Would massage therapy be indicated or contraindicated to a person trying to quit smoking?
January 17th, 2011
also like if the patient receiving the massage has affected their nervous system and/or lungs significantly.Could massage therapy help them in quitting smoking? Thanks!!!
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Posted in Quit smoking now | 
Tags: contraindicated, indicated, lungs, massage, Massage Therapy, Person, quit, quit smoking, quitting smoking, smoking, therapy, trying, would
There is never any contraindication for massage therapy, except for burns or frostbite.
I do not believe this will help you quit smoking, as the urge to smoke is triggered by chemoreceptors and neuroreceptors.
The only affect this would have on the nervous system would be to relieve pain temporarily in an area, or to un-pinch a nerve.
Massage will not affect your lungs in any major way, this is because lungs function internally, not externally. The only way to clean out your lungs is letting them do it themselves.
It will help a lot it relieves stress but it might make you want to smoke because you are calm and cool.
well, people who are quitting smoking are usually highly stressed, so i would assume the only way it would help is that the massage would alleviate their stress, which in turn would help encourage their quitting habits?
It wouldn’t make a bit of difference .
I’m sure anything to get the person’s mind off of smoking can be instrumental in their quit. My grandmother smoked for 41 years, woke up one morning, and put her cigarette out half way, hasn’t smoked since, that was 7 years ago. She treated herself to manicures, pedicures, massages, hours at the spa. And she stayed smokefree. I am currently a smoker, and was talking to her about quitting and she said to do anything that makes you feel good when you are quitting, except for smoking. So, good luck, and I’m sure a massage would help ease your mind from the terrible thoughts of nicotine.
Try it – you never know. Massage helps reduce stress and help people to feel their bodies more so they can become more aware. It may help people become more aware of the emotions that are underlying the addiction.
I have worked on ex-smokers around their chest and ribcage and the room often smells of smoke even though they haven’t smoked in months so who knows what is really going on.
no its will power
I doubt you would find any text to support whether or not it is contraindicated. There is also no supported evidence testing the idea of helping a person to quit smoking. There have been some recent studies that support the idea of regular massages having a positive affect during detox rehab for alcoholics. The regular massages seemed to decrease the adverse affects of detox. Check out this website for a little more info.
http://www.amtamassage.org
If the massages can be used as a form of reward for helping to quit smoke, then that can be a motivating factor. For example, stop smoking for a full week, then treat yourself to a massage as a reward. You will definitely need day-to-day or even hour-to-hour tricks to get you through the immediate tough spots though.