On top of this, there are also a
whole bunch of physiological
benefits that come from touch
and massage within the context
of cancer treatment.
The treatment of cancer varies
between types and locations of
tumor growth, but the majority
of people who choose to go
through chemotherapy and
radiation therapy experience
great discomforts that include
(but are certainly not limited
to) insomnia,
pain, fatigue
and decreased
immunity.
Massage can
help with all of
these things and
the researchers
are out there
trying to figure out
the mechanisms
behind why touch
helps us so much.
Numerous studies have reported
that massage significantly
decreases pain related to cancer
treatment.1 Some larger studies
even report a decrease in pain
by up to 40%2, which is quite
a considerable decrease in
uncomfortable sensation!
With radiation and chemotherapy
the capacity of our immune
system becomes depleted and
certain inflammatory compounds
(one of the major ones is called
Interleukin-6 or IL-6) increase,
placing increased systemic strain
on the body.
It has been demonstrated that
IL-6 levels decrease with massage,
which is a pretty noteworthy
effect, as the literature also shows
us that there is an inverse link, that
“...researchers are out
there trying to figure
out the mechanisms
behind why touch
helps us so much.”
we don’t know much about yet,
between IL-6 levels and survival
rates.