Quote:
Originally Posted by mudra
However, there is definitely a health benefit from hugging. There are obvious psychological benefits of creating warmth, a sense of closeness, a means of communication, and security. Karen Grewen, from the University Of North Carolina Department Of Psychiatry, conducted a study looking at the benefits of a 20 second hug and hand-holding among 38 couples. The couples who shared a hug showed lower blood pressure and heart rate than the couples who did not have any physical contact. There is also some suggestion that cortisol (a stress hormone) levels decrease and oxytocin the “bonding hormone” increase after hugging.
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mudra - Interesting. Makes me also think of babies whose nervous system is 'activated' during last stages of birth by the mother's contractions (in preparation for breathing with their lungs in air.) And there's that vertigo that babies display, kind of fright and out of sorts, that warm words and physical contact just quells. We are always human! There is an interesting scientist who is autistic. She invented a squeeze machine - her work is used all over now in animals too, particularly in relation to cruelty-reduced methods of animal husbandry. She herself uses the
Hug Machine.
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Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animals TEMPLE GRANDIN, Ph.D.