# Toxins released from massage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582 "2010-03-24T04:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/41 "2010-03-26T18:49:46Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Tell me about it. The university I work for has not one, not two, but THREE classes on _“Healing Touch”_. :rolleyes: Are you under the impression that massage does not have positive benefits? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/42 "2010-03-26T18:54:42Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Are you under the impression that massage does not have positive benefits? “Healing Touch” isn’t a massage…Hell, it’s not even touching! “Healing Touch” is when someone just places their hands near you and waves them around. Seriously. And they claim it actualy does something. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/43 "2010-03-26T19:11:09Z")
Is “Healing Touch” the same as “Therapeutic Touch”? > [@RaftPeople](#): > > Are you under the impression that massage does not have positive benefits? The positive benefit that I’m aware of is that it feels good. Is there anything else? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/44 "2010-03-26T20:45:24Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > “Healing Touch” isn’t a massage…Hell, it’s not even touching! “Healing Touch” is when someone just places their hands near you and waves them around. Seriously. And they claim it actualy does something. Oh. I thought that was just another name for massage. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/45 "2010-03-26T20:59:43Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Is “Healing Touch” the same as “Therapeutic Touch”? > > The positive benefit that I’m aware of is that it feels good. Is there anything else? Pain management, scar tissue reduction, muscle range of motion issues. There is actually a lot going on in the body during/due to massage. Before this thread I had no idea, but after a bunch of googling into medical and research sites/articles I found the following effects: increase in mast cells, histamine release, increased blood flow, release/production? of beta endorphins, increased delta waves in the brain (which, according to wiki, doesn’t actually sound good), and a whole bunch of other stuff. (Note: I am not a doctor, didn’t stay at a holiday inn last night, but have been googling a bunch because it’s interesting). ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/46 "2010-03-26T21:00:37Z")
My understanding is that the only ways the human body eliminates “toxins” are through the liver and kidney–going out in the urine. (Maybe through breath, I don’t know.) After all, how _else_ could they get out? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/47 "2010-03-26T21:15:23Z")
I’ve wondered about this myself, so I did a little research. I’m not really into doing any more myself, but if you want to continue, I recommend [pubmed.com](http://pubmed.com), a free, very comprehensive source of academic health articles hosted by the NIH. Anyway, searching “massage lactic acide” yielded the abstract of a paper (I doubt I’d be able to make much sense out of the whole paper anyway) that seems to conclude that massage actually _impedes_ the release of lactic acid from the muscles, at least following exercise. (I’m not sure if it would be different in other situations.) [Link.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997015) P.S. I love massages. I don’t care about toxins or whatever. They’re awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/48 "2010-03-27T21:31:46Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I sure hope that is free range lavender goat pee. Nah. Once you let goat pee go free range, it’s impossible to get it back in the bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582/49 "2010-03-28T16:42:13Z")
So-called “therapeutic touch” is a form of “energy healing”, and while some nurses have gotten into performing it in hospitals, it is placebo nonsense at best, [quackery at worst.](http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/tt.html) > [@jackdavinci](#): > > So he says massage can clear muscle byproducts…is that not toxins released from massage? Normal muscle metabolism and effects of massage are not synonymous. There is no indication from that source (or demonstrated in the scientific literature to my knowledge) that massage does anything unusual as far as affecting muscle metabolism or releasing “toxins”. > [@](#): > > So he goes on to advocate drinking water… I don’t see where he says that water consumption has to be increased following massage. > [@](#): > > I guess where people have a problem is where New Age frou-frou folk are claiming that not just muscle metabolic toxins, but also general toxins from the urban lifestyle are also getting stored in muscles and released during massage? Is this correct? If so, what is the current scientific alternative consensus on what happens with toxins of modern life? #&%_(\_\__ Sorry, I had a momentary brain scramble on reading the words “scientific alternative consensus”. 🙂 Yes, alties/new age/frou-frou folk are all wound up about toxins of various horrific sorts pervading our bodies, and have quasi-religious beliefs about the sources and means of elimination of said toxins (which are not all that different from the beliefs of our forebears who went in heavily for enemas/colonic irrigation - practices that are often followed these days too). Again, it’s necessary to identify a substance(s) as 1) actually being a toxin, 2) being toxic in the amounts encountered in everyday life, 3) showing that the substance is removed from the body by massage, supplements, or whatever woo the alties are promoting, and 4) that you gain some demonstrable health benefit as a result. Alties virtually never are capable of fulfilling these requirements. > [@](#): > > Also, what is the scientific consensus on why massage feels good, and why it tends to feel better after adequate hydration? The laying on of hands is often therapeutic (at least temporarily) or just feels good. And you do tend to feel better when you’re adequately hydrated as opposed to being dehydrated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxins-released-from-massage/533582.md?page=2)