Massage Therapy

In this work I am going to consider the following three types of massage: massage for children to relieve earache, massage for elderly patients over 65, and infant massage. First, let us remember the medical effect massage produces on the tissues it is applied to: these rubbing and kneading movements enhance blood and lymph circulation in the area which increases oxygen supply and thus improve all the immunity and all other functions of the tissues. Massage of the head can be helpful for children suffering from pain in the ears: stroking the face down to the chin and then up to the forehead, making circles on the temples, and stroking and stretching the ears up and out are applied. In spite of the abovementioned ‘circulation’ effect, this can be beneficial due to the healing effect of caring touches which have special significance for the children. One more thing that could be added to the issue is such an alternative method as acupuncture: repeated pressing of special dots (so-called ‘Ear Gate’, ‘Listening Place’, ‘Reunion of Hearing’, and ‘Wing Screen’) is known to relieve earaches.Another issue considered was massage for the elderly. The video was mostly focused general (organizational) issues (e.g. make sessions for frail clients shorter, guard against chilling and falling) than on the techniques of massage and other manual influences. So, the following specificities of massage should be observed:considering high vulnerability of the skin and other tissues of the elderly, massage movements should be much more delicate, mild and slow than is the case of ordinary massage;much attention should be paid to the body parts especially suffering in elderly people. For example, due to the worsening of heart and vessel function, blood delivery to the limbos (feet, hands) can be impeded; in the result of excessive tophus which will lead to arthritis. In both cases massage is a good treatment procedure to reactivate normal bloodstream and easy the pain.The final topic considered was infant massage, and the provided video mostly contained fundamental information about this massage type without any practical detail which follows that all the main techniques and characteristics of infant massage will be considered in this work. It is important to remember the main function of infant massage: communicative (psychological) function (establishing child-parent interaction and giving the baby the feeling of being loved and cared through tactile, kinesthetic stimulation performed in a purposeful, sequential application (Butler)). However, the medical value of infant massage is also important: this is a good complementary procedure for pre-term infants and infants with nervous system disorder (for example, manifested through increased muscle tone). As for the technical side, a good infant massage routine will offer a variety of different types of strokes and last approximately 15-20 minutes (e.g. strokes away from the body [Indian Style massage] that promote calming and relaxation, strokes towards the body or heart [Swedish style massage] helping promote stimulation of the muscles, etc. (Schneider)). The specificity of baby skin (it is five times thinner and thus much more vulnerable …