Unusual Things Your Massage Therapist Secretly Notices About You
Ever wonder what your massage therapist is noticing about you during your massage? It’s likely not what you think. Many people worry that their massage therapist is noticing the extra weight they put on after the holiday or their unshaven legs or their cracked heels and dry skin. OK, yes, sometimes we therapists notice those things, but there is no judgement involved. We are observing in the interest of your health. Most of the time, we are looking far deeper at muscles and postural patterns. But we notice a lot more than you think. Here are a few more unusual things we might be noticing:
Your eyebrows: There’s something called Queen Anne’s Sign that we sometimes notice. It’s a thinning of the outer third of your eyebrow. That, in conjunction with other things like dry skin, cold hands, fatigue, among other things, can indicate an issue with your thyroid and we might refer you to your doc to get checked out.
Your ears: If you have a horizontal crease across your earlobe, it is associated with a 73% greater risk of heart disease than someone who does not have the crease. It is not a definitive sign, only a correlation, but it is worth having a cardiologist checkup just to be sure.
Your chin and nose alignment: Because we’re in a different vantage point at the head of the table when we work on your neck, we can tell the habitual head tilt you had as a kid. Your chin and nose will have a very slight deviation to one side or the other and give us a clue to habitual postural patterns.
The density of your tissue: We are constantly assessing the density and “stuckness” of your muscles and skin. There is a particular quality that tissue takes on in chronically dehydrated people. That, in addition to dry skin and complaints of joint aches may have us asking you about your water intake. Half your body weight in ounces is the general rule.
Scars: We look at scars as disruptions in the fascial field, that is, little dams, barriers and walls in the smooth field of your connective tissue. Scars have an interesting way of distorting posture and nerve conduction in people, and will even create a negative self-image for some people. When we free up scar tissue and surrounding fascia, we are sometimes able to alleviate pain, correct postural patterns, free up restricted motion and even restore a positive body image by getting people in touch with a forgotten part of themselves. Many people who have come in stating that their scar feels foreign to them, will often state after getting scar work done that their scar feels more integrated and that they don’t think about it anymore.
Tattoos: Yes, we think some of your tattoos are really interesting, but more than that, we consider tattoos another form of scar tissue with the added complication that some inks may contain heavy metals. There was a case of a woman who had a cyst that turned out to be filled with tattoo ink. Her body had wisely walled off a substance that it considered foreign. In some people with large, heavily inked tattoos, we sometimes see restriction in the tissue which can interfere with easy movement and proper posture.
Your skin overall: We are in a unique position to see moles and other things going on with your skin that you may not ever become aware of yourself (since it is unlikely you can see your own back!). We look for the ABCDE signs of irregularity in moles that may indicate skin cancer (Asymmetry, irregular Borders and Color, Diameter larger than a pencil eraser, and Evolution or how it is changing over time) and we will refer you to a dermatologist for evaluation. Occasionally, during the warmer months, we have been known to pull off ticks that have hitched a ride on an unwitting client! One nifty trick we use to get them to release their hold on you is to put a little peppermint or oregano oil on them. The strength of these oils is helpful in encouraging these bugs to let go.
Next time you see your massage therapist, think of us as an extra set of eyes on your health and well-being. We’re here to support you.
