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 |  Massage therapy is considered to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, treatments for relieving the body of its infirmities. Evidence has been found that proves the healers in India developed a health care modality known as ayurvedic medicine as a way to cure the body of its imbalances. It employed, among other treatments, sun salutations, special breathing techniques, dietary practices, and self-massage with herbal oils. It is still practiced today in India. A Chinese book, dating back to 2700 B.C., suggests the use of massage and breathing exercises as the most effective treatment for paralysis, chills, and fever. Paintings found in ancient Egyptian tombs document the use of massage, reflexology, and aromatic oils. Even the Bible mentions the anointing of the body with oil. The rubbing of the oil into the skin is thought by many to have been a form of massage therapy. Shiatsu, a Japanese healing art, involves the stimulation of acupuncture points by applying pressure with the thumbs, palms, and fingers. It is sometimes referred to as acupressure. The ancient Greeks and Romans used massage therapeutic techniques in association with their baths. In the 5th century B.C., Hippocrates (the father of medicine), who had learned massage from the Greeks, prescribed the use of rubbing and friction for joint and circulatory ailments. Almost every country of the world has developed its own brand of massage therapy. Through the work of a 16th-century, French doctor and fencer, Ambroise Pare, the Western world began enjoying a revival of massage. Swedish massage, the form most familiar to our part of the world, was developed in the 19th century by a doctor named Per Henrik Ling. He borrowed the ancient techniques, and combined them into a system of therapy which was based upon his understanding of gymnastics and physiology. By the late 19th century, massages were routinely available at YMCAs and YWCAs. In the '60s and '70s, massage as a healing art fell out of favor with the emergence of "massage parlors," and with the growing impression that massage was for athletes or the wealthy. However, for the past two decades, the profession of massage therapy has undergone an explosion of growth. Now, commonly accepted throughout the medical world as an effective and true medical art, massage is successfully used in hospitals, pain clinics, rehabilitation facilities, and drug treatment clinics for people of all ages with a variety of medical conditions. Today, the beneficial effects of therapeutic massage are widely known.
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