Touchpoints: A Massage Therapy Blog

The Massage Therapy Advisory Board met recently and I was lucky enough to be in attendance. One of the functions of this group is to review evaluations filled out by our students at the end of each trimester. Through this process, they acknowledge the successes within the program and make suggestions for improvements down the road. Dr. Randy Swenson chairs this board and takes the students' responses very seriously. One of the reasons that National University students have a 91% pass rate on their national board exams is because their feedback and suggestions are used to improve the program and better their experience.

Favorite Classes

The results of the most recent evaluations completed by first trimester students showed that they gave the highest kudos to the fundamentals class. In this course, new students are taught a full body one hour massage. Second trimester students indicated that the chair massage and sports massage courses were their favorites. Third trimester students overwhelmingly gave a high five to the orthopedic and assessment course which they felt gave them invaluable working knowledge of multiple syndromes which might throw them off in future practice.

Students identified the chair massage course as a favorite.

Open to Suggestions

In addition to evaluating the program, current students are also asked to comment on the university as a whole. One area where students thought we needed improvement was to have the campus store open a little later so that they can stop in before classes (which start at 6:00 p.m.). I am happy to report that this request is in the works.

It was also suggested that the CPR course be included in the basic curriculum since it is required that students have this training before their clinical rotation starts. Because many of our students come to us with CPR already under their belt, the Advisory Board didn't think it would be fair to put it in as a required course at this time.

Watching the group in action is just delightful. They have enthusiasm for the work we accomplish here and a true passion for touch therapy. They are the guardians of our program and knowing who they are and how they operate I am reassured that the massage therapy program is in very good hands.

If you missed last week's Information Night, you missed a great event with featured speakers Dr. Randy Swenson, our Dean, and Massage Envy owner, Jan Gentner!

The hit of the night, as usual, was our cadaver demonstration. Because our students spend a good deal of time studying anatomy on cadavers, it's important for them to get to view a body and hear about how instrumental this learning tool will be in their future studies.

Our alumnus, Matt Clement, gives a guided tour of the body as he shares the highlights of his experience as a student and as a professional massage therapist--and Matt's got some great stories! We invited our guests to put on some gloves and touch the human body (if they dare) and we had a few takers. Each person that donates a body to science is offering the ultimate gift to medical and health students and we are most grateful and respectful of that gift. This type of experience in a massage school is quite unique.

We also visited Dr. Ed Bifulco's palpation class where his students were poking and prodding the knee area to learn how to detect abnormal pathologies. This is a class that is not teaching any kind of massage technique but is one of the foundation courses that make our students well prepared to detect areas of concern in the body.

I can guarantee you will be well prepared for your board exam and your career if you decide to choose National for your formal education. Give me a call (1-800-826-6285) or email me if you'd like to visit or just chat. Personal tours are offered every week day.

- Deb

Most athletes can testify to the pain-relieving, recovery-promoting effects of massage. Now there's a scientific basis that supports booking a session with a massage therapist: On the cellular level massage reduces inflammation and promotes the growth of new mitochondria in skeletal muscle. So says new research from the Buck Institute on Aging and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. You can read more about this study and watch a video from one of the researchers explaining how they made the discovery.

The study involved the genetic analysis of muscle biopsies taken from the quadriceps of eleven young males after they had exercised to exhaustion on a stationary bicycle. One of their legs was randomly chosen to be massaged. Biopsies were taken from both legs prior to the exercise, immediately after 10 minutes of massage treatment and after a 2.5 hour period of recovery.

Buck Institute faculty Simon Melov, PhD, was responsible for the genetic analysis of the tissue samples. "Our research showed that massage dampened the expression of inflammatory cytokines in the muscle cells and promoted biogenesis of mitochondria, which are the energy-producing units in the cells," said Melov. He added that the pain reduction associated with massage may involve the same mechanism as those targeted by conventional anti-inflammatory drugs. "There's general agreement that massage feels good, now we have a scientific basis for the experience," said Melov.

Once again, National University of Health Science's massage therapy students performed exceptionally well on their national board exam scores, according to an official report from the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

In fact, National University's school pass rate average for the last two years on the exams was a whopping 91.43 percent! Compare that to the Illinois pass rate average of 65.83 and the national pass rate average of 66.68 for the same time period.

For every single test period since 2009, on every single topic tested, National University MT grads outperformed state and national averages.  Take a look at the full results here.

Every massage therapist needs to take their board exams for licensure in Illinois. National University is proud to be a school that prepares massage students for success on both board exams and for a full range of rewarding career options in massage therapy.

A recent study proving that massage therapy is effective for lower back pain, was featured on NPRs "All Things Considered."

Low back pain is very common. It often goes away after several days or weeks, but it may last for months or years or periodically recur. The usual treatments for low back pain include drugs (painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and muscle relaxants), physical therapy, back exercises, and education about ways to prevent back injury and deal with back pain. Some people use alternative treatments for low back pain, such as chiropractic or massage therapy.

This study compared the short-term and long-term effects of relaxation massage, structural massage, and usual care for people with persisting low back pain.

The researchers first gathered information about the participants' symptoms and how much those symptoms limited their daily activities. They then randomly assigned each participant to receive relaxation massage, structural massage, or usual medical care without massage. Participants assigned to the massage groups got about 1 hour of massage once a week for 10 weeks. The researchers remeasured participants' symptoms and ability to perform daily activities after completing the 10 massage treatments, and then at 6 months and 1 year after starting massage therapy.

Participants who received massage had less pain and were better able to perform daily activities after 10 weeks than those who received usual care. The benefits of massage lasted for 6 months but were less clear at 1 year, when pain and function had improved about equally in all 3 groups. The type of massage did not seem to make a difference. Symptoms and ability to perform activities improved about the same in the 2 massage groups.

(The full report is titled "A Comparison of the Effects of 2 Types of Massage and Usual Care on Chronic Low Back Pain. A Randomized, Controlled Trial." It is in the 5 July 2011 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 155, pages 1-9). The authors are D.C. Cherkin, K.J. Sherman, J. Kahn, R. Wellman, A.J. Cook, E. Johnson, J. Erro, K. Delaney, and R.A. Deyo.)