The Science and Chemistry of the Human Touch

I was talking to my massage therapist( Indy)the other day about why I am looking forward joyfully (semi-addiction) to my weekly massage. Indy said, because you feel good because massage releases oxytocin-a feel-good hormone that helps us better deal with stress.. I believe him, but I want to confirm it. So I did some Internet search and here are my readings on the science of human touch💚💚. Note that I have been having weekly massage since last year here at THD💗. Prior to my move here at THD, I had monthly massage ( home service) for the last 3 years in Fair Oaks.      

The article below also discussed our feeling if we are deprived of a human touch.  Here is a summary and for details read the website listed on the bottom of this page.  I have all of the three things that address touch deprivation listed below: massage, pets and weighted blankets.  I have posted articles on all three -massage( weekly) and pets( 2 cats) and weighted blankets💜. https://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-benefits-of-weighted-blankets-for.html💜

THE BASICS

• What Is Depression?
• Take our Depression Test
• Find a therapist to overcome depression

KEY POINTS

• The need for human touch is one of our most basic, primal needs.
• Touch deprivation is correlated with negative health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and immune system disorders.
• Ways to address touch deprivation include massage therapy, pets, and weighted blankets.

Source: AlessandroBiascioli/Shutterstock

Let’s be honest. The past 18 months have not invited a lot of touch. Quarantined at home and isolated from friends, many people have felt a lack of connection both emotionally as well as physically. Hugs and handshaking happen much less frequently now. And although the world is slowly returning to normal, the rise of the Delta variant suggests that social distancing will likely continue to define our social interactions for some time.

Much has been written in the media about the limits that social distancing has placed on single people’s sexual activity. As a human sexuality professor, I hear all about this from my students as well as from myfollowers.What’s largely been missed, though, is a more subtle yet even more fundamental need: the need for human touch.

The Science of Touch

The research demonstrating the need for human touch is vast. From a developmental standpoint, infants literally cannot survive without human touch. Skin-to-skin contact in even in the first hour after birth has been shown to help regulate newborns’ temperature, heart rate, and breathing, and decreases crying (Ferber, Feldman, & Makhoul, 2008). Touch also increases mothers' relaxation hormones and aids in the release of oxytocin. A now-famous study examined the sensory deprivation of children in understaffed orphanages in Romania (Carlson & Earls, 1997). The touch-deprived children, the authors found, had strikingly lower cortisol and growth development levels for their age group.

Harlow’s Monkey experiments (Harlow & Harlow, 1965) are perhaps the most famous example of research pointing at the primacy of the need for touch. In a series of experiments, Harlow created inanimate surrogate mothers for baby monkeys made from wire and wool. Each infant became attached to its particular “mother,” recognizing its unique face and preferring it above others.

Next, Harlow presented the infants with a soft, cuddly clothed "mother" as well as a wire "mother" located in two separate but attached chambers. Only the wire “mother” held a bottle with food. Harlow found that the monkeys spent far more time next snuggled against the cloth “mother” than they spent with the wire “mother” even though the wire “mother” was the only one with food. Food may be necessary for survival, but touch is what sustains us.

Later in his career, Harlow carried out perhaps his most controversial study, by cultivating infant monkeys in isolation chambers for up to 24 months. The infant monkeys emerged from isolation deeply disturbed, a finding of which many credit as having started the animal rights movement.

Since Harlow’s experiments, research has uncovered an astonishing number of poor health outcomes that result when we are deprived of touch. The correlation between anxiety, depression and stress and touch is large and inversely related. It has been found that touch calms our nervous center and slows down our heartbeat. Human touch also lowers blood pressure as well as cortisol, our stress hormone. It also triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone known for promoting emotional bonding to others.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/everyone-on-top/202108/the-vital-importance-of-human-touch

We hold our emotions and feelings, and thus our tensions, inside of us, in our muscles and minds.

Benefits of Massage

Massage is not only useful to release this tension physically, but the physical contact from another human being can actually cause us to release oxytocin, a feel-good hormone that helps us better deal with stress.

University of Miami’s Touch Research Institute has found that touch provides the following benefits, among others:

• Lessening of pain
• Improved pulmonary (lung) function
• Increased growth in infant
• Lowered blood glucose (sugar) level
• Improved immune function to help you fight off illness and infection

Pair those benefits with the well-studied benefits of message, including, but not limited to:

• Reduction of anxiety or depression
• Stress Reduction
• Reduction of pain and muscle tension
• Treatment of digestive disorders, headaches, stress-related insomnia, strains and injuries, and sports injuries
• For Details read: 

https://umwellness.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/the-benefits-of-human-touch-through-massage/

Meanwhile,  here's my photo of my bubblegram cross decor and photo of Macrine( RIP) and myself. 

💚💚

https://theintellectualmigrants.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-benefits-of-my-weekly-whole-body.html💗