Between 5 and 10 percent of those who are infected with COVID-19 may develop long COVID, a poorly understood, persistent, and sometimes serious syndrome that can lead to organ damage, chronic pain, and a much diminished quality of life.
Regenerative medicine is broad, rapidly changing, and growing in popularity.
Understanding hypothyroidism’s symptoms, causes, and treatments can guide MTs in better interacting with these clients.
It's important to know the slight differences between fainting (syncope), and feeling faint, dizzy, or lightheaded.
Explore the signs, symptoms, and conditions associated with endometriosis, get familiar with treatment options, and consider how massage therapy can help.
GLP-1 RAs are effective and relatively low-risk interventions to manage diabetes and weight. However, we have no information about how massage therapy fits with them.
The ways central nervous system injury leads to spasticity are still being explored. Massage therapy may help, if it is done with care.
Tinnitus is rarely a life-threatening problem, but it can certainly threaten a person's quality of life.
Numerous studies support massage therapy for improving sleep quality, reducing constipation, improving self-reported quality of life, maintaining flexibility, and other benefits that speak to the varied experiences of people with Parkinson's disease.
Post-acute infection syndrome has been poorly understood, but it is being studied. Clients with PAIS may seek out massage therapy because conventional medicine has little to offer them.
Bone-thinning diseases like osteoporosis can present unique challenges for massage therapy and may require accommodations for pressure or client accessibility.
Chiari malformation involves a herniation of part of the brain into the spinal cord, which may involve severe and chronic headaches, hydrocephalus, weakness, dizziness, and much more.
While massage therapy in this instance is safe, following the guidelines outlined in this article can reduce and/or prevent complications to the client and practitioner.
Massage is unlikely to fix or cure mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), but with care, knowledge, and sensitivity, MTs can create an experience for clients that feels safe and supportive of their wellness goals.
More information about skin of color can help fill the vacuum of knowledge that exists. And improved awareness may help people with dark skin tones receive better, and earlier, care.
Arthrofibrosis is common and can be debilitating. But because it doesn't have an agreed-upon diagnostic criteria, many professionals don't acknowledge or understand how important it is.
Growing evidence supports a connection between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis.
Everything in human function depends on a heartbeat that never falters, never rests, never stops until we die. If something interferes with that unceasing cadence, the consequences can be deadly.
We've already learned that obesity is a notoriously difficult condition to combat. Lipedema, a dysfunctional fat metabolism in the lower extremities, is not a consequence of poor eating or lifestyle decisions. It is a chronic condition that affects a person's quality of life.
What do we know about the fairly common spinal fusion surgery procedure, and where does massage therapy fit in this context?
Pulmonary fibrosis, the accumulation of stiff, intractable scar tissue deposits in the lungs, has been a topic of interest for me for many years.
I recently had an interesting discussion with a massage therapy school administrator about whether a condition, I don't remember which, contraindicates massage therapy.
What if you had successfully battled cancer, but now you have a constant feeling where your sense of touch in your hands and feet is muted or distorted? Peripheral neuropathy is a stunningly vague label for the results of a wide variety of problems.
Trauma-informed care is a collaborative approach to health care that focuses on helping clients safely reconnect with themselves and their physical experiences in ways that may be more effective than seen with other kinds of approaches to care.
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a noncontagious, painful, disfiguring, difficult-to-treat condition of hair follicles, mostly at the axilla and the groin, and massage therapy for people with HS requires some specific accommodations for client safety and comfort.
Persistent Lyme disease symptoms are common and serious, but the health-care community is deeply divided about how to care for patients with this problem. Here's how massage therapists can help.
Dysautonomia is a common factor in long COVID; there is an excellent chance that therapists will encounter clients with this kind of ANS dysregulation.
For such a common situation, sepsis is surprisingly poorly understood by many and frequently escapes early detection until the patient is very ill. Learn how to identify and respond if a client presents with acute sepsis.
Through a pathology lens, here's a chemistry-light beginner's introduction to the world of pharmacology.
Under normal circumstances, our blood flows through our thousands of miles of blood vessels, delivering oxygen and nutrients, removing carbon dioxide and wastes. It is meant to be a closed system—but what if something goes wrong?
An adverse effect or an adverse event in massage therapy is a situation in which a problem arose or was made worse by massage. We work in a profession that is widely recognized to be a safe intervention, with a low risk of such circumstances. However, "low-risk" is not the same as "no-risk."
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a potentially devastating condition we know infuriatingly little about. Here's how it can present and what to know.
What happens when parts of the autonomic nervous system fail? That is basically what happens with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a type of dysautonomia. Let's review.
Here, we'll take a close-up look at fungal infections—also called mycoses—with a special emphasis on skin conditions that you may encounter or that may affect patient care.
Here we'll consider current the topic of addiction, and review some of the strategies being considered and implemented to try to reverse some of the dangerous trends of recent years, focusing on aspects of addiction relevant to massage therapists.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is the condition of having either too many bacteria in the upper small intestine, having the wrong types of bacteria there, or a combination of both. This condition can cause several complications.
Let's look at some major forms of fascial dysfunction and pathology, whether acquired or inherited, due to trauma, genetics, or pathologies.
TMD is the label for temporomandibular joint disorders—and that is the focus of our discussion here. We'll look at the joints actions, movements, and disorders that can occur.
The US is home to about 90 species of ticks—colloquially speaking, ticks are everywhere. Here's everything you need to know about a certain tick-borne disease.
Let's uncover some treatment options for obesity, with a focus on bariatric surgery. We speak with a veteran of bariatric surgery and a certified massage therapist and lymphatic specialist.
In part one of this article, let's look at some background info about obesity and some important accommodations in massage therapy for clients who are overweight or obese.
In this article, we are going to take a brief look at a subtype of squamous cell carcinoma—thanks to a first-person perspective from massage therapist and educator Jan Schwartz.
About 25 million Americans currently use a statin drug to manage their risk of cardiovascular disease. Here's what you should know before or if working with these clients.
Polymyalgia rheumatica is among the most common types of inflammatory joint pain seen in older people. Let's look at the condition, signs and symptoms, and contraindications.
Despite what some healthcare professionals believe, it's extremely important that massage therapists learn about the pathology of various conditions. One major example? Diabetes.
The term AIDS wasn't even proposed until September 1982. Let's dive into what we know about HIV and AIDS, how these conditions are treated, and how cases have over the years.
How can we help clients or potential clients living with Alzheimer's or dementia?
Raynaud’s syndrome is surprisingly common: experts suggest it affects 5–10 percent of the population. Let's look at signs and symptoms and what to do to make a session a success for someone with Raynaud's.
In 1984, I got a call from a prospective client who had Guillain-Barré Syndrome. The condition is rare....but nonetheless, let's look at its presentation and implications for massage therapy.
Zika virus—is it a momentary distraction, an overblown news blip? Is it a rare-but-tragic contributor to a set of serious birth defects? Or is it a more serious mosquito-borne contagion?
“Back pain” doesn’t delineate between muscle spasm, ligament sprain, osteophytes putting pressure on nerve roots, cracked bones, or bulging discs. Small wonder then, that most research about treatment options for back pain are inconclusive.
In February, I attended the San Diego Pain Summit and enjoyed presentations on pain from the point of views of neurologists, physical therapists, and massage therapists from around the world. I was also inspired to build this column off some of the pain topics presented there.
