Cancer Pain Populations Can Benefit From Massage

Cancer doesn’t just bring physical pain to people living with cancer, but it also causes emotional symptoms like stress, worry, depression, and insomnia, to name just a few. That’s why so much time, research, and oncology-centered programs go into finding relief and quality of life improvement for cancer pain populations.

One such finding, according to a recent analysis of sixteen different studies on massage therapy for pain management among cancer patients, as reported by Massage Magazine, shows that massage therapy (including Thai massage and lymphatic drainage) compared to the no-treatment and active control groups, is an effective way to address pain among cancer patients. Compared to the active controls featured in these studies, massage also improved fatigue and anxiety among cancer patients. The study’s authors observed that massage therapy seems to be more effective than other active treatments evaluated for reducing pain intensity and severity, fatigue, and anxiety in cancer patients.

Hospital-Based Massage Therapy

In recent years, patients and their loved ones have been researching the benefits of oncology massage, and the number of studies on the subject provide proof of that interest. Hospitalized patients and their care providers are craving a holistic approach to ease their symptoms. LHAA has long recognized the many benefits — both physical and emotional — that massage therapy provides for the well-being of a cancer patient, which is where the Hospital-Based Massage Therapy Training Program comes into play. The program curriculum of this 100 hour program, which includes forty-eight classroom hours and an additional forty hours of externship at Baptist Health Hospital, offers an in-depth study of conditions seen in the hospital, pathophysiology of cancer and types of cancer treatments, and hands-on protocols.

Hospital-Based Massage Therapy is a modality of massage that provides comfort-care to patients in a hospital setting using a light and gentle touch. A growing number of cancer and hospitalized patients and their care providers are realizing a need for holistic methods to ease their symptoms. Comfort-care, Hospital-Based Massage can be safely administered to hospitalized patients with cancer or other conditions. HBMT has become a specialty field in massage and research has proven it is safe for treating patients.

Graduates of LHAA’s Hospital-Based Massage Therapy program will be trained to design individualized massage treatments that will both comfort and nurture patients. Whether patients are seeking a respite from their treatment, relief from nausea or other symptoms, or an emotional connection, the therapies are modified to meet each patient’s goal.

Interested in our HBMT Program?

As a student in the HBMT program, you will have access to the latest research surrounding hospital-based massage, training by industry professionals, and learn the safest, most effective hands-on massage protocols. Our upcoming 2017 program begins in August – learn more here.