Monday, May 8
A diabetes support group meets the second Monday of each month at 9 a.m. Bell House Senior Center conference room. For more information, call the center at 859.278.6072.
Thursday, May 11
The Hearing Loss Association of America Lexington Chapter meeting will be held Thursday, May 11 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Eastside Branch of the Lexington Public Library. The organization is a self-help organization dedicated to education, advocacy and support for people who do not hear well. They offer emotional support, camaraderie, tips and techniques for living with hearing loss, and technical information about hearing assistance devices. The meetings are free and open to the public. Presentations are made by audiologists, doctors, professors, therapists, trainers, specialists, and others with hearing loss knowledge. Info, www.hlaa-ky.org/lexington.
Thursday, May 18
Learn about the compassionate care and expertise Baptist Health Lexington provides cancer patients.
Baptist Health will sponsor “All About You,” free popcorn and a movie, at Cinemark Fayette Mall. Registration is required. Seating is limited. Info, 859.260.6592 or visit BaptistHealth.com/ Lexington. doctors, professors, therapists
UK researcher purports massage therapy benefits for back pain
By Elizabeth Adams
University of Kentucky Family and Community Medicine researcher William Elder and collaborators at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis have published a study supporting the application of clinical massage therapy to alleviate lower back pain in primary care clinics.
The results from the Kentucky Pain Research and Outcomes Study appeared in the March edition of the journal Pain Medicine. The researchers tested the effectiveness of massage therapy intervention to reduce pain and disability and improve quality of life in patients with chronic lower back pain. Kentucky primary care physicians referred patients with chronic lower back pain to a licensed community massage therapist, and study participants were evaluated after 12 weeks and after 10 massage therapy sessions, as well as at a 24-month follow-up appointment. At 12 weeks through the intervention, 75 percent of participants experienced improvement in physical and cognitive measures. The study also showed participants experienced meaningful improvement at the 24-week time point.
In addition, the study showed that adults 49 and older benefited from massage therapy more than younger adults. Elder said the results fill in a gap of medical literature showing the real-world effects of massage therapy as an alternative to pharmacologic therapies for lower back pain.
“Our study generated convincing evidence that massage may be used as a beneficial therapy for sufferers of lower back pain,” Elder said. “With a high prevalence of lower back pain across the nation, our study responds to the need for effective complementary therapies that can be disseminated through a primary care setting.”
Elder collaborated with co-author Niki Munk, a licensed massage therapists and health sciences researcher at the University of Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis.
