subject: A Licensed Massage Therapist (lmt) Can Help Treat Dementia With Acupressure Massage Therapy [print this page] According to the results of a study, the agitation and aggression of patients with dementia can be soothed through acupressure massage therapy. It should be ensured, however, that acupressure massage therapy is given properly. This is best availed of through a licensed massage therapist or LMT.
Alzheimers Disease is an example of an illness that causes dementia. Patients with dementia become restless and are often easily moved to anger. Their behaviour could be anti-social and could even turn violent. Usually, they show no logic and could therefore wander about with no sense of direction. If left unattended, there is danger of their getting lost. Family members, the staff members of nursing homes and other possible caregivers have to be very watchful and have a lot of patience.
Acupressure massage therapy results in decreased aggression and increased calmness in patients with dementia. This was shown by a study performed in Taiwan and published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing. Observed were 31 patients with dementia, all belonging to the same nursing home. The study was divided into two parts of four weeks each. In the first four weeks the participants received acupressure massage therapy for 15 minutes twice a day for five days each week. In the second month, the participants were visited by the researchers for 15 minutes each day, talking to them.
Researchers compared the behaviour of the patients in the first and second parts of the study. They found that acupressure massage therapy was more effective and had more immediate results in calming down the patients as compared to talking with them. The aggressive behaviour of the participants decreased overall within the weeks that they were receiving acupressure massage therapy.
Acupressure is a combination of the best elements of acupuncture and massage. It has been used and proven effective by traditional Chinese medicine in the last 2000 years. Instead of using needles like acupuncture, though, acupressure massage therapy is applied only with the hands.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that a life force called qi circulates throughout the body through invisible pathways called primary meridians. It is the free flow of qi that keeps the body in optimum levels of health. Once the flow of qi is blocked in any part of any of the meridians, the persons health suffers. There are acupoints, or specific points along the primary meridians numbering between 400 and 500, that can be stimulated to boost the flow of qi and remove any blockages. Some schools of thought believe that these acupoints have corresponding organs and organ systems.
In acupuncture, acupoints are stimulated by the insertion of sterilized needles that could be even finer than hair. In acupressure massage therapy, the fingers, knuckles or elbows of the therapist or other special implements made of wood, bone, marble or metal are used to apply deep pressure on certain acupoints. Acupressure massage therapy and acupuncture share the same goal of stimulating the acupoints in order to trigger the natural ability of the body to regulate, balance and heal itself. Traditional Chinese medicine refers to this as balancing yin and yang.
No matter what the explanation may be, it remains a fact proven by scientific studies that acupressure massage therapy does benefit patients therapeutically, especially patients suffering from dementia.
Acupressure massage therapy is not the only massage therapy modality that a licensed massage therapist or LMT can offer. Among the other healing therapies that may be availed of are reflexology massage therapy, shiatsu massage therapy, craniosacral massage therapy, deep tissue massage therapy, sports massage therapy and pregnancy massage therapy. A licensed massage therapist with deep empathy for patients often does insurance billing for people in auto accidents, as well.
