As you may or may not know, we have been involved in a research study regarding the effects of massage chair therapy on the physiology of the human body. Dr. Michael Olpin, of the Stress Center at Weber State University, has been accumulating pre and post usage data for quite some time. We are in the process of harvesting all the data and compiling it for publication.
A few months ago, Luraco donated a couple of their iRobotics 7 massage chairs to the study and recently put out some graphs showing recent pre and post effects from patients specifically using their chairs. Here are the results in easy to read graphics:
Dr. Olpin had always told me that the findings were statistically significant, but I am very impressed with how significant those finds truly are.
Massage Chair Research Findings:
- The blood pressure chart shows systolic and diastolic numbers for pre and post massage chair usage. The higher number in both graphs is the systolic number and the lower number is the diastolic number. So, when you see a BP of 120/80, the upper number is systolic and the lower number is diastolic. The average drop in systolic is 4 points, 3 points for diastolic.
- Average heart rate dropped from 76 beats per minute (bpm) to 70 bpm.
- Average stress levels, unrelated to pain, dropped from 4.3 to 2.4. Now, these numbers are on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being max stress and 0 being no stress. These numbers are, of course, subjective, based on the user’s interpretation of their stress, but they are certainly relative and quite telling. Bottom line is that sitting on a massage chair for one session will, on average, drop your stress levels almost in half.
- Stress, related to the intensity and discomfort of pain experienced by the user, dropped almost one half in this study. I assume that the scale is from 0-10 again, but not sure.
This study involved 521 participants, which is a very good sized sampling. It also is a very good indicator of the positive physiological effects of massage, as administered by a robotic massage chair. A very promising study. This is actually the first time that a study of any sort, that I am aware of, has been done to show the positive health benefits of massage therapy administered by a massage chair. There are lots of anecdotal “testimonials” of these benefits, but now we have some hard data to support them, which is great for you analytical, scientific folks out there.
Dr. Alan Weidner
P.S. Give us a “Like”, “Share”, or “+1” and leave me a comment or question below to share what you learned or ask any questions, so other folks can benefit from this material.
