Benefits of Receiving A Massage and Acupuncture Together

Benefits of Receiving A Massage and Acupuncture Together : Acupuncture and massage are holistic treatments that aim to promote overall wellness. Although both are effective for minimizing pain, improving circulation, and reducing inflammation, you can‘t interchange one with the other since they use different treatment techniques.

Acupuncture involves inserting thin needles into different points of your body, while massage uses various kneading techniques to manipulate your muscles or soft tissues.

Depending on your symptoms and wellness goals, you can actually combine both treatments to maximize their effects. But if you’re still not convinced, below are several benefits you can get by combining acupuncture and massage treatments.

Benefits of combining acupuncture and massage

Relieves pain
Acupuncture effectively treats pain by inserting needles at strategic points in your body. This releases your blocked energy flow and improves your blood circulation, minimizing your pain and symptoms. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, which are your body’s natural painkillers.

While massage therapy alleviates pain by relaxing your muscles, tendons, and joints, it also inhibits pain messages to and from the brain, so you feel a sense of relief from your discomfort.

The great thing about this treatment combo is it’s effective for treating acute and chronic pain. According to a study, receiving acupuncture and massage daily for 20 minutes each can minimize pain from lupus symptoms. It also shows promising results for your sleep quality and overall health and wellness.
Enhances range of motion

Combining acupuncture and massage is excellent for enhancing your flexibility and range of motion since both use complementary techniques for healing muscle pain.

As discussed above, massage relaxes your muscles, tendons, and joints to relieve pain. While acupuncture works deeper into your muscles to stimulate inactive and constricted parts.

This technique can be useful for healing sports injuries, sprains, and strains. Plus, it also helps prevent injuries since your muscles are less prone to knots, so you can give you all when playing sports or performing other physical activities.
Reduces inflammation

If left untreated, chronic inflammation can be harmful to your body since your white blood cells can start attacking healthy tissues and organs. You can control it with massage and acupuncture since they have anti-inflammatory effects.

Acupuncture inhibits inflammation by affecting your cytokines, proteins secreted by your immune system that controls cell movement. It increases the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines to reduce chronic inflammation.

While muscle biopsies show that regular massage therapy can reduce inflammation at a cellular level and encourages the growth of new mitochondria in your skeletal muscle.
Lowers stress

If your stress levels are at an all-time high lately, you might want to consider getting acupuncture and massage since they both provide a sense of calm and tranquility by lowering your heart rate and stimulating your central nervous system.

Your body also releases cortisol as a response to stress, and having an excess of the hormone can lead to developing several diseases. To combat this, acupuncture can stimulate the secretion of happy hormones in your body, such as serotonin and oxytocin.
Improves sleep quality

When done right, you’ll usually feel relaxed and rejuvenated after your massage and acupuncture sessions. If you take it easy after your treatments, this sense of calmness can help improve the quality of your sleep.

Research of 46 randomized trials shows that acupuncture was more effective at treating insomnia than sleep medications since it increased patients’ total sleep duration by more than 3 hours. But if it’s more beneficial, you can supplement the treatment with medication since it also shows positive results for the patients in the study.

While massage therapy encourages the release of serotonin which is a precursor to melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep cycle.

How do you combine massage and acupuncture?

Before you book your acupuncture and massage sessions, talk to your doctor first to ensure that these treatments are beneficial to your condition.

If it is, make sure to go to a licensed massage therapist and acupuncturist so you’ll know you’ll get proper treatments.

You’ll usually want to get a massage first before your acupuncture session. Since this will help relax your body, making your problem areas more receptive to the effects of acupuncture.

But if you feel hesitant to do both treatments on the same day, consult with your massage therapist or acupuncturist to help you come up with a treatment plan that’s most effective for your symptoms and wellness goals.

Looking for an acupuncture clinic?

Now that you know the benefits of receiving acupuncture and massage together, book your first acupuncture session at Lycoming Orthopedic & Sports Acupuncture. They have a team of licensed professionals ready to help you get back into top health. They also offer cupping, electrostimulation, and dry needling. For questions or inquiries, feel free to contact them now.