Touch Therarpies
Anne L. Strozier, Joyce Carpenter in Introduction to Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 2013
The theory of acupressure is a common thread through most Eastern healing systems. The Chinese refer to the pressure points as meridians and often refer to acupressure as needle-less acupuncture. In Japan, Shiatsu, meaning “finger pressure” uses hands, elbows, and feet to unlock the energy paths incorporated through a series of stretching techniques (Shiatsu Practitioners Association of Canada, 2005). Similarly, Thai massage integrates passive stretching, yoga postures, and pressure along energy lines to stimulate blocked energy and allow the body to recreate new energetic patterns and proper alignment. Finally, India’s system of health, ayurveda, refers to the body’s pressure points as “marma points” and applies acupressure, oil massage, aromatherapy, and energy healing to each point, opening the channels and restoring the body’s normal functions. Despite its reputation as a noninvasive therapy, acupressure is reportedly powerful enough to rewire the body’s central nervous system. In Pan Nain’s documentary Ayurveda: The Art of Being, a doctor demonstrated the power behind the technique by paralyzing a goat after touching a marma point on the back of his skull. Specialists in acupressure would argue that the healing power of all massage techniques come from some form of stimulation to pressure points.
Alternative and Complementary Treatments
Harold G. Koenig in Chronic Pain, 2013
Many different types of massage exist, including specialized treatments ranging from reflexology to shiatsu (not covered here). Most massage practitioners, however, apply five basic strokes: effleurage, petrissage, friction, percussion, and vibration and jostling. Effleurage is the use of the palm, fingers, or knuckles to produce slow, rhythmic strokes usually directed from the extremities toward the center of the body. Petrissage involves the grasping and releasing of muscle tissue in pressing and rolling movements. Friction is the application of pressure or circular movements across muscle groups without moving across the skin (usually done for muscles around joints). Percussion involves beating with the side of the hand, cupping the fingers and striking with the heel of the hand, or clapping with a flat hand across the large muscle groups of the back. Finally, vibration involves rapid movements of the therapist’s hands or mechanical vibrators to shake the muscles; jostling is similar and involves a rapid back-and-forth shaking of the muscles. These five strokes help to relax muscles and increase blood flow, carrying away toxins that produce pain. Other forms involve neuromuscular massage in which the therapist applies finger pressure to painful trigger points over muscles. Deep tissue massage involves firm, deep strokes with the fingers over tense muscles, especially across the neck or shoulder.
Complementary therapies: progressing from knowledge to wisdom
Lorna Foyle, Janis Hostad, Nigel Sykes in Innovations in Cancer and Palliative Care Education, 2017
The selection of therapies needs to be based on the level of need and the perceived level of independence sought by the patient. Like any mainstream treatment, therapies can be ‘done to’ the patient (e.g. acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy, shiatsu), or they may be prescribed (e.g. homoeopathy, herbal medicine, flower essence therapies). A qualitative study by Chessman et al. (2001) of shiatsu for patients in a hospice found an improvement in the patients’ quality of life, including a reduction in pain and nausea, relief of constipation, a reduction in swelling and oedema, and an improvement in mobility and flexibility. The deeper relaxation effect following the shiatsu treatment produced other important changes, including a reduction in the preoccupation and feelings of forboding resulting from a poor prognosis, a sense of mental and emotional calmness, and alleviation of the physical depletion and exhaustion caused by the advanced disease process.
Effects of pericapsular soft tissue and realignment exercises for patients with osteoarthritis of the hip and Harris Hip Score below 60 points
Published in Current Medical Research and Opinion, 2022
Kazuo Hayashi, Toshiharu Tsunoda, Yuki Tobo, Fumiaki Ichikawa, Takayuki Shimose
To conduct a clinical trial examining this issue in patients with severe hip OA, it is important for patients to experience an improvement from baseline at an early stage. In addition, we propose that improvement at baseline is important for encouraging patients with severe hip pain to avoid or postpone surgery. Between 1998 and 2006, we treated patients with hip OA by engaging them in stretching and open kinetic chain exercise to strengthen the hip abductor of the gluteus medius. However, in patients with an HHS below 60 points, performing these exercises did not improve symptoms or function. These findings were similar to the results reported by Bennell et al.5. Therefore, we adopted an alternative exercise, which was developed in Shiatsu practice in Japan (Supplementary Appendix 1). We observed that some patients with severe hip OA exhibited improvement of symptoms at an early stage after performing this alternative exercise. We started using this exercise as a pericapsular soft tissue and realignment (PSTR) exercise (Supplementary Appendix 2) in 2007 and have performed this exercise between 2007 and 2010. We found that pelvic realignment exercises were not included in a previous Cochrane review of studies3. We confirmed the effects of this exercise for patients with hip OA in a retrospective study of 1077 cases from 2011 to 201416. The results revealed that many patients with severe hip OA experienced an improvement, such as pain at baseline, and pelvic realignment exercise was most effective for this improvement because it reduced walking instability most effectively. The pelvic realignment exercises were not included, even in a digital self-management program reported by Dahlberg et al.10.
Treatment of sleep disturbance following stroke and traumatic brain injury: a systematic review of conservative interventions
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2022
Alex Lowe, Mark Bailey, Terry O’Shaughnessy, Vladimir Macavei
In the final article, hand self-shiatsu was performed before sleep in seven adults with sleep disturbance and a history of sport-related concussion within the previous six months [40]. The protocol involved participants applying firm fingertip pressure to specific points on the hand and was completed in less than 15 min. PSQI scores were assessed at baseline, in addition to a week of actigraphy, and follow-up was gathered over weeks four and eight. Mean PSQI scores reduced significantly (baseline 10.6, follow-up 7.1 and 5.3, X2(0.05,2) = 8.22, p = 0.016), but there was no significant difference in actigraphy measures.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Acupressure
- Bodywork
- Joint Mobilization
- Palpation
- Pulse Diagnosis
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Meridian
- Anma
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- Joint Manipulation