We all perform some type of massage. It is a natural response to rub out aches and pains whether or not we are familiar with the medical knowledge behind our actions.

Manuscripts found dating back to the 2nd century B.C. discuse massage as on of the various methods of treating illnesses.

The Greek physician Herodicus of the 5th century B.C. prolonged the lives of many of his patients with diet, exercise, and massage using beneficial herbs and oils.

The Romans acquired the practice of therapeutic bathing and massage from the Greeks. The Romans built public baths that were available to rich and poor alike. A brisk rubdown with fragrant oils could be enjoyed following the bath. The art of massage was highly respected as a treatment for the weak and diseased conditions and as an aid in removing stiffness and soreness from muscles. 

Even Julius Gaius Caesar, Roman general and Emperor of Rome (100-44 B.C.) is said to have demanded his daily massage for the relief of neuralgia and prevention of epileptic attacks.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, beginning around 180 A.D., the popularity of bathing and massage also declined. The Roman emperor Constantine (228-337 A.D.) who converted to Christianity, abolished and destroyed the baths and gymnasiums because of the widespread abuses of a sexual nature.

By the sixteenth century, medical practitoners began to reinvent and employ massage as part of their healing treatments. In the sisteenth, seventeenth, and eightteenth centuries literature from the English, French, German, and Italian authors re-established massage as a preferred scientific practice for the maintenance of health and the treatment of disease.

Frictions, manipulations, anointing, bathing, and exercise were regarded as important tools in the medical armament. These subjects were taught in institutions of higher learning to physicians and other practitioners of the healing practice.

The era of modern massage began in the early 19th century were a wide variety of Authors were advocating massage and developing their own systems. One of the most important is the Ling system. The Ling system primary focus was on gymnastics

Massage was introduced to the United States in 1858 when Charles Fayette Taylor a New York physician introduced these techniques. These techniques became known as The Swedish Movement Cure..

Throughout Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, therapeutic exercises, massage, and baths were recommended by physicians for the restoration and maintenance of health. These physicians believed that massage helped the body rid itself of toxins, relieved such ailments as rheumatism, and promoted the healthy functioning of all body systems.

The beginning of the twentieth century brought with a decline in the scientific and medical use of massage. There were several reasons for this decline. The increasing popularity of massage in the nineteenth century precipitated an increase in not only qualified practitioners and schools but also lay practitioners and unscrupulous schools and practitioners.

As a result, graduates were unqualified or incompetent and in debt to the school. To repay the debt, students and graduates would work in clinics that would offer poor massage and often become no more than houses of prostition. Other abuses include false certification. The  reputation of massage was scandalized among physicians and the general public alike.

Technical and intellectual advances in medicine developed new treatment strategies based more on pharmacology and surgical procedures. The old idea of treating disease through diet, exercise, and bathing gave way to more sophisticated practices of modern medicine. Physicians no longer learned massage as a part of their training, nor did they employ trained therapists. Massages place in nursing eroded to no more than the administering of a back rub.

Throughout history a kind of massage or hands-on healing has been practiced by laypeople or commoners. It was often practiced by folk healers and midwives as was passed on as an art and a gift. A body of knowledge was never established, so techniques were lost and rediscovered through the ages.