There may be another way to deal with aches and pains other than drugs. It is currently believed that the bodily process that happens with anti-inflammatory drugs, also happen during a massage. While there has been many studies on the feel good affects of massage, research on the physiological factors are relatively new. 

Scientists from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario conducted a study revealing the scientific affect that massage has on pain, at a cellular level.  The study genetically analyzed the leg muscles of 11 young males after exercising on a bicycle to exhaustion. One leg of each participant was randomly chosen to be massaged. Biopsies of both legs were taken before, 10 minutes after being massage, and 2.5 hours after recovery.

The results clearly show that on a cellular level massage reduces inflammation and promotes growth of new mitochondria in the skeletal muscle. This shows that massage helps reduce pain by reducing inflammation and stimulates the essential mitochondria to assist muscle growth and healing.

This goes to show that massages are not only good for relaxing and feeling good, but could have a substantial positive effect on chronic inflammatory diseases too.

Massage has always been seen and accepted as a common healing tool in complimentary and alternative medicine.  Studies such as these help facilitate the understanding of massage and pave the way for its acceptance in the medical realm.