The Magic of Your Touch. Health
Benefits of Touching Proven for Infants, the
Elderly and Those In Between
Tiffany M.
Field, PhD
Touch
Research Institute, April 29,
2008, Special from Bottom Line's Daily
Health News
For
centuries, mothers have instinctively known it
works -- pick up young children and they'll stop
crying... gently rub babies' backs and it's off to
dreamland they go. Now scientists are also coming
to recognize the power of touch -- and not just
touch therapies such as reflexology, but simple
acts such as giving a backrub, holding hands,
sharing a hug or putting your arm around someone.
With research demonstrating the healing power of
touch, more hospitals are incorporating massage
programs into care protocols for cancer and
cardiovascular patients, among others.
Tiffany
Field,
PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute at
the University of Miami School of Medicine, has
studied the benefits of touch for many years. Her
book, Touch, reviews medical and
sociological research on the importance of touch
to good health and also argues that the Western
world, including the medical profession, has
marginalized and minimized its importance. When I
called her to discuss her work, Dr. Field told me
that many forms of touch can help reduce pain,
anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior...
promote immune function and healing... lower heart
rate and blood pressure... and improve air flow in
asthmatics. All this, and no drug side effects!
THE
VITAL IMPORTANCE OF TOUCH
Previous research has suggested that touch
deprivation leads to aggression and violent
behavior in animals, so it was no surprise when
Dr. Field shared her concerns that living in our
largely touch-deprived Western society can have
negative consequences. It was these concerns that
led researchers at the Touch Research Institute to
examine how touch is treated differently in two
cities with very different cultures -- Miami and
Paris.
In
one study, published in Early Child
Development and Care in 1999, Dr. Field and
her colleagues measured how much affectionate
touch preschoolers received from their parents on
playgrounds and also the children's level of
aggressive behavior. In Paris, they found there
was more touch toward peers and parents by
children and less aggression. In a separate study,
researchers also observed that French adolescents
-- raised with more affectionate touch -- were
more affectionate and less physically and verbally
aggressive with one another than American
adolescents. This association does not imply or
prove causation, but does make a case for closer
examination with further research.
REACH
OUT AND TOUCH
Dr. Field explained that the benefits of touch
seem to stem largely from its ability to reduce
levels of cortisol
(hydrocortisone), a stress hormone manufactured by
the adrenal glands. This was measured in two dozen
studies. She said that touching with moderate
-pressure (a firm handshake) stimulates activity
in the vagus
nerve (nervus vagus), one of
the 12 cranial nerves in the brain, which in turn
slows the heart and decreases the production of
stress hormones including cortisol
(hydrocortisone).
Other
studies
published from the Touch Research Institute
demonstrate that touch contributes to:
Decreased pain. Children with
mild to moderate juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
who were given massages by their parents 15
minutes per day for one month experienced less
anxiety and lower cortisol levels. Over a 30-day
period, parents, kids and their physicians
reported less pain overall in the children.
Enhanced
immune function. In studies,
women with breast cancer and HIV patients showed
a measurable increase in natural killer cells --
part of a line of defense in the immune system
against virus-infected cells and cancer cells --
after massage. They also experienced less
anxiety and depression.
Happier,
healthier babies. Preemies who
were touched more while in the NICU gained more
weight.
Less labor
pain. Women in labor who received a
backrub the first 15 minutes of every hour of
labor reported less pain and made fewer requests
for pain medications. Their labor was also
shorter, on average.
Enhanced alertness and performance. Following
massage,
adults completed math problems in significantly
less time and with fewer errors.
TOUCH IS
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL
Touching is good for the giver as well as the
recipient, says Dr. Field. She cites a study in
which 20 children with leukemia were given daily
massages by their parents. After one month, the
parents' depressed moods decreased, and the
children's white blood cell and neutrophil
counts increased. In another study of elderly
volunteers who were trained to give massages to
infants, Dr. Field found that after three weeks
the seniors experienced improved mood with less
anxiety or depression, decreased levels of
stress hormones and more social contacts and
fewer doctor visits.
