THE SCIENCE OF SPA:

CAN TOUCH KEEP US HEALTHY AND YOUNG?

Massaged babies gain weight as much as 50 percent faster than unmassaged babies.  They are more active, alert, and responsive, more aware of their surrounding, better able to tolerate noise, and they orient themselves faster and are emotionally more in control (ie less likely to cry one minute, then fall asleep the next minute).  They are better able to calm and console themselves. 

Touch reassures an infant that it’s safe; it seems to give the body a go-ahead to develop normally. At the University of Colorado School of Medicine, researchers conducted a separation experiment with monkeys, in which they removed the mother.  The infant showed signs of helplessness, confusion and depression, and only the return of its mother and continuous holding for a few days would help it return to normal.

How much information is communicable in a touch?   Every other sense has an organ you can focus on, but touch is everywhere. 

Touch depravation caused physical and psychological disturbances. Changes occurred in the heart rate, body temperature, brain-wave patterns, sleep patterns and immune system functions.

Touch affects the whole organism.  It is ten time stronger than verbal or emotional contact.  We often forget that touch is not only basic to our species, but the key to it. 

In the absence of touching and being touched, people of all ages get sick and grow touch-starved.  Studies have shown that gentle, caring touch alone can improve health.   Patients who had heart attacks survived longer if they were pet owners.  The idle stroking of our pets has a calming and healing effect.  Touching is just as therapeutic as being touched; the healer, the giver of touch, is simultaneously healed.  

Excerpts from A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman

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