Monday, August 1, 2011

Helping People With Asthma Through Massage Therapy

The climate in Rocky Point, NY makes people with asthma all the more prone to bronchospasm attacks. But thanks to massage therapy, asthmatic individuals in Rocky Point, NY can experience natural relief.

Massage therapy aims to increase the feeling of warmth through frictional strokes since asthma attacks occur during cold temperatures. This is why most bronchospasm episodes happen at night or during the wee hours of the morning. These attacks are characterized by severe breathlessness caused by mucus that blocks the bronchi or lung airways. Aside from the production of mucus, wheezing and coughing also comes when people experience asthma attacks.

Massage therapy is also known to help in expelling the mucus in a person's sputum. Discharge of this mucus relieves the blockage of airways resulting to relief in breathing. People with asthma living in Rocky Point, NY report that the greater the amount of mucus expelled from the body, the more relief they experience.

There are other asthma treatments that are available in Rocky Point, NY. These asthma treatments include constant check-ups with the doctor, use of nebulizers, taking maintenance medications, and altering one's diet. Massage therapy is in no way acting as a substitute for any of these asthma treatments, especially for the medicines. Maintenance medications are very important for people with severe bouts of asthma. What a massage therapy aims to do is to be a complementary treatment alongside the other asthma treatments to make the body more resistant to factors triggering asthma attacks.

Massage therapists usually massage the entire front area of the chest as well as both of the sides. The upper back, usually from the neck down to the lower end of the rib cage, is also massaged to provide relief from heavy breathing. Massage movements for asthma relief are directed downwards, following the direction of one's ribs. Massage strokes start from the center of one's chest towards the sides in circular motion.

It is important that massage therapists use warm oil when giving a massage so that the feeling of warmth rejects that of the cold. Be advised that therapists also need to use more friction than pressure during the session. This helps in expelling the mucus and freeing blocked air passages. Furthermore, the duration of the massage therapy session depends on the extent of the attack. Patients experiencing extreme difficulty in breathing should have longer massage sessions regularly.

It is recommended that this complementary treatment for asthma attacks be done in the morning to be followed by a steam bath. Again, this is not a substitute for medical asthma treatments and should be done only upon a go signal of the doctor. It is important that even alternative therapies such as this be done under strict supervision of one's doctor. This is done so that the level of other treatments such as high dosage medicines be reduced in case the patient's body is reacting well to the treatment. Also, the massage therapist should know one's medical history so that he or she can adjust the techniques to be used according to the extent of the patient's asthma.

About the Author

Massage Envy Lakeland

3615 South Florida Ave. Unit 56

Lakeland, FL, 33803

(863) 646-3689

http://www.massageenvy.com/clinics/FL/Lakeland--MM#-25557.aspx

 

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