GET
IN TOUCH
Touch comes more naturally to some people than
others. You can make a conscious effort to bring
more touch into your daily life -- and more
happiness to yourself and those around you. Give
your kids hugs when they leave for school in the
morning and when they come home. Hold your
partner's hand when you take a walk, exchange back
rubs and don't forget good-night kisses.
Pet
your dog or cat. Schedule a few sessions with a
professional massage therapist and pay attention
to what feels especially good -- then try it at
home on one another. Relax and enjoy.
Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the
Touch Research Institute at the University of
Miami School of Medicine in Florida. Copyright ©
2009 by Boardroom Inc
Human
Connections Start With A Friendly Touch
by Michelle
Trudeau
Social
scientists
have shown in many studies over the years that
supportive touch can have good outcomes in a
number of different realms. Consider the following
examples: If a teacher touches a student on the
back or arm, that student is more likely to
participate in class. The more athletes high-five
or hug their teammates, the better their game. A
touch can make patients like their doctors more.
If you touch a bus driver, he's more likely to let
you on for free. If a waitress touches the arm or
shoulder of a customer, she may get a larger tip.
But
why does a friendly or supportive touch have such
universal and positive effects? What's happening
in our brains and bodies that accounts for this
magic?
SKIN
DEEP?
To understand this, we'll start
on the outside — with the skin. It's our largest
organ, covering about 20 square feet, which is
about the size of a twin mattress.
If
somebody touches you, there's pressure pushing on
your skin at the point of contact. And just under
the skin are pressure receptors called "Pacinian corpuscles," says
Dr. Tiffany Field, one of the world's leading
touch researchers and the director of the Touch
Research Institute at the University of Miami in
Florida. "They receive pressure stimulation,"
Field says, "and the pressure receptors send a
signal to the brain."
The
Pacinian corpuscles' signals go directly to an
important nerve bundle deep in the brain called
the vagus
nerve. The vagus sometimes is called
"the wanderer" because it has branches that wander
throughout the body to several internal organs,
including the heart. And it's the vagus nerve that
then slows the heart down and decreases blood
pressure.
Field
describes studies in which subjects were asked to
perform something stressful, like public speaking
or taking a timed math test. The subjects'
partners were also part of the experiment, hugging
or holding hands with the subjects when the
researchers told them to.
"They
found that, in fact, people who were given this
stressful task, if they'd been holding hands or
being hugged, they would have a lower blood
pressure and lower heart rate, suggesting that
they were less stressed," Field says.
IMPACT
ON STRESS
Hand-holding
or
hugging also results in a decrease of the stress
hormone cortisol
(hydrocortisone), says Dr.Matt
Hertenstein, an experimental psychologist at
DePauw University in Indiana. "Having this
friendly touch, just somebody simply touching our
arm and holding it, buffers the physiological
consequences of this stressful response,"
Hertenstein says. n addition to calming us down
and reducing our stress response, a friendly touch
also increases release of the oxytocin
— also called the "cuddle hormone" — which affects
trust behaviors. "Oxytocin is a neuropeptide,
which basically promotes feelings of devotion,
trust and bonding," Dr. Hertenstein says.
Oxytocin levels go up with holding hands, hugging
— and especially with therapeutic massage. The
cuddle hormone makes us feel close to one another.
"It really lays the biological foundation and
structure for connecting to other people," Dr.
Hertenstein says.
JUST
LIKE CHOCOLATE
Besides
engendering
feelings
of closeness, being touched is also pleasant. We
usually want more. So what's going on in the brain
that accounts for these feelings?
Dr.
Hertenstein says recent studies from England
pinpointed an area in the brain that becomes
highly activated in response to friendly touch.
It's a region called the orbital
frontal cortex located just above your
eyes. It's the same area that responds to sweet
tastes and pleasing smells. "A soft touch on the
arm makes the orbital frontal cortex light up,
just like those other rewarding stimuli,"
Dr. Hertenstein says. "So, touch is a very
powerful rewarding stimulus — just like your
chocolate that you find in your cupboard at home."
The
surging of oxytocin makes you
feel more trusting and connected. And the cascade
of electrical impulses slows your heart and lowers
your blood pressure, making you feel less stressed
and more soothed. Remarkably, this complex surge
of events in the brain and body are all initiated
by a simple, supportive touch.
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