Massage Chairs - It's Time

Massage chairs have helped millions of people feel better, and live happier lives, and its time that insurance companies took notice. Massage chairs are proven to have medical benefits, and millions of people buy them every year to treat everything from garden variety back pain, to fibromyalgia to arthritis. All of these massage chairs are purchased without the benefit of health insurance, however, and that is wrong. It's time insurance companies starting recognizing the healing power of massage chairs.

Massage chair therapy costs about $1.25 per massage, over the life of a high quality massage chair. Every year, insurance companies and entitlement programs like Medicare spend billions on expensive prescription drugs and dangerous surgeries related to back problems, and they completely forego the healing potential of a massage chair. Study after study demonstrates that preventive treatment can go a long way toward preventing disease, and preventive treatment is exactly what a massage chair represents. When you use a massage chair to manage tight muscles, for example, you are less likely to rupture a spinal disc, a common injury for older people. Surgery for an injury like that costs easily twice as much as even the most expensive massage chair.

Massage chairs are gaining some attention recently from the medical industry. Many chiropractors already recommend them, and the evidence for their efficacy is building. In Europe and Asia, massage chairs have long been accepted as legitimate medical devices. They provide deep tissue massage, and the best massage chairs can even stretch the spine, a treatment that used to require a chiropractor. For too long, we've been investing our money poorly. As your mother said, "a stitch in time saves nine." Maybe that saying should be "a massage in time saves spine." It's time to stop throwing money, especially public money, down the drain on drastic surgeries and dangerous drugs. Its time that the medical industry made funding available for the new generation of massage chairs.