Thermomechanical Massage Devices used in China and South Korea: A Preliminary Report of Health Outcomes and Side Effects

Purpose: To provide a preliminary evaluation of health out- comes for a type of thermomechanical massage device used in Asia, Middle East, and Europe and now in the United States. The device under study is manufactured by Migun Medical In- struments International (Taejeon, Korea) and has an estimated usage of 24-35 million client-sessions per year worldwide. Methods: findings were obtained from unpublished clinical evaluations of 76 patients (47 female, 29 male; age 16-78 years) across four hospitals in China, and a survey of 238 clients from a Migun demonstration center in Seoul, Korea. Findings: Health professionals in the four Chinese hospitals rated thermomechanical massage as effective among 75-95% of their patients with a variety of musculoskeletal, gastrointes- tinal, neurological and other disorders. Similarly, 91% of cli- ents from the Migun demonstration center in Seoul reported an improvement of 91% overall. The most common health prob- lems of the clients were musculoskeletal (40%), gastrointesti- nal (20%), and nervous system (14%). There were also side effects reported; the most common involved the gastrointesti- nal (15/41), integumentary (12/41), musculoskeletal (5/41), nervous system symptoms (5/41), urogenital and endocrine systems (2/41), cardiovascular system (1/41), and respiratory (1/41) systems. Side effects were generally mild in severity and short term in duration. Conclusions: Although these findings are preliminary, and based upon limited clinical evaluations and self-reported client data, they suggest that thermomechanical devices may offer major health benefits with moderate numbers of relatively mi- nor side-effects. The next phase of the research will be to con- firm these findings in a large, representative sample of thermomechanical massage clients using a new standardized self-reported health and wellness survey before initiating fur- ther studies to assess effectiveness of the device under con- trolled clinical conditions.