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Simple Human Touch Can Make a Huge Difference

By HERWriter
 
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Emotional Health related image Photo: Getty Images

As science continues to look into how the human body works, more empirical evidence surfaces validating the role human touch has on not only infant emotional and physiological development, but also on adults.

Unfortunately, many people take any reference to human touch as meaning something sexual. Leading and experienced massage therapists are swimming upstream against such perceptions and promoting massage therapy as a method of treatment for many things, and as part of normal human interaction.

How Does Touch Work?

Simply put, touch from a trusted source relaxes us. Touch reduces stress hormone levels and increases the amount of endorphins resulting in minimized perception of pain and reducing the “fight or flight” response associated with the hypothalamic region of the brain.

In the 1980s, the importance of touch in infant development went mainstream when the conditions in Romanian orphanages were broadcast to the world revealing emaciated and socially withdrawn and underdeveloped children.

Since then, science has worked to show how strongly a baby’s growth is linked to bonding and human touch. “Children who are touched, caressed and held lovingly by their parents tend to develop into healthier and happier adults. Massage for infants helps them to gain weight faster, develop motor skills, relax muscles and reduce spasms and pain…[Touch]…stimulates nerves in the brain that improve absorption of food and improve rapid weight gain…lowers stress levels that improves immune system functions” (www.livestrong.com). When babies’ stress levels are reduced they sleep deeper and longer and soothes pain.

Pre-term babies who are massaged daily gain nearly 50 percent more weight and are discharged from the hospital one week earlier than those who did not received massage therapy.

Touch is not Just for Babies

But the benefits of touch go beyond infants.

A study in 1998 on elderly adults with degenerative arthritis discovered that touch therapy improved pain, tension, moods, satisfaction and hand function. “Research conducted at St. Margaret Memorial Hospital in Pittsburgh showed that…“therapeutic touch”…stimulate(s) the body’s energy field similar to acupuncture .

Below are some findings based on case studies conducted by the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami:

“Seventeen aggressive adolescents were randomly assigned to a massage therapy group or a relaxation therapy group to receive 20-minutes therapy sessions, twice a week for five weeks. The massaged adolescents had lower anxiety after the first and last sessions. By the end of the study, they also reported feeling less hostile and they were perceived by their parents as being less aggressive.”

“Women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa were given a massage twice per week for five weeks or standard treatment. The massaged women reported lower stress and anxiety levels and showed lower cortisol levels immediately following the massage. Over the five-week treatment period, they also reported decreased body dissatisfaction on the Eating Disorder Inventory and showed increased dopamine and norepinephrine levels.” Dopamine regulates movement and emotion; norepinephine regulates blood pressure as well as the metabolization of sugar and fats, and relaxation of the bronchial tubes.

“Thirty-two children with asthma (16 4- to 8-year-olds and 16 9- to 14-year-olds) were randomly assigned to receive either massage therapy or relaxation therapy. The children’s parents were taught to provide one therapy or the other for 20 minutes before bedtime each night for 30 days. The younger children…showed an immediate decrease in behavioral anxiety and cortisol levels…their attitude toward asthma and their peak air flow and other pulmonary functions improved over the course of the study. The older children…reported lower anxiety…but only one measure of pulmonary function (forced expiratory flow 25 to 75 percent) improved. The reason for the smaller therapeutic benefit in the older children is unknown….”

“Twenty-eight adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were provided either massage therapy or relaxation therapy for 10 consecutive school days. The massage therapy group, but no the relaxation therapy group rated themselves as happier and observers rated them as fidgeting less following the sessions. After the 2-week period, their teachers reported more time on task and assigned them lower hyperactivity scores based on classroom behavior.”

“Thirty adults with controlled hypertension (for at least six months) were randomly assigned to either a massage therapy group or a progressive relaxation group. Those in the massage group were given twice-weekly 30-minute massage sessions for five weeks. Participants in the progressive muscle relaxation group received instructions on completing self-administered, twice-weekly 30-minute exercises for five weeks. Results showed that while both groups had lower anxiety levels (STAI) and lower levels of depression (CES-D), only the massage therapy group showed decreases in sitting diastolic and systolic blood pressure; decreases in salivary and urinary cortisol stress-hormone levels; and lower scores for depression, anxiety and hostility.”

Sources: Beliefnet.com (www.beliefnet.com); www.livestrong.com; Vanderbilt University Medical Center (www.mc.vanderbilt.edu); The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami (www6.miami.edu); Dictionary.com (www.dictionary.com)

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.

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