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A very gentle stretching massage with St John’s wort oil — pleasant and relaxing; it does not rebuild discs.
Also known as: Breuss · Dorn-Breuss · back massage with St John’s wort oil
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The Breuss massage is a very gentle, very slow stretching massage of the back along the spine, named after the Austrian Rudolf Breuss. It works with St John’s wort oil, which sinks in after the stroking; a session typically lasts a little under half an hour and is often given before a Dorn treatment. On the effect it is worth separating two things. What is well established: calm, broad touch relaxes the back muscles, lowers tension and is experienced by most people as very pleasant — that needs no special theory. What there is no research on: the original reasoning, that degenerated intervertebral discs are rebuilt by it. Discs cannot be regenerated by massage; where complaints ease, relaxation is the obvious explanation. Two practical points belong with it. First the oil: St John’s wort makes the skin sensitive to light — sun and sunbed should be avoided for a day or two afterwards. Second the name: from Rudolf Breuss there also comes a forty-two-day juice cure promoted against cancer. That is something entirely different from the massage. No effect against cancer is established, and eating almost nothing for weeks is dangerous in cancer.
Blood thinning, osteoporosis, cortisone over a longer period, a tumour illness, a pregnancy, a pacemaker, a fresh injury. This information changes the approach — and it is only taken into account if it is mentioned.
Four to six sessions are usual, then take stock together: what has changed, what has not, and how would one notice? A fixed checkpoint protects against treatments that simply carry on.
Fever, unintended weight loss, constant pain at night, new weakness or numbness, blood in stool or urine: that belongs looked at by a doctor first, whatever treatment one chooses.
Basic insurance as a rule pays nothing here. Depending on the supplementary insurance and the recognition of the practitioner, part is reimbursed — a phone call beforehand saves surprises.
A short sentence at the start and a second one halfway through are enough. Anyone who grits their teeth tenses up — and then the treatment works against itself.
The massage works with gentle traction along the spine and St John’s wort oil. What it does not do: “regenerate” a disc — from adulthood a disc has almost no blood vessels and feeds by diffusion; it takes up fluid overnight and gives it off during the day, and that exchange depends on movement and unloading, not on a treatment. St John’s wort oil makes the skin sensitive to light — no sun afterwards.
A treatment lasts about thirty to forty-five minutes and is often combined with the Dorn method. A disc takes up fluid overnight and gives it off during the day — which is why a person is about one to two centimetres taller in the morning than in the evening. That exchange depends on unloading and movement. On the method itself there are hardly any published studies; St John’s wort oil makes the skin light-sensitive for about twenty-four hours.
Many describe a marked heaviness and a great need for sleep after the session. It is worth not putting the appointment right before a demanding task.
A temporary strengthening for some hours to two days is often described. If it lasts longer or new complaints appear, that belongs reported back — not sat out.
A feeling of warmth and a light pull along the spine for hours after the gentle, drawing treatment.
St John’s wort oil is used for it. It can make the skin more sensitive to light — after the treatment no sun and no sunbed on the oiled area.
Under blood-thinning treatment bruises and small bleeds occur more easily. That does not speak against the treatment, but it does speak for a gentler execution — and for saying so beforehand.
No blood value measures this treatment. The values listed here stand for caution — they change the approach when they are abnormal.
A drop in circulation with pallor, sweating and nausea occurs almost only on an empty stomach and while sitting. A small bite beforehand and being treated lying down takes the ground from it.
Having drunk enough lessens dizziness and headache afterwards. That water flushes something out afterwards is a description and not a demonstrated effect — it is sensible anyway.
When a treatment works on muscles, tendons or fascia, the recovery needs building material. That holds for every method that concerns the moving apparatus.
Anyone who quickly gets dizzy at every treatment often has an empty iron store. That is no reason against the method, but a pointer worth taking along.
The massage itself is gentle and harmless. What calls for care is the accompanying juice course over several weeks: with diabetes, on blood pressure or water tablets, in pregnancy and while breastfeeding as well as with underweight, such a duration is not harmless. It is a question of weeks, not of the idea.
With longer abstention from solid food sodium, potassium and magnesium fall, and the first signs are dizziness on standing up, calf cramps and heart stumbling. That is the point at which a course belongs medically accompanied — and not the point at which it works particularly well.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
As with any quiet, slow touch: the body’s own opioids and less sympathetic tone. That is the share of the effect that can be measured — statements about spinal discs are not part of it.
The Breuss massage and the 42-day juice fast named after him are two different things. The fast has no proof of effect, and going without solid food for longer than a few days belongs supervised.
The Breuss back massage and the 42-day juice fast named after him are two different things. The massage is gentle and low risk; the fast has no proof of effect at all, and that long without solid food belongs supervised.