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Americans had “Pac-Man Fever” as far back as 1981 but it has taken until now for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to officially recognise that playing video games too often could be a mental health disorder.

The WHO is planning to add the term “Gaming Disorder” to its official list of diseases in 2018, according to a draft of the organisation’s 2018 International Classification of Diseases.

The WHO’s description of Gaming Disorder says that those who are afflicted are characterised by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour, either on digital devices like smartphones or video-gaming offline on machines. 

According to the WHO’s description you may have a problem if your symptoms include impaired control over gaming — you just cannot stop playing. Right now you are jonesing for a round of “Horizon: Zero Dawn”, “Assassin’s Creed: Origins” or “Star Wars: Battlefront II”, that millions are playing at this very second and you feel left out. This could be a red flag.

Or, you give an increased priority to playing video games to the point they take precedence over other life interests and daily activities like eating and sleeping and socialising.

And, the continuation and escalation of gaming continues even after you suffer negative consequences like getting fired for playing on company time or you keep losing relationships because you just are not present.

The WHO’s classification means that doctors and insurance companies can recognise Gaming Disorder as a disease.

The WHO’s clinical description does not include prevention or treatment options.

But Forbes suggests you can self-diagnose by asking yourself the same questions people use to detect alcohol addiction. Just swap the word “alcohol” for “gaming”. If you identify strongly with the four questions you may have a problem and are advised to try to cut down:

— Have you ever felt you should cut down on your gaming?

— Have people annoyed you by criticising your gaming?

— Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your gaming?

— Are video games usually the first thing you think about in the morning when you wake up?

If taking more vitamin and mineral supplements is part of your plan for a healthier new year, a new study may prompt you to reconsider.

Researchers who scoured the medical literature for evidence that calcium and vitamin D pills could help prevent bone fractures came up empty.

Their analysis focused on adults older than age 50 who lived on their own (that is, not in a nursing home or other type of residential care facility). Fractures are a serious health concern for this population — previous studies have found that about 40 per cent of women in this age group will wind up with at least one “major osteoporotic fracture” at some point in their lives, and that among adults who break a hip, 20 per cent died within a year of their injury.

The researchers, led by Dr Jia-Guo Zhao of Tianjin Hospital in northeastern China, combed through clinical trials, systematic reviews and other reports published in the last decade, since late 2006. They identified 51,145 people who were included in studies assessing the role of calcium and/or vitamin D in preventing bone fractures.

Their findings appear in Tuesday’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among the 14 trials that pitted calcium supplements against either a placebo or no treatment, there was no statistically significant relationship between use of the mineral (in pill form) and the risk of suffering a hip fracture. Nor was there any clear link between calcium supplements and fractures involving the spine or other bones.

Even when the researchers accounted for each study participant’s gender, past history of bone fractures, the amount of calcium they consumed in their diets and the dose of the calcium pills they took (if they did), there was still no sign that supplements were helpful.

An additional 17 trials examined the role of vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium. Once again, they found no statistically significant link between supplement use and hip fracture risk. Ditto for fractures in the spine and elsewhere.

Upon drilling down to certain subgroups, they found that for people who started out with at least 20 nanogrammes of vitamin D per millilitre of blood, adding more vitamin D through supplements was associated with a greater risk of hip fractures. The same was true for people who took high doses of vitamin D supplements just once a year.

Finally, there were 13 trials involving people who took a combined calcium-vitamin D supplement. As before, there was no statistically significant link between supplement use and the risk for any kind of fracture or combination of fractures. That held up even when accounting for gender, past fractures, supplement dose, dietary calcium or baseline blood levels of vitamin D.

The researchers noted that thousands of people in this final group were participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in the US Earlier reports based on data gathered by the Women’s Health Initiative found that calcium and vitamin D supplements were associated with a lower risk of fractures, but only for women who took hormone therapy after menopause. To get a clearer picture of the direct link (if any) between supplements and fracture risk, Zhao and his colleagues opted not to include data from women on hormone therapy.

