Manual Therapy & Healing Touch

The healing power of human touch has been part of every medicinal tradition since their beginnings.

In the Western medicine tradition, manual therapy dates back to Hippocrates and Galen and reappeared in the 19th century with the onset of chiropractic and osteopathic medicine.

Manual medicine, the use of hands in healing, is founded on the concept that the body possesses self-healing mechanisms and that structure and function are interrelated. The goal is to promote optimal structural alignment to encourage self-healing processes.

The hands-on medical approach includes manipulation and mobilization of the joints, traction, and soft-tissue techniques, such as massage.

Manual correction of the body’s alignment, as well as compression or tactile stimulation of specific areas, trigger a chain of impulses that travel to the central nervous system and are supposed to cause recalibration and repair of the malfunctioning body areas.

In the visceral-somatic physiotherapeutic approach, the therapist manually corrects specific articulations and soft-tissue areas in order to stimulate the self-repairing mechanisms of the corresponding internal organ.

The healing power of human hands does not include only manual techniques:

-Touch by itself is highly beneficial for mental, emotional, and physical health.

Human touch remarkably contributes to the control of stress response and inhibits the manifestation of inflammation, risk of infection, pain, and depression.

– A gentle touch is an effective first-aid measure in case of acute pain.

Gate control theory of pain explains that gentle touch can override and reduce painful sensations because the pain-leading neurons are multimodal and respond to both – nociceptive (pain) and tactile (touch) inputs. When the pain-leading pathway is activated, tactile transmission can take its place, which results in pain relief.

Affectionate parental touch promotes better prosperity, growth, and reduced stress patterns in their offspring. Numerous studies have focused on the early development of infants regarding exposure to human touch. Field et al. demonstrated that a 15-minute massage of preterm infants applied 3 times a day for 10 days resulted in up to 47% greater weight gain and 6 days earlier discharge from hospital than in non-massaged infants.

Tactile receptors stimulate the vagal nerve, which contributes to the decrease of stress hormones and promotes immune and growth mechanisms in the body.

Paradoxically, human contact can reduce the risk of infections, as presented by Cohen et al. In their study, people who were more frequently hugged 14 days prior to a cold virus exposure consequently demonstrated a lower risk of infection and milder symptoms. Also, during the pandemic COVID 19, reduced opportunity for human touch was linked with an enhanced risk for inflammation (Thomas & Kim, 2021), which demonstrates the adverse effects of some anti-epidemic measures.

Human touch is an essential part of the complementary healing techniques available to anybody at any time. Even if a hug, kiss, pat on the back, or a hand-holding from close ones is not available, massage or self-massage can be of benefit.

Author of the review: Kristina Höschlová