Massage therapy can do wonders for almost anybody. It can assist the body in healing soft tissue injuries, reduce muscular pain and tension, and it can calm the nerves causing the entire body to relax. However, there are many medical problems massage as well as medicine cannot cure.

One of these medical problems is Juvenile Arthritis. Eventhough massage therapy cannot cure or even slow the progress of this disease, massage therapy may be used as a function of palliative type care to help the patient’s quality of life. This can be accomplished by relaxing and releasing stiff, taut muscles that inhibit joint movement even further than what the disease does. In other words, arthritis causes joint pain. The joint pain causes muscles around the joint to tighten and become painful. Then, the painful muscles cause other muscles in the vaccinate to tighten and become painful. Before you know it this muscle tension and pain can begin to effect the entire body.
So, while massage cannot do anything about joint pain and stiffness caused by the JA, it can effect the muscles in the area so they have less pain and function less to further inhibit remaining joint movement beyond the limitations already imposed by the arthritis.

Therefore, if you have Juvenile Arthritis try massage therapy as a type of palliative care to help reduce some of your suffering and improve your quality of life.
"Nuff Said"
Ben Gustafson; LMT