Massage is a common therapeutic technique in traditional Chinese medicine. However, it is not suitable for everyone. Below is a brief overview of who should avoid massage therapy:
Patients unsuitable for massage therapy include:
1. Individuals with heart disease.
2. Patients with severe hypertension.
3. Those with severe skin conditions.
4. Elderly patients with osteoporosis.
5. Patients with bone tumors.
6. Patients with high fever.
7. Women during menstruation.
Beyond these seven groups, massage techniques themselves require caution. Improper or reckless massage can harm patients' health or even endanger their lives.
Common Misconceptions About Massage
1. "Sore backs and aching shoulders are no big deal—just get a massage."
Office workers who spend long hours hunched over are prone to muscle stiffness and fatigue. Over time, this can cause minor misalignments in the small joints of the cervical and lumbar spine, leading to symptoms like lower back pain, arm soreness, and dizziness.Many people instinctively seek massage therapists to relax tense nerves and muscles. While proper massage therapy can effectively relieve fatigued muscles and joints, most are unaware that beyond prolonged sitting, chronic conditions like spinal tumors, tuberculosis, fractures, dislocations, and rheumatoid arthritis can also cause these external symptoms.
Although these conditions present similar symptoms, they should never be treated with massage therapy, as doing so could lead to unimaginable consequences.
2. Massage Sessions Should Last Only Three to Five Minutes
Many massage therapists in salons immediately start pulling and manipulating the body, but this is inadvisable. Proper massage therapy requires warm-up exercises first. Only when muscles are sufficiently relaxed can the treatment achieve twice the result with half the effort.
3. Cracking bones during massage is a sign of effectiveness
Many patients believe that realignment of spinal joints must produce audible cracking sounds to be effective. This is a misconception. True realignment means restoring joints to their normal physiological position.