The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) regularly conducts surveys to track the use of Massage Therapy. Some highlights of the 2005 survey are:

• Between Aug '04 and Jul '05, approximately 47 million American adults received a massage--2 million more than the previous year.

• 40% of women have had a massage in the past five years as compared to 28% of men having had a massage during the same timeframe.

• 32% of adult Americans who received a massage in the past 5 years did so for medical purposes, such as muscle soreness/spasm, injury recovery/rehabilitation, and pain relief.

• 26% of consumers who had a massage in the past 5 years did so for relaxation and stress relief.

The health benefits of massage therapy have begun to be studied in depth, with recent studies associating massage with substantial improvement of symptoms in cancer patients. Massage therapy has also been shown to be effective in:

• Soothing chronic back pain better than other complementary therapies
• Boosting the functioning of the bodies immune system
• Decreasing the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Reducing anxiety and lowering blood pressure
• Easing post-operative pain
• Reducing the frequency of headaches
• Easing symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol and other chemical dependencies
• Decreasing pain and anxiety in hospitalized cancer patients