massage

[dparham75]

My wife is in massage therapy school and she is learning a lot, but her concerns for me is that they have been told that its not wise to give a kidney patient a massage because the massage releases a lot of toxins into the body. My question is does anyone know if it will be possible for me to receive a massage when I start dialysis or will I have to watch my wife's work from a distance? Lol! Just a question. Thank you for any answers.

[billybags]

  dparham75, This is the first time I have heard of this, what no massage. I am always massaging my husband, he says it relaxes him. Takes his mind off his problems, mind it is only a very gentle massage.

[dparham75]

My wife has performed a few on me and after these treatments my creatin levels was very high. Well I was really hoping its just me but I needed to hear other opinions, thank-you Billy for the response, she won't practice on me anymore until we start dialysis because she thinks that at that time my blood will be cleansed of all the bad toxins.

[SteveK87]

 I too am curious about this.  My theory would be that massaging before or during dialysis would help get the toxins moving around and help rid the body of them from the dialysis pulling them off.  I have no facts to back anything up though so if anyone has some input feel free.

[MooseMom]

dparham75, I think your wife may be right.  I found this link that may interest you.

http://massage-pathology-chronicles.com/2010/08/19/renal-failure/

The last sentence pretty much says it all.

If you google "kidney disease+massage", you'll come up with some links to more information; I didn't have time to look at everything.  There are different kinds of massages, and perhaps there is a gentler kind that would be good for you.  I believe that massage is very good for relieving stress, and Lord knows we all live with a LOT of stress, so I'd hate to think that we could never benefit from some form of massage. 

My husband gave me a gift certificate for a facial for Christmas, and I visited with the facialist before I made an appt.  When she started talking about one type of facial and massage that would "release toxins", I told her about my CKD and said that THAT probably wouldn't be a good idea.  So, she modified her technique.  But that's just a facial, not a full body massage.  We have to be so careful about EVERYTHING...it's very frustrating.

Maybe your wife could ask her instructor what WOULD be beneficial to a kidney patient.  I'd love to know.

[boswife]

My theroy/thoughts have been (and i hope im right) that doing massage during treatment is a good thing.  I massage his feet to knees every treatment to ease the 'sitting' there pains and to hopfully get the toxins moving so they can be sucked out.  I can attest to one thing about this.  His feet were black when he started D and during his in center time.  Since he's been home, he's gotton the massage treatment and his feet and legs are back to normal color.  People/family ALWAYS comment on them now as they were horrified at the looks of them before.  His neph even got a puzzled look and kept flipping them around looking for the blackness..  Sooooo, i would think 'pre' D, would be dangerious, but if your able to get the toxins moving and out shortly after Massage should be good???

[dparham75]

Moosemom I would like to thank you for the information, and we have look at most of the.sites and they pretty much say the same thing. Our next step is to discuss this with my pcp and my nephr. to see what he may say about it. I'm just hoping I can tack advantage of my wifes abilities, believe me the times that she did them on me I felt like a new.man. just after the massage my creatin was elevated so we stopped. Thanks again. 

[MooseMom]

Promise me that after you've talked to your docs, you will come back and post what they said.  Massage is a great stress reliever, so it would be great if they have some recommendations.  I wouldn't count on it, though...docs don't usually think outside the box in these sorts of situations. 

Do you think that something more limited like reflexology would be helpful? 

[SteveK87]

My wife just talked to her nephr and he said there's nothing wrong with doing massages.

[MooseMom]

My wife just talked to her nephr and he said there's nothing wrong with doing massages.

I wonder what her neph imagines when he thinks "massage".  Is he envisaging deep tissue massage, ie Swedish massage or something a bit more gentle? 

Here's a link to a good article from the University of Maryland Medical Center in which they describe different kinds of massage.  Unfortunately, they also specifically say that people with kidney failure should avoid it.  But they probably have to say that to keep from getting sued.  I still think that there is probably some kind of massage that wouldn't be harmful for a renal patient, maybe a "compassionate massage" like what is described in this article.

[Restorer]

Lymphatic massage should help get fluids out of the tissues and into the bloodstream where they can be removed by dialysis. I bet getting a leg massage during dialysis would prevent cramps very well!

I can see how deep tissue massage might increase creatinine because you're working the muscles hard. It might be best to only do that shortly before dialysis, so the extra toxins get removed from your blood.

[MooseMom]

I decided to ask Dr. Agar over on Home dialysis central, and here's the link to his reply...

http://forums.homedialysis.org/threads/3316-Kidney-disease-and-massage?p=22102#post22102

[dparham75]

Thank you all for the information, my wife and I, after we speak with my nephr. will probably just wait until after I actually start D before we continue this pleasing process. She doesn't like being the cause of me getting sicker in a faster rate than what I have.  Again thank you for the info.

[del]

Hubby is on dialysis  and he does have massage therapy on his back. He has not had any issues.

[MooseMom]

For anyone who is interested, there is a module on alternative therapies, including massage, over at Kidney School:

http://kidneyschool.org/m15/1/