A number of studies have shown that massage therapy is a highly effective stress relief technique. An earlier study, conducted by the University of Miami Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, suggested that children receiving 30 minutes of massage therapy daily were less depressed and anxious than they were at the time of their admittance.

This particular study also observed marked differences in the health and behavior of the children in the test group over the children in the control group. On the biological level, the children in the control group exhibited lower levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) in their saliva and in their urine. It quickly became evident to researchers that massage therapy can play a significant role in stress relief.

Some physicians and researchers have suggested that stress is responsible for over 75% of all disease in the western world, including skin disorders, high blood pressure, headaches, digestive ailments, muscle pain, and depression. By employing the age-old techniques of massage therapy, there exists the distinct possibility of overcoming these terrible afflictions and provide stress relief.

The eminent Victorian physician, Dr. Stretch Dowse, noted the following back in 1887: "The mind, which before massage is in a perturbed, restless, vacillating and, even despondent state, becomes after massage, calm, quiet, peaceful and subdued; in fact, the wearied and worried mind has been converted into a mind restful, placid, and refreshed."

Massage therapy has helped countless people cope with the stress of modern life.