In 1997 there were an estimated 114 million visits to massage therapists in the US. Massage therapy is the most used type of complementary and alternative medicine in hospitals in the United States.
People state that they use massage because they believe that it relieves pain from musculoskeletal injuries and other causes of pain, reduces stress and enhances relaxation, rehabilitates sports injuries, decreases feelings of anxiety and depression, and increases general well being.
In a poll of 25-35 year olds 79% said they would like their health insurance plan to cover massage.
Companies that offer massage to their employees include Allstate, Best Buy, Cisco Systems, FedEx, Gannett (which runs USA Today), General Electric, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, JC Penney, Kimberly-Clark, Texas Instruments and Yahoo!. In 2006 Duke University Health System opened up a center to integrate medical disciplines with CAM disciplines such as massage therapy and acupuncture.
There were 15,500 spas in the United States in 2007 with about a third of the visitors being men.
The number of visits rose from 91 million in 1999 to 136 million in 2003, generating a revenue that equals $11 billion.
