As a massage therapist you are in one of the few professions that physically touches a person on perhaps 90 percent of their skin. A doctor or nurse does not do this, a physical therapist doesn\u2019t either. This is a great responsibility and an opportunity to provide not only healthy touch that helps with all the things you learned about in school \u2013 such as circulation improvement, toxin elimination and stress reduction \u2013 but in keeping the skin healthy as well.<\/p>\n
What most people call skin is made up of three main layers: the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis.<\/p>\n
On an average sized person the skin covers a total area of about 20 square feet, and is the largest organ in the body. It not only acts as protection against germs, but protects us against external elements, helps to regulate internal temperature and enables us to feel the sensations of hot, cold and various degrees of touch.<\/p>\n
The skin is somewhat resistant to external intrusion, but it is not impermeable; it is semi-permeable. That is, it does let in certain substances. A thin coating of sebum (a waxy, oily substance produced by the body) helps to keep many things out as well as moisture in. But certain things, like massage lubricants, can penetrate and nourish the skin.<\/p>\n
To put it bluntly, massage therapists are sometimes the only person to see the client naked. Maybe not all at once, but you do see almost the whole body as the draping is moved around during a session. Unless a person is extremely flexible, a human being cannot get a good view of certain areas of his or her own body either. No matter how well you twist and turn, or try to look in a mirror, the views of the back and neck are difficult, if not impossible, to see well. This goes for backs of arms and legs, too. The average person is also not educated as to what to look for when it comes to skin health.<\/p>\n
A massage therapist cannot diagnose. It is well beyond the scope of practice as defined by most state laws. What a massage therapist can do is advise a client to see his or her primary care physician or other healthcare professional if there is a concern.<\/p>\n
If you have taken pathology classes, you will be familiar with signs of such things as skin cancer, psoriasis, bull\u2019s eye rashes or fungal infections. A massage therapist can also usually tell the difference between the occasional bruise from an accidental bump versus bruises caused by domestic abuse. (In some jurisdictions a massage therapist may be considered a mandated reporter when it comes to abuse; check with your local massage board or other regulating authority.)<\/p>\n
When it comes to seeing some abnormality on the skin, don\u2019t diagnose, but don\u2019t keep silent. As the saying goes, \u201cIf you see something, say something.\u201d Just don\u2019t scare your client. Instead, just tell the person that perhaps he or she should see the physician and have the area looked at. You can also have brochures available in your office as handouts with information on skin health.<\/p>\n
Advanced Anatomy and Pathology<\/a> Massage therapy can be a tool for helping educate clients with regard to things like signs of skin cancer or other skin anomalies that may affect or reflect their overall health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4133,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/4133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSkin Pathologies<\/a>
\nSkin Pathologies II<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"