Developmental psychologist Tiffany Field, Ph.D., is founder of the Touch Research Institutes, five centers worldwide devoted to the scientific study of how touch affects psychological and physical health. Field explains why, when it comes to healing, it's all
in our hands.
NKD: How did you get into "touch?"
TF: I was trying to find ways for premature babies to
grow. I had a premature baby myself and was working in neonatal intensive
care units. When we had them suck on nipples while tube feeding, they
gained more weight. We figured that if stimulating the mouth helped, then
touching all over the body would work even better. That's how we got into
massage therapy [MT].
What are some of massage therapy's important effects?
Babies gain more weight, sleep better and relate better to
parents. Their brain waves indicate more alertness, and they learn
faster. Kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism also
become more attentive. MT alleviates depression, too. It decreases stress
hormones and increases serotonin, the body's own antidepressant. It also
improves sleep. That relates, I think, to MT's alleviation of pain
syndromes, such as fibromyalgia and migraine, which seem to be
exacerbated by sleep disorders.
MT also alters the immune system. In autoimmune problems such as
asthma, lung functions improve and asthma attacks decrease. Immune cell
counts improve in people with HIV. In a breast cancer study,
natural killer cells are increasing, which is good, because they kill
cancer cells. The list goes on.
How do you know it's massage—and not attention—that
helps?
We have "attention" control groups. For example, if we're
studying children with diabetes or cancer, some parents massage their
kids at bedtime whereas others read aloud or do a light "sham" massage.
We have learned that the key is stimulating deep pressure
receptors.
MT must have economic implications.
Exactly. For example, in the premature baby study, massaged
babies went home six days earlier than babies in the control group. The
savings was $10,000 per baby; multiplied by the 470,000 premature babies
born each year, that's a savings of $4.7 billion.
Any practical advice to offer?
Everybody needs to either get massaged by a therapist or a
significant other, or self-massage by doing yoga or using a long-handled
shower brush. Being touched in this way is as important as proper diet
and exercise, and should be part of one's regular daily
activities.
What happens when people don't get their share of
touch?
Touch deprivation impairs development. Romanian nursery
children, for example, were stunted, and MT helped them grow.
Interestingly, nonhuman animals that are touch-deprived not only lose
weight but become aggressive. In a study of 49 non-industrialized
cultures, groups showing physical affection toward children had little
adult violence; in groups that were less affectionate to kids, adults
were significantly more violent.
Bonobos, an ape closely related to us, live in intimate
physical contact with each other—and they're pacifists.
That's fascinating. This principle seems to apply generally. In
a study, we found that there exists more physical affection
toward children and less aggression among adults in France than in the
United States. The power of touch in our lives seems rooted in our
nature, as individuals and as social beings.
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