myofascial release is performed. The tissue get bound up especially in the various aponeurosis of the body and performing this technique is important in restoring the body to homeostasis.
FWIW
When Dr. RW can show me the body of research, and all the large-scale, longitudinal studies on the effectiveness (and mechanisms) of so-called "medical" massage, and is able to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the so-called "fringe" therapies via the same sorts of valid studies, I many sit up & take notice. Until that time... I think the jury is out on all of it, including, and especially so-called "medical" massage.
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