What is chronic pain syndrome (CPS)?
Pain is your body’s normal reaction to an injury or illness, a warning that something is wrong. When your body heals, you usually stop hurting.
But for many people, pain continues long after its cause is gone. When it lasts for 3 to 6 months or more, it’s called chronic pain. When you hurt day after day, it can take a toll on your emotional and physical health.
About 25% of people with chronic pain will go on to have a condition called chronic pain syndrome (CPS). That’s when people have symptoms beyond pain alone, like depression and anxiety, which interfere with their daily lives.
CPS can be hard to treat, but it’s not impossible. A mix of treatments like counseling, physical therapy, and relaxation techniques can help relieve your pain and the other symptoms that come with it.
Chronic pain syndrome (CPS) Management
1. Learn deep breathing or meditation to help you relax.
2. Reduce stress in your life. Stress intensifies chronic pain.
3. Boost chronic pain relief with the natural endorphins from exercise.
4. Cut back on alcohol, which can worsen sleep problems.
5. Get a massage for chronic pain relief.
6. Eat a healthy diet if you’re living with chronic pain.
Massage for Chronic Pain Relief
Massage therapy is becoming more widely accepted in the medical community as a credible treatment for many types of back pain and/or as an adjunct to other medical treatments. Research shows that massage therapy has several potential health benefits for back pain sufferers, including:
Increased blood flow and circulation, which brings needed nutrition to muscles and tissues. This aids in recovery of muscle soreness from physical activity or soft tissue injury (such as muscle strain). Decreased tension in the muscles. This muscle relaxation can improve flexibility, reduce pain caused by tight muscles and even improve sleep.
Increased endorphin levels–the “feel good” chemicals in the brain. This mood enhancer can ease depression and anxiety, which can help reduce pain and speed recovery–particularly important for those suffering from chronic back or neck problems.
Types Of Massage That Can Help With Pain
1. Swedish massage
2. Deep tissue massage
3. Trigger point massage
4. Myofascial release massage
5. Craniosacral therapy massage
6. Relaxation massage
What is a Swedish Massage?
Swedish massage therapy is the modality that comes to mind when most people think about massage. As the best-known type of bodywork performed today, one of the primary goals of the Swedish massage technique is to relax the entire body. This is accomplished by rubbing the muscles with long gliding strokes in the direction of blood returning to the heart. But Swedish massage therapy goes beyond relaxation. Swedish massage is exceptionally beneficial for increasing the level of oxygen in the blood, decreasing muscle toxins, improving circulation and flexibility while easing tension.
What is a Deep Tissue Massage?
Deep tissue massage uses firm pressure and slow strokes to reach deeper layers of muscle and fascia (the connective tissue surrounding muscles). It’s used for chronic aches and pain and contracted areas such as a stiff neck and upper back, low back pain, leg muscle tightness, and sore shoulders.
While some of the strokes may feel the same as those used in Swedish massage therapy, deep tissue massage isn’t the same as having a regular massage with deep pressure.
It’s used to break up scar tissue and physically break down muscle “knots” or adhesions (bands of painful, rigid tissue) that can disrupt circulation and cause pain, limited range of motion, and inflammation.
What is a Trigger Point Massage (Myofascial Release)?
Trigger Point pain is one of the more common ailments that affect the muscles in the human body. It is also one of the most painful considering the pain does not occur in just one area, but can cause tingling, numbness, and various other discomforts in areas at a distance from the source of the trigger point itself.
One of the advantages of Trigger Point Massage Therapy when compared to other massage therapies that are used to manage and treat pain is that it identifies and works very specific points of the body…specifically, those locations where the pain occurs to provide the best method of treatment for the pain.
Depending on where the pain is, and it usually occurs in the shoulders, back, or hips; the therapist will have the guest lie down in a way which is both comfortable for the guest, in the sense that other trigger points are not aggravated, and easy for the therapist to work the area. After locating the trigger point or points, the therapist will use several different finger techniques of varying pressure on and around the points in order to break down the build-up of the knot.
What is a Craniosacral Therapy Massage?
Cranial sacral therapy (also known as craniosacral therapy) is a gentle, noninvasive form of bodywork that addresses the bones of the head, spinal column and sacrum. The goal is to release compression in those areas which alleviates stress and pain.
Cranial sacral therapy seeks to restore the natural position of the bones and can decrease stress from chronic injuries as well as provide relief from migraine headaches, neck and back pain, temporomandibular joint disorder (the inflammation of the joint that connects the lower jaw to the skull) and more.
What is a Relaxation Massage?
Relaxation massage is a gentle massage that uses smooth, gliding strokes to help you relax. The massage therapist will move at a slower pace and use lighter pressure. In a relaxation massage, there is less emphasis on working out chronic underlying muscle tension – the adhesions or “knots” and muscle restrictions in the muscle tissue. That’s because deep tissue work can be uncomfortable, and during a relaxation massage you just want to drift away and feel good.
In a relaxation massage, the therapist won’t push your limits in order to get the muscle to release. You might even fall asleep! It’s a good choice for someone who is getting a massage for the first time, or someone who just wants to bring their stress level down.
Contact Our Mobile Massage Clinic | The Villages, Florida
In Home or In Office Massages by Jacqueline in the Central Florida area. Certified for many different massages and treatments. Specializing in Manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) post surgery recovery massage.
To schedule an appointment with Licensed Massage Therapist and Certified Advanced Manual Lymphatic Drainage Therapist, Jacqueline Bosco CMLDT, Oncology, please call (813) 298-5603. We believe nothing is more important than human touch.
Providing massage services to patients in The Villages FL, Sumter County, Leesburg, Eustis, Mount Dora, Tavares, Lady Lake, Fruitland Park, Wildwood, Bushnell and surrounding areas in Florida.