The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Massage for chronic pain not related to cancer

    Dr. Jennie Tsao from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in California has reviewed the evidence and concludes it depends on the type of pain being treated.

    Studies were reviewed if they were well-designed and covered chronic, non-malignant pain conditions in adults. One problem was the lack of follow-up to document the duration of improvement seen immediately after treatment.

    • The strongest support for massage therapy is in people with non-specific low back pain, shoulder pain, and headache pain.
    • There is considerably less support for treating fibromyalgia, mixed chronic pain conditions, neck pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

    How does massage work?
    Nobody knows for sure, Dr. Tsao discusses many theories.

    The bottom line?
    Massage appears to be safe, but it’s rarely used as the main treatment for chronic pain. Its primary role is to prepare patients for exercise or to complement other treatments (eg, physical therapy or drugs), although there’s no evidence that it makes other treatments more effective.

    7/25/07 09:19 JR

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