No one likes being sick, and massages may help prevent sickness like the cold or the flu by increasing your immune response. “Researchers working with patients with compromised immune systems have found massage therapy can improve how the immune system functions,” Jeff Smoot, President of the American Massage Therapy Association, said in a press statement. “Those same benefits translate to people seeking to fight off the common cold, flu, and other seasonal illnesses.”
A 2001 study in the International Journal of Neuroscience looked at adolescents who were immunocompromised because of HIV who received massage therapy twice a week for 12 weeks. The findings reported more significant mental health and increased immune responses in the adolescents receiving massage therapy than muscle relaxation therapy
In adults, a 2010 study found that receiving one Swedish massage increased several proteins involved in fighting infection. Two years later, the same researchers reported a study finding increased production of proteins associated with the immune system when people received a massage once or twice a week for five weeks.
