Healing Power Of Touch

Sure, a massage is relaxing, and always feels great - it's also good for you. Massage has been shown to relieve pain and anxiety, ease depression and speed recovery from medical treatment.
"The benefits of touch show up at almost every age," says psychologist Tiffany Field, who directs the Touch research Institutes at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Premature infants who are held develop faster than those left alone, and healthy babies who get lots of physical contact cry less and sleep better.

How touch delivers such benefits is unclear, though researchers have documented its ability to slow heart rate, lower blood pressure and increase levels of serotonin, the linked to well-being. It also decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can boost immunity.

Massage can even hasten healing. At the University of Colorado Helath Sciences Centre, bone-marrow transplant petients given massage had better neurological function than those in a control group. And researchers in Sweden reported that massage reduced pain by 37 per cent in patients with fibromyalgia, a condition characterised by chronic muscle aches.

Giving may be as good as receiving: A study at England's Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital found that mothers suffering from postpartum depression who massaged their infants related better to them. In another study, elderly volunteers who massaged infants reported feeling less anxious and depressed.

It even works when you do it yourself: A 1999 study found that smokers who were taught self-massage while trying to quit felt less anxiety and smoked less. A study by Italian researchers found that 43 per cent of patients with tension headaches reported massaging their temples and necks to get relief. To try it, apply moderate pressure to your temples, hands, feet or the back of your neck.