Massage Therapy Heals Chronic Back Pain A new study has found that massage therapy helps relieve not only chronic low back pain, and also helps a person to function______【51】properly. Researchers conducted a randomised controlled trial to compare ______【52】structural and relaxation (Swedish) massages, and discovered that both types worked well, having only a few side______【53】effects. 'We found that______【54】massage helps people with back pain to function even after six months, ' said Daniel C. Cherkin, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. 'This is important______【55】because chronic back pain is among the most common reasons people see doctors and alternative practitioners, including______【56】massage therapists, ' he added. The trial enrolled 400 Group Health Cooperative patients who ______【57】had low back pain for at least three months. Their pain was 'non - specific, ' meaning with no identified ______【58】cause. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the three treatments______【59】i.e. structural massage, relaxation massage or usual care. Usual care mostly involved medications. The hour - long massage treatments were given weekly______【60】for 10 weeks. It emerged that more than one in three patients who received either type of massage -but only one in 25 patients who got usual care - said their back pain was much better or gone ______【61】. Researchers also observed______【62】that patients in the massage groups spent fewer days in______【63】bed, were more active and used less anti - inflammatory medication than the usual care group. 'As expected with most treatments, the benefits______【64】of massage declined over time. But at six months after the trial started, both types______【65】of massage were still associated with improved function, ' Cherkin said. However, after one year, the benefits of massage were no longer significant. (51)