Review of Mimi Porter and Mary Bromiley's Chapter 14:
Massage Therapy

By Peter M. Tiidus, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo ON Canada
 
 

This brief chapter attempts to provide the reader with an overview of the potential benefits, techniques and mechanisms of action of massage therapy in the horse. The chapter cites several potential effects of massage therapy for horses including such vague concepts as "craniosacral release," "muscle imbalance correction," and "muscle adhesion breakdown." Despite an attempt at scientific objectivity in defining the mechanisms and potential effects of massage, this chapter falls far short of this goal.

Of the relatively few references cited in this chapter, most refer to books on massage which provide only the author's opinions and biases as a basis for massage therapy and clearly lack any empirical evidence for their claims. Some examples of this are seen in the section on "Sports Massage" where they suggest that among other things massage can "remove lactic acid" and "stimulate circulation." The authors admit that these claims are not based on laboratory studies, yet cite these effects anyway. If one does look at the scientific studies which have examined the potential for massage to remove lactic acid [1],[2] and stimulate circulation [3],[4] it becomes clear that massage has no such effects.

Another example is of the potential for massage to release connective tissue adhesions. While this may be potentially possible, there is yet no demonstrated evidence that such scar tissue adhesions can be positively effects by the type of massage techniques described.

Most of the other postulated effects of massage discussed in this paper are also lacking in empirical data to back up their claims. This is a common failing of many types of "alternative or complimentary" therapies. This does not necessarily mean that these therapies are totally ineffective. There is growing evidence for the ability of massage to induce relaxation in humans.2 However, as pointed out in this chapter, the importance or apparent effectiveness of relaxation inducing massage in horses is not yet known. Not mentioned in the chapter is some recent evidence that certain types of massage may be capable of enhancing healing rates for specific tendon injuries [5]. This data is from rodent models and needs to be further validated, however it does show some potential for certain massage treatments in clinical settings.

In order for massage, or any other "alternative" therapy for that matter, to gain mainstream credibility, they must abandon their unproven claims and theories and work to build a strong evidence-based scientific basis for their effectiveness. Until further scientific work becomes available, massage therapy will continue to be dismissed as another fringe therapy, which makes many unsubstantiated claims to efficacy. Unfortunately this chapter does little to change the current status quo in this regard.
 

------------------------------

[1] Gupta S., et al. Int. J. Sports Med. 17:106-110, 1996

[2] Hemmings, B., Br. J. Sports Med. 34:109-115, 2000

[3] Shoemaker K. et al., Med.Sci. Sports Exerc., 29: 610-614, 1997

[4] Tiidus P. & Shoemaker K. Int. J. Sports Med. 16: 478-483, 1995

[5] Gehlson G. et al. Med. Sci Sports Exerc. 31: 531-535, 1999