Therapy Without Diagnosis

WHAT I know is that people who provide massage services have been called masseur (if male) and masseuse (if female). But lately, particularly here in Cebu, personnel providing these spa services have been renamed as “massage therapists” or “spa therapists.” Well, if we have to be correct with the word “therapy,” we must know that it is meant to effect a “cure.” A physician cannot treat an unknown disease.

Yet Europe has been prescribing spa therapy for knee osteoarthritis. In 2007 alone, 403,381 French patients received spa therapy for rheumatism, without recommendation from the European League Against Rheumatism. Well, seven French scientists sought to find out if spa therapy really works. Will spa therapy improve the effects of standard treatment on osteoarthritis? (Read more.)

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 29 September 2010.

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