I've seen advertisements for naturopathic massage, with claims of health benefits that apply to a wide range of conditions and diseases. Is a naturopathic massage significantly different from a regular one, and does the difference lead to significant benefits?
2 Answers
Naturopathic philosophy favors a holistic approach, so naturopathic massage is kind of holistic massage. It's rather approach than method, so shouldn't be anything else than regular massage + scents, fancy oils and music.
The body has this capacity to heal itself if given the right conditions and naturopathy, along with acupuncture, homoeopathy, herbal medicine, and most other holistic modalities subscribes to this basic understanding of the body’s own innate intelligence.*
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1-1 for citing an obviously biased link (the only support it seems to have is "someone wrote a book about it once"). Jan 15, 2012 at 20:50
Most benefits are either from the massage itself, or the placebo effect. Same as with chiropracty: it tends to do some good (anyone who has ever had a good massage can attest), however some practitioners claim that it can cure everything from bad breath to cancer, and that is completely unsupported.