Touch can heal

Do you have enough touch in your life to stay healthy?

From the day we are born we need physical contact to maintain our feeling of well-being. Having that skin to skin feeling is vital for emotional and physical health. Touch starvation is real, often occurring when a person has very little connection with other living beings. The prevalence has increased over recent times, leaving people feeling isolated and uncared for. Any positive touch can make a huge difference.

Reflexology on feet, face or hands is an accessible touch therapy and can be supremely calming.

When you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed the body releases cortisol. Touch can reduce that hormone response allowing the immune system to work efficiently and allowing the body to re-balance and heal.

By stimulating receptors in the skin, massage can calm bodily functions like the heart rate and blood pressure. The Vagus Nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system and controls a large part of the body including the heart, stomach, digestive organs, kidneys and spleen. By sending signals to this nerve system the whole body can be brought to a relaxed state.

There is no definitive way to tell if you are starved of touch but if you have an over whelming feeling of loneliness or feel deprived of affection, feel anxious, stressed or have a tendency to avoid secure attachments you may well benefit from a touch therapy.

I have been asked recently whether reflexology would help with pain relief. My answer is that although I treat the body not the illness, human touch releases natural opiates into the body along with oxytocin, which gives feelings of happiness and well-being. I find my own sciatic pain is calmed with reflexology and the feedback I get from clients is that they find it beneficial for pain.

Nerve fibres called C-Tactile afferents exist to recognise any form of gentle touch.

Calming hand massage.

In addition research has shown that Touch Therapies helped manage both physical and emotional symptoms in those under going cancer treatment. Of the participants experiencing pain and fatigue, findings revealed that touch therapies assisted with pain in 90% of participants and with fatigue in 70%.

Ref:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8887860/.

I love that I can help people get stay healthy and cope with difficult times and significant illness. Roll up your trousers, pull up your sleeve, lie back enjoy a therapy that taps into a basic human comfort.