Happy Friday!

I babysat for my two month old goddaughter (I am one of 3 ‘goddess godmammas’ to this sweet girl!) for the first time recently. It had been a while since I had the responsibility of keeping a little being happy and feeling safe. The moment I put her down, she let me know that was NOT ok. I had forgotten that babies love – need – touch, especially newborns. Touch is essential to their development and wellbeing. Incidentally, touch is important for people of all ages and there is a wealth of research showing that regular, consistent touch can reduce the incidence of disease and the severity of its symptoms.

Unfortunately, in our world today (especially in the U.S.), social media is how we connect which means less face-to-face, in-the-flesh interaction. To be clear, when I refer to touching in this article, I’m referring to the friendly socially acceptable kind of touch – pat on the back, covering a friend’s hand with one’s own – not the unwelcome Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein variety. Had to make that clear. Touch is a touchy subject these days.

oh baby

Many of us have heard bits and pieces of that story about a king who had ordered that a group of babies not be touched, held or spoken to for a time – just basic needs met- and most or all of them died. I could not verify that the tale is true but there is plenty of modern day research proving that babies do in fact require touch to grow and thrive.

From Dr. David Linden, a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in his book, Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind  – “If you don’t get touch right after you’re born, all kinds of terrible things happen, and not just cognitive and emotional,” said Linden. “Your immune system doesn’t develop properly, your digestive system tends to have problems — there’s a whole rack of health problems that can develop if you don’t receive touch in early life.” Researchers at Touch Research Institute (TRI) at the University of Miami reported that preterm newborns who received touch therapy in the first week or two of life gained almost 50% more weight than preterm newborns who just received standard treatment. Other studies found that full term infants who received massage were less irritable and slept better.

Child and adolescent massage can lead to improvement for many conditions including ADHD, Anxiety, Arthritis, Asthma, Autism, Bulimia, Cerebral Palsy, Cognitive Issues, Depression, Dermatitis, Diabetes, Down Syndrome, HIV, Leukemia, PTSD and Sleep Problems.

For the individual studies on the benefits of touch for the above conditions, click here.

massage for lowering blood pressure

A 2013 study posted in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health followed 50 people with mildly elevated blood pressure who received 15-minute massages, 3 times a week for 10 sessions. A control group relaxed during the same amount of time. Blood pressure fell at the end of the sessions and remained lower for several days only for the group who received the massages. Similar studies also reported lowered measurements for inflammation (VCAM-1) in the blood. While the presence of inflammation is not always bad – it’s part of the body’s healing process – chronic inflammation is and can lead to a number of diseases. When we give the body a chance to rest, it will work its magic and attempt to heal imbalances. Regular massage and relaxation help the body to heal itself. This is a holistic process by which the body heals the root cause, not just the outward symptoms – an approach quite different from traditional, Western medicine.

communicating through touch

Neuroscientist Edmond Ross found that touch activates an area of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex. While we do not know much about this area of the brain, we do know it has a connection to feelings of reward and compassion.

Researchers at UC Berkeley studying touch found that everyday gestures like a pat on the hand, arm or back allows us to convey compassion and concern for the wellbeing of another person and signals trust. It can trigger the release of oxytocin, known as the ‘love hormone’ which induces trust. Touch conveys emotion better than a facial expression or even words.

In the UC Berkeley study, Hands on Research: The Science of Touch, researchers used a partition to separate strangers from one another. One person would put their arm through the partition and wait. A second person would touch their arm for one second and try to convey an emotion. The person touched would then guess the feeling. While the odds of guessing the right emotion by chance (no touching) were about 8%, the participants who were touched guessed gratitude, anger, love and fear more than 50% of the time and compassion nearly 60% of the time. Just think, if more compassionate people spread their positivity through tactile gestures, then we would have more compassion in this world and less of the $hit show we are experiencing now. More than any study, I believe this theory to be true. Peace and love all the way baby.. #makelovenotwar

touchy cultures

Everyday forms of touch are second nature in many places – France, Latin America and Italy, for example. In these countries, there is a serious amount of social touching. In the U.S. and England, we are less touchy in that way. Miami is an exception but then again it is its own unique ‘country’ of diverse people from all over the world.

When I first moved to Miami from Boston, I was hugged and kissed by people I was meeting for the first time at business school or through friends. It felt totally strange and foreign at first but not necessarily bad. I felt welcomed by the warm, Latin culture vibe. After many years living in ‘the South America of the U.S.’ it is now second nature to embrace someone I meet for the first time. As a result of researching for this article, I now better understand why I have an immediate sense of a person’s mood after a brief touch. There is an energy transfer- good or bad.

A study on the NBA and touch

Apparently, positive touch between teammates in sports leads to more wins. Two scientists at UC Berkeley conducted a study on the National Basketball Association and concluded that brief touch, e.g. high five, chest pump or butt whack – congratulatory or conciliatory, throughout the game leads to better performance of the team and of the players themselves. As mentioned earlier, studies show that touch can build trust which leads to more cooperation.

From an ABC News article referencing the NBA study – “Studies have shown that waitresses who touch customers get better tips, doctors who touch patients receive more favorable reviews, and petition-gatherers who touch passersby get more signatures.” ABC Correspondent Dan Harris tested the study by gathering signatures on the street. 60% of the people he touched signed and only 25% of the people he did not touch signed.

So armed with this knowledge and the science backing the healing nature of touch, how does one proceed? While it’s a bit weird (and potentially litigious) to start touching random people in the streets or cafes, we can cozy up to our partners more often, be a bit more touchy with our close friends and get regular massages. As I write this post, I have a dog on one side of me and a cat on the other who require regular pets in between typing. It got me thinking that cozying up with animals may be one of the best ways to exchange healing, compassionate energy. It’s kind of like, their job- and they do it so well.

furry companions

If you have an animal in your life, then I am sure you literally feel the oxytocin spreading through your body and theirs when you pet them. They live for that touch. Doesn’t a crappy day seem less crappy when your furry friend comes to you to be petted?

←That’s Ella Fitzgerald, my long haired chihuahua. Apparently, she needed a scratch under the arm more than I needed to do yoga this morning. You’ll have to tilt your head to the left to see what I was seeing.

Animals love freely and give compassion more than people. Yes, I’m saying it. It’s true. Being physically close to animals (and positive people- I’ll add that) helps to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, combat loneliness and can help to heal illness. People in hospitals, jails, nursing homes, schools and mental institutions are being helped by loving and interacting with animals of all kinds. Studies show that grooming a horse, for example, can help reduce PTSD in children and adolescents and the American Heart Association reports that owning a pet is associated with lower risk factors for heart disease, like high blood pressure. If you do not have the time or resources to own a pet, consider visiting an animal sanctuary near you. Those animals will happily provide you with loads of healing energy. One happy cow provides 1,500+ pounds of love. That’s a lotta love.

So the research is clear – we literally need to connect with other beings on a basic, physical level. What I realized later after holding my goddaughter for an extended period of time was that I wasn’t just helping her to feel calm, safe and loved, I was also feeling calm, safe and loved thanks to her energy. How on earth could I feel stressed when that pure little ball of love was next to me? Thanks baby girl!

Enjoy your weekends.

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