Walla Walla General Hospital offers massage therapy at no extra cost to patients who are here for surgery or who deliver their babies here. The service is also available to community residents for a low fee. Patients can be seen with or without a physician referral, and appointments for massage therapy can be made by calling 509-522-2424.

Massage Benefits:

• Increases relaxation and stress reduction
• Relieves muscle tension and stiffness
• Reduces muscle spasms
• Enhances strength and agility
• Increases circulation of the blood & lymph systems
• Increases range of motion
• Reduces mental stress 
• Rejuvenating
• Improves ability to monitor stress 
• Promotes improved sleep 
• Promotes overall feeling of well-being 
• Reduces anxiety levels
• Increases mind-body awareness

Massage - A Healing Touch

Therapeutic massage is becoming more mainstream, appealing to everyone from young adults to seniors. Many are getting massages mostly to relax, to relieve aches and pains, and to help reduce stress. While massage has long been valued as a stress reducer, there is growing evidence that massage therapy has benefits that go beyond just feeling good.

For example: cancer patients had less pain and anxiety after receiving therapeutic massage at the James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio. In another study at the University of South Carolina, women who had experienced the recent death of a child were less depressed after receiving therapeutic massage.

Studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found massage beneficial in facilitating recovery in patients who underwent abdominal surgery. Medical school students at the University of New Jersey Medical School who were massaged before an exam showed a significant decrease in anxiety and respiratory rates, as well as significant increase in white blood cells and natural killer cell activity, suggesting a benefit to the immune system.

At the University of Miami School of Medicine's Touch Research Institute, researchers have found that massage is helpful in decreasing blood pressure in people with hypertension, alleviating pain in migraine sufferers and improving alertness and performance in office workers.

Touch is the core ingredient of massage therapy and combines science and art in the manipulation of soft tissues. Practitioners use their sense of touch to determine the right amount of pressure to apply to each person in a variety of physical methods including applying fixed or movable pressure, holding, or causing movement to the body. Touch also conveys a sense of caring, an important component in the healing relationship.

Source: AMTA