How does massage benefit a paralyzed patient? Read on to find out!
A paralyzed patient might feel life’s unfair, which leads to anxiety and stress. Thankfully, a massage will help improve his emotional, physical and mental well-being. I understand this is a medical topic and everyone would love to have a good read.
For this reason, I wrote this article in the simplest way. Stay with me as I show you how massage helps paralyzed patients.
Paralysis
Paralysis is the inability to move parts of the body. Even though it occurs in different forms, the effects can reduce with proper therapy and health changes. Sometimes, luck can change the way the body reacts to damage physically. It has different causes, but the most common is damage to nerve endings due to an injury.
For example, someone who was involved in an accident may have a spinal cord injury. As a result, you may not feel or move your feet.
Still on our paralyzed victim, though the legs and feet are healthy, he cannot move nor feel them. Why? Depending on the cause of paralysis, one of these happens to the body during paralysis:
• First, nerve ending picks up stimulus and send to the brain, but, when broken the brain cannot communicate with that part of the body.
• Second, the brain receives a stimulus from the affected area. But, cannot effectively transmit a response because of the injury in the spinal cord.
• Lastly, the brain neither receives nor relay a response to the affected area due to an injury in the spinal cord.
The spinal cord is positioned at the back and runs through the vertebrae (backbone). From the brain all the way down. In simple terms, the spinal cord is the brain’s main communication system, that connects with every part of the body.
Hence, any injury to this delicate connection most likely results in paralysis. Yet, most injuries to the spinal cord are incomplete. How is that? The connection is not severed completely and the brain still sends and receive signals from the injured area.
A paralyzed patient who has an incomplete injury may feel sensation and be able to move the injured area. This is where massage comes in. It helps paralyzed patients emotionally, physically, and mentally to build confidence.
Massage
If you’ve had a massage therapy before, you can reminisce how your body felt after the session. That relaxing feeling in your bones and muscles is how massage revive the brain connection of a paralyzed person. Massage is the art of applying pressure on the body using the hands, elbows, knees, feet, and forearm.
Massage therapists use massage techniques such as kneading, friction, gliding, compression and active or passive stretching to create a relaxing effect. Furthermore, there are different styles of massage with various benefits. Let’s look at some styles of massage that helps paralyzed patients.
Swedish massage
This style of massage is focused on relaxation, which is what a paralyzed person needs all the time. It involves gliding strokes, circular motion and kneading to ease surface tension in your muscles. Also, aromatherapy is usually used to enhance the relaxation process. The benefits include relaxing the muscles, boosting blood circulation and easing tension in the shoulder and back.
Hot stone massage
During Hot stone massage, heated basalt stones aid the hands in working the body. These stones are placed on the back to melt tense areas of the body. The benefits include relieving tense areas and improving blood circulation.
Shiatsu massage
Assuredly, this style of massage has a Japanese origin and has its roots in Chinese medicine. This massage’s techniques eliminate the blockage in the free flow of the body’s Qi or energy force. It’s exceptional in releasing stress and promoting blood circulation.
Benefits of massage to paralyzed patients
No doubt, the gliding and kneading techniques of different massage styles, immensely help paralyzed patients not to lose hope in life.
Mental health
Before now, doctors were only concerned about the physical well-being of their patients. Leaving them to handle their emotional well-being alone. Now, doctors realize that mental and physical health are linked and helps in the healing process. Massage improves mental health in paralyzed patients which boosts the immune system and reduce the chance of losing hope.
Also, a research showed that massaging reduces and helps paralyzed patients to push forward during therapy. Because of a reduction in anxiety and depression.
Muscle regeneration
Swelling and inflammation in the muscles of paralyzed patients due to stroke can be regenerated with massage. Deep-tissue massage penetrates the body and loosens up tension-knots in the muscles. This helps paralyzed patients move their muscle and improves their overall well-being.
Improves range of motion
Spinal cord injuries leave patients struggling with motion issues. A decrease in flow blood, infections, and swelling of the injured spinal cord hamper the range of motion. But, massage therapy can boost your range of motion and helps you regain control and muscle function. Also, it slows down the rate at which your muscles degenerate and prevent further injuries.
Reduce pain
Having a spinal injury means you often have to deal with pain and adjust to a sedentary lifestyle. If you can’t move how do you exercise? Also, even if you can the pain will not allow you to even try. Nonetheless, you can still receive massage which breaks the knots in your muscles.
Additionally, it improves your well-being and alters your perception of pain. It makes it less overwhelming and helps you handle the pain.
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