BARBARA KLEIN: A new study suggests that massage may work on the cellular level in a way similar to pain medicines like aspirin. Mark Tarnopolsky is a professor of pediatric medicine at McMaster University in Canada. He led a study that attempted to find a biological explanation for the healing properties of massage.

Professor Tarnopolsky and his team studied eleven young men. They exercised on stationary bicycles. All the exercise made the young men very tired, although the bikes never left the room.

BOB DOUGHTY: The men had muscle biopsies in each leg before biking. A small piece of muscle tissue was removed for future testing. Each subject then had one leg massaged after exercise. Another piece of muscle tissue was taken from each leg ten minutes after the end of the massage. More muscle tissue was removed again two and a half hours later during the recovery period.

Professor Tarnopolsky says his team did a genetic study of each of the tissue samples.

MARK TARNOPOLSKY: ”What we did is we looked at whatever genes were influenced by exercise in a different way in the massaged versus the non-massaged leg. And what came out of that were two different pathways.”

BARBARA KLEIN: In the tissue of the massaged leg, researchers found a decrease in inflammatory cytokines, or proteins. They also found an increase in mitochondria, compared to tissue from the unmassaged leg. Mitochondria are the energy-producing parts of cells.