Ah, the healing powers of a good massage!  Massage therapy is probably the best known and most widely utilized form of complementary or alternative medicine that there is. Massage is frequently used by physical therapists (and is even sometimes 
recommended by physicians) to help speed the healing time of muscles and joints after an injury or certain types of surgery. It is also often recommended to help manage chronic pain. Massage may also be beneficial for other chronic conditions such as depression, diabetes, high blood pressure and infertility, for example.  More and more insurance companies are covering, at least in part, the cost of massage therapy sessions, noting that the stress reduction and relaxation that are the result of a good massage will ultimately lead to less illness and disease. 

Oddly enough, the vast majority of us that have ever had a massage have probably all had the same type, a Swedish massage.  Swedish massage is the most common form used in the Western world, though other forms are gaining rapidly in popularity.  All together, there are over 80 types of massage therapy and if you combine massage with other types of bodywork, the number surpasses 200!  I don't plan on covering all of them (I'm not even sure if I could find out what ALL of them are) but I will be introducing you to a number of them over the next few days.  Tomorrow I will start with the familiar Swedish massage and tell you about its origins and some of its variations.  Stay tuned!