What Are Some Risks of Massage Therapy?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Gretchen Rivas with Relax To The Max Massage Therapy, and today we're going to talk about some of the risk involved with massage therapy. Generally massage therapy is one of the safest forms of therapy that you can get, but there are a few things that you need to be aware of, and some risk factors involved. And now, if you have any of these conditions going on, you do need to talk to your doctor before you receive massage. One of those is, if you have any burns or open wounds, you probably shouldn't receive massage, talk to your doctor, but if you just have a little stove burn on your hand, it's not going to preclude you from getting a massage, you just don't want to get massage in that particular area. But if you have third degree burns over half of your body, you probably don't want to get massage. Now some other things you want to avoid receiving massage because it's a risk, is if you had a recent heart attack, because it can put too much stress on the heart, if you have cancerous tumors. Cancer is no longer a counter indication for a massage, but you do want to avoid massage over the known tumor site, okay, because that can be a risk factor there. If you have a deep vein thrombosis, or blood clot, you want to avoid getting massage in that area. If you're prone to blood clots, you may want to avoid massage all together, make sure you check with your doctor on that one. And then any unhealed fractures, you don't want to get any deep pressure if your bones are broken, that will not help, although massage in other parts of the body could help increase circulation and speed up healing, but check with your doctor on that one. And then, if you have rheumatoid arthritis that's flaring, you don't want massage on the arthritic joints, because that could be painful, and also if you have severe osteoporosis, massage might be a risk factor for you, because your bones are brittle and can break easily with just light pressure. But generally, massage is very risk free for most people, but if you have any of those risk factors that we discussed a few minutes ago, check with your doctor before you get massaged. And that's how you avoid the risk of massage therapy."