>Our HV is keen on doing some research on baby massage and immunity. MEDLINE
>has only one small reference on it. Anyone know otherwise?
>
>
'scuse my cynical streak, but I suspect this may be another scientific way
of proving that mom & apple pie are "good".
baby massage is generally seen to be "a good thing", as it is drug-free, and
gives parents something usefulish and possibly comforting to do whilst thier
infant grizzles the small hours away.
boost immunity is also seen to be a good thing. Look along the shelves of
your average health food shop (or read the cards advertising alternative
therapies in the shop window), and they all claim to boost immunity. Now
how do we prove this is so?, or otherwise?
As I remember it there are all these white cells floating all over the
place, and just when you get to grips with T-cells and B-cells and killer
cells and macrophages. Then someone invents ways of re-classifying them as
mucosa-associated lymphoid sub-circlation, and give them all sorts of
suffices and prefixes. Not to mention all the immunoregulatory modifying
messengers such as interleukin and tumor necrosis factor and all the
hismamine and blah blah. Imagine having a print out of the serum values of
all that to wade through after a busy morning surgery.
And what will we say to our health visitor or parents of the colicky child?
(thinks - yikes this is terribly complicated) yup, it seems to be boosting
the immunity all right.
Greetings from Gisborne NZ Tom James
not always a knocker of plausible wholistic theories, typing with one hand
whilst I massage my daughter's tummy (clockwise) with the other.
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