I'm a skeptic. To the consternation of my peers, I doubt the existence of Ki and the effectiveness of energy work, and I prefer the comfort of good old solid flesh-and-bones work that can be measured scientifically. I tell my students that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." Even then, every once in a while, when I think I am on solid ground, I still wonder, "has anyone ever bothered to test this idea, or is it just an assumption?"

You've probably heard other massage therapists talk about how massage can help you flush "toxins" and metabolic wastes from your muscles, particularly lactic acid. As it turns out, that's an easy enough supposition to test. Researchers at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario did just that.

Researchers EV Wiltshire, Veronica Poitras, Melissa Pak, Terence Hong, Jay Rayner, and Michael E Tschakovsky published a paper in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise on December 9, 2009, explaining their findings.

The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that massage aids muscle recovery from exercise by increasing muscle blood flow to improve lactic acid removal. It was a narrow, well defined question that could easily be tested.

When you grip something, the bulk of the work is performed by muscles in the palm side of your forearm, not in the fingers. The researches had 12 subjects perform two minutes of strenuous isometric handgrip exercise at 40% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) to elevate the level of lactic acid in the forearm. They measured forearm blood flow and lactic acid concentrations in the deep forearm veins every minute for 10 minutes under three conditions:

   Passive (resting)

   Active (rhythmic exercise at 10% of MVC)

   and Massage (effleurage and petrissage, which are best described as stroking and kneading)

The results?  Massage significantly “impairs lactic acid and hydrogen ion removal from muscle following strenuous exercise by mechanically impeding blood flow.”

So in this narrow case, petrissage actually hinders the removal of fatigue toxins. Massage therapists would not normally use these techniques in post-event sports massage because it has been demonstrated that they do not improve recovery and generally lead to soreness. This study helps to explain why that is true.

When properly applied, massage is good for stress relief, sports injuries, comfort, relieving soreness, improving range of motion, and it just plain feels good. However, when a massage therapist blithely tells you that massage "helps to remove toxins," (and they are usually talking about petrissage), they have fallen into the factoid trap.

The America Heritage Dictionary defines a factoid as "A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition." The study suggests that massage does not assist the body in removing toxins, although it seems like a perfectly reasonable assumption.

Toxins are produced by living organisms, sometimes as waste, but often for predation or defense. Snakes and spiders, for example, use venom for predation, while bees and ants use it for defense. However, the word "toxin" has come to have other meanings in common usage. Detox centers for alcohol or drug abuse patients to safely suffer withdrawal sympoms as their bodies naturally rid themselves of "toxins." Any poison might be called a "toxic substance," whether of biological origin or not. However, in the complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM) world, a toxin can mean pretty much anything, from pesticides to high-fructose corn syrup to MSG.

It is this sloppy language that allows confusion, and sometimes abuse of the word. If a massage therapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, or other CAM provider suggests a "detoxification" regime as a remedy for all sorts of ailments, then it's time to head for the door. Detox treatments are nothing more than marketing scams.

The ionic foot bath is a laughably popular example. You stick your feet in the salty water, turn it on, and as you soak the water turns into a nasty brown sludge. It turns out that if you don't put your feet in, the water turns brown anyway. A chiropractor, who should have known better, once tried to sell me this as part of a treatment.

Kinoki foot pads are a similar scam. You stick them on your feet before bed and they turn black overnight, "proving" that they suck the toxins out of your body while you sleep. You've probably seen the ads. Ridiculous nonsense? Yes, but many are taken in, even though they can be easily debunked in your kitchen. If you moisten them, they will darken even without coming in contact with your body perspiration.

Ear candling is another scam, and much to my embarrasment, many massage therapists offer ear candling to their clients. You stick one in your ear, light it, and let it burn down to within a few inches of your skin. They are supposed to suck out earwax and other various toxins, and the proponents "prove" this by cutting open the base of the hollow candle to show the nasty looking gunk that supposedly came out of the client's ear. The FDA flatly states that they don't work, have no medical value, don't even create a vacuum, and are dangerous to use. You can easily prove that by burning 0ne without placing it in an ear. Smoke pours out the bottom, demonstrating that there is no suction, and when you cut it open it still contains the same vile-looking debris.

Another holistic treatment that is often offered along with massage therapy is colonic irrigation, or colon cleaning. It's basically a power enema, and it is supposed to remove putrified feces and vague unspecified "toxins" from the large intestine. There is no scientific evidence that either of those things exist in the colon, or that colon irrigation has any therepeutic value. If you have ever had a colonoscopy and seen the photos of your insides, you'll know that the colon is clean as a whistle after being emptied conventionally. But more to the point, colon irrigation is dangerous: illnesses and deaths have been reported as a result of contaminated equipment, electrolyte imbalance, or perforation of intestinal walls. The machines used for colon therapy are illegal unless used during conventional medical treatment.

Bottom line: just go to the bathroom, like regular folks.

So how do you know what is a scam and what is not? There are some simple clues. It is a scam if:

   It is a breakthrough that goes far beyond current scientific thinking

   Modern science is just catching up to what they have been teaching for years

   It taps an ancient source of wisdom

   It cures whatever ails you

   It curse cancer (ALWAYS a scam)

   It promises weight loss, longer life, fewer wrinkles, better sex, or any cure for aging

   If the "discovery" goes directly to the press and to sales ads without being written up in a peer-reviewed scientific journal

The idea that massage flushes toxins from muscles is not a scam, but neither is it accurate. It's a widely held belief, without evidence to back it up, presented in most cases in all sincerity. The problem comes when therapists confuse metabolic toxins from muscle fatigue with environmental or other unspecified toxins, and promote massage as a "detox" technique. And that is a problem easily cured with intellectual curiosity, a thirst for the truth, a sense of personal responsibility, and an open mind coupled with a healthy dose of skepticism.

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You can read the abstract on PubMed.gov here:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997015

You can read the response from the Canadian Sports Massage Association here:

//www.csmta.ca/documents/Response_to_Queens_Study_2009.pdf