It is still possible that calcium and vitamin D supplements are useful for people who live in nursing homes or other residential facilities, the study authors wrote. Such people are more likely to have osteoporosis, due to a combination of poor diet, less sun exposure (which the body needs to synthesise vitamin D) and other factors.

But for older adults who live on their own, they wrote, the results are clear: “These findings do not support the routine use of these supplements.”

Older adults are more likely to die on days when air pollution rises, even when contaminant levels are below the limit considered safe by US regulators, a new study suggests. 

Researchers looked at 22 million deaths nationwide to see if there was any connection between fatalities and fluctuations in daily concentrations of ozone, an unstable form of oxygen produced when pollution reacts with sunlight, and so-called PM 2.5, tiny particles that include dust, dirt, soot and smoke. 

Most of the deaths in the study occurred on days when ozone and PM 2.5 levels were below the limits set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Previous studies have linked air pollution to an increased risk of chronic health problems and premature death, but those studies focused on cities, said study co-author Joel Schwartz of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

“So we did not know if the same association held in small cities, towns, or rural areas, where pollution levels are lower,” Schwartz said by e-mail. “Now we have them all, so we know that it does apply everywhere, not just in big cities.” 

The study focused on deaths from 2000 to 2012 for people in more than 39,000 ZIP codes nationwide who were insured by Medicare, the US health programme for the elderly and disabled. 

Researchers compared satellite data on daily PM 2.5 and ozone levels on the days people died in specific ZIP codes to air quality levels on another day within a week or two of each fatality. 

EPA standards cap 24-hour PM 2.5 at 35 micrograms per cubic metre of air (ug/m3) and 8-hour ozone at 70 parts per billion (ppb). 

During all of the days examined in the study, 94 per cent had PM 2.5 levels below 25 ug/m3, and 95 per cent of the deaths occurred on these days, the study found. 

At the same time, 91 per cent of the days examined had ozone levels below 60 ppb, and 93 per cent of the deaths occurred on these days. 

Even when air quality still met EPA standards, each 10 ug/m3 daily increase in PM 2.5 levels was associated with an increase of 1.42 deaths per day for every million people, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Each 10 ppb increase in daily ozone levels was associated with 0.66 more deaths for every million people. 

The increased risk of death associated with daily spikes in PM 2.5 and ozone levels persisted even when researchers restricted their analysis to days when the air quality complied with EPA standards. 

Among other things, breathing polluted air can worsen existing respiratory conditions, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, said Griffith Bell, a researcher at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Beyond a lack of data on young people, another limitation of the study is the lack of data on the long-term air pollution exposure, the authors note. 

Still, people should be aware of the health effects of air pollution even when they do not live in urban areas where traffic and smog may be well-known health risks, said Junfeng Zhang, author of accompanying editorial and an environmental health researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. 

Are add-ons a good thing or are they just a burden that slow down your computer or your smartphone?

Adding third party filters and special effects to Photoshop, installing an ad blocker to Google’s Chrome Internet browser, adding an anti-virus programme to Windows, these are typical examples of add-ons. So are TrueCaller, Speedtest and tens of similar apps for smartphones. 

Add-on software usually consists of a small piece of application you add to a larger, a main one, to compensate for its eventual shortcomings or simply to add some functionality, some extra features to it. One may ask why such features were not integrated in the first place by the maker of the bigger, of the main product.

Integrating every possible functionality in a software product is unrealistic, given the infinite possibilities. This is where add-ons come. Third party developers think of something to add to an existing, a major software application, giving this way users the choice to add it or not.

The countless small apps you install in your smartphone’s Apple iOS or Android OS are nothing but add-ons. Understandably smartphone makers cannot think of every single possibility, and even if they did, it would be a non-sense to overload the device with a large number of add-ons of which you would only like to have only a fraction.

So add-ons are convenient, but they are anything but a perfect solution. You have to install them, to maintain them, and because they were not designed and coded by the maker of the main system, they tend to slow it down. Still, they remain the main method for adding features to existing programmes.

However, evolution often intervenes and changes an add-on that has become very popular into a built-in function. One of the most famous examples is that of Windows Defender Security, Microsoft’s own anti-virus that comes built in Windows 10. Before it one had to buy and install a third-party anti-virus.

The need for an anti-virus had become vital and the company decided that having it integrated in its operating system would spare the consumers the trouble and expense to install a third party add-on anti-virus. Ever since its inception Microsoft Defender Security has proven to be a success story in the world of software.

The latest smart evolution of add-ons is the ad-blocker that works in Google’s Chrome browser and prevents annoying ads from spoiling your browsing pleasure. Until now you had to search, find and install such a product, adding it to Chrome. The most popular to this date has been Adblock Plus by German software developer Eyeo. It is an efficient, convenient piece of software that brings you peace of mind and clean pages when browsing with Chrome. It is still an add-on with its load of trouble!

Google now seems on its way to making a version of Chrome that has its own, built-in ad blocker. It would certainly come as a convenient feature and will save users the trouble to buy a third party product, such as Adblock Plus. Would it be as good as the latter? It’s too early to say, for the new Chrome will not be available before February 15, 2018, as it has just been announced. However, one thing is certain, the built-in ad-blocker and Adblock Plus won’t do exactly the same thing.

The first will keep away ads that do not comply with Google’s standard of advertising ethics and rules, ads that are too invasive and frankly annoying. Which means that some ads will still find their way to the pages you are browsing.

Adblock Plus on the other hands block all ads, if you set it to do that, showing you only the original contents of the website you are browsing. It will therefore be convenience versus full performance. Consumers will have a choice and it is a good thing, for whereas Chrome has been always hailed as the fastest browser, its excessive permeability to ads has been often criticised. The new version with the built-in ad blocker should please and satisfy many a user.

First-year college students who have gardening experience eat more fruits and vegetables while they’re away at school compared with peers who do not have green thumbs, US researchers say. 

The more gardening experience the college freshmen had, the greater their intake of produce, the study also found. Those who had gardened both during childhood and more recently ate 20 per cent more servings of fruits and vegetables than classmates who had never gardened. 

“The first year of college represents a major shift in independence for many young adults,” said senior study author Anne Mathews of the University of Florida in Gainesville. 

“Most are moving from a home where food is provided and a daily schedule is pretty well set... to a life where they are now in charge of every single decision about food throughout the day,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Mathews and colleagues analysed data from more than 1,100 college freshmen at eight US universities. The students answered questionnaires about their fruit and vegetable intake, and also about their gardening experience, including even small plants in pots, such as herbs, that can be grown on a windowsill. 

The researchers found that 11 per cent of students had gardened only during childhood, 19 per cent had gardened only more recently, 20 per cent gardened both during childhood and recently and 49 per cent had never gardened. 

On average, students who gardened as children and in the 12 months prior to the study ate about 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per day versus 1.9 cups for those who had never gardened.

In addition, recent gardeners who reported gardening weekly ate close to 3 cups of greens, while those who gardened monthly averaged 2.4 cups.

Mathews noted that having childhood experience with gardening is not enough. Students needed to carry the practice into their college years to continue good habits. 

“We know that overall diet quality worsens when students begin college and that includes eating fewer fruits and vegetables,” Mathews said. “We also know that behaviours set during this phase of life tend to carry into adulthood.” 

While recruiting participants, the study team screened more than 5,000 students and found that 85 per cent of this group did not eat the recommended two fruit and three vegetable servings per day. This indicates that a large majority of high school seniors probably are not meeting the recommendation either, the authors note in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 

“The first year of college is a very unique time in a person’s life,” said Mateja Savoie Roskos, a community nutrition researcher at Utah State University in Logan, who was not involved in the study. 

“Many first-year college students experience weight gain often stemming from sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary patterns,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Future studies should look at additional factors that influence fruit and vegetable habits, she said. 

At the eight universities in this study, several include ways for students to get involved with gardening experience on campus, Savoie Roskos noted. For example, the University of Florida has a Field and Fork Garden and Food Pantry, where students can volunteer to grow food, and some of the food is donated to the campus food pantry.

She said she would also like to know how gardening experience can change from childhood through college.

“Getting children involved with gardening at an early age is vital to influencing food choices early in life,” she said. “Children enjoy being part of the process from planting, weeding and watering to harvesting and cooking.”

As the year draws to a close, I find myself in an ancient church in a small sleepy town of Portugal. It is Christmas Day, and people of the adjoining villages have gathered in the house of worship, to listen to the pastor’s sermon that is delivered in a deep baritone.

The wail of a small infant rents the air, but nobody pays any attention to it. The spiritual proceedings continue and I get carried away with the sombreness of it all, even though I do not understand a word of what is being said. My Portuguese is still restricted to “Bom Dia — good morning” and “Obrigada — thank you”, which means that I can only decipher the initial greeting of the chaplain, and the concluding one.

But when the Hallelujah hymn is sung, I join in the chorus, modulating my voice to blend in with the other singers. An elderly lady who is kneeling in the pew beside me, nods her approval, making me marvel at the flexibility of her limbs. “I don’t think I would be able to even sit on a wooden bench when I reach her age, leave alone kneel down in front of it,” says the voice in my head.

To seem a part of the alien sounding congregation, I start reading the plaque hanging on the wall. To my amazement, I discover that this Gothic style 13th century cathedral is actually built over a mosque! It was rebuilt by an Italian neo-classicist following earthquake damage 500 years later, retaining some original elements — namely, the main doorway, two side chapels and the Arabic style windows in the clock tower. The clergyman’s service continues as I am awed by the karmic significance of the building we are all huddled inside. If history had played out differently, the consequences would have been quite unlike what I was witnessing today.

What strikes me, when I am in the midst of such spirituality, is the futility of fighting over religion because ultimately all doctrines teach the same thing. Like Swami Vivekananda — an Indian Hindu monk who is credited with raising interfaith awareness — said in his address to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in the year 1893, “as the different streams all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee”. The Dalai Lama also says that “every major religious tradition carries identical messages of love, tolerance and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be a part of our daily lives”.

Right! In a Christian church which was once an Islamic mosque, hearing the voice of a Portuguese cleric on the day that Jesus Christ was born, I have thoughts of Hindu and Buddhist preachers running through my head. The compassionate teachings of the nuns in my school must be responsible for my secular foundation.

As I join my hands in prayer, the events of the last twelve months, flash in my mind’s eye. They have enough suspense, drama, comedy and tragedy to sustain a full length Bollywood movie. Only the songs are missing.

“Which ones?” my husband asks.

I realise I have spoken aloud.

“Jingle Bells?” he prompts when I don’t answer.

“Or Silent Night?” he suggests.

On cue the singers start the Christmas carol.

“Round yon Virgin Mother and Child,” they croon in English.

“Holy infant so tender and mild,” I find my voice. 

“Sleep in heavenly peace,” we sing together. 

SHANGHAI — Once the mark of criminals or sex workers, for centuries tattoos have been stigmatised in China but the growing influence of celebrity culture is changing all that — particularly for women.

Nowhere is the trend more evident than in Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city and recently dubbed “China’s tattoo mecca” by the country’s state media.

Body art for women has long been frowned upon in socially conservative China, but studios are mushrooming throughout the city of 24 million.

Zhuo Danting, widely considered one of China’s top tattoo artists, has witnessed first-hand how the industry has exploded.

The 35-year-old has 70 per cent of her body tattooed and has been operating her own Shanghai studio for 11 years.

Inspired by celebrities and sports stars, unprecedented numbers of mostly younger Chinese are getting inked, Zhuo said at her shop, Shanghai Tattoo.

“At the beginning, of course, they just give you a weird look, they’re freaking out,” Zhuo, who also has multiple piercings and dyed green hair, said of the reaction she gets on the street.

“But now there are a lot of people getting tattoos, it’s getting more and more popular. People see them everywhere so they don’t see it as a big deal,” she added.

Zhuo, who got her first tattoo at 16 and has inked both her parents, is originally from Harbin, a city in China’s far north.

There is a growing body art scene there too, she said.

“There is a lot of change. Before, not many people get tattoos. They thought that people with tattoos, that person must have been in jail or you are a bad person.

“Now it’s a cool thing, to represent yourself as different.”

