Marysville WA Massage Therapy

Hello, and welcome to the January 2026 newsletter. Happy New Year! Have you set your goals for the coming year?

According to an online search, the most popular New Year’s resolutions consistently revolve around health and finances, with recent data for 2026 showing goals like exercising more, eating healthier, losing weight, and saving more money topping the lists, often alongside personal growth like spending more time with family or learning new skills.

It makes sense that health-related goals are always at the top of the list. The better your health, the better your life goes.

This month’s issue features excerpts from an article from The Guardian that was shared on Yahoo. If you value your health, then you will appreciate the range of benefits you get from your regular massages. It’s absolutely one of the best ways to help your body function at its best!

With Valentine’s Day on its way, consider a gift certificate for massage for that special someone this year. What better way to let them know how much they mean to you? Just click Gift Certificates tab to order online, you can print or e-mail to that special person today.

Enjoy the start of your new year; see you soon at your next appointment!

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Make that special

Someone's day with a massage gift certificate!

The magic touch: how healthy are massages actually?
by Sarah Sloat

Massages can feel great. But are they actually good for you?

In one study, researchers observed that 8.5% of Americans reported using massage for “overall health” in the 2022 National Health Interview Survey. However, definitions of health tend to vary widely, explains the study’s first author, Jeff Levin, an epidemiologist and distinguished professor at Baylor University. For instance, does it refer to physical health, mental health or both? That makes it tough to study, but may explain why it has such broad appeal, Levin explains.

Research typically seeks to establish precise causal relationships. But the impact of massage seems to be holistic in nature, integrating physical, emotional and neurological effects, explains Niki Munk, licensed massage therapist, associate professor at Indiana University Indianapolis, and research director of the Massage Therapy Foundation.

While some perceive massage as a luxury, it has historically been part of healthcare, notes Munk. It is increasingly embedded as a feature of hospital care because research and patient experiences corroborate its potential advantages.

Experts say massage may benefit anyone regardless of their health status.

What are the physical benefits of massage?
Massage is one of the techniques Rocco Caputo, a touch therapist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, uses to help patients.

“When patients come in, they’re always like: ‘You’re the massage guy, right?’” Caputo says. “Then you’re everybody’s favorite person.”

Massage helps people re-establish a connection to their body, says Caputo. It puts people into a parasympathetic nervous state, which induces a state of calm. Recent research conducted in part at MSK found that massage helped advanced cancer patients with long-term pain reduction. ...

Some research shows benefits for those with chronic pain; in Munk’s newest pre-print paper, veterans who received massage therapy twice a week for 12 weeks experienced an improvement in pain severity compared with a control group. These benefits were maintained for a period of three months.

“A lot of pain is a symptom that needs to be managed, not something that’s necessarily going to go away,” says Munk. The study didn’t examine the mechanisms behind the improvement, but Munk suggests that factors such as loosening muscles, relaxation and improved sleep could explain the results.

In another study, Munk found that after 10 massage sessions, patients showed clinically meaningful improvement in lower back pain. Participants aged 50 and older experienced the most significant change.

Massage therapy can probably address many types of pain; early intervention might even prevent some cases from becoming chronic, Munk says. ...

Causes for the physical effects of massage are still being explored. For example, Shane Phillips, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-authored a paper demonstrating that massage enhances blood flow and reduces muscle soreness after exercise. The study found that even people who had not exercised experienced improved vascular function, or the ability of blood vessels to regulate blood flow and pressure, after massage.

One group of participants exercised with a leg press machine, then received leg massages. Testing shows that “blood flow in the arm was changed even though we were providing massage to the lower extremities,” says Phillips. This suggests massage may affect the entire body, not just a specific area.

Were the results due to manual manipulation of the body or emotional responses to being touched? “That’s not really known—it may be some of both,” says Phillips.

Are there emotional benefits to massage?
It’s difficult to untangle the emotional and physical reactions people experience due to massage, says Dr. Carla Kuon, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a faculty member at the Osher Center for Integrative Health.

Massage therapy can increase the release of endorphins, natural pain-relievers made by the body, she explains. A wealth of research shows that positive, consensual touch can increase mental wellbeing and reduce anxiety and depression. ...

Who can massage help?
Kuon was seeking an opioid-free way to ease patients’ pain. In 2017, inspired by UCSF’s pediatric bone marrow transplant massage program, she raised funds, then launched a similar service for adult patients the following year.

A 2018 study on the adult service showed the massages were “quite beneficial for distress, pain, tension, anxiety, fatigue and improved sleep”, says Kuon. Participants also reported an improved sense of wellness.

According to Kuon, many studies show that pleasant touch creates a soothing effect, sending signals to the brain that you’re safe.

“We all thrive on caring, compassionate touch,” says Kuon. “I think any person could benefit [from massage] because it releases natural endorphins that promote a sense of wellbeing and happiness.” ...

Individuals “who have greater experiences of disability, pain and impairment are in a position to experience the larger effects”, agrees Munk. ...

Source: health.yahoo.com

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson