LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV)- The CDC recommends massage treatment for pain and as an alternative to opioids.
Massage therapist at Arkansas Healing Arts, Drew Pickens, said massage therapy relaxes the body and mind.
“Massage reduces stress and it can help to lower blood pressure and it also promotes muscle relaxation,” he said.
Pickens said any alternate route to opioids will help with the opioid epidemic the country faces.
“Opioids as we're learning is not really affective in curing the underlying causes of pains and I think massage is really good at that,” he said.
He also feels insurance should start covering massages.
“I think that would increase the possibility that people in pain would use massage as a treatment rather than get drugs,” Pickens said.
Professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at UAMS, Dr. Robert Hopkins, said opioids are usually the last option he tries to use for most of his patients and adding more options is always a better way to attack things.
“Generally I start with things that have a little stronger physical evidence first, things like physical therapy and medications that are not opiates or potentially addictive. Sometimes I use muscle relaxants and sometimes I refer to my colleagues in physical medicine and rehabilitation,” he said.
He said his goal is to help people function in day to day life and sometimes it takes time and a lot of trial and error.
“If something is a chronic condition, it's very difficult to expect that it's going to be completely resolved with short term interventions in particular,” he said.
To help cut down on the opioid epidemic, Healing Hearts is offering $10 off massages for anyone with chronic pain who schedules an appointment and mentions THV11.