Medpagetoday.com
REPORTS HERE that "heavily stressed muscles responded to massage therapy with a variety of biologic changes associated with reduced inflammation, analysis of tissue specimens showed."
"Serial quadriceps-muscle biopsies showed reduced production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin-6 (IL-6) following massage treatment of exercise-induced muscle damage. Massage also was associated with activation of signaling pathways involved in stretch response and mitochondrial biogenesis, as reported online in Science Translational Medicine."
"Our findings suggest that the perceived positive effects of massage are a result of an attenuated production of inflammatory cytokines, which may reduce pain by the same mechanism as conventional anti-inflammatory drugs such as NSAIDs."
"These results elucidate the biological effects of massage in skeletal muscle and provide evidence that manipulative therapies may be justifiable in medical practice."
"The role of complementary and alternative medicine, including massage therapy, has expanded greatly as an adjunct to conventional medical practice. For many of the techniques, however, there is limited evidence regarding cellular or mechanistic effects to support their clinical use, the authors wrote in their introduction."
"Massage therapy has been widely used as an aid to reduce pain and promote recovery of injured muscles. Hypothesized effects of massage have included moderation of inflammation, improved blood flow, and reduced tissue stiffness, all contributing to pain reduction, the authors continued. The functional benefits of massage have remained unclear and controversial. Experiments in preclinical models have limited applicability because of their failure to mimic human responses. Despite reported long-term benefits of massage in chronic pain and range of motion, the biologic basis has eluded explanation."
"Overall, this profile suggested that massage altered processes related to the cytoskeleton and to inflammation, with the former process being activated early after massage and the latter induced later in recovery," the authors wrote.
"Massage had no effect on key regulators of growth signaling and metabolite accumulation, including lactate, glycogen, proglycogen, and macro glycogen."
"Also after the post-massage recovery period, the authors found increased expression of COX7B and ND1 mRNA -- which are encoded by nuclear and mitochondrial genes and transcriptionally activated by PGC-1-alpha -- 'confirming that mitochondrial biogenesis signaling was augmented by massage therapy.'"
"In the immediate post-massage period, pro-inflammatory NF-kappa-B signaling was diminished. After the post-massage recovery period, phosphorylation of heat-shock protein 27 (a marker of cellular stress) was reduced compared with the control situation, as were concentrations of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha."