Massage therapy is synonymous with spas and physiotherapy, which are relatively new-fangled inventions. It can, therefore, be tempting to think that massage therapy is a novel treatment. However, massage therapy is one of the oldest strategies for pain relief:

• Massage therapy dates back for more than 5 000 years. Massage was first practiced in ancient India, where it was considered a sacred natural healing practice. Used by Hindus in Ayurveda, it was passed from generation to generation as a method to relieve pain, treat injuries and cure diseases. It spread from ancient India to China, Egypt and Japan.
• Massage therapy spread to the Greek and Roman empires. Massage spread to Greece from ancient Egypt. In Greece, athletes used to massage their bodies before competitions. Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine, treated injuries with a type of massage called friction.
• Massage lost its popularity only to regain it later. The prevalence of massage in the western world decreased until the seventeenth century as new scientific discoveries were made about medicine. In 1800, a Swedish doctor called Per Henrik Ling revived massage with his invention of the Swedish Movement Cure to relieve chronic pain. This method later became what is known today as Swedish massage.