Healing Touch

Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated the benefit of human touch for prevention and treatment of various illnesses.

Controlled studies and systematic reviews have convincingly shown anti-depressive, anxiolytic, analgesic and stress-releasing effects of salutary touch. The effectiveness and efficacy of touch therapy has been demonstrated in many areas such as neonatology (better developmental outcome), paediatrics (decreased incidence of sleep disturbances, aggression, asthma and other ailments), oncology (pain-releasing and anxiolytic effect), cardiology (better control of hypertension and increased heart rate variability), traumatology (pain-releasing effect, better cicatrisation), psychiatry (anti-depressive and anxiolytic effect) and neurology (more favourable course of the neurodegenerative diseases).

Mechanisms of salutary effect of human touch are still under research.

E.g., effects of massage demonstrate stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system and decrease in the blood cortisol levels resulting in sensation of stress-release and well-being. Human touch acts also throughout the oxytocin mediated pathways via activation of some central nervous areas including limbic system, which results in pleasant emotional reactions such as calmness, relaxation, concern and care for others and other prosocial behaviour.

During the Mehana Gift program dated on November 23-29, 2022 you will have an excellent opportunity to experience healing effect of the human touch during the lectures in physiotherapy led by doctor Petr Bitnar.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8841210/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27502797/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/everyone-top/202108/the-vital-importance-human-touch

Author: Kristina Höschlová

21.10.2022