Are there health benefits from traditional massage therapy? I used to get a massage in China once in a while, but when I went for one here in the USA the place was full of homeopathy, mineral spays and other junk. It is almost enough to put me off the whole practice. So I was wondering: Is there any well-researched benefit to massage apart from a nice relaxing time? Or is any pain relief, etc. simply a placebo effect?

The Cochrane collaboration has performed a number of meta-analysis on the claimed benefits of massage therapy.

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In the case of lower back pain massage might be beneficial for patients with subacute (lasting four to 12 weeks) and chronic (lasting longer than 12 weeks) non-specific low-back pain, especially when combined with exercises and education.

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No firm conclusions can be drawn looking at neck pain.

There are a number of other reviews exploring the issue however it is difficult to answer this question fully as what is considered "traditional" massage will vary from culture to culture and country to country.

For some types of massage there will be effective pain relief and for others there will not.