In the age of wellness culture and viral health claims, the body's honest response to deep-tissue massage has been dressed in mythology. What practitioners in Seattle and Illinois confirm is this: the soreness, fatigue, and mild headaches some people experience after massage are genuine physiological responses to pressure and inflammation — not evidence of toxins escaping the body. The liver and kidneys have always handled that work, quietly and without ceremony, and no amount of social media storytelling changes the biology.