In imperial times, convicts were sometimes tattooed as a lifelong reminder of their crimes, and tattoos later were used by Chinese triads to signify gang loyalties.

But Zhuo said attitudes towards women with tattoos have changed rapidly in the last three years, and the Chinese are increasingly experimenting with their body art.

“Before, when you saw a woman with a tattoo, it was usually just a small one,” she explained, adding: “But now you can see everywhere that they are having full sleeves, or chest, or full back.”

Wang Qi, a web designer, is about to have Zhuo tattoo her already heavily inked right leg.

The 29-year-old has several body designs, including an hour glass to remind her of the preciousness of time, and a sailboat and lighthouse inspired by her love of the sea, as wells as tattoos of a snake’s head and a crocodile’s eye.

Her latest inking: the Chinese characters for her grandmother’s name on the inside of her thigh.

“Ten years ago, only 10 per cent of people could accept women doing this. But now at least 60 to 70 per cent of people can,” Wang said, while adding that quality can vary widely.

The trend has spawned extreme examples, including a couple in northeastern China who covered themselves in patriotic artwork, including a Chinese flag on the man’s face.

Reliable figures are elusive, but Hu Deliang, former head of the China Association of Tattoo Artists, estimates there are about 200,000 such artists in the country.

The Shanghai tattooist said women now account for at least 60 per cent of his customers.

“Back in 2002, only about 20 per cent were female and most of them worked as escorts in nightclubs or that kind of industry,” Hu said.

China’s increasing prosperity, meanwhile, means more women now can afford tattoos, which can cost thousands of yuan (hundreds of dollars) and previously would have been considered an unjustified splurge.

Peng Lin, who has the Italian phrase “La vita e bella” (Life is beautiful) among her three tattoos, is one of the few in her circle of women friends with a tattoo, but many are considering it, she said.

“Before, people may think women getting tattoos is sort of off-the-mainstream behaviour, but now they all appreciate them when they found out that tattoos can be pretty and artsy,” said Peng, 31, who works in advertising in Shanghai.

Tattoos are still frowned upon in government positions and at many companies, however, while some women complain that their husbands or partners object.

“Even now people are judging, they don’t think that people should get big tattoos, especially women,” said Zhuo, who has tattoos across both sides of her scalp.

“Still, people think it’s more acceptable for men to get a tattoo than women and some get smaller ones to hide it from older family members or work.”

 Zhuo said lack of official oversight makes it “too easy” to open a parlour. She often sees customers who ask her to fix shoddy work done elsewhere.

“Sometimes I can see some good work, but not much. The per centage of good tattoos is quite low right now,” she said.

“Tattoo is still a new thing in China. A lot of new people become tattoo artists pretty soon, but there’s still a lot to learn.”

Disney-Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is showing plenty of force at mulitplexes worldwide with $745.4 million globally as of Sunday.

The North American take has hit $365 million in its first 10 days as of Sunday with the studio projecting another $32 million on Christmas Day on Monday — making it the third highest domestic release in 2017 following “Beauty and the Beast” with $504 million and “Wonder Woman” at $412 million.

“Stars Wars: The Last Jedi” has totalled $380.3 million in international box office. It is already the top grossing film of 2017 in both Denmark and Sweden, and the fourth highest grosser in the overall European market. The UK is the top market with $67.4 million, followed by Germany with $40 million, France with $29.3 million and Australia with $26.9 million.

“The Last Jedi”, which picks up following the events of 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, is so far the 87th highest worldwide grosser of all time, trailing 2016’s “Suicide Squad” by $1.4 million. Rian Johnson directed with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o and Domhnall Gleeson reprising their roles. It’s the final screen role for Fisher, who died a year ago.

Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 3” have also opened solidly while Fox’s “The Greatest Showman” is drawing respectably at the domestic box office. But moviegoers are showing little interest in Paramount’s “Downsizing” and Warner Bros.-Alcon’s “Father Figures”.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opened with the second-largest North American launch ever in its first weekend with $220 million. It faced competition for the first time on December 20, with Sony’s action comedy “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”, which is leading the rest of the pack with $34 million at 3,765 sites for Friday-Sunday and a six-day total of around $64 million.

