I. Introduction
The treatment that acts on the skin and muscle of the body technically by hands and fingers is called massage.
According to Records of the Historian in China, Bianque, a famous physician in Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), had cured Prince Guo's Shi Jue Zheng (deathlike faint disease) by using massage. From the Qin Dynasty till now, massage has had a history of more than two thousand years. The oldest monograph on massage should be the Yellow Emperor's Canon of Massage (in ten volumes), but it's a pity that the book had lost. Massage was also mentioned in the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon of Medicine. In ancient times, Chinese was able to treat various diseases with massage, such as limb paralysis, debility, faint, moist disease, chill and fever, etc.
There are so many advantages of massage, for example, it is easy to learn, convenient to practice, economical, and an alternative for medicine as well. Massage plays a role of analeptic as well as sedative, respectively, for it can either make people refreshed or calm down.
It is relatively safe for general chronic diseases or overly weak patients, because massage is propitious to circulation and metabolism. As to children who are inconvenient to take medicine, massage could boost up the constitution and function of the children's body. Regarding some complicated diseases, this method could be used cooperatively with acupuncture and medication. However, as to some acute or hyperpyretic infections, or organs having pathological changes such as typhoid, pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis and so on, massage only has supporting effects. Patients having serious or acute diseases such as tumor, acute suppurative appendicitis, intestinal perforation, cholecystitis due to bilis duct ascarid etc. should get nosocomial first aid.
For married women with sudden intense pains at lower abdomen, who have had menoschesis for about two months, it is suggested to immediately send them to hospital in order to determine whether ectopic pregnancy or any other acute diseases exist.
II. Indications and Contraindications of Massage
Indications
Wrick, joint disarticulation, strain of lumbar muscles, amyotrophy, migraine, fore and back headache, trifacial neuralgia, inter-rib neuralgia, femoral neuralgia, sciatica, waist & back neuralgia, arthralgia (including shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, ankle, toe); facial neural paralysis, facial muscle spasm, gastrocnemius spasm; muscle pain due to rheumatism, including muscle pain inshoulder, back, waist, knee, etc., as well as acute or chronic rheumatic arthritis, gall of joint synovium, ankylosis, etc.
Other indications include neurogenic vomiting, dyspepsia, habitual constipation, gastroptosis, chronic gastritis, insomnia, spermatorrhea, dysmenorrhea and neurosis as well, all of which can be treated through massaging.
Contraindications
Various acute infections, acute osteomyelitis, tuberculous arthritis, infective dermatosis, eczema, scald by water or fire, cutaneous ulcer, tumor and all kinds of sore, as well as menses and pregnancy of more than five months, acute peritonitis, acute purulent peritonitis, acute appendicitis, weakness because of long-term sickness or senility and serious cardiovascular disease.
III. Categories and Techniques
The massage is usually classed into two categories. One is called active massage or self-massage, which is a method of health care by massaging oneself. The other is passive massage, which is used by doctors as massage therapy. The frequently used techniques of massage include pressing, rubbing, bunting, seizing, kneading, pinching, quivering and beating. However, the above techniques are not used alone but usually cooperatively.