Massage – its history
Origins
Massage is simply one of the simplest and natural way of medical care. It is considered to be one of the oldest treatments used by mankind and has been used as early as 300 BC as a therapy in Far East.
Who else is at a better position to talk about the benefits of massage than Hippocrates? The man regarded as the father of modern medicine recommended that massage using massage oil should be taken daily after a perfumed bath. In Egypt, when archeologist went into the Egyptians tomb, they discovered tomb paintings that showed the images of people being massaged.
Of course, massage is not only used by the average men. It was also documented that massage was used extensively by great kings to treat their body problems. During the time of Julius Caesar, the ruler was given daily massage to treat neuralgia; an intense pain extending from the neck that he constantly suffered from. While at the same time, Dr. Ambroise Paré, a physician to 4 French kings used a great deal of massage in his practice.
In the Mediterranean civilization, a massage would almost always been given along with the use of scented oils, a tradition that gave way to using Aromatherapy in massage.
Modern massage
In the modern era, massage was used during World War 1 to treat patients who suffered from injury or shell shock. In certain hospital, a massage department was established to treat patients. One of the hospitals that decided to do this is St. Thomas Hospital in London that used to have a department of massage until the year 1934.
The popularity of massage rose with the introduction of Swedish massage by Per Henrik Ling. A Swedish master, he created this massage in the 19th century based on the practice used in ancient time. A new concept of massage was introduced by George Downing in The Massage Book where he emphasis the overall concept of massage, that a therapist must not only treat a patient’s body but must also assess the patient’s emotion or mind as well.
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