Josh Greenstein, Sony’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution, pointed to the A- CinemaScore as an indication that “Jumanji” is attracting all demographics. “We have incredible momentum as we go into the biggest moviegoing week of the year,” he added.

“Jumanji” also opened solidly with $49.5 million in 53 international markets, finishing ahead of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in 28 territories. Its top performance came in the UK with a second-place finish at $10.1 million including previews.

Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 3” took in $20.5 million at 3,447 theatres and is on track for $27 million by the end of the four-day period. The threequel brought back the Bellas singing group with Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp and Hana Mae Lee reprising their roles. “Pitch Perfect 3”also opened with $9.8 million in 14 international markets.

Hugh Jackman’s “The Greatest Showman”, a musical take on circus founder P.T. Barnum, grossed $8.6 million at 3,006 venues during Friday-Sunday. The movie, produced by Chernin Entertainment, opened on December 20 and is on track to take in about $18 million in its first six days.

“Downsizing” took in a quiet $4.6 million at 2,558 theatres in its Friday-Sunday debut and should finish four-day frame with $6.2 million. Paramount paid $65 million for the near-future comedy in which Matt Damon agrees to be shrunk to 12cm in exchange for a better life. Audiences were unimpressed, giving the film a C CinemaScore.

“Father Figures” grossed a tepid $3.2 million at 3,902 theatres during Friday-Sunday and should add about $1 million on Monday. The film follows brothers — played by Owen Wilson and Ed Helms — who set out to find their biological father.

“The Post”, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, dazzled with $495,000 at nine sites for Friday-Sunday. Fox will go wide with the journalism drama on January 12.

Light massage can reduce pain, anxiety and the need for opioid medication in terminally ill patients, a Swedish study suggests. 

“All end-of-life patients experience existential pain or existential suffering,” coauthor Linda Bjorkhem-Bergman told Reuters Health. “This pain is difficult to treat pharmacologically and complementary methods, such as massage, provide an alternative.” 

Bergman and colleagues studied 41 hospice patients who received tactile massage of the hands, feet and/or back, depending upon the individual’s preference. Tactile massage is a type of light massage that does not involve deep tissue penetration. 

During their stay in hospice, patients received an average of three treatments lasting 15 to 45 minutes. Afterward, their perceived pain, well-being and anxiety decreased by approximately 2 points on a 10-point scale, indicating an improvement. The effect was obvious after the first session and persisted after later treatments, researchers found. 

Furthermore, patients requested just half their typical “rescue dose” medication in the 24 hours following the superficial touch therapy, according to the report in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. 

Rescue doses are “extra” doses of pain or anxiolytic medication given over and above one’s typical dosage. 

But why massage to just the hands, feet and back? 

“It’s probably the stimulation of the more sensitive receptors in these areas of the skin that release positive hormones,” Bergman continues in an e-mail. 

The chief hormone released, oxytocin, is known to stimulate feelings of well-being and comfort, while cortisol and nitric oxide, both considered “stress” hormones that increase blood pressure and heart rate, are inhibited. 

There were no adverse effects among patients in the present study, but the authors advise against tactile massage in people with terminal heart failure. 

“It could be a risk factor because it might cause blood pressure to decrease even further,” says Bergman. 

Healthcare cost is always an issue, regardless of treatment type. Asked if tactile massage might be a financially superior method to help palliative patients cope compared to standard pharmaceutical approaches, experts say, unfortunately, no. 

“Morphine and other opioids are so cheap and therapists’ time is expensive,” Bergman said. 

Still, “massage therapy can be an effective therapeutic modality that may be helpful... in cases where patients desire a more natural approach,” said JD Elder, a licensed massage therapist and Coordinator of Complementary Therapies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. 

An observational study such as this one can’t prove that tactile massage caused pain to ease. However, Elder said in an e-mail, “We are tactile creatures and it’s the intent and delivery of the touch that matters. Massage therapists use their knowledge of anatomy to guide how they touch in a specific way for a specific intent say, to comfort or for rehabilitation.”