NCCAM Grant: UM Studies Massage Therapy Effects on HIV+ Children
The
National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine awarded
University of
Miami’s Professor Gail Shor-Posner a research grant to study the effects of
massage therapy on HIV-positive children in the
Dominican Republic.
The three-year study, which concluded this summer, aimed to “evaluate the impact of massage therapy on immune recovery…and investigate a potential neuroimmune mechanism of massage action.” Prof. Shor-Posner reported that preliminary findings from the NCCAM grant “indicate that massage therapy has a significant impact on markers of disease progression (T lymphocyte numbers) in HIV+ Dominican children without access to antiretrovirals, and may have the potential to alter the course of HIV disease.”
Across the globe more than 3.2 million children are currently living with HIV/AIDS; 5.6 million children have already died from the widespread epidemic. Shor-Posner’s long term goals in studying massage therapy as an effective alternative medicine is to establish “rigorous scientific evidence” proving the positive effects of CAM therapies for patients suffering from weak immune systems.