Legitimate massage therapists get a boost from California law

* Ironson and her university colleagues have conducted several small-scale human studies on the effects of massage on biological measures of mood. The studies looked at levels of the stress hormone cortisol in participants before and right after massage -- finding that the therapy lowered cortisol levels by 47%. Massage also increased serotonin by 36% to 60%, and dopamine by 26% to 59%. Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters that promote improved mood.

* In a study published in a 2004 issue of the Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center surveyed 1,290 cancer patients before and after receiving massage. They asked patients to rate their levels of pain, anxiety, nausea, depression and fatigue, and found that reported symptoms were reduced by half after treatment and that they stayed low for a couple of days afterward.

* Another study out of the University of Miami, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research in 2004, showed similar findings in a study involving 34 breast-cancer patients who were randomly assigned to receive massage or to a control group. Those who had 30-minute massages three times a week were 46% less depressed, 25% less anxious and 50% less angry than those in the control group.

* In an article that appeared in the July 2007 issue of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, researchers reviewed dozens of published studies on Swedish-type massage's effects on different kinds of pain. They concluded that the evidence supporting the use of massage in the treatment of lower back pain was "robust." They found less support for massage in the treatment of other kinds of pain, including shoulder pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia and carpal tunnel syndrome. "Despite the growing popularity of massage, there is inconsistent empirical support for its effectiveness in chronic pain," the article stated.

* A study out of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, published in the spring 2008 issue of the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy, followed 16 people who suffered from tension headaches. It found that participants who had 45-minute massages twice a week had fewer, less intense and shorter headaches. The number of headaches dropped from an average of five a week to four, intensity decreased by 30% and duration dropped from an average of four hours to fewer than three hours per headache.