10 Benefits of Massage as a part of Hospice & Palliative Care

1. Natural Pain Relief

Massage can significantly reduce chronic and acute pain. It can support comfort care and reduce the amount of medications needed for someone to remain comfortable. This can help support increased awareness and alertness while keeping pain low.

2. Boost the Quality of Life

Massage can help someone relax and feel more at ease. There is a labor to dying and the more ease we can inspire, the easier this transition can be. Massage offers compassionate touch and attentive care. It can help someone feel seen, understood, and connected.

3. Minimize Anxiety

Massage helps relieve anxiety and instill feelings of peace and tranquility. It can help regulate the nervous system and promote the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest system) while allowing the sympathetic nervous system to take a break. It can reduce levels of cortisol in the system.

4. Enhance Mood

Massage offers support to those who are experiencing depression or sadness in this stage of life. Massage helps release endorphins and decrease the release of cortisol in the body.

5. Support Immune function

Massage can significantly help with lymph flow. This helps strengthen the function of the immune system and fight infection.

6. Improve digestion & ease nausea

Massage offers digestive support and can help promote regular bowl movements and reduce nausea. Many seniors may experience digestive imbalances especially if they are on a number of medications or in Cancer treatment. Massage supports the nervous system in charge of “resting and digesting”, it can help to balance this system and keep things moving through the body.

7. Increase quality and quantity of sleep

Massage can help support sleep. Treatments can help someone sleep more deeply as well as sleep longer. Often clients will fall asleep during the massage and/or notice significant depth in sleep the following nights.

8. Compassionate Touch

Often when someone is at the end of life, the care he or she is receiving is very medical. It may be rare to receive loving touch. Compassionate touch coupled with a healing presence can be incredibly relaxing and can inspire ease.

9. Respiration function

Massage can support respiration and inspire deep breathing. This can be incredibly relaxing and help massage the organs. If breathing is labored, massage can help relax the muscles that are overworking and hypertonic.

10. Improve circulation

Massage therapy can benefit circulation significantly. Helping return blood back to the heart and promote the removal of toxins and nutrient exchange. It can improve blood circulation but also circulation of lymph helping to boost immune function.